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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wandl the Invader, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wandl the Invader
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: March 20, 2007 [EBook #20859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDL THE INVADER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+       Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+       U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+
+                              WANDL THE
+                               INVADER
+
+
+                                  by
+                             RAY CUMMINGS
+
+
+
+                           ACE BOOKS, INC.
+                23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y.
+
+
+
+
+                Copyright ©, 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.
+
+         Magazine version serialized in _Astounding Stories_,
+            Copyright, 1932, by Clayton Publications, Inc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+1
+
+
+"It's a planet," I said. "A little world."
+
+"How little?" Venza demanded.
+
+"One-fifth the mass of the Moon. That's what they've calculated now."
+
+"And how far is it away?" Anita asked. "I heard a newscaster say
+yesterday...."
+
+"Newscasters!" Venza broke in scornfully. "Say, you can take what they
+tell you about any danger or trouble and cut it in half; and even then
+you'll be on the gloomy side. See here, Gregg Haljan."
+
+"I'm not giving you newscasters' blare," I retorted. Venza's
+extravagant vehemence was always refreshing. The Venus girl glared at
+me. I added: "Anita mentioned newscasters; I didn't."
+
+Anita was in no mood for smiling. "Tell us, Gregg." She sat upright
+and tense, her chin cupped in her hands. "Tell us."
+
+"For a fact, they don't know much about it yet. You can call it a
+planet, a wanderer."
+
+"I should say it was a wanderer!" Venza exclaimed. "Coming from heaven
+knows where beyond the stars, swimming in here like a comet."
+
+"They calculated its distance yesterday at some sixty-five million
+miles from Earth," I said. "It isn't so far beyond the orbit of Mars,
+coming diagonally and heading very nearly for the Sun. But it's not a
+comet."
+
+The thing was indeed inexplicable; for many weeks now, astronomers had
+been studying it. This was early summer of the year 2070 A.D. All of
+us had recently returned from those extraordinary events I have
+already recounted, when we came close to losing Johnny Grantline's
+radiactum treasure on the Moon, and our lives as well. My ship, the
+_Planetara_, in the astronomical seasons when the Earth, Mars, and
+Venus were within comfortable traveling distances of each other, had
+carried mail and passengers from Greater New York to Ferrok-Shahn, of
+the Martian Union, and to Grebhar, of the Venus Free State. Now it was
+wrecked on the Moon.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Brigands of the Moon", Ace Book, D-324]
+
+I had been under navigating officer of the _Planetara_. Upon her, I
+had met Anita Prince, whose only living relative, her brother, was
+among those killed in the struggle with the brigands; Anita and I were
+soon to marry, we hoped.
+
+I was waiting now in Greater New York upon the decision of the Line
+officials regarding another spaceship. Perhaps I would have command of
+it, since Captain Carter of the _Planetara_ had been killed.
+
+It was a month or so before that adventure, April, 2070, that this
+mysterious visitor from interstellar space first appeared upon our
+astronomical horizon. A little thing, at first, a mere unusual dot, a
+pinpoint on a photo-electric star diagram which should not have been
+there. It occasioned no comment at the time, save that some thought it
+might be another planet beyond Pluto; but this was not taken seriously
+enough to get into the newscasts. None of us had heard about it as
+late as May, when the _Planetara_ set out on what was to be her final
+voyage.
+
+Presently, it was seen that the object could not be a planet of our
+solar system; Coming in at tremendous speed, it daily changed its
+aspect, gathering velocity until soon it was not a dot, but a streak
+on every diagram-plate.
+
+In a week or so the thing passed from an astronomical curiosity to an
+item of public news. And now, early in June, when it had cut through
+the orbit of Jupiter and was approaching that of Mars, fear was
+growing. The visitor was a menace. No astronomical body could come
+among us, with a mass as great as a fifth of the Moon, without causing
+trouble.
+
+The newscasters, with a ready skill for lurid possibilities, were
+blaring of all sorts of horrible events impending.
+
+I told the girls all I knew of the approaching wanderer. The density
+was similar to that of Earth. The oncoming velocity and the calculated
+elements of its orbit now were such that within a few weeks more the
+new planet would round our Sun and presumably head outward again. It
+would pass within a few million miles of us, causing a disturbance to
+Earth's orbit, even a change of the inclination of our axis, affecting
+our tides and our climate.
+
+"So I've heard," Venza interrupted me. "They say that, and then they
+stop. Why can't a newscaster tell you what is so mysterious?"
+
+"For a very good reason, Venza: because you can't throw people into a
+panic. This whole thing, up to today, has been withheld from the
+public of Earth and Venus. The Martian Union tried to withhold it, but
+could not. Every heliogram between the worlds is censored."
+
+"And still," said Venza sarcastically, "you don't tell us what is so
+mysterious about this wanderer."
+
+"For one thing," I said, "it changes its direction. No normal heavenly
+body does that. They calculated the elements of its orbit last April.
+They've done it twenty times since, and every time the projected orbit
+is different. Just a little at first, but last week the accursed thing
+actually took a sudden turn, as though it were a spaceship."
+
+The girls stared at me. "What does that mean?" Anita asked.
+
+"They're beginning to make wild guesses but we won't go into that."
+
+"What else is mysterious?" Venza demanded.
+
+"The thing isn't normally visible."
+
+Venza shifted her silk-sheathed legs. "Don't talk in code!"
+
+"Not normally visible," I repeated. "A world one-fifth as large as the
+Moon could be seen plainly by our 'scopes when well beyond Pluto. It's
+now between Jupiter and Mars, invisible to the naked eye, of course,
+but still it's not very far away. I've been out there myself. With
+instruments, we ought to be able to see its surface; see whether it
+has land and water, inhabitants perhaps. You should be able to
+distinguish an object on its surface as large as a city, but you
+can't."
+
+"Why not?" asked Anita. "Are the clouds too thick? What causes it?"
+
+"They don't even know that," I retorted. "There is something abnormal
+about the light-waves coming from it. Not exactly blurred, but a
+distortion, a fading. It's some abnormality of the light-waves."
+
+A swift rapping on our door-grid interrupted me, and Snap Dean burst
+in.
+
+"Hola-lo, everybody! Is it a conference? You look so solemn."
+
+He dashed across the room, kissed Venza, pretended that he was about
+to kiss Anita, and winked at me. He was a dynamic little fellow,
+small, wiry, red-headed and freckle-faced, and had been the
+radio-helio operator of the ill-fated _Planetara_. He was a perfect
+match for Venza, for all the millions of miles that separated their
+native lands. Venza, too was small and slim, her manner as readily
+jocular as his.
+
+"And where have you been?" Venza demanded.
+
+"Me? My private life is my own, so far. We're not married yet, since
+you insist on us going to Grebhar for the ceremony."
+
+"Do stop it," protested Anita. "We've been talking of...."
+
+"I know very well what you've been talking about. Everybody is. I've
+got news for you, Gregg." He went abruptly solemn and lowered his
+voice. "Halsey wants to see us, right away."
+
+I regarded him blankly and my mind swept back. No more than a few
+short weeks ago Detective-Colonel Halsey of Divisional Headquarters
+here in Greater New York had sent for us, and we had been precipitated
+into the Grantline affair. "Halsey!" I burst out.
+
+"Easy, Gregg." Snap cast a vague look around Anita's draped apartment.
+An open window was beside us, leading to a tiny catwalk balcony. It
+was moonlit now, and two hundred feet above the pedestrian viaduct.
+
+But Snap continued to frown. "Easy, I tell you. Why shout about
+Halsey? The air can have ears."
+
+Venza moved and closed and sealed the window.
+
+"What is it?" I asked, more softly.
+
+But Snap was not satisfied. "Anita, do you have a complete isolation
+barrage for this room?"
+
+"Of course I haven't, Snap."
+
+"Well, Gregg do you have a detector with you?"
+
+I had none. Snap produced his little coil and indicator dial. "It's
+out of order, but let's see now. Shove over that chair, Gregg."
+
+He disconnected one of the room's tube-lights and contacted with the
+cathode. It was a makeshift method, but as he dropped to the floor,
+uncoiling a little length of his wire for an external pick-up, we saw
+that the thing worked. The pointer on the dial-face was swaying.
+
+"Gregg!" he muttered. "Look at that. Didn't I tell you?"
+
+The pointer quivered in positive reaction. An eavesdropping ray was
+upon us.
+
+Anita gasped, "I had no idea!"
+
+"No, but I did." Snap added softly. "No one very close."
+
+He and I carried the detector to the length of the hall. The indicator
+went nearer normal. "It must be the other way," I whispered.
+
+We went to the moonlit balcony. "Way down there on the pedestrian
+arcade," I said.
+
+"We'll soon fix that," Snap said.
+
+Inside the room, we made connection with a newscaster's blaring voice.
+Under cover of it we could talk. Snap gathered us close around him.
+
+"Halsey has something important, and it's about this interstellar
+invader. It all connects. His office paged me on a public mirror. I
+happened to see it at Park-Circle 40. When I answered it, Halsey's man
+wanted me to talk in code. I can't talk in code; I have enough to
+worry about with the interplanetary helios. Then they sent me to an
+official booth, where I got examined for positive legal
+identification, and then they put me on the official split-wave
+length. After all of which precautions I was told to be at Halsey's
+office tonight at midnight, and told a few other things."
+
+"What?" demanded Venza breathlessly.
+
+"Only hints. Why take chances, by repeating them now?"
+
+"You said he wants me, too?" I put in.
+
+"Yes. You and Venza. We've got to get into his office secretly, by the
+vacuum cylinders. We're to meet a man from his office at the Eighth
+Postal switch-station."
+
+"Venza?" Anita said sharply. "What in the universe can he want with
+Venza? If she's going, I'm going too!"
+
+Snap gazed at her and grinned. "That sounds like a logical deduction.
+Naturally he must want you; that's why he said Venza."
+
+"I'm going," Anita insisted.
+
+We left half an hour before midnight. The girls were both in gray,
+with long capes. We took the public monorail into the mid-Manhattan
+section under the city roof of the business district, and into the
+Eighth Postal switch-station where the sleek bronze cylinders came
+tumbling out of the vacuum ports to be re-routed and dispatched again.
+
+A man was on the lookout for us. "Daniel Dean and party?"
+
+"Yes. We were ordered here."
+
+The detective gazed at the girls and at me. "It was three, Dean."
+
+"And now it's four," said Snap cheerfully. "The extra one is Miss
+Anita Prince. Ever heard of her?"
+
+He had indeed. "All right," he said. "If you and Haljan say so."
+
+We were put into one of the oversized mail cylinders and routed
+through the tubes like sacks of recorded letters; in ten minutes, with
+a thump that knocked the breath out of all of us, we were in the
+switch-rack of Halsey's outer office.
+
+We clambered from the cylinder. Our guide led us down one of the
+gloomy metal corridors. It echoed with our tread.
+
+A door lifted.
+
+"Daniel Dean and party."
+
+The guard stood aside. "Come in."
+
+The door slid down behind us. We advanced into the small blue-lit
+apartment, steel-lined like a vault.
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+
+Colonel Halsey sat at his desk, with a few papers before him and a
+bank of instrument controls at his elbow. He pushed his audiphone and
+mirror-grid to one side.
+
+"Sit down, please." He gave us each the benefit of a welcoming smile,
+and his gaze finished upon Anita.
+
+"I came because you sent for Venza," Anita said quickly. "Please,
+Colonel Halsey, let me stay. I thought, whatever you want her for, you
+might need me, too."
+
+"Quite so, Miss Prince. Perhaps I shall." It seemed that in his mind
+were many of the thoughts thronging my own, for he added: "Haljan, I
+recall I sent for you like this once before. I hope this may be a more
+auspicious occasion."
+
+"So do I, sir."
+
+Snap said, "We've been afraid hardly to do more than a whisper. But
+you're insulated here, and we're mighty curious."
+
+Halsey nodded. "I can talk freely to you, and yet I cannot." His gaze
+went to Venza. "It is you in whom I am most interested."
+
+"Me? You flatter me, Colonel Halsey." She sat gracefully reclining in
+the metal chair before his desk, seeming small as a child between its
+big, broad arms. Her long gray skirt had parted to display her
+shapely, gray-satined legs. She had thrown off the hood of her cloak.
+Her thick black hair was coiled in a knot low at the back of her neck;
+her carmine lips bore an alluring smile. It was all instinctive. To
+this girl from Venus it came as naturally as she breathed.
+
+Halsey's gray eyes twinkled. "Do not look at me quite like that, Miss
+Venza, or I shall forget what I have to say. You would get the better
+of me; I'm glad you're not a criminal."
+
+"So am I," she declared. "What can I do for you, Colonel Halsey?"
+
+His smile faded at once. His glance included us all. "Just this. There
+is a man here in Greater New York, a Martian whom they call _Set_
+Molo. He has a younger sister, _Setta_ Meka. Have any of you heard of
+them?"
+
+We had not. Halsey went on, slowly now, apparently choosing his words
+with the greatest care. "There are things that I can tell you and
+there are things that I cannot."
+
+"Why not?" asked Venza.
+
+"My dear, for one thing, if you are going to help me you can do it
+best by not knowing too much. For another, I have my orders; this
+thing concerns the very highest authorities, not only of the U.S.W.,
+but in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar too."
+
+He paused, but none of us spoke. Then Halsey said quietly, "Well, this
+Martian and his sister are here now in Greater New York. They have
+some secret. They are engaged in some activity, and I want to find
+out what it is. I have picked up only little parts of it."
+
+He stopped; and out of the silence Snap said, "If you don't mind,
+Colonel Halsey, it seems to me you are mostly talking in code."
+
+"I'm not, but I'm trying to tell you as little as possible. You, Miss
+Venza, need only understand this: the Martian, Molo, must be induced
+to give you some idea of what he is doing here."
+
+"And I am to induce him?" Venza asked calmly.
+
+"That is my idea." The faint shadow of a smile swept Halsey's thin,
+intent face. "My dear, you are a girl of Venus. More than that, you
+have far more than your normal share of wits and brains."
+
+It did not make Venza smile. She sat tense now, with her dark-eyed
+gaze fastened on Halsey's face. Anita, equally breathless, reached
+over and gripped her hand.
+
+Then Venza said slowly, "I realize, Colonel Halsey, that this is
+something vital."
+
+"As vital, my child, as it could be." He drew a long breath. "I want
+you to understand I am doing my duty. Doing, what seems the best
+thing, not for you, perhaps, but for the world."
+
+I seemed to see into his mind at that moment. He might have been a
+father, sending a daughter into danger.
+
+"I need not disguise the danger. I have lost a dozen men." He lighted
+a cigarette. "I don't seem to be able to frighten you?"
+
+"No," she said. And I heard Anita murmur, "Oh, Venza!"
+
+"But you frighten me," said Snap. "Colonel, look here; you know I'm
+going to marry this girl very soon."
+
+"Yes, I know. You'll have to consider this a sacrifice, a voluntary
+descent into danger, for a great cause in a great crisis. You four
+have just come out of a very considerable danger. We know of what
+stuff you are made, all of you."
+
+He smiled again. "Perhaps that prominence is unfortunate for you, but
+let me settle it now. Is there any one of you who will not take my
+orders and trust my judgement of what is best? And do it, if need be,
+blindly? Will you offer yourselves to me?"
+
+We gazed at each other. Both the girls instantly murmured, "Yes."
+
+"Yes," I said at last. It was not too hard for me, for I thought I was
+yielding him Venza, not Anita.
+
+Snap was very pale. He stared from one to the other of us.
+
+"Yes," he said finally. "But Colonel, surely you can tell us more."
+
+Halsey tossed his cigarette away. "I will tell you as much as I think
+best. These Martians, Molo and his sister, do not know of Venza; at
+least, I think that they do not. They apparently have not been here
+very long. How they got here, we don't know. There was no passenger or
+freight ship. In Ferrok-Shahn, they have a dubious reputation at best;
+but I won't go into that.
+
+"Venza, I will show you these Martians and the rest depends upon you.
+There is a mystery; you will find out what it is."
+
+He reached for his inter-office audiphone. "I want to locate the
+Martian _Set_ Molo. Francis, Staff X2, has it in charge."
+
+The audible connection came in a moment. "Francis?"
+
+We could hear the answering microphonic voice, "Yes Colonel."
+
+"Is the fellow in a public place by any chance?"
+
+"In the Red Spark Cafe, Colonel. With his sister and a party."
+
+"Good enough. The Red Spark has an image-finder. Have you visual
+connection?"
+
+"Yes, the whole room; they have a dozen finders."
+
+"Use a magnifier. Get me the closest view you can."
+
+"It's done, Colonel. I did it just in case you called."
+
+"Connect it."
+
+In a moment our mirror-grid was glowing with the two-foot square image
+of the interior of the Red Spark Cafe. I knew the place by reputation:
+a fashionable, more or less disreputable eating, drinking and dancing
+restaurant, where money and alcholite flowed freely. The patrons were
+successful criminals of the three worlds, intermingled with thrilled,
+respectable tourists who hoped they would see something really evil.
+
+The Red Spark was not far from Halsey's office; it was perched high in
+a break of the city roof, almost directly over Park-Circle 29.
+
+"There he is," said Halsey.
+
+We crowded around his desk. The image showed the interior of a large
+oval room, balconied and terraced; a dais dance-floor, raised high in
+the center with three professional couples gyrating there; and beneath
+them the public dance-grid, slowly rotating on its central axis. A
+hundred or so couples were dancing. The lower floor was crowded with
+dining tables; others were upon the little catwalk balconies, and
+still others in the terraced nooks and side niches, half-enshrouded,
+half-revealed by colored draperies.
+
+The image now was silent, for Halsey was not bothering with audio
+connection. But it was a riot of color, flashing colored floodlights
+bathing the dancers in vivid tints; and there were twinkling spots of
+colored tube-lights on all the tables. I saw, too, the blank
+rectangles of darkness against the walls which marked the private
+dining rooms, insulated against sight and sound. Here one might go for
+frivolous indiscretion, or for conspiracy, perhaps, and be as secure
+from interruption as we were, here in Halsey's office.
+
+Venza asked eagerly, "Which is he?"
+
+"Over there on the third terrace to the left. That table. There seem
+to be six of them in the party."
+
+We heard Francis' voice; he was in Halsey's lower Manhattan office,
+with this same image before him. "We'll get a closer view."
+
+The table in question was no more than a square inch on our image. We
+could see an apparently gay party of men and women. One of the couples
+was gigantic, a Martian man and woman, obviously. The others seemed to
+be Earth or Venus people.
+
+Francis' voice added: "I've got an audio magnifier on them. Foley's
+been listening for an hour. Nice, clear English. Much good it does us;
+this fellow is as cautious as a director of the lower air-lane. Here's
+your near-look."
+
+Our image shifted to another view. The lens-eye with which we were
+connected now gave us a view directly over the Martian's table. We
+were looking down diagonally upon the table, at a distance of no more
+than ten feet.
+
+There were three Earthwomen in the party. There was nothing peculiar
+about them. They were rather handsome, dissolute in appearance, all of
+them obviously befuddled by alcholite. There was a man who could have
+been Anglo-Saxon. A wastrel, probably, with more money than wit; he
+wore a black dinner suit edged with white.
+
+Our attention focussed upon the other two. They were tall, as are all
+Martians. The young woman, _Setta_ Meka, seemed perhaps twenty or
+twenty-five years of age, by Earth reckoning, in stature perhaps very
+nearly my own height, which is six feet two. It is difficult to tell a
+Martian's age, but she was very handsome, even by Earth standards; and
+in Ferrok-Shahn she would be considered a beauty. Her gray-black hair
+was parted and tied at the back with a plaited metal rope. Her short
+dark cloak, so luminous a fabric that it caught and reflected the
+sheen of all the gaudy restaurant lights, was parted, its ends thrown
+back over her shoulders. Beneath it she wore the characteristic
+Martian leather jacket, and short, wide leather trousers ornamented
+with spun metal fringes and tassels. Most Martian women have an
+amazonian aspect, but I saw now that _Setta_ Meka was an exception.
+
+Her brother, who sat beside her, was a full seven feet or more. A
+hulking sort of fellow, far less spindly than most of his race, he
+might have come from the polar outposts beyond the Martian Union. He
+was bare-headed, his gray-black hair clipped close upon a round bullet
+head, with the familiar Martian round eyes.
+
+I gazed into the face of Molo, as momentarily he turned his head. It
+was a rough-hewn, strongly masculine face with a hawk-like nose, bushy
+black brows frowning above deepset round eyes. The face of a keen
+scoundrel, I could not doubt, though the smooth-plucked gray skin was
+flushed now with alcholite, and the wide, thin-lipped mouth was
+leering at the woman across the table from him.
+
+Like his sister, he had thrown back his cloak, disclosing a brawny,
+powerful figure, leather clad, with a wide belt of dangling ornaments,
+some of which probably were weapons.
+
+How long we gazed at this silent colored image of the restaurant table
+I do not know. I was aware of Halsey's quiet voice: "Look him over,
+Miss Venza. It depends on you."
+
+Another interval passed. It seemed, as we watched, that Molo's
+interest in his party was very slight. I got the impression, too, that
+though at first he had seemed to be intoxicated, actually he was not.
+Nor was his sister. Anxiety seemed upon her; the smile she had for
+jests seemed forced; and at intervals she would cast a swift, furtive
+glance across the gay restaurant scene.
+
+More drinks arrived. The Earthpeople at the table here seemed upon the
+verge of stupor; and suddenly it appeared that Molo had completely
+lost interest in them. With a gesture to his sister, he abruptly rose
+from his seat. She joined him. They left the table, and a red-clad
+floor manager of the restaurant came at their call. Then in a moment
+they were moving across the room.
+
+Halsey called sharply into his audiphone: "Francis! Hold us to them if
+you can."
+
+They were standing now by the opened door of one of the Red Spark's
+private insulated rooms. We caught a glimpse of its interior, a gaily
+set table with a bank of colored lights over it.
+
+The figure of a man was in there. He was on his feet, as though he had
+just arrived to meet the Martians here, and a hooded long cloak
+enveloped him. It may have been a magnetic "invisible" cloak, with the
+current now off.
+
+We caught only the fleetest of impressions before the insulated door
+closed and barred our vision. The glimpse was an accident. Molo, taken
+by surprise at this appearance of his visitor, could hardly have
+guarded against it. The waiting figure was very tall, some ten feet,
+and very thin. The hood shrouded his face and head. In his hand he
+held a large circular box of black shiny leather, of the sort in which
+women carry wide-brimmed hats. As Molo joined him he put the box
+gently on the floor. He handled it as though it were extraordinarily
+heavy; and as he took a step or two, he seemed weighted down. Just as
+the room door was hastily closing, Meka sliding it from the inside, we
+caught a fleeting glimpse of horror.
+
+The lid of the hat box had lifted up. Inside was a great round thing
+of gray-white, a living thing; a distended ball of membrane, with a
+network of veins and blood-vessels showing beneath the transparent
+skin.
+
+For the instant we gazed, stricken. The ball was palpitating,
+breathing! I saw convolutions of inner tissue under the transparent
+skin of membrane; a little tentacle, like an arm with a flat-webbed
+hand, was holding up the lid of the box. The lid rose a trifle
+higher; the colored lights overhead gave us a brief but clear view of
+it.
+
+The thing in the box was a huge living brain. I saw goggling,
+protruding eyes; an orifice that could have been a nose, and a gash
+upended for a vertical mouth. It was a face. And the little tentacle
+arm holding up the box-lid was joined to where the ear should have
+been.
+
+Was this something human? A huge distended human brain, with the body
+withered to that tiny arm?
+
+The palpitating thing sank down in the box and the lid dropped. And
+upon our horrified gaze the insulated door of the room slid too.
+
+"By the gods!" exclaimed Halsey. "One of them dares come to the Red
+Spark. Here, almost in public."
+
+So Halsey knew what this meant. His eyes were blazing now; his face
+was white, with an intensity of emotion that transfigured it.
+
+"Francis, tell Foley I'll be in the manager's office in five minutes."
+
+He snapped off; our image connection with the Red Spark went dead.
+
+"We're going to the Red Spark," he announced. "This changes
+everything, yet I don't know. Venza, I may need you more than ever,
+now."
+
+Halsey herded us to the office door. From his desk he had snatched up
+a few portable instruments, and he flung on a cloak.
+
+It was a brief trip to the Red Spark, on foot through the sub-cellar
+arcade to where, under Park Circle 29, we went up in a vertical lift
+to the roof. We were in the side entrance oval of the restaurant in
+five minutes.
+
+In the dim metal room of Orentino, the Red Spark's manager, a barrage
+was up and Foley was waiting for us. We could hear it faintly humming.
+Now we could talk.
+
+Halsey slammed the door down. He said swiftly, "My men caught one of
+these things this morning. They have it now and I think Molo does not
+yet know we captured it. A brain; we're convinced it understands
+English and can talk, but no one has been able to make it talk yet.
+Foley, order that damned Orentino to de-insulate the room Molo is in.
+Now, by the gods, we may see and hear something."
+
+The frightened manager of the Red Spark was in the control room.
+Halsey killed our barrage to let the outside connections get through
+to us. We all crowded around the mirror-grid which stood on Orentino's
+desk. Foley gave us connection with the control room. We saw
+Orentino's face, his eyes nearly popping with fright. "Colonel Halsey,
+I will do whatever you tell me."
+
+"What room is that Martian occupying?"
+
+"Insulated 39."
+
+"Break off the insulation. Do it slowly and he may not notice. Then
+give us connection, audio and vision."
+
+"But I have no image-finders in the insulated rooms."
+
+"Cut off the barrage. I'll get connection there."
+
+Foley was already setting up his eavesdropper on the desk. The mirror
+blurred a little; then it clarified. We had the interior of the secret
+room, and voices were coming out of Foley's tiny receiver.
+
+The image showed the box on the floor, with its lid down. The tall
+hooded shape of the stranger stood with Molo and his sister by the
+table. They were talking in swift, vehement undertones. The language
+was Martian, a dialect principally used in Ferrok-Shahn. Our equipment
+brought it in and I could understand it.
+
+Molo was saying: "But you are the fool to have dared to come here!"
+
+"The master knows that there is danger. Something is wrong." The
+hooded stranger spoke like a foreigner, but not a Martian, nor an
+Earthman, and not like any person of Venus I had ever heard. It was a
+strange, indescribable intonation, a flat, hollow voice.
+
+"I say the master is concerned."
+
+"Let him be."
+
+"And he demanded I bring him here to find you. He is displeased that
+you are here."
+
+What gruesome thing was this? Their glances seemed to go to the box on
+the floor at their feet, as though the master were in there. But the
+lid of the box did not rise.
+
+"Well, you have found me," Molo declared impatiently. "When you know
+me better, always you will find I have my wits. The thing is for
+tomorrow night, not tonight."
+
+"But that, my master is not sure." The hollow voice was deferential
+but insistent. "He fears danger; something has gone wrong. He is
+working on it now, striving to receive the message! There is a
+message. He knows that much. Perhaps from our world, Wandl, itself."
+
+For a moment Molo had no answer. His sister had not spoken. I noticed
+that her gaze seemed roving the room.
+
+"What is it I should do?" Molo asked at last.
+
+"Come with us to your home-room."
+
+"But I have everything ready there. The contact is ready for tomorrow
+night. Your world will control Earth."
+
+"But if it be tonight?"
+
+Again Molo was silent. My breath stopped. On our mirror I saw the
+stranger's hood part just a little. There seemed to be no face; just
+the blur of something brownish.
+
+"But if it be tonight?" the voice insisted.
+
+"I will go," Molo said abruptly, "but your coming here was dangerous.
+Suppose we cannot get out undetected? You know I will never go to
+where all our instruments are set up and have some damnable spy follow
+me. Is all going well on Venus and Mars?"
+
+"Yes. My master feels so. He seems to get messages. The contacts will
+be made simultaneously." A gruesome chuckle. "The capture of these
+three worlds. We shall have all three enchained at once. Helpless."
+
+The lid of the black box seemed again about to rise when there came a
+sharp cry from Meka. "This room is not insulated!"
+
+Our eavesdropping was discovered. Beside me, I heard Halsey give a low
+curse. On our mirror we saw sudden action. The ten-foot, cloaked
+figure laboriously lifted the black box, and swung with it toward the
+outer wall of the room. I saw now clearly with what a dragging, heavy
+tread that giant shape moved, as though it weighed, here on Earth, far
+more than the normal weight to which it was accustomed.
+
+"Over there!" Molo gasped. "The escape-port; this room has one. Meka,
+go with him. I will join you. You know where."
+
+Foley cried, "Colonel, I may be able to stop them!"
+
+But Halsey saw on our image that Molo was staying. "Wait. Let them go.
+If we have the Martian here, that's better."
+
+I saw the room's escape-port swing open as Meka and the hooded shape
+carrying the box moved for it. The moonlit darkness of the outer
+catwalk enveloped the disappearing figures.
+
+Molo was left alone. He closed the port swiftly. His detector now was
+in his hand, but Halsey anticipated him by a second or two. Our
+listener went dead; our mirror darkened. Doubtless Molo was never sure
+whether he had been spied on or not.
+
+Halsey was on his feet. "Foley, get out into the main room. Stay with
+him."
+
+But there was no need to follow Molo. He had sent his visitor and
+sister out by the escape-port, which was usual enough; now he was back
+in the main room as though nothing of importance had happened, with an
+appearance of intoxication about him. He wavered jovially across the
+room, threading his way through the gay diners, and reached the table
+where his party still sat carousing.
+
+Again Halsey shut us off.
+
+"He's got a base somewhere in the city; you heard what they said about
+it. We've got to trick him into going there, unsuspecting."
+
+Halsey seized the audiphone. "Your chance, Venza. It's the only way.
+Foley, keep away from that Martian. Shut off all contacts. I'll meet
+you out there in a moment. I'm sending a girl; she'll go after him."
+
+"Now?" Venza asked.
+
+"Yes. It's the only way. Perhaps you can get him drinking. Venza, use
+all the wiles you possess now."
+
+"No!" gasped Snap. "It's too dangerous!"
+
+Anita was clinging to Venza. "Colonel Halsey, I'm going too."
+
+Halsey stared, then made a swift decision. "Right. That is still
+better."
+
+I jumped to my feet. "Colonel, I should prefer that one of us men...."
+
+He gripped me by the shoulders. "Gregg Haljan, I take no suggestions
+from you!" His blazing eyes bored into me. "There isn't a second to
+lose. Don't you realize this means destruction of our three inhabited
+planets? I'll sacrifice myself, you, or these girls! Venza, take Anita
+outside. I'll join you immediately, give you last instructions. Take a
+portable audiphone with you."
+
+He turned to Snap. "This is the only way. These demons can't be
+forced. You know that."
+
+The girls were moving toward the door. I met Snap's anguished gaze.
+
+"Gregg, don't let them go!"
+
+"No! No, I won't!"
+
+I made a lunge past Halsey, with Snap after me. Halsey did not move,
+but one of his rays struck us. With all senses numbed, I felt myself
+falling.
+
+"Gregg--don't--let them...."
+
+Snap had tumbled upon me. My senses did not quite fade. I was aware of
+Anita's and Venza's horrified cries, but Halsey pushed them toward the
+door. It slid up. I vaguely saw the two girls going out with Halsey
+after them; and the door coming down.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+
+I have no idea how long it was before Halsey came back. Snap and I
+were seated on a low metal bench against the wall. The effect of the
+paralysing ray was wearing off. We were tingling all over, our senses
+still confused.
+
+Halsey stalked in upon us. "So you are recovered?"
+
+Snap stammered, "We--I say, we're sorry as hell we acted like that."
+
+"I know you are." His voice softened. "If I could have done anything
+else, believe me, I would have. But I don't think harm will come to
+them. They're clever."
+
+"Are they outside?" I asked. "Did they find a way of meeting the
+Martians? How long have you been gone?"
+
+Halsey merely stared at me as though he had no intention of answering.
+And then the audiphone on the desk buzzed.
+
+"This is Halsey," he said. "Yes, I have them here. Bring them--did you
+say bring them?"
+
+We could not hear the answering voice, for Halsey had the muffler in
+contact.
+
+"No, I would prefer not to come. I'm watching something. I'm at the
+Red Spark Cafe. Well, I'm going back to my office presently to wait
+there."
+
+He continued in code. Like Snap, I had never had occasion to learn it.
+The words were a strange sounding staccato gibberish. He ended, "I
+will send them, Grantline. Very well, I'll tell them to locate him. At
+once, yes." He closed off the audiphone.
+
+Halsey swung on us. "You're all right now?"
+
+"Yes." I stood up, drawing Snap up with me. "What is wanted of us
+Colonel?"
+
+"That's better, Gregg." He smiled, but he was still grim. "I wanted
+you here to wait for this call from the Conclave of Public Safety. It
+met at midnight. They have ordered both of you there."
+
+"That's a secret meeting, isn't it?" asked Snap. "There was no report
+of it over the air tonight."
+
+"Yes. Secret." He was leading us to the door. "They won't need you for
+more than half an hour. When they finish, come back to my office. You
+can come openly." He stood with his finger on the door lever.
+"Good-by, lads. Foley will lead you to the service room. You are to
+take a mail cylinder for Postal Switch-station 20. They'll re-route
+you from there to the conclave auditorium."
+
+The door slid up. "When you disembark," he added, "Ask for Johnny
+Grantline. You are to sit with him."
+
+He showed us out and the door slid down before him. We trudged the
+corridor, and Snap gripped me.
+
+"For myself," he whispered swiftly, "I'll go to the damnable conclave
+because I'm ordered. But I won't stay there long. Once we get out of
+it, if I don't route myself back to the Red Spark, I'm a motor-oiler."
+
+I agreed with him. We had a mental picture of Anita and Venza in the
+Red Spark's public room. Doubtless Orentino had created a way for them
+to meet Molo. They would sit there in the Red Spark with that drinking
+party, and in less than an hour we would be back.
+
+But as we crossed diagonally across an end of the main room with Foley
+leading us, we caught a glimpse of Molo's table. The party was still
+there, but Molo, Anita, and Venza were gone!
+
+We had no time to get any information. Foley abruptly left us and
+another man took his place. In the service room a passenger cylinder
+was waiting. Our guide entered it with us.
+
+At the switch station we had the breath knocked out of us. After
+another ten minutes in the vacuum tube, we reached our unknown
+destination. The cylinder-slide opened. We found ourselves with a lone
+guard; and through a gloomy arcade opening, Johnny Grantline was
+advancing, to greet us.
+
+"Well, so here you are, Gregg. Hell to pay heaven, going on here. Come
+on in; I'll tell you."
+
+"We were sent for," Snap said.
+
+"Yes, but they don't want you yet. Come in here."
+
+He waved away the guard and led us through a padded arcade into a
+low-vaulted audience room, windowless and gloomy. Across it, a doorway
+panel stood ajar. Grantline peered through it. There was the glow of
+light from the adjoining room and the distant murmur of many voices.
+
+Grantline closed the door. "Sit down and I'll tell you...."
+
+"Where are we?" I asked.
+
+"The ninth Conclave Hall."
+
+I knew its location: Lower Manhattan, high under the city roof.
+
+Grantline produced little cigarette cylinders. "Steady your nerves,
+lads; you'll need it."
+
+He grinned at us. The hand with which he lighted my cylinder was
+steady as a tower-base, but he was excited. I could see it by the
+glint in his eyes, and hear it in his voice.
+
+"What's going on?" Snap demanded.
+
+"It's about this invading planet. By the gods, when you hear what's
+really been learned about it!"
+
+"Well, what?" I asked.
+
+He sketched what he had heard this night at the conclave. The
+mysterious invader was inhabited.
+
+"How do they know that?" Snap put in.
+
+"Wait. I'll tell you the rest of it. The accursed thing changes its
+orbit. It banks and turns like a spaceship! It stopped out in space;
+it's poised out there now between Mars and Jupiter. A world about a
+fifth the size of the Moon, and the beings on it can control its
+movements. They've brought it in from interstellar space, into our
+solar system. Evidently the point they've reached now is far as they
+want to come. They've poised out there, getting ready to attack, not
+only us, but Mars and Venus simultaneously."
+
+Grantline gazed at us through the smoke of his cigarette. He was much
+like Snap, small, wiry, brisk of movement and manner, but older. His
+hair was graying at the temples; his voice carried the authority of
+one accustomed to commanding men.
+
+"Don't ask me for the technicalities of how they reached these
+conclusions. I'm no astronomer. I'm only telling you their conclusions
+and what their discussions have been here for the past hour."
+
+Heaven knows, we had no inclination to dispute him. What we had seen
+and heard at the Red Spark tallied with his words.
+
+He went on swiftly, "The attack, of whatever nature it may be, is
+impending at once. Not next month, or next week, but now. Lord, Gregg,
+I don't blame you for staring like that. You don't know what's been
+going on for the past two days on Earth, and Venus and Mars. It's all
+been suppressed. Neither did I, until I heard it here tonight. The
+U.S.W., the Martian Union, the Venus Free State, are all preparing for
+war. Every government spaceship on Earth is being commissioned. We're
+not going to sit around and wait for invaders to land; the war won't
+be fought on Earth if we can help it."
+
+We stared. Snap asked, "What makes them so sure?"
+
+"That war is coming? Plenty. This new planet has sent out spaceships.
+The planet itself is hovering sixty million miles away from us, about
+forty million miles from Mars and close to ninety million from Venus.
+Perhaps its leaders think that's the most strategic spot.
+
+"Then it sent out spaceships, three of them. One is hovering close to
+Venus. Another is near Mars, and the third is some 200,000 miles off
+Earth. Several of our interplanetary freighters are overdue; it seems
+now that they must have encountered these invading ships and been
+destroyed.
+
+"Still more, and worse: these three hovering ships have already landed
+the enemy on Mars and Venus. The helio-reports mention mysterious
+encounters in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar. For three or four days, Mars
+has been in a panic of apprehension; Venus almost as bad. And some
+have landed here. Not many, perhaps; but one has been captured. A
+thing--God, it's almost beyond description."
+
+We could well agree with that, since Snap and I had just seen one.
+
+"They've got it here," Grantline was saying. "They've tried to make it
+talk. They can't but they're going to try again."
+
+He jumped to his feet and went to the door. "They're bringing it in."
+Upon his face was a look of awed horror.
+
+We stood crowding the small door-oval. It gave onto a darkened balcony
+of the conclave hall. The girders of the city roof were over us. There
+were a few official spectators sitting up here in the dark on the
+balcony, but none noticed us.
+
+The lower floor of the hall was lighted. Around the polished oblong
+tables perhaps a hundred scientists and high governmental officials of
+the three worlds were seated. Near the center of the hall was a small
+dais-platform. On a table there, someone had just placed a circular
+black box, similar to the one we had seen previously.
+
+The hall was hushed and tense. On the dais stood a group of Earth
+officials. One of them spoke. "Here it is, gentlemen. And this time,
+by God, we'll make it speak."
+
+Grantline whispered, "That's the War Secretary from Greater London."
+
+I recognized him: Brayley, Commander in Chief of the land, air, water
+and space armies of the United States of the World. He was gigantic in
+stature, with a great shock of gray-white hair. A commanding figure,
+if there ever was one.
+
+Beside him, Nippor, the Japanese representative in Greater New York,
+seemed a pigmy. The acoustics of the silent hall carried his soft
+voice up to us. "I would be afraid of drugs. Will we use force? It is
+vital."
+
+"Yes, by God! Anything."
+
+It seemed that everyone in the hall must be shuddering: I could feel
+it like an aura pounding up at me. Brayley lifted the box-lid, reached
+in and raised the horrible thing. He held it up, a two-foot ball of
+palpitating gray-white membrane. Another living brain.
+
+"Now, damn you, you're going to talk to us! Understand that? We're
+going to make you talk. Get that box out of the way."
+
+They flung the box to the floor, and Brayley placed the brain on the
+table.
+
+A glare of light, focussed on it, showed beneath the stretched taut
+membrane the convolutions of the brain, like tangled purple worms. The
+blood-vessels seemed distended almost to bursting now. The gruesome
+face, with popping eyes and that gaping mouth, showed a horrible
+travesty of terror. From where its ears should have been, a crooked
+little arm of flabby, gray-white flesh came down, one on each side and
+braced the table. And I saw now that it had a shriveled body, or at
+least little legs, bent, almost crushed under by its weight.
+
+"Now, damn you," Brayley said, rubbing off his hands on a rough towel,
+"for the last time: will you talk?"
+
+The goggling eyes held a terrified but baleful gaze upon Brayley's
+face. Did it understand? The eyes were fronted our way, and suddenly
+their glance swung up so that I seemed for an instant to see down into
+them. And it struck me then: this was a thing of greater intelligence
+than my own. A humanoid, with brain so developed that through myriad
+generations the body was shriveled, almost gone. A mind was housed
+here, an intelligence housed in this monstrous brain.
+
+Were these the beings of the new planet which had come to attack us?
+But how could this helpless creature, incapable of almost everything,
+obviously, save thought, do the work of its world?
+
+Then I recalled again that insulated room of the Red Spark Cafe: the
+thin, ten-foot hooded shape which was carrying the box. Was that,
+perhaps, an opposite type of being with the brain submerged, dwarfed,
+and the body paramount? Were there, on this mysterious planet, two
+co-existing types, each a specialist, one for the physical work and
+the other for the mental?
+
+I stood with Snap and Grantline in that dark balcony doorway, gazing
+down to where the giant brain stood braced upon its shriveled arms and
+legs, and realized why we of Earth and Venus and Mars are all cast in
+the same mould we call human. It is a little family of planets, here
+in our solar system; for countless eons we have been close neighbors.
+The same sunlight, the same general conditions of life, the same
+seed, were strewn here by a wise Creator. A man from the Orient is
+different from an Anglo-Saxon; a man of Mars differs a little more.
+But basically they are the same.
+
+Yet, confronting us now was a new type, from realms of interstellar
+space, far beyond our solar system.
+
+"For the last time, will you talk?" snapped Brayley.
+
+There was another interval of silence. The eyes of the brain were very
+watchful. Its gaze roved the hall as though it were seeking for help.
+It shifted its little arms on the table, seemingly exhausted from the
+physical effort of supporting itself.
+
+Brayley's voice came again. "Doubtless you can feel pain acutely. We
+shall see."
+
+With what effort of will to overcome his revulsion we may only guess,
+he reached forward and pinched the little arm. The result was
+electrifying. From the upended slit of mouth in that goggling face,
+came a scream. It pierced the heavy tense silence of the hall, ghastly
+in its timbre, like nothing any of us had ever heard before. And in it
+was conveyed agony as though Brayley had not merely pinched that
+flabby arm, but had thrust a red-hot knife into its vitals.
+
+The brain could feel pain indeed. It crouched with stiffened arms and
+legs. The membrane of its great head seemed to bulge with greater
+distension; the knotted blood-vessels were gorged with purple blood.
+The eyes rolled. Then it closed its mouth. Its gaze steadied upon
+Brayley's face, so baleful a gaze that as I could see the reflection
+of its luminous purple glow a shudder of fear and revulsion swept me.
+
+"So you did not like that?" Brayley steadied his voice. "If you don't
+want more, you had better speak. How did you get here on Earth? What
+are you trying to do here?"
+
+There seemed an interminable silence; then Nippor took a menacing step
+forward. "Speak! We will force it from you!"
+
+And then it spoke. "Do--not--touch--me--again."
+
+Indescribable voice! Human, animal or monster no one could say. But
+the words were clear, precise; and for all their terror, they seemed
+to hold an infinite command.
+
+A wave of excitement swept the hall, but Brayley's gesture silenced
+it. He leaped forward and bent low over the palpitating brain.
+
+"So you can talk. You came as an enemy. We have given you every
+chance today for friendship, and you have refused. What are you trying
+to do to us?"
+
+It only glared.
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"I will not tell you anything."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will."
+
+"No!"
+
+All the men on the platform were crowding close to it now.
+
+"Speak!" ordered Brayley again. "Here in Greater New York is a hiding
+place. Where is it?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Where is it? You are perhaps a leader of your world. I lead ours, and
+I'm going to master you now. Where is this hiding place?"
+
+The thing suddenly laughed, a gruesome, eerie cackle. "You will know
+when it is too late. I think it is too late already."
+
+"Too late for what?"
+
+"To save your world. Doomed, your three worlds! Don't touch--me!"
+
+It ended with a scream of apprehension as Nippor grasped the crooked
+little arm. "Tell us!"
+
+"No!" It screamed again. "Let--me--go!"
+
+"Tell us!" Nippor strengthened his squeezing grip. The thing was
+writhing, the thin ball of membrane palpitating, heaving. And suddenly
+it burst. Over all its purpled surface, blood came with a gush.
+
+Nippor and Brayley staggered backward. The scream of the brain ended
+in a choking gurgle. The little legs and tiny body wilted under it;
+the round ball of membrane sank to the table. It rolled sidewise upon
+one arm and ear, and in a moment its palpitation ceased. A purple-red
+mass of blood, it lay deflated and flabby.
+
+It was dead.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+
+"But see here," I said, "did they mention the Martian, Molo, at all?"
+
+"They were discussing Molo before you arrived," Grantline told us.
+
+We had drawn back from the doorway. The conference, with the dead
+thing removed, was proceeding. Snap and I had momentarily forgotten
+Anita and Venza; but now we were in a panic to get back to the Red
+Spark.
+
+"But you can't go," said Grantline. "Brayley ordered you here. He'll
+want to see you in a moment."
+
+"Well, why doesn't he see us now?" Snap protested. "I'm not going to
+cool myself off sitting here."
+
+"Oh yes, you are."
+
+Grantline sent word to Brayley that we were here. In a moment the
+answer came. We were to wait a short time; he would want to see us.
+
+We swiftly told Grantline what had happened at the Red Spark, and
+found that already he knew. Francis had relayed it to the conference,
+and Halsey was in constant communication with the officials here.
+
+"Then what is happening?" I demanded. "Where are the girls? Has Halsey
+heard from them?"
+
+Again Grantline went to a nearby room.
+
+"Anita sent a message," he said, when he returned. "They are with
+Molo. Halsey is ordering a squad of men to be ready."
+
+Grantline told us what had been happening in the Red Spark. Anita and
+Venza, simulating drunkenness with a skill for acting which I knew
+both of them possessed, had joined Molo's party. Perhaps if Meka had
+been there she would have seen through them.
+
+But Molo did not. And they have since told me that the Martian himself
+was far from sober, although he was probably not aware of it. He
+yielded to their demands to leave the restaurant with him. He wanted,
+as we know, to leave unobtrusively; and Venza threatened a scene
+unless she could go.
+
+He took them, leaving openly in a public fare-car. Doubtless he at
+first intended to de-rail them somewhere, but they convinced him that
+he was not being followed. Twice he used his detector, and Anita and
+Halsey were clever enough to throw off their rays in time to avoid it.
+Then Halsey lost connection with the fleeing car, and after that Molo
+changed his mind about ditching the girls.
+
+"But where are they now?" I demanded.
+
+"You," said Grantline sternly, "are out of it. Do you think that
+Halsey, under Brayley's orders, will neglect any chance to find out
+where Molo is hiding? Something is about to happen. This conference is
+wrestling with it. In Grebhar and Ferrok-Shahn they're striving to
+find out what it is. Something impending _now_. Helios are pouring in
+here from Venus and Mars. They're mobilizing their spaceships, just as
+we are."
+
+Grantline at last was letting out all his apprehensions on us, with
+this burst. "Halsey didn't tell you that the entire resources of his
+organization are out upon this thing tonight. Here at this conclave
+there's a room of information-sorters. That's just where I came from a
+moment ago. Every country on our Earth is making ready--for what,
+nobody knows!
+
+"He's had two fragmentary calls from Anita. He has a hundred men ready
+to rush to their aid, and to capture Molo's lair. He expects another
+message from Anita any moment. This conference here knows every
+movement that is being made, within ten or twenty seconds of its
+making. Perhaps upon Anita and Venza the whole outcome of this thing
+may hang."
+
+We had no answer to that. "Do you know who Molo is? He's an
+interplanetary pirate; his ship is the _Star-Streak_."
+
+"Good Lord!"
+
+We had heard of him. For five years past, a gray spaceship, with a
+base supposedly hidden in the Polar deserts of Mars, had been
+terrorizing interplanetary shipping.
+
+"They think," Grantline went on, "that Molo was cruising with his
+pirate ship. He has, as you know, a band of criminals drawn from all
+the three worlds. There are about fifty of them, commanded by his
+sister and himself. We think that Molo encountered the three ships
+which that new planet sent out. The _Star-Streak_ was captured,
+perhaps destroyed. Molo and his band, joined with this new enemy, to
+save themselves, and because they have been promised rewards."
+
+"But why should these brains want their help?" Snap demanded.
+
+"Wouldn't you say it was because, in Ferrok-Shahn, Grebhar and here in
+Greater New York, simultaneously tonight, something has to be
+accomplished, something the brains themselves could not do? Molo and
+his band know all three cities. How they landed here in Greater New
+York nobody knows; the enemy spaceship is 200,000 miles out. Obviously
+they came from it, landed secretly with some smaller ship somewhere on
+Earth and made their way here."
+
+A buzzer sounded beside us. A voice commanded: "Grantline, bring Gregg
+Haljan and Daniel Dean to room six at once."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In room six we stood before the War Secretary, who had arrived there a
+moment ahead of us.
+
+"Ah, Haljan and Dean. I'm glad to see you."
+
+He was still white and shaken. Beads of perspiration stood upon his
+forehead. He mopped them off.
+
+"I've just had a rather terrible experience." He did not suggest that
+we sit down. He went on crisply: "Grantline no doubt has told you of
+what's going on. Disturbing, terrifying. Haljan, we have a ship being
+rushed into commission tonight. You know her, the _Cometara_."
+
+"I know her," I said.
+
+"Quite so. She is taking off as soon as we can ready her. She will
+carry about fifty men. Grantline is in charge of the armament and men.
+You, Dean, we want to handle her radio-helio."
+
+"Right," said Snap.
+
+"And you, Haljan, we can think of no one better to navigate her."
+
+He waved away my appreciation. "Within a brief time we shall have
+thirty such ships in space. Mars and Venus also are mobilizing."
+
+He stood up. "We feel, Haljan, that if anyone can handle the
+_Cometara_ with skill enough to combat this lurking enemy, it will be
+you."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir."
+
+"We know that. The ship is leaving from the Tappan Interplanetary
+Stage shortly after dawn. When have you and Dean last slept?"
+
+"Last night," we both said.
+
+"Quite so. Then you need sleep now. I want you to go at once to the
+Tappan Fieldhouse. The commander there will make you comfortable. Eat,
+and sleep if you can. We want you in good shape. You're to keep out of
+this night's activities here in the city; you understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+An orderly was approaching behind Brayley. "I'll be back in a moment,
+Rollins."
+
+He shook hands with us. "I may not see you again before it's over.
+Good luck, lads. Grantline, they need you for a moment in the hall;
+something about electronic space weapons, further equipment for the
+_Cometara_. Then you'd better go to Tappan House too, and get some
+sleep."
+
+We were dismissed. Snap and I regarded each other hesitantly. I said
+impulsively, "Mr. Brayley, Detective-Colonel Halsey is using two
+girls."
+
+"Yes, we're watching that, Haljan."
+
+"They're the girls we're to marry," I added. "May we communicate with
+Colonel Halsey?"
+
+"Yes. Call him from here." He smiled wanly. "But keep out of it; we
+need you at dawn."
+
+The Tappan departure-stage was only a few miles up the Hudson; we
+could get there in half an hour. It was now nearly trinight, halfway
+between midnight and dawn. I had my portable audiphone and got Halsey
+at once.
+
+"You Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. They're through with us at the Conclave. Where is Anita?"
+
+"We heard from her twice. I'm expecting...."
+
+We could hear someone interrupting him. Then he came back. "Gregg?
+Molo took them somewhere. I didn't dare fling after them. He had his
+detector going, and Anita warned me not to try it. She had to stop
+connection herself. God knows how she was able to whisper to me at
+all."
+
+His voice, like Brayley's, had the ring of a man strained to the
+breaking point. I could appreciate how Halsey must feel, forced to
+remain at his desk with its encircling banks of instruments; holding
+all the network of his farflung activities centralized; his
+decisions, his commands in a hundred places almost simultaneously,
+while his body sat there inactive.
+
+"Gregg, the girls must have arrived at Molo's place by now. If only
+they know where they are! I have lookouts throughout the city with
+intricate and complete connecting equipment. Gregg, I must
+disconnect."
+
+"Colonel, give me Anita's frequency. Maybe Snap or I can pick up the
+message."
+
+He named the oscillating frequency, then disconnected.
+
+"Try that frequency," Snap suggested. "We've got to do something."
+
+The door-slide opened suddenly and an orderly appeared. "Haljan?"
+
+"Get the hell away," roared Snap. "We've had our orders; we don't want
+any from you."
+
+"Gregg Haljan and Daniel Dean are paged on the mirrors."
+
+Someone in the city wanted us; our names were appearing on the various
+mirror-grids publicly displayed throughout the city in the hope that
+we would answer.
+
+"That's different," said Snap. "Answer it for us, that's a good
+fellow. We're busy."
+
+"It must be important," the orderly insisted. "The caller registered a
+fee at the Search Bureau; that's how they located you here. He paid
+the highest fee to search you. An emergency call."
+
+It was against the law to invoke the services of the Search Bureau
+unless based upon actual impending danger. "We'll take it," I said.
+
+"Come with me." He turned to the left and down the corridor.
+
+We hastened with him to a corridor cubby. Upon the audiphone there I
+was at once connected with a voice, and an anxious man's face with a
+two-day growth upon it.
+
+"Haljan! Thank God you answered. This is Dud Ardley. Me and Shac are
+here. Listen, this is the lower cellar corridor, Lateral 3, under
+Broadway. Me and Shac just have seen your girls down here."
+
+News of Anita and Venza! I could see in the mirror-image, behind Dud's
+head the outlines of the little public cubby from which he was
+calling. He and his brother, on some illicit errand of their own in
+East Side lower Manhattan, had seen figures alighting from a
+fare-car. They had caught a glimpse of the faces of Anita and Venza.
+The girls were hooded and cloaked; a hooded man was with them. The
+fare-car quickly rolled away, and the hooded figures, suddenly
+becoming invisible within their magnetic cloaks, had vanished.
+
+"S'elp me, we couldn't do nothin'. You know we take no chances with
+the police by carryin' cylinders. So I paged you in a hurry."
+
+"Dud, that's damn nice of you. Where are you now? Tell me again."
+
+The Ardleys, knowing nothing of the events of this night, supposed
+that the girls were being abducted, and decided I should be informed.
+
+"Damn right, Dud. We'll come at once. You two wait for us?"
+
+"Sure. If you got instruments, maybe we can track 'em. It wasn't a
+quarter of a mile from here, over toward the river. Plenty of rotten
+dumps down there."
+
+"Wait for us, Dud. We'll come in a rush."
+
+I slammed shut the audiphone. Snap, beside me, had heard it all. He
+shoved the astonished orderly out of the way.
+
+"What's the nearest exit-route out of here?"
+
+"To the city roof, sir. Up this incline."
+
+We dashed up the spiral incline, through a low exit-port, and were in
+the starlight of the city roof.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Connect it, Gregg! You can't tell; her message might come over any
+minute."
+
+I tuned my coils to the seldom used oscillation frequency which Halsey
+had told us Anita's transmitter was sending.
+
+"Anything, Gregg?"
+
+"No. Dead channel."
+
+The air, in Anita's channel, was bafflingly silent.
+
+We had been challenged by a roof-guard when we appeared from the upper
+port of the Conclave Hall; the city roof was not open to public
+traffic. But with our identifications, he found us a single-seat
+hand-tram, and started us southward on the deserted route.
+
+It was a cloudless night, with stars like thickly-strewn diamonds on
+purple velvet. The city roof lay glistening in the starlight. In my
+great-grandfather's time there had been no roof here; the open city
+was exposed to all the inclement weather. But gradually the arcades
+and overhead viaducts, cross balconies and catwalks which spanned the
+canyon street between the giant buildings became a roof. It spread,
+now terraced and sloped to top the lofty buildings, like a great
+rumpled sheet propped by the knees of sleeping giants. Some of the
+roof was of opaque alumite, dark patches, alternating with the great
+glassite panes which in places admitted the daylight.
+
+Our little tram sped along southward, wending its way over the
+terraces. Save for the guards and lookouts in their occasional
+cubbies, and the air-traffic directors in their towers, we were alone
+up here. The roof was tangled with air-pipes, line-wire conduits,
+aerials, arterial systems of the ventilating and lighting devices. As
+far as one could see the ventilators stood fronting the night breeze
+like listening ears. There were water tanks, great cross-bulkheads and
+flumes to handle the rain and snow. A few traffic towers maintained
+order in the overhead air-lanes. Their beacons shot up into the sky
+when the passing lights marked the thinly-strewn trinight traffic.
+
+We were stopped at intervals, but in each case were passed promptly.
+
+"Nothing yet, Gregg?"
+
+"No."
+
+Anita's channel remained empty. It was, I suppose, no more than ten
+minutes during which we sped south along the grotesque maze of the
+roof; but to us it was an eternity. If only some message would come!
+
+"I'll pull up here."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I gathered up my little audiphone, thrust it under my dark flowing
+cloak. If only our cloaks were magnetic!
+
+We leaped from our car. "In a rush, Haljan?" asked a guard.
+
+"That's us. Orders from Mr. Brayley."
+
+We left him and plunged into a descending automatic lift. A drop of a
+thousand feet; we shot downward past all the deserted levels, past the
+ground-level, the undersurface transportation lanes, the sub-river
+tubes, the sub-cellar, down to the very bottom of the city.
+
+"Come on, Gregg. Two segments from here."
+
+We advanced at a run. At this hour of night, hardly a pedestrian was
+in evidence. It was an arched vaulted corridor, almost a tunnel, dimly
+blue-lit with short lengths of fluorescent tubes at intervals on the
+ceiling. For all the vaunted mechanisms of our time, the air here was
+heavy and fetid. Moisture dripped from the concrete roof. It lay on
+the metal pavement of the ground; the smell of it was dank, tomb-like.
+
+There were frequent cross-tunnels. We turned eastward into one of
+them. For a segment there were the lower entrances to the cellars of
+the giant buildings overhead. We passed a place where the
+tunnel-corridor widened into a great underground plaza. The sewerage
+and wire-pipes lay like tangled pythons on its floor. Half across it,
+by the glow of temporary lights strung on a cable, a group of
+repairmen were working. We passed them, headed in to where the tunnel
+narrowed again and there were now occasional cubby entrances to
+underground dwellings.
+
+It was a rabbit warren from here to the river, haunted by criminals
+and by miserable families, many of whom never saw the daylight for
+weeks at a time. The giant voices of the city hardly carried down
+here, so that an oppressive silence hung upon everything.
+
+"That next crossing, Gregg. They said they'd wait for us there."
+
+Occasional escalators led upward. In advance of us was a narrow
+intersection. There were a few lights in the bullseyes of the
+subterranean dwelling rooms, but most of them were dark.
+
+"Easy, Snap. Not so fast."
+
+I pulled Snap to a walk. We edged over against the tunnel side. We had
+passed a small lighted audiphone cubby, evidently the one from which
+Dud and Shac had paged us. They should have been here waiting; but
+there was nothing but the empty, gloomy tunnels.
+
+"Something is coming!" Snap clutched at me; we drew our cloaks around
+us and waited in a shadowed recess. Down a side incline, a segment
+behind us, a small automatic food truck came lurching. It pulled up at
+an arcade entrance. Its driver slid the portals, deposited his cases
+of food, locked the panel after him; and in a moment he and his truck
+were gone up the incline.
+
+We heard, in the ensuing silence, a low groan near at hand; then
+abruptly it stopped. We saw, within twenty feet of us, two dark
+figures lying on the pavement grid in a black patch of shadow where
+the mailtube came down in a curve and disappeared into the tunnel
+wall.
+
+We bent over the figures of two men. They lay together, one half upon
+the other, black-garbed figures with white, staring faces. One
+twitched a little and then lay still.
+
+They were Shac and Dud Ardley.
+
+"Murdered, Gregg! Good Lord!"
+
+Both were dead, but we could see no marks on either of them.
+
+I found my wits. "Snap, we can't stand like this wholly visible."
+
+I pulled Snap away. We darted a few feet. The light of the tunnel
+intersection was directly over us. "Not here, Snap! Run!"
+
+Under the curving vacuum tube a little further along, we found
+shelter. Snap murmured: "The girls went past here. But which way,
+Gregg?"
+
+As though I knew!
+
+I felt at that moment, under the shirt against my skin, the anode of
+my audiphone tingling. A receiving signal! In the gloom, I could see
+Snap's white face as he watched me bring it out.
+
+We heard a tiny microphonic voice, Anita's voice.
+
+"Colonel Halsey. Yes I have the location. Lafayette 4--East corridor,
+lowest level. A descending entrance. Don't you speak again; I've only
+a minute! Venza safe--but send help. Something we don't understand--a
+strange mechanism here."
+
+Then Halsey's interrupting voice. "Anita, escape! You and Venza!"
+
+"We can't. They've got us!"
+
+"I'm sending men. They'll be there in ten minutes."
+
+"Ten minutes will be too late. Molo is...."
+
+It seemed that we heard her scream; then the waves blurred and died.
+
+Lafayette 4--East corridor, lowest level. "Snap, that's here! A
+descending entrance."
+
+We stood back against the great curving side of the postal vacuum
+tube. Within it I heard the hiss and clank as a mail cylinder flashed
+past. Halsey's secret orders must be going out now. His men nearest
+this place would come in a rush. But Anita said that would be too
+late.
+
+Snap and I were frantically searching. Somewhere here was an entrance
+to Molo's lair. It seemed in the silence that Anita's scream was still
+ringing in my ears. Had it been entirely from the instrument, or were
+we so close that we had heard its distant echoes?
+
+"Gregg, help me." Snap was tugging at a horizontal door-slide, like a
+trap in the tunnel floor, partly under the vacuum tube. "Stuck!" he
+gasped.
+
+It yielded with our efforts. It slid aside. Steps led downward into
+blackness. We plunged in, caution gone from us. The steps went down
+some twenty feet; we were in another smaller corridor. It was vaguely
+lighted by a glow from somewhere, and as my pupils expanded, I could
+see this was a shabby alley, opening ahead into a winding passage with
+the slide-port above us like its back gate. A warren of cubbies was
+here, a little sequestered segment of disreputable dwellings.
+
+We stood peering, listening. "Shall I try the eavesdropper, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. No, wait!" I thought I heard distant sounds.
+
+"Voices, Snap. Listen."
+
+More than voices. A thud: footsteps running. A commotion, back in this
+warren, within a hundred feet of us.
+
+"This way," I murmured.
+
+We plunged into a black gash. There was a glow of light, a glassite
+pane in a house wall nearby. The commotion was louder, and under it
+now we heard a vague humming: something electrical. It was an
+indescribably weird sound, like nothing I had ever heard before.
+
+Snap clutched at me. "In here, but where is the accursed door?"
+
+There was a glassite pane, but we could find no door. In our hands we
+held small electronic bolt-cylinders, short-range weapons.
+
+The hum and hissing was louder. It seemed to throb within us, as
+though vibration were communicating to every fiber of our bodies.
+
+Light was streaming through the glassite pane, and we glimpsed the
+interior of the room. The light now came from a strange mechanism set
+in the center of the metal cubby. I caught only an instant's glimpse
+of it, a round thing of coils and wires. The metal floor of the room
+was cut away, exposing the gray rock of Manhattan Island. And against
+the rock, in a ten-foot circle, a series of discs were contacted, with
+wires leading from them to the central coils.
+
+The whole was glowing with opalescent light. It was dazzling,
+blinding. Within in it the goggled figure of Molo was moving,
+adjusting the contacts. He stooped. He straightened, drew back from
+the light.
+
+Only an instant's glimpse, but we saw the girls, crouching with black
+bandages on their eyes. Meka, goggled like her brother, was holding
+them. A tall shape carrying a round black box darted through the light
+and ran. Molo leaped for the girls; the hum had mounted to a wild
+electrical scream. Molo flung his sister back out of the light.
+
+They all vanished. There was nothing but the light, and the mounting
+dynamic scream.
+
+Beside me, Snap was pounding on the glassite panel. I joined him.
+Everything was dreamlike, blurring as though unconsciousness was upon
+me.
+
+Where was Snap? Gone? Then I saw him nearby. He had found a door, but
+it wouldn't yield. I saw his arm go up in a gesture to me.
+
+He ran; I found myself running after him, but I stumbled and fell.
+Then over me the scream burst into a great roar of sound. It seemed so
+intense, so gigantic a sound that it must ring around the world.
+
+And the light burst with an exploding puff. The black metal cubby
+walls seemed to melt like phantoms in a dream. A titan's blowtorch,
+the opalescent light shot upward, a circular ten-foot beam, eating its
+way through all the city levels as though they were paper, up through
+the city roof.
+
+Molo's cubby was gone. His mechanism was eaten by the light and
+destroyed. There was only this motionless, upstanding beam, contacted
+here with the Earth, streaming like an opalescent sword into the
+starry sky.
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+
+I must paint now upon a broader canvas to depict the utter chaos of
+this most memorable night in the history of the Earth, Venus and Mars.
+
+From that point in the bowels of Greater New York, near the southern
+tip of Manhattan Island, the mysterious light-beam shot up. It
+screamed with its weird electrical voice for an hour, so penetrating a
+sound that it was heard with the unaided ears as far away as
+Philadelphia. A titan voice it was, shrill as if with triumph. There
+were millions of people awakened by it this night; awakened and struck
+with a chill of fear at this nameless siren shrilling its note of
+danger. The sound gradually subsided; it seemed to reach its peak
+within a few minutes of the appearance of the light, and within an
+hour it had ceased.
+
+But the light beam remained. Those who inspected it closely have given
+a clear description of its aspect; but to this day its real nature has
+never been determined.
+
+It was a circular beam of about a ten-foot diameter. In color it was
+vaguely opalescent, rather more brilliant at night than in the day.
+With the coming of the sun it did not fade, but remained clearly
+visible, with a spectrum sheen when the sunlight hit it so that it had
+somewhat the appearance of a titanic, straightened rainbow.
+
+From that contact point with our Earth, the inexplicable beam stood
+vertically upward. It ate a vertical hole like a chimney up through
+all the city levels, through the roof and into the sky. It had a
+tremendous heat, communicable by contact so that it melted the city
+above it with a clean round hole. But the heat was non-radiant.
+
+I was found lying within fifty feet of the base of the beam. There had
+been an explosion, so that Molo's metal room was gone; but from where
+I lay there was only a warmth to be felt from the light.
+
+Halsey's men found me within half an hour. I was unconscious but not
+injured. I think now that the sound and not the light overcame me. I
+presently recovered consciousness; for another hour I was blind and
+deaf, but that quickly wore off. They rushed me through the chaos of
+the city to the Tappan Headquarters. Grantline was there, but not
+Snap. I sent them back when once I was fully conscious. They searched
+all the vicinity at the base of the light. Snap, alive or dead, was
+not to be found.
+
+Anita and Venza were gone. I had seen Molo and Meka plunge away with
+them as the light-beam burst forth. They were gone, and Snap was gone.
+
+There was, by now, a turmoil unprecedented throughout all the
+metropolitan area. The motionless light-beam itself had done little
+damage, but its appearance brought instant chaos. Within a radius of
+five miles of its base, the city was plunged into darkness. All power
+was cut off. Every vehicle, even the aeros passing overhead, and, the
+ventilating system stopped. Audiphones were wrecked; it subsided
+within an hour, though, and after that, lights and instruments brought
+into the area were not affected.
+
+But during that hour, south Manhattan was in panic. A multitude of
+terrified people awakened in the night to find blackness and that
+screaming sound. The streets and corridors and traffic levels were
+jammed with throngs trampling and killing one another in their efforts
+to escape.
+
+This was in the stricken area; but everywhere else the panic was
+spreading. Transportation systems were almost all out of commission.
+The panic spread until by dawn there was a wild exodus of refugees
+jamming the bridges and viaducts and tunnels, streaming from all the
+city exits.
+
+This was Greater New York. But from Venus and Mars came similar
+reports. In Grebhar and in Ferrok-Shahn, doubtless almost simultaneous
+with Greater New York, similar light-beams appeared.
+
+"But what can it be?" I demanded of Grantline. "Something Molo
+contacted there? He did it. That was what he was working for, and he
+accomplished his purpose. But what will the beam do to us?"
+
+"It's doing plenty," said Grantline grimly.
+
+"He didn't intend that. There was something else."
+
+But what? As yet, no one knew. I had already told the authorities what
+I had seen. I was the only eye-witness to Molo's activities; and
+heaven knows I had but a brief, confused glimpse.
+
+The beam remained; it streamed upward from the rock. They thought,
+this night, that Molo's strange current had set up a disintegration of
+the atoms, and that electronic particles from them were streaming into
+space.
+
+The light-beam seemed impervious to attack. Within a few hours the
+authorities were attacking its base with various vibratory weapons but
+without success.
+
+From where Grantline and I sat, we saw the dawn coming. But the
+radiance-beam remained unaffected. "Gregg, look there at Venus!"
+
+To the east of us there was a distant line of metal structures
+surmounting the mid-Westchester hills; above them, in the brightening
+sky of dawn, Venus was just rising. Mars had already set at our
+longitude. Venus, fairly close to the Earth now, was the "Morning
+Star."; it mounted now above that line of metal stages in the
+distance.
+
+And as Grantline gestured, I saw from Venus the same sword-like beam
+streaming off almost to cross our own.
+
+Grantline and I, with a mutual thought, ran around the balcony and
+gazed to where Mars had set. A narrow radiance was streaming up among
+the stars off there.
+
+Three swinging swords of light in the sky! With the rotation of the
+planets, they swept the firmament. The mysterious enemy had planted
+them--but why? What was coming next?
+
+And as though to answer us, from far to the south, over mid-Jersey,
+came a new manifestation. We saw a speck rising, a distant mounting
+speck of something dark, with streamers of tiny radiance flowing from
+it.
+
+"A spaceship, Gregg."
+
+It seemed so. It came slowly from above the maze of distant
+structures, gathered speed, and in a moment was gone.
+
+But others, better equipped, had observed it. It was a cylindrical
+projectile, with stream-fluorescence propelling it upward, an unusual
+form of spaceship. Telescopically it was seen until well after dawn.
+Speeding out in the direction of the Moon.
+
+Molo and his weird allies had escaped, I thought. With their work
+done here on Earth, they were off to rejoin the hovering enemy ship
+200,000 miles out.
+
+I stood gripping Grantline on that balcony, and gazed with sinking
+heart. Were Anita and Venza prisoners on that mounting ship? And Snap:
+I prayed he was there with the girls to lend them the protection I had
+failed to give.
+
+"Haljan and Grantline wanted below."
+
+The voice of a mechanic on the balcony behind us roused us from our
+thoughts. We went down through the busy building.
+
+The workshops of Tappan Interplanetary Headquarters had for hours been
+ringing with busy activity. The _Cometara_ rested upon her departure
+stage outside, with a score of workmen conditioning her.
+Newly-installed additional armament was aboard, ready to be assembled
+after the start. The men to handle it were embarked. My half dozen
+officers and the ten members of the crew I had already briefly met.
+They were waiting for me.
+
+"On we go, Gregg. Let's wish ourselves luck." From grim, silent
+abstraction, Grantline had now sprung into his familiar dynamic self.
+
+There was a solemn group of officers and a hundred or so workmen here;
+they stopped their fevered labors now to watch the _Cometara_ get
+away, first of Earth's ships speeding into space to confront this
+nameless enemy. Grantline and I went past them with silent handshakes
+and murmured good-bys. I saw the towering figure of Brayley. He raised
+an arm for a farewell gesture to us.
+
+We mounted the incline to the _Cometara_. She rested upon her stage, a
+great, sleek bronze ship, low and rakish, with pointed ends and a
+flattened, arched turtle-back dome of glassite covering the
+superstructure and the decks from bow to stern. She lay quiescent,
+gleaming in the glow of the departure beacons; but there was an aspect
+of latent power upon her.
+
+My ship! My first command! As we went through the opened port of the
+domeside and I touched foot upon the deck, I prayed that I might
+justify the faith reposed in me.
+
+Men crowded the narrow, covered deck. I saw the space-guns at the deck
+pressure-ports, partly assembled. My chief officer, a young fellow
+named Drac Davidson, who with his twin brother had been in the
+Interplanetary Freight Service, rushed up to me.
+
+"We're ready, sir."
+
+"Very good, Drac."
+
+He hurried me to the turret control room. Grantline instantly had
+plunged into details of assembling the weapons.
+
+"Her ports are all closed," said Drac. He spoke calmly, but his thin
+face was pale and his dark eyes glowed with excitement. "The interior
+pressure is set at fifteen pounds. You can ring us up at once."
+
+No formalities to this departure! With pounding heart I entered the
+small circular turret and mounted its tiny spiral stairs to the upper
+control room. But as I touched the levers, calmness came to me with
+these familiar tasks at which I was skilled.
+
+I slid a central-hull gravity-plate. It went smoothly, perfectly
+operated by the magnets. The vessel trembled, lifted; outside the
+enclosing dome I could see the dawn-light of the sky and paling
+floodlights of the stage. Figures of men out there, made silent
+gestures of farewell, dropping slowly beneath our hull as we lifted.
+
+The bow gravity-plates slid into the repulsive-force positions. The
+bow lifted. The _Cometara_ responded smoothly. We went up, poised at a
+forty-five degree angle. I saw the outer beacons on the stage swing
+upward with their warning to passing traffic in the lower lanes.
+
+"Light our bow-beacon, Drac."
+
+We lifted through the lower thousand and two thousand-foot lanes. The
+lights of Tappen were dwindling beneath us. The interior of the
+_Cometara_ was humming with the whirr of its circulators and
+air-receivers, mingled with the throb of air pressure pumps. At three
+thousand feet I started the air-rocket engines. They came on with a
+gentle purring. The fluorescence from them streamed along our hull and
+down past the stern, like twin rocket tails.
+
+With gathering speed we slid smoothly upward through the highest
+traffic lanes, out of the atmosphere, through the stratosphere and
+into space.
+
+Leaving the stratosphere, I cut off the air-rocket engines, slid the
+stern gravity-plates for the Earth's repulsion and the bow plates for
+the attraction of the Moon and Sun. The firmament swung, in a slow
+arc, and steadied with the Earth behind us and the Sun and Moon in
+advance of our bow. We were on our course, plunging through space with
+accelerating velocity toward the unknown enemy ship hovering two
+hundred thousand miles ahead of us. My orders were to find the ship
+and maneuver us close to it; and Grantline's orders were to assail it.
+
+I gazed down at the convex North Atlantic with the reddening coastline
+of North America spread like a map.
+
+What was the nature of this strange enemy whom we sought? That
+opalescent beam from Greater New York mounted with its radiance into
+the dome-like starfield; the one from Venus and the other from Mars
+seemed crossing overhead amid the stars.
+
+Three swords crossing the sky! What did they mean?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Will you swing east or west of the Moon?"
+
+"We haven't decided."
+
+Drac Davidson and I were alone in the _Cometara's_ control turret.
+
+We were some ten hours out from Earth. Over such short astronomical
+distances it was impossible to attain any great velocity. When once we
+were clear of the Earth's atmospheric envelope, the rocket-stream
+engines were useless. The _Cometara_ was equipped also with
+tail-streamers of electronic nature. They exerted a slight pressure,
+useful for sudden curving and turning; but they had only negligible
+influence upon the main velocity of the vehicle.
+
+I used the repulsion of the Earth upon our negatively charged stern
+gravity-plates; and with those of the bow electronified to the
+positive reaction, we were drawn forward by the Sun and the Moon.
+
+For three or four hours I held to this combination with steady
+acceleration; but then I had to retard. In close quarters such as
+this, the retarding velocity must be calculated with a nicety many
+hours in advance.
+
+We hung now, very nearly poised, within some forty thousand miles of
+the surface of the Moon. Bleak and cold, sharply black and white, it
+hung in a gigantic crescent in advance of our bow. The Sun, whose
+attraction I had ceased using some hours back, was visible sharply to
+one side now. Its great gas streams of giant flame licked up into the
+blackness of the firmament. The sunlight caught the lunar mountains
+with a white glare, and left the valleys black with shadow; moonlight
+and the mingled sunlight painted our bow. Behind our stem the great
+disk of Earth hung somber and glowing.
+
+And everywhere else was the great black enclosing firmament. The stars
+blazed with a new white glory never seen through the haze of an
+atmosphere. Like a little world in the vastness of this awesome void,
+we hung poised.
+
+Grantline came into the turret. "I've got everything ready, Gregg. By
+the gods, once you can lay telescope upon that accursed enemy ship,
+I'm ready to open fire on it."
+
+"Good," I said.
+
+But the thought of hurling our bolts at this enemy ship had struck
+terror into my heart for hours past. I was convinced that the three
+who in all the world were dearest to me--Anita, Venza, and Snap--were
+upon that enemy vessel.
+
+Grantline asked, "Are you going closer to the Moon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The ship couldn't be between us and the Moon. Waters and I have been
+in the helio room for the past hour, searching with the 'scope there.
+Nothing doing, Gregg. Not a sign."
+
+"I know. Our instruments here show that."
+
+"There might be a way of sighting them," Drac put in.
+
+"I'll try the Zed-ray," I suggested. "Drac and I have it corrected.
+But I doubt if it would penetrate the sort of invisibility this enemy
+would use."
+
+Grantline nodded. "Or the Benson curve-light. You think the ship went
+behind the Moon? Or landed on the Moon?"
+
+"It could have done either. Has Waters still got contact with the
+Earth? Have they seen it?"
+
+"No."
+
+I made a sudden decision. It would take us two hours at least to make
+a careful scanning with the Zed-ray; and to take an elaborate series
+of spectro-heliographs of the Moon's surface, which might show the
+enemy vessel if it had landed there, was a laborious process.
+
+After brief thought, I discarded the idea. "We'll go to the helio
+room," I told Grantline. "I'm going to try the Benson curve-light."
+
+Grantline and I left the turret, heading along the catwalk under the
+glassite dome toward the helio cubby where the rotund, middle-aged
+Waters was in charge. It made my heart sink to think of the helio
+room. Snap should have been there.
+
+We crossed the transverse catwalk. The superstructure roof was under
+us. Farther down, the narrow decks showed with Grantline's men grouped
+at the firing ports, where his weapons were mounted and ready. As I
+saw those grouped men loitering on the deck, waiting for me to give
+them a sighting, I prayed I could do so; and yet there was the
+shuddering fear that the first blast would bring death to Anita.
+
+Waters met us at the door of his cubby. His face was red; he mopped
+the perspiration from his bald head. "I'm so glad you came! Will you
+want the Benson-light? I say, I've lost connection with the Earth. I
+had the Washington transmitter. Five minutes ago they sent me a flash
+of the Mars and Venus news. They both sent ships, out."
+
+He gasped for breath, then added in a rush: "Both the Mars and Venus
+ships were destroyed and the enemy escaped!"
+
+Grantline and I gasped with horror.
+
+"Destroyed?" I said. "How?"
+
+Waters did not know. The news came; then, immediately after, the
+Washington transmitter changed its wavelength and he lost connection.
+
+"But why, in heaven's name, man, didn't you ring and tell us?"
+Grantline demanded. "Destroyed--only that! Just destroyed."
+
+"I was afraid to leave my instruments," Waters said. "How could I
+tell? I might be able to renew connections with Washington any minute.
+Come on in. Do you want to try the Benson curve-light, Mr. Haljan?"
+
+"Yes," I said. "I do." We entered the dim helio cubby. "See here,
+Waters, what about the projectile that ascended from Earth last night?
+Did the Washington observatory report what happened to it?"
+
+"No, not a word. They lost it, evidently."
+
+Our 'scopes on the _Cometara_ had not been able to locate the
+projectile. The large instruments of Earth had lost it. Was that
+because, with tremendous velocity, it had sped directly for the new
+planet out beyond Mars?
+
+Or, with some form of invisibility, might it be close to us now, just
+as the lurking ship might be somewhere around here?
+
+From the little circular helio cubby, perched here under the dome like
+an eagle's nest, I could see down all the length of the ship, and out
+the side ports of the dome to the blazing firmament. The Sun, Moon and
+Earth and all the starfield were silently turning as Drac swung us
+upon our new course.
+
+Waters bent over the projector of the Benson curve-light, making
+connections. The cubby was silent and dim, with only a tiny spotlight
+where Waters was working, and a glow upon his table where his recent
+messages from Earth were filed. Grantline and I glanced at them.
+
+Panic in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn. The three
+strange beams which the enemy had planted on Earth, Venus and Mars
+still remained unchanged. I could see them now plainly from the helio
+cubby windows, great shafts of radiance sweeping the firmament.
+
+Waters straightened from his task. "That will do it, Mr. Haljan." He
+met me in the center of the cubby. "When you locate the enemy, do you
+think they'll destroy us as they did those other ships?"
+
+Grantline laughed grimly. "Maybe so, Waters. But let's hope not."
+
+Fat little Waters was anything but a coward, but being closed up here
+all these hours with a stream of dire messages from Earth had shaken
+him.
+
+"What I mean, Mr. Grantline, is that prudence is sometimes better than
+reckless valor. The _Cometara_ is no warship. If Earth had sent an
+international patrol vessel...."
+
+Grantline did not answer. He joined me at the Benson projector. "Can
+we operate it from here, Gregg, or will you mount it in the bow?"
+
+"From here. Drac's swinging. When he's on the course I gave him, I can
+throw the Benson-ray through the bow dome-port. Waters, you're all
+done in. Go below and sleep awhile."
+
+But he stood his ground. "No, sir; I don't want to sleep."
+
+"We've had ours," said Grantline. "We'll call you if anything shows
+up."
+
+We sent Waters away. "Ready, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. I've got the range."
+
+The coils hummed and heated with the current, and in a moment the
+Benson curve-beam leaped from the projector.
+
+The Benson curve-light was similar to an ordinary white searchlight
+beam, except that its path, instead of being straight could be bent at
+will into various curves--hyperbola, parabola, and for its extreme
+curve, the segment of an ellipse--gradually straightening as it left
+its source. It was effective for police work, with hand torches for
+seeing around opaque obstructions. It had also another advantage,
+especially when used at long range: the enemy, when gazing back at its
+source, would under normal circumstances conceive it to be a straight
+beam and thus be misled as to the location of its source. Or even
+realizing it to be curved, one had no means of judging the angle of
+the curve.
+
+A narrow white stream of light, it flung through our window-oval,
+forward under the dome and through the bow dome bullseye, into space.
+I saw the men on the deck spring into sudden alertness with the
+realization we were using it. The bow lookout on the forward
+observation bridge crouched at his 'scope-finder to help us search.
+
+From the control turret came an audiphone buzz, and Drac's voice: "Am
+I headed right? The swing is almost completed."
+
+"Finish the job and don't bother me now."
+
+I bent over the field-mirror of the projector. On its glowing ten-inch
+grid the shifting image of my range was visible, a curving, brilliant
+limb of the Moon, with the sunlight on the jagged mountain peaks;
+everywhere else was the black firmament and the blazing dots of stars.
+
+Grantline crouched beside me. "I'll work the amplifiers. Going to
+spread it much, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. A full spread first. We're in no mood for a detailed narrow
+search."
+
+I gradually widened the light. Three feet here at its source, it
+spread in a great widening arc. With the naked eye we could see its
+white radiance, fan-shaped as an edge of it fell upon the Moon. And
+though optically it was not apparent, the elliptical curve of it was
+rounding the Moon, disclosing the hidden starfield to our
+instruments.
+
+"Nothing yet?" I murmured.
+
+"No."
+
+"I'll try a narrower spread and less curve."
+
+Grantline was searching the magnified images on the series of
+amplifier grids. There was nothing. For an hour we worked; then
+suddenly Grantline cried: "Gregg! Wait! Hold it!"
+
+I tensed, stricken. I held the angle and the spread of light steady.
+
+"Two seconds of arc, east; try that. The damned thing is shifting." He
+gripped me. "It's at the eastern edge of the field; it shifts off. It
+must be in rapid motion."
+
+Then I saw it, a mere moving dot of black; but suddenly it clarified.
+I saw a dot which I could imagine was a shape with discs along its
+edge, moving with high velocity. Grantline was shifting our field to
+hold it.
+
+"Got it, Gregg. By God, that's it! Now we'll see."
+
+Then presently we saw that from its bow a very faint radiant beam was
+streaming. Beside me I heard Grantline gasp, "Gregg, am I crazy or is
+that bow beacon like the light-beam planted in Greater New York?"
+
+There did seem to be a similarity, but thought of it abruptly was
+swept from my mind. Our cubby was alive with signals. Both the bow and
+the stern observers saw the enemy ship now with their 'scopes gazing
+directly along our Benson-light. And Drac was calling, "I've got the
+measurement of its velocity. Doubling every ten seconds. God, what
+acceleration!"
+
+I flung off the Benson-light. The enemy ship had come from behind the
+limb of the Moon; our straight-light telescopes showed it clearly. It
+was heading unmistakably in our direction.
+
+Drac was pleading, "We need velocity! Are you coming to the turret?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Grantline and I rushed out upon the catwalk. Waters was mounting the
+spiral ladder from the deck. "Into your cubby," I shouted. "Call
+Earth. Keep calling until you get them."
+
+Grantline rushed for the deck. I gained the control turret, Drac, with
+his thin face white and set, met me at the door. "We need velocity."
+
+I nodded. "We'll get it, Drac; have no fear of that."
+
+I set the gravity-plates for the greatest possible acceleration
+forward and added the stern rocket engines for narrow-angle
+maneuvering.
+
+With gathering speed we plunged directly for the oncoming enemy ship.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+
+"But there's something wrong, Drac."
+
+"We've got grade five acceleration."
+
+Grantline had joined us in the control turret. "How far would you say,
+at a rough guess, that ship is from us now?"
+
+"Thirty thousand miles; about that." Drac scanned his page of
+calculations. "Impossible to gauge with any exactness; they change
+their pace so often and I can't figure out how large the damn thing
+is."
+
+"Say they've got a forty thousand velocity; added to our ten, that's
+fifty."
+
+"And we're accelerating. In half an hour we'll be within range."
+
+"But there's something wrong," I persisted.
+
+For several minutes now I had been aware that the _Cometara_ was
+acting strangely. A sluggish response to the controls, I thought, but
+when I called engine chief Franklin, he had not noticed it. Yet I was
+certain.
+
+Grantline stared at me. "Something wrong?"
+
+"Yes. Drac, try orienting us. I did it ten minutes ago." I shoved him
+at my equations, giving the angles with the Sun, Earth and Moon which
+we should now have. "There's our flight course as it ought to be.
+Measure how we're heading, actual position. If it's what it ought to
+be, with the plate-combinations I'm using, then I'm crazy."
+
+"Oh, you're just naturally apprehensive," Grantline said.
+
+But we were not where we should be. The _Cometara_ was off her
+predetermined course. And then I realized the factor of error. There
+was a gravitational force here for which I was not allowing. The
+error was not within the _Cometara_; she was responding perfectly. But
+there was a force upon her, and not that of the Sun, Earth, Moon or
+the distant starfield. I had calculated all of these. It was something
+else. Some gravitational pull, so that we were not upon the course of
+flight we should have been on.
+
+"But what could be wrong?" Grantline demanded.
+
+It was Drac who guessed it. "That radiance from the enemy's bow?"
+
+It was that, we felt certain. Even at this thirty thousand mile
+distance, the bow-beacon seemed streaming upon us. We could not see
+that it illumined the _Cometara_, nor could our instruments measure
+any added illumination. Our flight-orbit, if held, would carry us with
+a swing some ten thousand miles above the South Pole of the Moon. It
+would cross diagonally in front of the trajectory that the enemy
+vessel was maintaining. But we were off our predetermined course, with
+a side-drift toward the enemy. That bow-beacon radiance was exerting a
+force upon us, a strange gravitational pull.
+
+Grantline gasped when Drac said it. "If it's that now, what will it be
+when we get closer?"
+
+The minutes were passing. The thirty thousand miles between us and the
+enemy was cut to ten thousand; to five. The ship was soon visible to
+the naked eye. Its visual movement, for all this time measurable only
+as a drift upon the amplified images of our instruments, now was
+obvious. We could see it plunging forward, could see that probably we
+would cross its bow. Within fifty miles? We hoped and guessed that
+would be the result, so that with this first passing we could use our
+weapons. Fifty miles of distance at combined speeds of some fifty
+thousand miles an hour: that would be something like three seconds
+from a collision. The danger of a collision, which both ships would do
+anything to avert, was negligible; in the immensity of space two
+objects so small could not strike each other, even with intention,
+once in a million times.
+
+We could not calculate the passing so closely, but suddenly it seemed
+that perhaps the enemy could. The bow-beacon radiance, so obviously a
+miniature of the weird light-beams streaming from Earth, Mars and
+Venus, now swung away from us and was extinguished. Whatever
+alteration of our course the enemy had made, they seemed to be
+satisfied. The passing would be to their liking. Would it be to ours?
+
+Grantline had left the turret. He was down on the deck, ready with his
+men. The weapons were ready.
+
+We had long since advanced beyond the possibility of mathematical
+calculations keeping pace with our changing position in relation to
+the enemy, but it seemed that the passing would be within fifty miles.
+Grantline's weapons would carry their bolt that far.
+
+It was barely two thousand miles away now. Two minutes of time before
+the passing. I stared at it, a long, low ship of dark metal, red where
+the moonlight struck upon it. I estimated its size to be about that of
+the _Cometara_, but it was much more nearly globular. Upon its top,
+seeming to project from the terraced dome, was an up-pointing funnel,
+like the smokestack of an old-fashioned surface steam vessel; or like
+a great black muzzle of an old-fashioned gun. And in a row along the
+bulging middle of the hull there was a series of little discs.
+
+The vessel was still a tiny blob, but every instant it was enlarging,
+doubling its visual size. Drac said tensely, "Fifteen hundred miles!
+We'll pass in a minute and a half."
+
+I turned the angle of the stern rocket-streams. The firmament slowly
+began swinging; the enemy ship seemed swaying up over us. I was
+turning our top to it, so that Grantline might fire directly upward
+from both sides almost simultaneously. It might be possible, if I
+could roll us over at just the proper seconds.
+
+But the enemy anticipated us. As they observed our roll, again the
+bow-beacon flashed on. It visibly struck us, bathed all our length in
+its spreading opalescent radiance.
+
+It seemed for an instant to do nothing. Our dome did not crack; there
+was no shock. But our side-roll slowed. The heavens stopped their
+swing, and then swung back! We were upon an even keel again, the enemy
+level with our bow. Against the force of my turning rocket-streams
+this radiation had righted us. It clung a few seconds more, and again
+vanished.
+
+Grantline's deck audiphone rang with his startled voice: "Gregg, roll
+us over! Quick! I can only fire from one side."
+
+"I can't."
+
+It was too late now. A few hundred miles of distance! Drac stood
+clutching me, staring through the port. And I stared, breathless,
+awaiting the results of these next few seconds.
+
+The ships passed like crossing, speeding meteors. A few seconds of
+final approach; I saw the enemy vessel as an elongated, flattened
+globe, with a triple-terraced dome and terraced decks beneath it. That
+queer stack on top! The round discs, like ten-foot eyes, gleamed along
+the equator of the bulging hull.
+
+One of Grantline's weapons fired a silent flash. Still out of range.
+The spit of our electrons leaped from our side. The enemy was
+untouched.
+
+The thought stabbed at me: _Anita! Not killed by that one._
+
+Another shot from Grantline.
+
+No result. It seemed that I saw the bolt strike. There was a
+reddening, a flash upon that bulging hull, but nothing more.
+
+I was aware again of the enemy bow-beam swinging upon us. The beam was
+pressing us over again so that in a moment we would be hull-bottom to
+the enemy and Grantline could not fire.
+
+He anticipated it. The ship was broadside to us. In the split second
+of that passing I saw that it was not fifty miles away, hardly ten.
+Grantline flung his remaining bolts. The enemy was a streaked blur
+going by; and all in that second it was past, reddening in the
+distance. Untouched by our bolts? It seemed so. The bow radiance
+darted ahead of it. The globular shape, unharmed, dwindled in the
+distance behind us.
+
+And it had done nothing to us!
+
+The control levers were in my hands. I would shift the gravity-plates,
+and make the quickest turn we could. We would go around the Moon,
+probably, and come back within an hour or two. Perhaps our adversary
+would also turn to encounter us again.
+
+At that second I had not seen the little discs, but I saw them now!
+They came sailing in a line, ten foot, flat, circular discs of a dark
+metal; they gleamed reddish where the sunlight painted them. They had
+been fastened outside the enemy vessel and in our passing they had
+been discharged. They sailed now like whirling plates. There seemed
+perhaps twenty of them, heading in a curve toward us.
+
+Grantline's voice came again from the deck audiphone. "Missed them,
+Gregg. That's what I thought but at least two of our bolts must have
+struck. But it didn't hurt them."
+
+"No," I replied. "It seemed not. They must have a defensive barrage."
+
+Drac was pulling at me. "Those things out there, those discs...."
+
+Grantline demanded, "Yes, what in hell are they?"
+
+We could not tell. It seemed that their curve would take them behind
+our stern. Grantline added: "Will you try going back after that ship?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+But I did not. To the naked eye the enemy ship had already
+disappeared; but with the 'scopes we saw that it seemed to be turning.
+
+I did not attempt to turn us, for we were afraid of those oncoming
+discs which took all our attention. They passed within five miles
+astern of us, but in a great curve they swung and now seemed heading
+across our bow. With what tremendous velocity they had been endowed by
+their firing mechanisms! Their elliptical curve swung them a mile or
+so ahead of us.
+
+They were circling us like tiny satellites in a narrowing spiral
+ellipse. Our attraction, the normal gravity of our close bulk, was
+drawing them to us.
+
+The men on the _Cometara's_ deck stood gazing, surprised but not yet
+alarmed. The lookout calls sounded with routine notification each time
+the discs passed across our bow and stern. In the helio cubby, Waters
+was still trying to raise an Earth station.
+
+Grantline came running to the control turret. "If those cursed things,
+should strike us, Gregg!"
+
+I had set the gravity-plates into new combinations, turning our course
+downward, trying to swing us under the plane of the discs' orbit. But
+they swung downward with us; they were no more than two thousand feet
+away now.
+
+Grantline said, "At the next broadside passing I'll fire at them."
+
+Drac looked up from his calculating instruments. "Look! A circular
+rotation: Horribly swift. But I've caught a picture. Look!"
+
+He had a still image of one of the discs. It had saw-teeth at its thin
+knife-like outer circumference. Whirling at tremendous speed, these
+saw-toothed metal discs might cut into our dome, or some other part of
+our ship.
+
+At the next round, Grantline fired. The discs reddened a little, but
+came on unharmed. From the other side, he fired again. Three of the
+discs seemed to have been caught full. His bolts, sustained for their
+fullest ten seconds of duration at this close, thousand-foot range,
+took effect. The three discs seemed to crumble with a puff of
+queerly-radiant vacuum spark-glows, then were gone.
+
+But the others came closing in.
+
+The _Cometara_ rang now with the excitement and alarm of the men.
+Grantline could not set his gauges fast enough to fire at every round.
+
+I had a sudden thought. With the rear rockets, I rolled us over. For a
+moment we were hull-down to the passing discs. From our hull
+gravity-plates I flung a full repulsion. Would it stave them off, bend
+their orbit outward? It did not. Their course was unaltered.
+
+Again Grantline was shouting at me, "Roll us back! I must fire!"
+
+It had been an error, that rolling; Grantline lost several shots
+because of it. I swung us level. The discs passed within a hundred
+feet; half a dozen of them were still closer. Gleaming, whirling
+circles, thin as knife-blades; they passed close under our stern, came
+broadside.
+
+These were tense, horrible seconds. The discs skimmed our bow; one
+seemed to miss our dome by inches. Grantline's volley annihilated four
+more, but there were still eight of them. They swung in at our stern.
+
+I was aware of confusion throughout the _Cometara_. The crew and
+stewards were running up to the bow quarter-deck. My second officer
+stood there, stricken. The stern lookout screamed his futile warning.
+
+Useless! I saw one of the discs strike our stern dome, then another.
+Still others. They were silent blows, but it seemed that I could feel
+them cutting into the dome-plates.
+
+The dome was cracking! Then, after that horrible instant, came the
+sound: crunch, a rumble; the grind of crushed and breaking metal;
+then the puff and surge of the outward explosion.
+
+I saw the whole tip of the stern dome cracking, bursting outward,
+forced by our interior air pressure. And over all the _Cometara_ the
+outgoing air was sucking and whining with a growing rush of wind.
+
+I shouted, "Drac! Close the stern bulkhead!"
+
+I set the word-buttons for the distress siren, and pulled the lever.
+Its voice screamed over the uproar. "_Keep forward! Take the
+space-suits! Prepare to abandon ship!_"
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+
+In the midst of the chaos I was aware that all the remaining discs
+struck us upon the port stern quarter. The broken dome of the stern
+showed a jagged hole, but the up-sliding cross-bulkhead partially shut
+it off. Two or three of the crew and the stern lookout were gone
+behind that closing bulkhead. Their bodies in a moment would be blown
+into space.
+
+"It may hold, Drac. Order Waters out of his cubby. Forward!"
+
+I was calling the engine-room. "Order your men up by the bow, not the
+stern." But I got no answer from the engine-chief.
+
+I raised Grantline. "Order your men forward: Clear amidships! I want
+to close the central bulkheads. If the stern one breaks with the
+pressure...."
+
+"Right, Gregg. Are we lost?"
+
+"God knows! We'll know in a minute or two. Get all your men into their
+space-suits. Keep in the bow. Prepare the exit-port there."
+
+"Right, Gregg. You coming down?"
+
+"Yes. When I finish." I cut him off. "Drac, get out of here! Did you
+order Waters forward?"
+
+"He won't leave."
+
+"Why the hell not?"
+
+"He thinks he may be able to get communication with Earth."
+
+"He can't stay where he is; there's no protection up here! When that
+stern bulkhead goes...."
+
+It was breaking. I could see it bending sternward under the pressure.
+And at best it was leaking air, so that the decks were a rush of wind.
+Already Drac and I were gasping with the lowered pressure.
+
+"Drac, get out of here. Go get Waters; bring him forward. The hell
+with his transmitter: this is life or death!"
+
+"But you?"
+
+"I'm coming down. From the forward deck, call the hull control rooms.
+Order everybody forward and to the deck."
+
+"What about the pressure pumps?"
+
+"I can keep them going from here."
+
+I set the circulating system to guide the fresh air forward, but it
+was futile against the sucking rush of wind toward the stern. As the
+pumps speeded up I saw, with the little added pressure, the great
+cross panel of the stern bulkhead straining harder. It would go in a
+moment.
+
+Drac was clinging to me. "Tell me what to do!"
+
+"I've told you what to do!" I shoved him to the catwalk. "Get out of
+here. Get Waters forward. Get the men out of the hull."
+
+His anguished eyes stared at me; then he turned and ran forward on the
+catwalk. I saw him forcibly dragging the bald-headed Waters from the
+helio cubby. It was the last time I ever saw either of them.
+
+A buzzer was ringing in the turret, and I plunged back for it. The
+exertion put a band of pain across my chest, a panting constriction
+from the lowering pressure.
+
+Fanning, assistant engineer, was still at the pressure pumps. His
+voice came up: "Pumps and renewers working. Will you use the gravity
+shifters?"
+
+"Hell, no! Get out of there, Fanning. We're smashed. Air going. It's a
+matter of minutes--abandoning ship. Get forward!"
+
+Suddenly the stern bulkhead cracked with a great diagonal rift. I
+waited a moment to give them all time to get forward; then I slid all
+the cross 'midship bulkheads.
+
+It was barely in time. The stern bulkhead went out with a gale of
+wind, but the barrier amidships stemmed it. Half of the vessel
+sternward was devoid of air, but here in the bow we could last a
+little longer. Beneath me I could see Grantline's men--some of them,
+not all--and a few of the stewards, crew and officers, crowding the
+deck, donning space-suits. The two side chambers were ready; half a
+dozen men crowded into each of them. The deck doors slid closed. The
+outer ports opened; helmeted, goggled, bloated figures were blown by
+the outgoing air from the chamber into space. Then the outer slides
+went closed. The pumps filled up the chambers; the deck doors opened
+again. Another batch of men....
+
+I saw Grantline, suited but with his helmet off, dashing from one side
+of the deck to the other, commanding the abandonment.
+
+The central bulkheads seemed momentarily holding. Then little red
+lights in the panel board before me showed where in the hull corridors
+the doors were leaking, cracking, giving away, breaking under the
+strain. The whole ribbed framework of the vessel was strained and
+slued. The bulkhead sides no longer set true in the casements. Air was
+whining everywhere and pulling sternward.
+
+It was the last stand; I was aware that the alarm siren had ceased.
+There was a sudden stillness, with only the shouts of the remaining
+men at the exit-ports mingling with the whine of the wind and the
+roaring in my head. I felt detached, far-away; my senses were reeling.
+
+I staggered to the gauges of the Erentz system, the system whereby an
+oscillating current, circling within the double-shelled walls of hull
+and dome, absorbed into negative energy much of the interior pressure.
+The main walls of the vessel were straining outward. The _Cometara_
+could collapse at any moment. I started for the catwalk door. The
+electro-telescope stood near it and I yielded to a vague desire to
+gaze into the eyepiece. The instrument was still operative. I swept it
+sternward.
+
+The enemy ship had not vanished. By what strange means, I cannot say,
+its velocity had been checked. A few thousand miles from us, it was
+making a narrow, close-angle turn. Coming back? I thought so.
+
+I suddenly realized my intention of having all the gravity-plates in
+neutral before abandoning the ship. I seized the controls now. An
+agony of fear was upon me that the shifting valves would fail. But
+they did not. The plates slid haltingly, reluctantly.
+
+I recall staggering to the catwalk. It seemed that the central
+bulkhead was breaking. There were fallen figures on the deck beneath
+me. I stumbled against the body of a man who had tangled himself in
+the stays of the ladder rail and was hanging there.
+
+I think I fell the last ten feet to the deck. The roaring in my ears,
+the bands tightening about my chest encompassed all the world.
+
+Then I was on my feet again, and I stumbled over another body. It was
+garbed in a space-suit, with the helmet beside it. I stripped it of
+the suit. I was panting, with all the world whirling in a daze,
+bursting spots of light before my eyes.
+
+Ten feet away down the deck was the opened door of the pressure
+chamber. A bloated figure came into my dreamlike vista, moving for the
+pressure door. It turned, saw me, came leaping and bent over me. I saw
+behind the vizor that it was Grantline. His bloated, gloved hands
+helped me don my suit.
+
+He helped me with my helmet. The metal tip on Grantline's gloved hand
+touched the contact-plate on my shoulder. His voice sounded from the
+tiny audiphone grid within my helmet. "Gregg! Thank God I found you!
+All right?"
+
+"Yes." My head was clearing.
+
+"I've got the chamber ready. We're the last, Gregg."
+
+I gripped his shoulder. "You're sure there's nobody else?"
+
+"No. I've been everywhere I could reach. The central bulkheads are
+almost gone."
+
+He pushed me into the pressure chamber. There was hardly need to close
+the door after us. I stood gripping him as he opened the small outer
+slides. The abyss was at our feet; the outgoing wind tore at us like a
+gale, so that we stood gripping the casements.
+
+"Thank God you've got a power-suit, Gregg. So have I. We must keep
+together."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I could feel the floor grid of the chamber shuddering beneath my feet.
+The _Cometara_ was cracking, bursting outward throughout her length;
+at any instant she might collapse.
+
+For a moment we stood poised. Beneath us, here at the brink were
+millions upon millions of miles of emptiness, the remote, unfathomable
+void. Blazing worlds down there in the black darkness.
+
+"Good-by, Gregg. It may be the end for us."
+
+"Good luck, Johnny."
+
+His bloated figure dropped away from me. I waited just an instant, and
+then I dove into space.
+
+For a moment there was a chaos of strangeness, the wrench to my sense
+of the transition. I had been the inhabitant of a little world, the
+_Cometara_, with a gravity beneath my feet. Now, in a breath, I had no
+world to inhabit. I was alone in space. No gravity; nothing solid to
+touch; emptiness.
+
+I was in a world to myself, and the abnormality of it brought a mental
+shock. But in a moment the adjustment came. I passed the transition,
+the sense of falling.
+
+The firmament steadied and my senses cleared. My dive from the
+_Cometara_ carried me in a slow arc some three hundred feet away.
+There had been a sense of falling, but no actual fall. My velocity was
+retarded, with the mass of the _Cometara_ pulling at me. I went like a
+toy boat in water shoved by a child, quickly slowing. In a few
+moments, the velocity was gone, and I hung poised. I saw Grantline's
+bloated form not over fifty feet from me. He waved an arm at me.
+
+Out here in the void I lay weightless, as though upon an infinitely
+soft feather bed. I could kick, flounder, but not endow myself with
+motion. I craned my neck, gazed around through the bulging vizor pane.
+
+The Earth and the Sun hung level with the white star-dots strewn
+everywhere. I could not see that unknown light-beam from Greater New
+York; it was shafting out now in the other direction, so that the
+Earth hid it from me. Venus was visible to one side of the Sun. The
+enemy light-stream from Grebhar was apparent; and as I turned my body
+and bent double to look behind me, I saw Mars and the sword-like ray
+from Ferrok-Shahn. The beams streamed off like the radiance of the
+Milky Way, faintly luminous but seemingly visible for an infinite
+distance.
+
+The _Cometara_ was obviously falling now toward the Moon, drawn
+irresistibly, and all of us with her, toward the lunar surface. It
+seemed so close, that black and white mountainous disc. We were, I
+suppose, some twenty thousand miles from it, gathering speed as it
+pulled at us. But that motion was not apparent now. Distance dwindled
+all these celestial motions, so that all the firmament seemed frozen
+into immobility.
+
+But there was some motion. Twenty or more bloated figures, the
+survivors from the wreck of the _Cometara_, were encircling it in
+varying orbits, revolving around it like tiny satellites. Some were
+closing in, drawn against it. I saw one plunge against the wrecked
+dome, and begin crawling like a fly. And I found that the forces of
+the firmament were molding my orbit also. My outward plunge was
+checked. I poised for an indeterminate instant, and then I took my
+orbit. I too, was a satellite of the _Cometara_.
+
+I gazed at the wreck of the _Cometara_. My ship! My first command! So
+smoothly, confidently rising from the Earth only a few hours ago; and
+she had come to this. She lay askew in the heavens. The dome was
+cracked throughout all its length and smashed like a shell at the
+sterntip.
+
+I could see the interior litter beneath the dome, the twisted and
+strained lines of the hull. A dead ship now, the mechanisms stilled;
+dead and silent inside, with all the warmth gone out of it. All the
+air dissipated, so that in every cubby, every dark corridor of that
+broken hull there was the coldness and silence of interplanetary
+space.
+
+I suppose these thoughts swept me within a few seconds. I saw myself
+starting to revolve in my orbit. Perhaps my motion would carry me
+around indefinitely; or I might be drawn down to the vessel as those
+other survivors had been drawn.
+
+Grantline, with one of the few power suits, was coming toward me now,
+with tiny fluorescent streams back along his body from his shoulder
+blades. I switched on my own mechanism. It moved me toward him, and
+our gravity attracted us. We shut off the power when twenty feet
+apart; drifted together; contacted; bounced apart like rubber balls as
+our inflated suits struck. Then in a moment we had drifted back and
+clung.
+
+I touched the metal plate of his shoulder. "Working all right?"
+
+"Yes. Thank God for this much, Gregg. I wonder how many are alive."
+
+In the chaos of the abandonment, many of the men's air mechanisms had
+failed to operate. It is always so in times of disaster. We could see,
+revolving around the wreck, and motionless against its dome, those
+horrible flabby, deflated suits where the delicate Erentz mechanism
+had failed. Within was only a corpse.
+
+"Too many," I said. "And not more than four or five of us with power.
+What shall we do first? Round them up? We must all get together."
+
+His answering voice was grim. "We can tow them from the wreck. Six or
+seven of us altogether have power. Do you suppose we can get away,
+Gregg? Get loose from the ship before she falls?"
+
+Only trying it could tell us that. The _Cometara_, and all of us with
+her, were plunging for the Moon. We would seek out the men who were
+alive and tow them in a string. If we could break the gravity pull of
+the ship, and then struggle upward from the Moon, we could maintain
+ourselves here in space until some rescue ship from Earth, Venus or
+Mars would come and pick us up.
+
+"You take one side, Gregg; I'll take the other. Don't go aboard; she
+might collapse."
+
+"I'll pick up the men without power and alive. The others with power
+suits will do the same. Then we'll meet out here, about where we are
+now?"
+
+"Yes. And hurry, Gregg! Every mile toward the Moon makes it that much
+harder. We're falling fast."
+
+"Good luck!" I shoved away from him. And within a minute, as he went
+in an arc toward the _Cometara_ bow and I toward her stern, I suddenly
+thought of that returning enemy vessel. My last look through the
+'scope had shown that she was returning; and then I had forgotten it.
+
+My gaze swept the firmament now. I had no 'scope instruments within
+the helmet. With the naked eye the enemy ship was not in sight. But I
+knew that meant little; within a moment she could come in view and be
+here if she were going at any great velocity.
+
+There were on the _Cometara_, at the time of the disaster, some
+sixty-odd men; perhaps forty had gotten away. And I could see very
+soon that not more than fifteen, or less, out here were alive. Two
+with power were ahead of me now, slowly floating past the wrecked dome
+of the stern. One had picked up two others, found them alive and was
+towing them out. They went past me, moving very slowly so that I could
+see that two were all that one of us could tow and attain any velocity
+at all.
+
+I contacted with the leader. He was one of Grantline's men.
+
+"Two or three hundred feet out," I directed. I gestured. "Grantline
+said to meet out there. I'll tow others."
+
+"Yes. Around the stern you'll find--God! Haljan, look!"
+
+A mile from us the enemy ship was in view. Passing--no! Stopping! With
+incredible retardation she had plunged into view, was here, and yet
+had no great forward velocity. She seemed no more rapid than a great
+air liner winging past, so close that her reddish-tinged bulging hull
+length showed clearly. The discs were gone. The funnel set on top of
+her was sloped diagonally toward us as she rolled on her side, so that
+momentarily I could see down into it. There was some mechanism down
+there. The bow radiance was a narrow opalescent beam in advance of the
+bow.
+
+"Slowing, Haljan!"
+
+"Yes, stopping. Don't try to meet Grantline. Tow your men away!"
+
+"Or should we board the _Cometara_ and hide?"
+
+"No. They've come back to bombard her."
+
+I kicked at him violently. With his two drifting figures clinging
+behind, he swung past me. I headed behind the stern. Upon its dangling
+framework several of our men were glued, lying there inert. I caught a
+glimpse of the interior of the stern, the littered deck; men lying
+there had been stricken before they had time to get into their suits.
+
+On the outside, forward, I saw Grantline come rounding the bow, towing
+a figure and heading for another. On the outside of the bow-peak a
+group of others were perched, gesticulating for help. I started that
+way; then I saw another, and nearer figure in a power suit heading for
+them. I swung back. There were two figures on the outside of the
+under-hull whom I could more quickly reach. Inverted flies. Their feet
+were on the keel. They stooped and waved toward me.
+
+I took a swoop. Passing close down the hull, my rocket-streams struck
+the hull plates and gave me sudden downward velocity. I shot down, out
+past the keel. And again I saw the enemy ship. She hung poised, no
+more than two miles away. And as I looped over, with all the black,
+star-strewn firmament in a dizzy whirl, the great Moon-disc, first
+above, and then below me, I saw the bow-beam of the enemy swinging. It
+came to the _Cometara_, and there it clung.
+
+I had gone perhaps fifty feet below the keel with my dive when I
+righted. I was mounting. I saw the opalescent ten-foot circle of the
+beam moving along the _Cometara_ hull. It seemed to do no damage; then
+suddenly it darted down and clung to me.
+
+I felt nothing save the impact of a gentle push, something shoving
+with a ponderable force against me.
+
+I saw the _Cometara_ receding, the heavens swinging as I turned over.
+The red disc of the distant Earth swooped. The Moon surface
+momentarily seemed rotating and lifting above me.
+
+I was helpless, rolling, then whirling end-over-end. Then again I
+steadied. The beam was gone from me.
+
+I saw the _Cometara_, a full mile away from me! The enemy ship was
+again in motion, moving toward me, and between the _Cometara_ and the
+Earth. And the beam was steady upon the _Cometara's_ mid-section.
+
+The _Cometara_ had a new velocity now. I could not miss it. She was
+dwindling rapidly in visual size; relative to me, she was receding,
+falling upon the Moon. More than that she was being pushed downward by
+the repulsive force of the strange enemy beam upon her. I stared, as
+with all the little dots which were our men around and upon her, she
+went down into the void.
+
+I found myself presently alone up here, with the enemy ship hovering
+nearby. Its maneuvering to thrust the wrecked _Cometara_ toward the
+Moon had brought it within a mile of me. The bow-beam was still on the
+_Cometara_; and then abruptly it vanished.
+
+The _Cometara_ had almost dwindled beyond the sight of my unaided
+vision. By chance, undoubtedly, the beam had fallen upon me and thrust
+me from the wreck. I was alone up here now with the enemy, but they
+may not have noticed me, or cared. I found my power mechanism intact.
+I turned it on; slowly, like a log in water, I began moving away.
+
+A minute. Five minutes. The _Cometara_ was lost. Grantline, all the
+men, were lost; with that added downward thrust they could never free
+themselves from the falling wreck.
+
+I was jerked out of my thoughts by the sight of an oncoming red blob.
+Something was coming from the enemy ship, red with the sunlight and
+earthlight, silvered by the Moon and the stars. It took form. It was a
+disc, another of those cursed whirling discs, sent to annihilate me!
+
+Then, when it was a quarter of a mile away, I saw that it was a disc
+which was turning slowly. Rocket radiances came from its rotating
+circumference; it came sailing directly at me, so swiftly that my own
+velocity was futile.
+
+Another minute and I was caught. I saw that the disc was some fifteen
+feet in diameter, and that it bulged, so that within its convex floor
+and ceiling was a space of several feet.
+
+I cut off my power and with pounding heart lay waiting. The space-suit
+had no weapons for equipment save a knife hung in the belt. I drew it
+out, held it in my gloved fingers.
+
+The disc sailed upon its level, vertical axis. Its rotation slowed; I
+saw little windows set around its convex middle. It came up and bumped
+me with its metal side. I kicked away, shoved off. Shapes were moving
+in a dim interior light behind the port-panes. Little hand-beams of
+radiance darted out. They seemed to seize me, draw me.
+
+I found myself glued helplessly to the convex outer surface of the
+disc. The rotation gathered speed again, but I looked presently only
+at the gleaming surface to which I was pinned. Had I been a metal bar
+upon the horns of an electro-magnet, I could not have been more
+helpless.
+
+An interval passed. With the contact plate of my fingers against this
+hull it seemed that I could hear voices within, strange,
+indistinguishable words. I twisted, but could not see into the port.
+
+Again the rotation was slowing. The near shape of the enemy vessel
+swung close and past; and again and again I saw that we were over it,
+dropping down into the wide black opening of the funnel-top. It yawned
+presently like a great black tunnel, into which we fell.
+
+The jar of landing knocked me loose, and no doubt the attraction
+radiance also released me. I fell another space, bounced up and sank
+back. I thought that something like a sliding port-door closed over
+me.
+
+And then, in the dimness, figures were gripping me. I lashed and
+struck, but the knife was wrenched away.
+
+I was a prisoner in a pressure-port of the enemy ship!
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+
+It seemed that the small room had a very faint radiance showing
+through my vizor pane. Narrow enclosing walls were visible. It was a
+triangular-shaped space, fifteen feet or so down one side, with a
+concave ceiling overhead. I was lying on the floor. The darkness at
+first had been impenetrable. The figures which had flung me down and
+seized my knife were gone; I had not seen them nor where they went.
+
+For a moment I lay cushioned by my bloated suit. When I struggled to
+my feet, I was almost weightless. The movement of getting upright
+flung me upward as though I were a tossed feather. My helmet struck
+the metal ceiling, so sharp a blow that I feared for an instant I had
+smashed the helmet.
+
+From the ceiling, with flailing arms and legs, I sank back to the
+grid-floor; and in a moment I was able to stand upright with so slight
+a feeling of weight that I could have been a bit of thistle ready to
+blow away in the least wind.
+
+There was, as I stood there balancing myself, a queer feeling of
+triumph within me. A triumphant hope; for coming down in the ship's
+capacious funnel--larger than it had seemed from a distance--I had
+seen what appeared to be a small projectile, resting in some strange
+landing gear. The disc bearing me had settled on a stage alongside it.
+Was that the projectile from Earth?
+
+A growing air pressure was around me; the tiny Erentz dials within my
+helmet had been immovable, but now they were showing outside pressure. I
+stood waiting. Whatever sounds were here I could not tell. Then
+presently the dials stopped. They registered seventeen pounds--whatever
+that might mean here. I loosed the helmet and took it off.
+
+With the first gasping breath my senses reeled. I sank to the floor,
+and though I tried to replace the helmet, it was too late. My thoughts
+were fading. A strange chemical odor was in my nostrils. It was like
+breathing a thin, perfumed water.
+
+The drifting away was pleasant.
+
+Tortured dreams came with my awakening. I found myself in the same dim
+room upon the floor. I could breathe better now, and in a few more
+hours the strangeness had almost gone. I found now that I was not
+injured, but I was ravenously hungry.
+
+Again, gingerly as before, I stood up and slid my space-suit from me;
+and now I was aware of movement and sound. The floor-grid vibrations
+were apparent. And there was a dim, distant, tiny throbbing; it was
+much like the interior of the _Cometara_ while in flight.
+
+And there were other sounds, indescribably faint, yet strangely clear.
+I thought they might be distant voices.
+
+I took a cautious step. I could see a dim blank wall nearby with what
+seemed a bowl-like article of furniture on the floor against the wall.
+For all my caution, I sailed upward; but this time I held my balance.
+And I found that with my negligible weight, I could almost swim in
+this strange air! I hit the wall and slid slowly down it to the floor
+again, like a man sinking to the bottom of a tank.
+
+It suddenly occurred to me to put my ear against the wall. At once the
+sounds all became incredibly louder. It was a confusion of sound: the
+mechanisms of the vessel, some of which I thought I could identify,
+and some not; the strange swish and thump of what might have been
+people moving; and there were voices.
+
+The voices seemed mingled babble coming from everywhere. The timber of
+the sound was very strange. It held no suggestion of how far away from
+me the voices might be. There were so many of them I could only think
+they were scattered about the ship; and yet they all seemed together.
+After a moment, the blend was less confusing. Again, very strangely my
+hearing seemed able to separate one from the other.
+
+I was to learn that the atmosphere handled sound vibrations
+differently from that of Earth. Voices had a muffled tone, as though
+they were smothered. There was undoubtedly a vibrational distortion;
+and a sound-wave speed slower than Earth's normal-pressure rate of
+1,050 feet a second, perhaps as slow as 700. Yet sounds remained
+audible over longer distances than on Earth.
+
+In this instance now, as I listened with my ear to the wall of the
+ship, I was hearing all its sounds picked up and carried by the metal.
+
+Now I heard a strange tongue: two types of voices, slow, measured,
+carefully-intoned phrases, and voices of a curiously sepulchral,
+hollow sound. My mind went back to the Red Spark restaurant room.
+
+And suddenly I realized that amid the babble I was hearing English. A
+man's voice, talking English. I caught, very clearly the phrase:
+
+"Master, yes. She means well. Can you not see it?"
+
+Molo's voice! Then the girls must be here also.
+
+Another voice: "I am not sure. Perhaps. The Great Intelligence will
+talk with her when we are arrived." It was the slow measured voice of
+one of the brains.
+
+"When will that be? Pretty soon now, won't it, Molo?"
+
+Venza! A great wave of thankfulness swept me. And then I heard Anita.
+"Your two captives, where are they? You're not going to kill them, are
+you?"
+
+"No," said Molo. "Perhaps not. No one has inspected the new one yet.
+The other is being cared for. The Great Intelligence will question him
+when we arrive."
+
+"We are arriving," said Venza. "That's your world, Wandl, down there,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. We are dropping fast."
+
+The voice of the brain: "Come, Wyk. The instruments are showing events
+on our captured worlds. Take me to watch. I am tired of movement."
+
+"Yes. Master."
+
+It seemed that the brain was being carried away; Molo and the two
+girls were being left alone. I had thought at first that they were in
+the adjacent room to me, but they could have been far distant. They
+had mentioned two captives. One, obviously, was myself. Was the other
+Snap?
+
+"Come," Molo was saying, "stand here with me and we will watch this
+world. Not mine, Venza _chia_, as you just called it, But my adopted
+world. And it will be yours, until we rule the new Mars."
+
+I heard them moving to gaze through the window-port. Then came Anita's
+voice: "If it's anything like this ship, it will be very strange."
+
+"Strange indeed, little dove. I was there only once, a month ago, and
+for a few hours only. The Great Intelligence, as they call him, talked
+with me, absorbing my knowledge: they call it that. And he was much
+impressed by me, and made very wonderful promises in exchange for my
+fidelity. And for my sister, too."
+
+I learned further how Molo and Meka became identified with the
+Wandlites; it was as we had suspected.
+
+"You will rule Mars?" Venza was saying. "When this is over, you mean
+you will really be given Mars to rule?"
+
+"I would rather live on the Earth," said Anita. "There was a young man
+there."
+
+"He will not be there much longer." Molo laughed. "You are very lucky
+that I fancy you!"
+
+"Lucky indeed," Venza echoed. "No death for me. I'm too young."
+
+"But all those millions dead. It seems so terrible."
+
+"It is, for them!" Molo was in high good humor, pleased with himself
+and with these girls. "See down there; that blurring is the heavy air.
+We're almost down into it now."
+
+I heard the sound of someone joining them, and then the hollow voice
+again: "Molo! Bad tidings come from Mars. One of the Masters was
+captured there in Ferrok-Shahn. They tortured him as they did the one
+on Earth. But he did not die unyielding. He spoke and told our plans!"
+
+"Hah! Did I not advise you to keep those helpless things on Wandl?"
+
+"But it is done now. The worlds know our purpose. They are preparing
+spaceships. Already some are rising from Ferrok-Shahn, from Grebhar
+and from Greater New York."
+
+"We knew they were doing that."
+
+"But now they know our purpose. The Master Intelligence fears that
+they will come raiding Wandl. Our vessels are being made ready to go
+out and repel them."
+
+The hollow voice ceased.
+
+"Your purpose discovered?" asked Anita. "What does that mean? Won't
+you tell us now? Twin queens for your future Mars, and you treat us
+like children!"
+
+"That light-beam he so cleverly planted in Greater New York," Venza
+hinted.
+
+"Yes, I will tell you. Without me in New York and my men who went with
+these Wandlites to Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar, the vital gravity beams
+could never successfully have been planted. The apparatus was
+complicated; you saw it. You saw the labor I had making the contact?"
+
+"But what are the light-beams for?"
+
+I listened, breathless, as he told them. The electronic beams could
+not be destroyed; a disintegration of the rock atoms had been set up.
+With each rotation of the Earth it was sweeping the sky. From a great
+control station, Wandl was flinging attraction gravity upon that beam,
+using it as a monstrous lever upon the rotation of Earth. With every
+daily passage now the force was being exerted. The rotation was
+slowing. In a few days it would stop, with the end of the beam drawn
+to Wandl and held there.
+
+And the beams from Grebhar and Ferrok-Shahn were the same. Three giant
+chains! Then Wandl, traveling of its own gravitational volition, would
+withdraw from our solar system. The gravitational chains would pull
+the Earth, Venus and Mars after it!
+
+Titanic tow-ropes! The destruction, not of our worlds, but of all life
+upon them, for the cold of interstellar space would leave no living
+organism. Three dead worlds; Wandl would draw them to her own Sun and
+then free them, send them, with new orbits, around the distant blazing
+star. Three new worlds brought home triumphantly by Wandl to join the
+little family of inhabited planets revolving around this other Sun.
+Three fair and lovely worlds, warmed back by the other sunlight to be
+green mansions untenanted, ready to receive the new beings who would
+come and possess them.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+
+"You, Snap!"
+
+"Gregg! But how...?"
+
+"Hush! They might hear us."
+
+"They can do more than that. They can almost hear you think."
+
+"Anita and Venza are here."
+
+"I know it. I was with them for a time. This accursed gravity! I can't
+walk."
+
+"Careful," I whispered. "You can crack your head on something with the
+least false step. Are they taking us ashore?"
+
+"I guess so. How did you happen...?"
+
+"Tell you later."
+
+They had come for me in that dark pressure-port, taken me along a dim
+corridor of the ship, which evidently had landed a few moments before.
+Then Snap, with strange figures around him, had been flung at me.
+
+These weird beings! The brains were here, but not many; I saw half a
+dozen on the ship. They could move easily now. They bounced upon their
+small arms and legs, hitching with little leaps of a few feet. Close
+at hand they were gruesome; from a distance they had the aspect of
+thirty-inch ovoids, bouncing of their own volition. And I saw too that
+underneath, toward the back, was a shriveled body.
+
+The other figures were wholly different; they seemed at first to be
+ten-foot, upright insects. The two legs were like stilts, the body
+narrow but with bulging chest. The neck was thin, holding the small
+round head, about the size of my own.
+
+Words seem futile to picture this thing which was a man of Wandl.
+There was no skin, but instead what seemed to be a glossy, hard brown
+shell. It was laid in scales; and upon the legs was a brown fuzz of
+stiff hair. There were many joints, both of the legs and the torso.
+Clothing was worn; a single garment, hanging from a wide belt halfway
+down the legs seemed incongruous, fantastically aping humanity.
+
+This was the worker, equipped by nature for mechanical tasks. There
+were not two arms, but at least ten. From what could have been called
+the shoulders, they were tentacles, half the length of an elephant's
+trunk, with many-fingered hands at the ends. From the waist depended
+huge lobster-like pincers; and from the chest and back the arms were
+smaller, each with a different type finger-claw.
+
+The head and face were most of all a personal mocking of mankind.
+Wide, upstanding, listening ears were upon the sides of the head, one
+on the forehead and one on the back. The face was mobile, with tiny
+brown scales small as a fish. A nose orifice, with two protruding
+brown eyes above it was set outward on stems, and an upended slit of a
+mouth. There was an eye in the back of the head.
+
+Probably, over eons of upward development from what was perhaps an
+original single type, these two specialized forms had developed. The
+"Masters," as they were known upon Wandl, neglected the body for the
+brain, and the "Workers," the reverse. There was no separate
+individual for the female. As is the case with primitive organisms,
+they were all bi-sexual, the parent dying in the reproduction of
+offspring.
+
+Of necessity I have been forced into digression. But at the time, Snap
+and I clung together, whispering, as a group of workers pushed us down
+a descending incline. Snap, back there in Greater New York when Molo's
+contact light had burst into existence, had fallen, half unconscious.
+They picked him up. Molo was going to kill him, but the girls
+persuaded him to take Snap with them.
+
+"Anita and Venza pretended never to have seen me before," Snap
+whispered to me now. "You take the same line."
+
+"If we get with them."
+
+"We will."
+
+It was weird, this landing upon Wandl. We had left the vessel's
+side-port and were descending what seemed a narrow, hundred-foot
+landing incline. We were outdoors, and it was night. Shafts of colored
+radiance flashed around us. The ship was poised on a disc-like
+platform, with skeleton legs. It seemed a hundred feet or more down to
+the ground level from where the colored lights were darting up.
+Overhead was a cloudless, purple-red sky of blurred, reddish stars. No
+doubt the curious atmosphere of Wandl gave the sky and stars this
+abnormal look.
+
+Later, what a multiplicity of obscure wonders we were to glimpse upon
+Wandl! The slowing rotation of the Earth caused climatic changes
+there, volcanic and tidal disturbances, but Wandl rotated and stopped
+at will. Undoubtedly she was equipped to withstand the shock. Her
+internal fires could not break into eruption; she had very little
+fluid surface. And the nature of her atmosphere was such that it was
+not easily disturbed into storms. Only if there was laxity in the
+handling of the planet's motion would a storm come.
+
+But now, questions pounded at me. Earth, Venus and Mars were to be
+towed into interstellar space; all life on our worlds would perish in
+the cold of that stellar journey. Yet Wandl had made that journey. Was
+her atmosphere inherently such that it did not transmit rays of heat?
+
+Snap and I had been pushed down the incline with half a dozen figures
+in advance of us. Without difficulty we could have leapt down that
+hundred feet, unaided. Figures were leaping into mid-air from several
+pressure-ports of the ship. They did not fall, but floated, drifted
+down. I saw one of the insect-like workers drop with motionless
+outstretched arms. Others came mounting up, using their arms and legs
+with sweeping strokes, as though swimming. It was like being under
+water.
+
+It was a strange, weird scene, the vessel wavering above us; the
+flashing lights; waving beams of radiance. A fantastic structure
+nearby reared itself several hundred feet with lights on top and
+outlining its many lateral balconies one above the other. The air was
+full of the leaping, swimming insect-like figures. The brains, the
+masters, were not in evidence; then I saw one of them being carried,
+and others, floating down like distended falling balloons, to be
+caught by the workers in small nets and thus saved from jarring
+contact.
+
+Snap was suddenly whispering: "That fellow back of us is our guard. I
+can feel his ray. Some form of attraction; it's pulling at me."
+
+Snap was a little behind me. I turned and saw the faint radiance of a
+narrow light-beam upon him. It came from an instrument in an upper
+shoulder hand of the insect figure following us, no doubt the reverse
+form of the same ray which had been used to thrust the wrecked
+_Cometara_ toward the Moon.
+
+We reached the bottom. I saw now that the group of workers in advance
+of us were carrying metal cubes, seemingly of considerable weight;
+they also had to use the incline.
+
+We stood presently on a smooth ground surface. We had not seen Anita
+and Venza, nor Molo and his sister. The insect figure who was our
+guard came forward. "You stand here. Molo comes."
+
+"Where is he?" I demanded. "I want to see him." I stopped myself
+quickly; I had very nearly mentioned the girls. "And talk with him."
+
+"He comes soon."
+
+"I'm hungry." I gestured to my stomach. "Food. You know what that is?"
+
+The brown scaly face contorted for a smile, a ghastly grimace. "Yes.
+You shall have food and drink."
+
+It seemed that the hollow voice came not from the neck but from the
+shell-like, bulging chest. He stood aside, with the globular weapon of
+the ray in a pincer hand.
+
+We waited, standing gingerly together, wavering with our slight
+weight. A wind would have blown us away, but there was no wind.
+Instead, there was a heavy, sultry air, warm as a mid-summer Earth
+night, warmer even than the Neo-time of Venus.
+
+Snap and I were dressed much the same, wearing heavy boots, for which
+weight we were thankful, tight, puttee-like trousers, flaring at the
+top, and high-necked white blouses. Both of us were bare-headed.
+Doubtless we were as fantastic a sight to these Wandlites as they to
+us. Some of the workers crowded up, reaching out to pluck at us, but
+Snap waved them away and our guard dispersed them.
+
+One of the master brains came bouncing up. Upon his little upright
+body the great head wavered.
+
+"You will wait here." His eyes glowed up at us.
+
+"But listen," Snap began.
+
+"You will wait here for the Martian. He has his orders to take you to
+the Great Intelligence." The little arm from the side of the head had
+a hand with a finger pointing for a gesture. "There is a meeting place
+there. We decided now what to do to destroy the warships of your
+worlds. I do not like your thoughts; they are black. I will inform the
+Great Intelligence when he can spare the thought for you."
+
+He added something in the Wandl tongue. A worker came forward; lifted
+him carefully, held him in the hollow of an encircling tentacle. And
+with a bound, the worker sailed upward and was gone.
+
+Again we stood through an interval. I noticed now that the towering
+structure near us, with its storied balconies, was not perpendicular.
+Its front curved up and back. It was convex, somewhat in the fashion
+of an irregular globe, a three-hundred foot ball, with a flattened
+base set here on the ground. The balconies were segments of its front
+curve. At the top, the roof was as though the ball had been sliced
+off, like a giant apple with a slice gone for a base and another for
+the roof. At the bottom was a huge portal with a glow of light from
+within. And at the terraced balcony levels were lighted windows.
+
+"Is that the meeting place?" Snap whispered.
+
+"Probably. And look to the side of it, Snap."
+
+It was a city. There was a vista of distance to one side of the great
+globe structure. Now that our eyes were more accustomed to the
+queerness of this night upon Wandl, we could ignore the colored
+light-beams of the landing stage and the disembarking palisade upon
+which we were standing. Gazing into the distance, the curvature of the
+surface of this little world was immediately apparent. The reddish
+firmament of stars came down to meet the sharply-curving surface at a
+horizon line which seemed about a mile away.
+
+Spread upon this near distance were a variety of structures with
+little roads of open space winding between them. Most of the buildings
+seemed globular in shape. Some were small, little round mound-shaped
+individual dwellings. Others were larger. Some were tiered like half a
+dozen apples speared in a row upon a stick and set upright.
+
+I saw a ribbon of what might be a river in the distance, with the
+reddish starlight glinting upon it. To our left, half a mile away
+perhaps, was a row of buttes and rocks which stood like a miniature
+range of mountains. The city seemed entirely to encompass them; and
+every little rock-peak had upon its top a globelike dwelling.
+
+Lights were winking everywhere and figures bounded a hundred feet and
+more, and sailed in an arc, coming down to the ground to bound again.
+A row of workers went by overhead, not swimming or leaping but stiffly
+motionless. Tiny opalescent rays went from them to the ground, as
+though to give them power.
+
+Five minutes of Earth-time might have passed while Snap and I gazed at
+this busy night scene in this Wandl city upon the occasion of the
+landing of their ship so triumphantly returned from its mission to
+Earth. As I stood, certainly a helpless captive if ever there was one,
+nevertheless a strange sense of my own power was within me.
+
+This was so small a world; the people were so flimsy. With a poke of
+my fist I could kill any one of these master brains. The ten-foot
+workers seemed mere shells, light and fragile; even the buildings were
+light and flimsy. The little globe-houses on their sticks seemed to
+waver, almost like nodding flowers. If we ran amuck we could smash
+everything we saw here on Wandl.
+
+We became aware of Molo approaching. What a solid giant this
+seven-foot Martian seemed now in the midst of this buoyant, almost
+weightless city! He was still bare-headed and wearing his garments of
+ornamented leather, with his brawny legs bare. Upon his feet were
+strange-looking, wide-soled shoes. His hands and forearms were thrust
+into loops of small shields. These shields appeared to be constructed
+of a heart-shaped flexible framework, covered with an opaque membrane.
+They were about two feet long and half as wide. With a hand and
+forearm thrust into fabric loops, the shield appeared to serve as
+wings so that the arms had more thrust against the air. He came at us
+with a sort of swimming stroke. He landed somewhat awkwardly,
+half-stumbled and almost fell, but gathered himself up and confronted
+us.
+
+He gained his balance and waved our guard aside. His gaze went to me.
+
+"You are the new prisoner taken from that wrecked Earth-ship?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is your name? You are an Earthman, evidently."
+
+"Yes." I hesitated. I had seen Molo and heard him talk, back there in
+Greater New York; but he had not seen me nor heard of me probably.
+
+"Gregg Haljan." I added, "I am a skilled navigator; perhaps it was
+fortunate you saved me."
+
+He flung me a look and there was a tinge of amusement in it. "You
+would save your own skin now?"
+
+"Why not? You're a Martian, and this is a war also against Mars."
+
+His look darkened, but then again sardonic amusement struck him.
+
+"We shall see what the Great Master says. There will be a few of our
+type humans, men and women, wanted when the worlds begin anew. The
+Great Master said so. He wants to study life on Earth as it was before
+the destruction."
+
+Molo's glance swept behind us. I turned to see three figures
+approaching. My heart pounded. They were Anita, Venza and Molo's
+sister, Meka. They came slowly, trying to walk, with balancing
+outstretched arms. With a dozen curious Wandl workers crowding them,
+they came and joined Molo before us. My heart was pounding, but I
+flung them a curious, impersonal stare.
+
+"You are here," said Molo. "Good. We go now." He bent over Snap and
+me. "I advise you make no effort to leap away, though it may look
+easy."
+
+"Not me," said Snap. "Where would I go alone in this damned world? I
+can't very well leap back to Earth, can I?"
+
+"True enough," said Molo. "You have sense, little fellow. But I just
+warn you: the guard who will watch you always is very sharp of eye.
+And the weapons here bring very swift death."
+
+I could feel Anita's gaze upon me, but I did not dare look her way.
+
+"Let's go," I said, "You will have no trouble with me."
+
+With Molo leading us, and the giant insect-like guard following close
+behind, we made our slow, awkward way across the esplanade portals of
+the huge globular building.
+
+And within, we traversed a cylinder-like, padded corridor and came
+presently upon the strangest interior scene I had ever beheld.
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+
+The room was so large that it seemed almost the entire interior of the
+building. It was a globular room, a hundred and fifty feet or more in
+diameter. The inner surface was crowded with people. It was a huge,
+hollow interior of a ball; and upon its concave surface a throng of
+the brown-shelled workers were gathered. They sat on low seats at the
+curved bottom of the room, where we entered, and up the sides and upon
+the slopes and the top, like flies in a globe, hanging head downward.
+There was no up or down here; the slight gravity made little
+difference.
+
+I gazed up amazed to where, a hundred and fifty feet above me, head
+downward, the crowd of figures were calmly seated. These were
+clinging, of course; the pound-weight of each of them would drop them
+down if they let loose. But it required only a slight effort.
+
+Between the tiers, there were narrow open aisles bearing glowlights at
+intervals. With Molo leading us, we stared up the curving incline of
+one of these aisles.
+
+"Gregg! Good Lord, it's weird!" Snap said. "Where are we going to sit?
+Don't speak to the girls yet."
+
+"Have you spoken to them?"
+
+"Yes. A little, on the ship. They're watching for an opportunity but
+we have to be cautious. Gregg, I've got so much to tell you, but no
+chance. The brains can just about hear your thoughts."
+
+We went only a short distance up the incline. There were vacant seats
+seemingly held ready for us. Our passage created a commotion among the
+figures. Some leaped up and over us to get a better look. I found that
+we were clinging to the mound-like convex surface of a small
+half-globe. It raised us some ten feet above the floor. There were low
+seats with arms against the side-pull of gravity. I found Anita close
+beside me. Her hand touched me, but she did not turn her head or
+speak.
+
+Molo was on my other side. I chanced to see his feet. They were
+planted firmly on the floor. He wore wide-soled shoes equipped with
+suction pads, no doubt, which would enable him, like the Wandlites,
+to walk and stand upon the upper inner surfaces of buildings.
+
+As during the moments when Snap and I stood on the landing esplanade,
+there was so much here that at first I could not encompass it. But now
+I began to grasp other details of the strange scene.
+
+Poised in mid-air, almost exactly in the center of the huge globular
+room, was a metal globe of some thirty feet in diameter. It was held,
+not by any solid girders, but by four narrow beams of light which
+mounted to it from widespread points of the convex room.
+
+Upon the entire surface of this thirty-foot globe, a group of masters
+were seated, in little, cup-like seats upon resilient stems. They
+swayed and nodded with movement. There seemed to be glowing wires and
+grids and thread-like beams of light carrying current. Light-threads
+shot from the mechanisms to the heads of the seated brains. All the
+devices were evidently in operation; and upon this poised central
+globe the attention of the audience was directed.
+
+Molo bent over me. "The Great Intelligence soon will see you."
+
+Snap, from the other side of Molo, whispered: "What are they doing up
+there?"
+
+The faint hiss and throb of the devices were audible. I stared, trying
+to understand. Images, and sounds, invisible and inaudible were being
+received from across the millions of miles of space, and they were
+being transmuted within the brains themselves. I saw that discs were
+fastened upon the bulging foreheads of the brains, upon which the tiny
+light-beams carrying the vibrations impinged.
+
+These brains, receiving "waves" of some unknown variety were, within
+the mechanism of the brain-cell, transmuting, translating the
+vibrations into things knowable. They were not seeing, not hearing,
+but _knowing_ what went on millions of miles across space!
+
+Again Molo bent over me. "They are about to show this audience what is
+happening on the three worlds."
+
+Upon the thirty-foot globe I saw now a dozen or so balls of about
+three-foot diameter. These had been dark and I had not noticed them.
+Now they began glowing, not from wires carrying the current, but from
+the little hands of the brains touching them.
+
+I stared at the brain nearest me. His flabby little arm was extended;
+his hand touched the image-ball; gave it light and color, like a
+fortune-teller of Earth with a crystal before her.
+
+Even though I was some sixty feet from it, I could see the moving
+images clearly, and recognized the scene. The Tappan Interplanetary
+Stage. Ships were rising; two of our spaceships mounting.
+
+And all in an instant the scene blurred, took form again. The
+red-green spires and minarets of Ferrok-Shahn. The Central Canal
+extended like a gash across the foreground; the "Mushroom Mountains"
+were in a line upon the horizon. Three Martian space-flyers slid up
+while we watched.
+
+And now Grebhar. The silver forest in all its shining beauty, where
+Venza was born. The sunlight sparkled on the river. A spaceship was
+rising in the distant sky over the shining forest.
+
+Beyond Anita, I heard Venza murmuring, "Home! If only we were there."
+
+I could feel Anita move to silence her.
+
+Molo was whispering: "They come. But we will be ready for them."
+
+Another image: mid-space. The allied ships gathering, waiting for
+others to arrive. A group here of about ten of our ships from the
+three worlds: poised, waiting.
+
+I was aware that upon the mound-like protuberance of the room-floor
+where we were sitting, a door was opening. It slid, or melted away. At
+our feet was an opening downward into the small interior of the mound.
+
+Molo whispered, "The great Master. Sit quiet! He will talk to us."
+
+Over us now a barrage came with a hiss, a circular curtain of
+insulation. The huge globular room faded. We were alone on the mound,
+Snap, Molo, myself, Anita, Venza and Meka upon the end of our bench.
+Behind us stood our single Wandlite guard, with a weapon in his
+shoulder hand.
+
+At our feet an opening yawned into the mound-interior. It was a tiny,
+lighted room. In a cup-like seat a brain was perched, just below the
+level of our feet: the great Master Brain of Wandl. He was alone here.
+Not attended by retinue; no pomp and ceremony to usher us into his
+presence; no underlings obsequiously bowing to mark him for a great
+ruler.
+
+We stared down, and the great brain stared up at us, seemingly equally
+curious. His head was a full four feet in diameter; the little body
+sat in the cup, with dangling legs. The clothes were ornamented: there
+was a glowing device on the chest.
+
+He spoke with a measured rumble, in Martian. "You are Molo, of
+Ferrok-Shahn."
+
+"Yes," said Molo.
+
+"You must say, 'Yes, Great Master.'"
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"I know about you. I know that we trust you."
+
+The huge round eyes next fastened upon me. Then to Snap, and back to
+me. The words were English this time. "Men of Earth, are you decided,
+like the Martian, to join with us?"
+
+I tried with sudden vehemence to still my thoughts, or to change them
+so that they lied. Fear surged upon me. Could this vast mechanism of
+human mind here at my feet interpret the vibrations of my thoughts?
+Could this Great Master of Wandl see into my mind?
+
+The brain said, "You are uncertain. You do not want to die?"
+
+"No Great Master," we both answered.
+
+"You shall not, unless you attempt to cause us trouble. Your thoughts
+are black." He addressed Molo. "Have they ever been read?"
+
+"No, Great Master."
+
+"When opportunity comes, have them read." He added to Snap and me: "I
+plan to take prisoners. My Supreme Rulers, rulers of a neighboring
+more powerful planet, which sent Wandl upon her mission of conquest,
+ordered it. When your worlds are vacant of life, those who command me
+will want some of you left alive to be studied. Your thoughts are very
+black, Earthman. I think when they are carefully read you will prove
+no great advantage to us."
+
+There was irony in the voice, and upon the monstrous bulging face came
+the horrible travesty of a grin.
+
+The grin on the brain's face faded. His interest went again to Molo.
+"That is your sister." The eyes swung to Meka and back.
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"She is caring for this Earth-girl and this girl from Venus?"
+
+"Yes, Great Master. I am fond of them. I have plans."
+
+"They are in your charge, Martian; I will not interfere with you. But
+guard them well. I trust you and your sister. These others...."
+
+"The Earth and the Venus girl can be of help to me, Great Master."
+
+"How?"
+
+"They knew young men who were in the Spaceship Service. They can tell
+me the armament of men and weapons on most of the spaceships which
+Earth will send against us."
+
+Did Molo really believe that? Probably not, but he wanted the girls
+with him. Again came that grotesque smile. "Let them not bother you,
+Martian. You have work to do. Listen carefully. There will be a
+battle. Earth, Mars, and Venus may perhaps have a hundred ships. I
+cannot bring destruction upon those three worlds in a day. We soon
+will make contact with the light-beam you placed on Earth. That I will
+show you. But the rotation cannot be stopped at once. It will take
+time.
+
+"The enemy ships might dare to come to Wandl, but I shall not wait for
+that. All my spaceships are very nearly ready. If there is to be a
+battle, it shall be far from here, in the neighborhood of the enemy
+worlds. We are at this time about sixty-two million of your miles from
+the Earth, a third less than that from Mars, and about a third more
+from Venus. I understand, Martian, that you are skilled in space
+warfare."
+
+The brain went on, "I have given you a vessel to command. You will be
+surprised to know its name: the _Star-Streak_."
+
+Meka gasped, "But you destroyed it, Great Master!"
+
+"Only wrecked it, Martian girl. It is repaired now. You, Molo--and
+your sister to help you--who could command it to more advantage? All
+your own weapons, and ours of Wandl have been added. You may select
+your crew. Is it to your liking?"
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"You will be housed in this city, Wor, in the dwelling-globe you
+occupied before. Keep your prisoners with you, if you like."
+
+"These two Earthmen...." began Molo, but he was interrupted.
+
+"Settle that later. I do not want the annoyance."
+
+I was dimly conscious of a great clanging, coming through the curtain
+of barrage which was over us.
+
+The brain added, "Keep Wyk with you, to guard the prisoners; he will
+also attend your needs. In the battle, Martian, I expect great things
+of you and your _Star-Streak_."
+
+"Great Master, you will not be disappointed."
+
+"And prisoners, but not too many. Bring me a few young specimens like
+these, representative of Venus, Mars and the Earth. I want both of the
+sexes, an equal number of each."
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"The warning signal is coming. You will now see our first contact."
+
+The light at our feet was fading. It clung last by the gruesome face
+of the huge brain; the goggling eyes shone green, and as the light in
+the little mound-room dimmed there was in a moment nothing left but
+those lurid green pools of the brain's eyes.
+
+Then I was aware that the aperture at our feet had closed. Over us,
+the barrage curtain was dissipating, sight and sound coming in to us.
+The huge ball-shaped conclave room again became visible, the audience
+crowding its entire inner surface.
+
+I suddenly felt Anita's fingers twitching at my sleeve.
+
+"Gregg, darling, can you hear me?"
+
+"Yes. Be careful."
+
+But Molo was gazing up over our heads. The crowd was shifting, bending
+so that they all seemed gazing at their feet. A dim white radiance,
+seeming to come from down here somewhere near us, lay in a splotch on
+a segment of the throng overhead. Molo was watching.
+
+I whispered, "All right, Anita. Quick, what is it?"
+
+"The great control station is not far from here. Venza and I have been
+trying to find out where it is exactly."
+
+She stopped, evidently fearful of Meka. Then she added:
+
+"Gregg, we haven't been guarded very closely; they're not suspicious
+of us."
+
+"Later, Anita. Can't talk now."
+
+"No. Watch our chance. Later."
+
+I turned toward Molo. "What's that up there?"
+
+"The transparent ray is opening the top of the globe."
+
+The clanging signal gong had stilled. The audience was hushed and
+expectant. The white patch of light overhead spread until it
+encompassed all the top of the globe. The whole area was glowing. The
+people were white, spectral shapes, transparent! And the top of the
+globe was transparent; I saw the night sky, with the gleaming reddish
+stars.
+
+It was, in a moment, as though we were staring up at a huge square
+window orifice cut in the top of the room. A broad vista of cloudless
+sky and stars was visible. Across it, like a shining sword, was a
+narrow, opalescent beam.
+
+"The Earth-beam which I planted," Molo whispered triumphantly. "Our
+control station will contact with it now. The first contact!"
+
+Earth was below our angle of vision, but the beam from Greater New
+York, sweeping the sky with the Earth's rotation, was passing now
+comparatively close to Wandl.
+
+There was an expectant moment. Then into the sky leaped another ray,
+narrow, luridly green. It swung up from Wandl and darted into space.
+The hissing, agonized electrical scream from it as it burst through
+the Wandl atmosphere was deafening. I saw it strike the Earth-beam,
+grip it with a blinding burst of radiance up there in the sky,
+clinging, pulling against the rotation of the Earth with a lever sixty
+million miles long.
+
+A moment of screaming sound in the atmosphere around us, and that
+conflict of light in the sky. Then the screaming suddenly stilled. The
+Wandl beam vanished.
+
+The Earth-beam still swept the heavens like a stiff, upstanding sword.
+But in that moment when Wandl gripped it, the axis of the Earth had
+been changed a little. The rotation was slowed. By a few minutes, the
+day and the night on Earth were lengthened.
+
+It was the beginning of Earth's desolation.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+
+"But when do we eat?" Snap demanded.
+
+"Soon," said Molo.
+
+"I hope so."
+
+We were leaving the great room as we had come. Walking? I can only
+call it that, though the word is futile to describe our progress as we
+made our way to the lighted esplanade, across its side and into what
+might have been called a street. Globular houses, single, or one set
+upon another, or half a dozen swaying on a stick, gardens of
+vegetables and flowers. I saw what seemed to be a round patch of
+hundred-foot tree-stalks, like a thick batch of bamboo. It was laced
+and latticed thick with vines.
+
+"A house," Snap murmured. "That's a house."
+
+Another type of dwelling. This patch of vegetable growth, so flimsy it
+was all stirring with the movement of the night breeze, was woven into
+circular thatched rooms, birds' nests of little dwellings. Staring up,
+I seemed to see a hundred of them. Rope-vine ladders; flimsy vine
+platforms; tiny lights winking up there in the trees.
+
+On a platform twenty feet above us a group of tiny infant brains sat
+in a gruesome row, goggling down on us.
+
+We passed the tree patch; again the city seemed all a thin, flexible
+metal. The ground was like a smooth rock surface, alternating with
+small patches of soil where things were growing.
+
+We walked in a slow, unsteady line. Molo led. Behind Snap and me came
+the girls, ignoring us; and at the rear, the brown-shelled giant guard
+stalked after us.
+
+Molo stopped at a large globe-dwelling. "We rest here. I will go see
+that our rooms are ready." He gestured to his sister. "Meka, you come
+with me. Wyk will guard them."
+
+We stood at an oval doorway. A worker came out, stared at us, then
+went back. On an upper balcony, a brain was gazing down at us.
+
+I caught Molo's brawny arm. "Won't you tell us what's going on?"
+
+"Rest here with Wyk."
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Snap.
+
+"I am going to select my men for battle."
+
+"When do you go?"
+
+"In a few hours, Earth-time."
+
+"And you're taking us on the ship, Molo? Where is your _Star-Streak_?"
+
+"That I must find out." He, gazed at us with a slow, faint smile. "Not
+far. Nothing is far on Wandl. I do not know if I will take you on my
+ship. You might be of help, or you might be troublesome. The Great
+Master wants prisoners, or I would have killed you long ago."
+
+He took his sister and left us. There was a brief moment when Wyk,
+standing aside incuriously, gave us opportunity for swift whispers.
+
+Again Anita clutched me. "Gregg, we'll be separated now. But with Molo
+gone, Venza and I can get away from Meka."
+
+Venza whirled on us. "Gregg, listen! Snap, be quiet! If we're ever
+going to escape, now is the time. You get away from Wyk. We'll handle
+Meka."
+
+"And do what?" Snap demanded.
+
+"The control station! We'll find it!"
+
+Anita whispered, "We've got to wreck it, Gregg. Stop those contacts.
+It'll mean the end of Earth if we don't."
+
+I protested. "Better try for Molo's vessel. We might be able to
+navigate it, escape from this world."
+
+"The control station first," Anita insisted. "Gregg, we know something
+about it. You and Snap, with your strength, can demolish it. And then,
+if we can locate the _Star-Streak_...."
+
+It was a desperate, mad plan, but there seemed nothing better. The
+girls insisted now that though they did not know where the control
+station was located, they knew the details of its interior; its
+physical layout; its human operators.
+
+"In an hour," whispered Snap. "Have you got a timer? Is it going?"
+
+The little timers we still had with us were undoubtedly operating
+differently from on Earth; but they were in agreement.
+
+"An hour by our timers," I whispered. "We'll make the break then, try
+to find you inside. Anita, if you get free of Meka, don't come out."
+
+"All right."
+
+We had only a moment to try and plan it. "Anita, in an hour, with Molo
+gone...."
+
+He came suddenly with a driving leap from the doorway and dropped
+among us. "All is ready. Come."
+
+We ignored the girls. Snap again protested that he was hungry, which
+indeed, for me at least, was certainly the truth. And I was parched
+with thirst. I felt that this vaunted strength of my Earth body would
+not last long without food and drink.
+
+We entered the globular interior. There were narrow corridors;
+triangular rooms; a slatted, ladder-like incline leading upward to a
+higher level.
+
+The girls followed Meka up the incline. Molo and Wyk herded us into a
+nearby room. "You will have your food and drink here. Cause Wyk no
+trouble and you will be quite safe."
+
+He turned, but Snap plucked at him. "When are you coming back?"
+
+"Not too long."
+
+I said, "We will cause you no trouble. Take us on the ship."
+
+"I will see."
+
+He murmured to Wyk in Martian, then left us.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The small triangular room had no windows and only the single door. Wyk
+touched a mechanism and it slid closed. The place was a queer
+apartment indeed. The floor was convex, curving upward to the walls.
+The light radiance dimly glowed, as though inherent to the metal
+ceiling. There was strange metal furniture: a table and chairs, high
+and large; bunks of a size evidently for the ten-foot workers.
+
+The door opened, and a worker brought us food and drink. Wyk sat apart
+and watched us while we consumed the meal. I noticed that he seldom
+let himself get close to us. He sat stiffly upright, with his jointed
+legs bent double under him, his many arms and pincers hanging inert,
+save the one short shoulder-arm with flexible fingers gripping his
+weapon. At his waist, and upon several hook-like protuberances of his
+chest, other weapons and devices were hanging.
+
+Snap gazed up from where, on the floor, we were ravenously eating and
+drinking. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked Wyk.
+
+"No."
+
+"You eat often?"
+
+"No."
+
+An incurious, taciturn creature, this insect-like being. Snap
+whispered, "Got to talk to him; make him let us get close. That
+weapon...."
+
+How the weapon operated, we did not know; but that a flash from it
+would bring instant death we well imagined.
+
+Half of that hour of waiting was past.
+
+I said to Wyk, "You would call this night on your world; the sun
+obviously is on the other hemisphere. When will it be day?"
+
+His gaze swung on me. His hollow voice, deep from the capacious shell
+of chest, echoed and blurred in the room.
+
+"I think Wandl has no rotation now. Or almost none."
+
+He was not as taciturn, as he had seemed, and presently we had him
+talking. We learned several things regarding the gravity-controls of
+Wandl, by which at will the planet could be rotated on its axis; and
+by which also it could navigate space. We learned that the great
+control station contained these gravitational mechanisms, as well as
+the mechanism by which the Earth had been attacked. But we could not
+discover where on Wandl that station was located.
+
+Then, with our meal finished, Snap rose to his feet. "Those arms of
+yours, seem very strange to us. But they must be mighty useful."
+
+Snap had taken a cautious, shoving step. It wafted him directly toward
+the guard.
+
+The weird, brown-scaled face of Wyk, with its popping eyes upon stems
+and its upended mouth, contorted with surprise.
+
+"Back! Don't come near me!"
+
+He flung himself back, but struck the wall of the room. All his arms
+were writhing. Alarm was in his voice. It was the first time either
+Snap or I had made an unexpected move, and it startled Wyk.
+
+"Wait! Let me go!" Snap cried.
+
+Wyk's longest arms were around Snap, like the tentacles of an octopus,
+and Snap was struggling, fighting. We had not intended this at this
+time, but the opportunity was here.
+
+I scrambled from the floor. Now, with the need for powerful action,
+the lack of gravity was a tremendous handicap. I went up with
+flailing arms into the air. Wyk fired his weapon, but it missed me, a
+soundless, dimly-white bolt. It hissed along the curving wall of the
+room. The smell of it was a stench in my nostrils.
+
+I hit the concave ceiling, shoved down, and like a swimmer in water
+struck against the struggling bodies of Snap and the guard. The waving
+little shoulder arm with the weapon came at me.
+
+Snap shouted, "Gregg, look out!"
+
+I seized the little arm; it felt like the shell of a huge crab. For a
+moment we were all three entangled, floundering, unable to find a
+foothold. Then suddenly I felt Snap pulling me loose.
+
+"We've got him!"
+
+The brown-shelled body of Wyk sank away from us, hit the floor and lay
+still. I felt the floor under me, and Snap clutching at me.
+
+In my hand I was clutching Wyk's little shoulder arm, with fingers
+still gripping the weapon. I had jerked it out of his shoulder socket.
+With a shudder I cast the noisome thing away. Whether Wyk was dead or
+not we did not know. He lay on his back; the hideous face stared
+upward.
+
+"I cracked the shell," Snap gasped. "We've got to get out of here.
+Better try and get the girls loose now."
+
+We wasted no further time on Wyk. Snap snatched several of his weapons
+and mechanical devices. We stowed them hastily in our pockets. One was
+like another to us; we could only guess at their uses.
+
+"His shoes, Gregg. I can't get the damn things off him."
+
+"Here are shoes."
+
+A small pile of shoes was in a corner of the room; wide, resilient
+suction soles, built like sandals. They were very large, but the
+things were so placed that it seemed we could fasten them to our
+boots.
+
+"But not now, Snap."
+
+We snatched up four pairs of the shoes.
+
+There seemed nothing else to do. Could we get the door open? Snap was
+already fumbling at it. "Accursed thing! It won't give."
+
+Then it slid open. The dim corridor was visible. No one, nothing, out
+there. "Come on, Gregg! In a rush!"
+
+We went like bouncing rubber figures up the incline ladder.
+
+"Snap, watch out!" He all but cracked his head with an upward leap.
+Every instant we expected to be set upon. There was a terraced upper
+hall, black with shadow; dark ovals of doorways led into rooms.
+
+No one here. As yet we were not discovered.
+
+We stood at the intersection of two corridors. One went almost
+vertically up, like a chimney extending into the dome peak of the
+globe. Its sides were latticed; we could go up it hand over hand, like
+monkeys. The other sloped at an angle downward.
+
+"Which way?" Snap whispered. "What do you think? Got to find them."
+
+It still lacked about five minutes of our designated time, but it
+would not do to burst in upon the girls, perhaps to find Molo and
+guards there.
+
+"Let's wait a minute, listen, see if we can't get some idea."
+
+We were backed against the corridor wall, almost in darkness. From the
+dark length of the descending corridor came a thump, the sound of a
+struggle, and then a muffled scream. Venza! And we heard her words:
+"Anita! Look out for her! She's got a knife!"
+
+As though diving into water, Snap and I plunged head first into the
+blackness of the corridor.
+
+
+
+
+12
+
+
+Later, we learned that Anita and Venza had tried much the same tactics
+on Meka that we had used on Wyk, but their task was more difficult.
+She was suspicious of them. Venza asked her where the control station
+was, but she wouldn't answer.
+
+"Your brother said it was just beyond the dark forest," Anita said.
+"What is the dark forest?"
+
+"A place with trees where no one lives."
+
+"Off that way." Venza gestured. "That's what Molo said. Will it be day
+soon, or will the night keep on?"
+
+"If they cause Wandl to rotate, it will soon be day." An ironic look
+crossed Meka's face. "I am in no mood for answering more of your silly
+questions. Save the breath."
+
+"Well, if that's they way you feel about it," replied Venza laughing,
+"we will. There's not much air in here." She shoved herself across the
+floor toward the closed window.
+
+"Get back!"
+
+"Oh, all right--all right!"
+
+Perhaps Meka herself felt there was not enough air. She stood
+waveringly upright, and pushed herself with a slow leap for the
+window. Her back for that moment was to Anita and Venza. They shoved
+from the floor, whirled through the air and were upon her.
+
+It was a brief struggle, and instantly they knew that they had lost.
+The huge Martian whirled and flung them off. Her upflung fist, with a
+blow like a man's, caught Anita's thigh and knocked her toward the
+ceiling. She sank in a heap on the floor, saw that Venza had shoved
+back, but was standing upright.
+
+Anita bent double, with her feet braced against a chair, tensed to
+shove forward again. At the still unopened window, Meka crouched.
+Anita heard Venza's warning outcry. "Anita, look out for her! She's
+got a knife!"
+
+Upon this scene, in a moment, Snap and I came with a rush. The closed
+door was not barred. We slid it down and catapulted through the
+opening. Meka sailed over us. I swam up at her; seized her. The knife
+ripped my blouse and slit the flesh of my upper arm with a glancing
+blow. Then Snap came and struck against us; we sank to the floor.
+
+Meka had fought silently, but now she was shouting. I twisted her
+wrist, seized the knife handle and flung the knife away. I was aware
+of Anita lunging to retrieve it. And over us Venza appeared, waving a
+metal chair as though it were a huge feather.
+
+Snap gasped, "Gregg get your hand over her mouth. Shut her up!"
+
+We had her subdued in a moment, but it seemed almost too late. Outside
+the opened door a distant shout sounded.
+
+I shoved Meka toward the door. "If you don't do what I say, I'll kill
+you," I whispered into her ear.
+
+"What shall I do?"
+
+There came another shout, closer, now. Someone was coming.
+
+"Call out in Martian. Say there's no trouble, nothing wrong. You were
+arguing with these girls."
+
+She did as I commanded. The voice down the corridor answered, and then
+subsided.
+
+Snap slid the door closed. "Hurry! We'll go by the window. I dropped
+those damn shoes."
+
+Anita and Venza tore their dark coats into strips. We bound and gagged
+Meka, laid her in a corner of the room. We had dropped the shoes as we
+came plunging through the door oval. We found that we could all fasten
+their things to our feet. I put Meka's knife in my belt.
+
+"Hurry, all of you!" Snap was saying. "Got to get out of here; jump by
+the window."
+
+"Say, look at these wing-shields!" From a recess in a corner of the
+room Venza appeared with an armful of the small shields. We thrust our
+hands and forearms into their loops. The shields extended from a few
+inches beyond our fingers to the elbow.
+
+Snap had slid the window blind. I bent over the prone form of Meka.
+"Don't try to move. Molo will release you when he comes back."
+
+We gathered on the starlit balcony. The city stretched around us.
+There was as yet no alarm. No swimming figures near here; but a
+distance away we saw the towering conclave globe, with its audience
+just beginning to emerge, like bees coming from a hive.
+
+"Let me go first." I held Anita and Venza at the rail. "It's like
+swimming. I suppose we'll get the way of it pretty quickly."
+
+I balanced on the rail, and then leaped off. With the others after me,
+we swam awkwardly upward into the reddish starlight.
+
+The city structures dropped away, showing in a dark blur with winking
+lights. Over us were the stars and the cloudless night sky. Behind,
+the flashing light beams of radiance at the landing stage, the
+figures fluttering, the great globe, all dropped swiftly beneath a
+sharply curving horizon.
+
+We had passed the city. A thousand feet below us, a dark forest
+stretched. It was beyond this that the control station was located.
+
+The swimming flight became less awkward, but it was an effort in this
+abnormal Wandl air. Snap and Venza were behind me. Anita was leading,
+a strange, bird-like little figure. White blouse; long parted dark
+skirt from which her gray-sheathed legs kicked out as she swam,
+sometimes half upon one side, or with a breast stroke. The braids of
+her dark hair fell forward over her shoulders.
+
+She was tiring: I could not miss it. How far had we gone? Ten miles,
+perhaps. There was only a small vista of this little world visible at
+once, it was so sharply convex. A line of distant mountains was to our
+left. We had crossed a river at the forest edge.
+
+I suppose we had been half an hour swimming those ten-miles. Was
+daylight coming? It seemed that the sideline of mountain-tops had a
+little light on them. The opalescent beam from Earth had swept this
+portion of the sky and was gone below the horizon.
+
+Apparently there was no pursuit from the city. Behind me, Venza
+panted, "Say, I'm about finished. Can't we rest?"
+
+With this altitude we could cease our efforts and drift down. It would
+take several minutes.
+
+We gathered together, falling with a slow drift toward the dark forest
+under us. The trees seemed huge and spindly, a porous growth something
+on the Martian style, with huge leaves and a tangle of matter vines.
+They came mounting up at us as we fell with slowly gathering speed.
+
+"Shall we go on?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes." But she was tired, and Anita as well.
+
+"Girls," I asked, "where is the _Star-Streak_?"
+
+They did not know.
+
+Anita said, "Perhaps we can land in the trees, and examine what
+devices we have here."
+
+The girls had carefully watched Molo upon several occasions. They
+thought we might find we had a hand-globe or a couple of the repulsive
+rays. With these we could attain rapid flight without effort.
+
+We sank, fluttering, into a dark and tangled mass of the forest
+tree-top growth. I had understood that Wandl was crowded with its
+human population, yet this dark and silent forest evidently was
+uninhabited. We clung, like awkward birds, to a swaying limb of a
+tree-top. The trees were close together.
+
+"Let's see what you've got," Venza demanded.
+
+We handed the girls the various devices we had taken from Wyk. Most of
+them were the size of my fist: globular metallic projectors like hand
+bombs; ray cylinders; a device with multiple barrels the size of one's
+finger, set in a small circumference of a circular grid of wires.
+
+Anita said, "I saw Molo with one of these. He killed an unwilling
+worker on the ship."
+
+"I'll take a look around," Snap said anxiously. "Suppose we're being
+followed? Give me that weapon."
+
+There was vegetation partly over us, so that the sky was half
+obscured. Snap took the weapon, and like a monkey swaying
+precariously, he ran and leaped among the upper branches, crashing his
+way until he could see back toward the horizon beyond which lay the
+city of Wor.
+
+We heard his voice. "All clear. Nothing in sight. You coming up?
+Better get started."
+
+I put the weapons in my pocket. Snap had one now in the branches over
+us. I was examining an electronic bolt, when suddenly there came
+Snap's call. "Gregg! Look out!"
+
+We heard the hiss and saw the flash of his bolt.
+
+Anita swung at me. "Gregg, see there!"
+
+I followed her gesture, and then I knew why this forest was shunned by
+humans!
+
+
+
+
+13
+
+
+The forest swarmed with living things. Here in the dark they had been
+crawling upon us. Every branch of this leafy tree-top angle had
+something staring at us; the darkness was suddenly glowing with a
+myriad little green torches which were their eyes. They all winked on
+in an instant, as though at a signal, or at the sound of Snap's shout
+and the hiss of his bolt.
+
+Insects? I suppose I should call them that. With a glance I saw that
+they were of many sizes and shapes; tiny little things with eyes like
+lanterns; things of many legs, finger-length, hand-length, and some as
+long as my forearm. Brown-shelled things, with eyes glowing on stems.
+There was one quite near us, a smooth, brown-shelled body; a round
+head on top, as big as my fist. And these things had heads like little
+distended brains.
+
+What horrible jest of nature this was, with miniatures of the Wandl
+workers, crawling here, unable to stand erect, groping with little
+pincers. And miniature brains with naked, shriveled bodies.
+
+It seemed that the eyes of that little brain were fixed on me with a
+baleful green glare in the darkness. Anita and Venza were floundering
+to their feet in horror. They all but slipped from the limb. The
+weapons and devices they had arranged there slid off and went down
+into the darkness unheeded. From above us came Snap's horrified shouts
+and the hiss of his bolts.
+
+"Here!" I gasped. "My hand--Anita, Venza, jump!"
+
+I shoved Anita upward. The little eyes suddenly were all in movement,
+advancing upon us. Anita floundered, fluttered, got into the air and
+mounted toward Snap. Again Venza slipped off the limb. I lunged and
+drew her up. Green eyes nearest us came swooping. I did not dare fire
+a bolt; it was too close to Venza. I flung the entire weapon at the
+green eyes, but I missed.
+
+The little thing bit Venza's arm. She screamed and her flailing hand
+hit the tiny distended head. Its hideous little scream mingled with
+hers. It floated downward, massed and purple-red with gushing blood.
+
+I struggled upward with the inert form of Venza under one arm. Anita
+was mounting, free. Snap came lunging down.
+
+"Fired every bolt in the damn weapon!" He saw the unconscious Venza.
+"Good God, Gregg!"
+
+Never have I heard such anguish in his tone. "Gregg, she isn't...."
+
+"One of them bit her. Help me."
+
+He floundered up with her, a hundred feet above the tree-tops of that
+horrible forest. The little lanterns of eyes down there had all winked
+out. The open starlight was over us.
+
+Anita came swimming, then Venza stirred. She murmured, "... all
+right."
+
+She had fainted. It seemed nothing more; but I found her upper arm
+swelling. She tried to bend her body and sit up; but it threw us all
+out of balance.
+
+"Lie straight," Snap murmured. "Venza, are you all right?"
+
+"Yes. Why not?" And then she laughed. It sent a shuddering chill over
+me. "What's the fuss about? Let's get away from here. Somebody will be
+coming."
+
+She was swimming now and we let her loose, but stayed close by her.
+The reddish firmament was like an inverted bowl. The curving Wandl
+surface gave us a narrow little vista, the forest rolling up from the
+horizon in front. Then we saw where the forest seemed to end. Water
+was beyond it: a ribbon like a broad river, and beyond that, frowning
+mountains, terraced and spired with jagged peaks.
+
+Snap and I suddenly recalled the gravity ray projectors. We tried
+them; found that they would fling little beams of two varieties.
+Pencil points of radiance, they seemed to have an effective range of
+no more than a few hundred feet.
+
+I let myself drift downward, experimenting. The tiny beam struck the
+forest-top. I felt the projector pulling violently downward in my
+hand. I clung to it. I was being drawn swiftly down by the attractive
+gravity force of the ray. The forest rose rapidly under me: I was all
+but flung upon it before I could find the other controls.
+
+Then the ray altered its nature; the projector in my hand pulled me
+steadily up. But after a few hundred feet, I felt I was mounting only
+of my own momentum, with gravity and air-friction retarding me.
+
+Snap had tried similar experiments. We rejoined the swimming girls. I
+stared into Venza's face; it was pale but she did not seem distressed.
+She winked at me.
+
+"How's your arm, Venza?"
+
+"It hurts, but I guess it's all right."
+
+I turned to Snap. "I guess we can work these things. Get Venza to
+cling to you."
+
+Our progress now was far less difficult. Venza clung to Snap's ankles
+and Anita to mine. With the repulsing rays directed downward, we had a
+strong upward and forward thrust. We went forward with great
+thousand-foot bounds. The forest rolled back under us. We came over
+the gleaming river. It seemed several miles broad. It appeared to have
+a swift current.
+
+I saw sunlight upon the mountain ahead. The darkness had been paling.
+Now day suddenly burst upon us. The sun, smaller than on Earth,
+mounted swiftly up. It was a flattened, distorted, dull-red disc,
+blurred by Wandl's strange atmosphere. We were in a dim red daylight.
+
+Anita twitched at my ankles. "Look back of us!"
+
+We were going up. Venza and Snap, behind us, were in a descending arc.
+Above them, far back in the direction from which they had come, two
+blobs were visible up against the reddish day sky.
+
+Pursuit? It seemed so. The blobs went down, but came up again,
+traveling with rays, like ourselves.
+
+I called to Snap, "Someone after us! Two figures back there!"
+
+He was shouting, "Gregg! Gregg, help!"
+
+My gaze had been on the distant figures. I saw now that at the bottom
+of his arc, and starting upward again, Snap had lost Venza. The
+impulse of his ray had twitched his ankle from her grasp. Or had she
+let loose? He was about a hundred feet above the river, and Venza,
+with acceleration downward unchecked, was falling into it.
+
+"Gregg, help! Venza, swim up!" His frenzied call reached me as I used
+the attractive ray and Anita and I whirled over and lunged downward.
+
+"Gregg, help! Venza use your arms! Swim!"
+
+She was lying inert, making no effort to keep from falling. Her body
+turned slowly, end-over-end. She struck the swiftly-flowing river
+surface but did not sink; instead, she half emerged, came up and lay
+in a crumpled heap; and with its rapid current, the river carried her
+away.
+
+It was several minutes before we could reach Venza. Snap was already
+there, floundering on the water, awkwardly maintaining his balance,
+bending over Venza. "Gregg, she's unconscious. Fainted again."
+
+The bite of that insect! The thought of it turned me cold.
+
+The river surface was like a very soft rubber mattress. The water
+clung to us, wet us. We could not kneel or stand erect; but in sitting
+down only a few inches of our bodies were submerged. We floated like
+corks, we were so light, and so little water did we displace.
+
+We struggled with Venza across the gluey river surface. She had fallen
+near the further shore. Rocks, crags and strewn boulders were passing
+as the current swept us along at a speed of about ten miles an hour.
+She lay in our arms, eyes closed, her face pallid but calm. She seemed
+to breathe rapidly; but that on Wandl was normal.
+
+We landed on the rocky shore. It was still daylight. The blurred sun
+was winging across the zenith so swiftly that its movement was
+visible. Wandl had been suddenly endowed with axial rotation. Even in
+these few minutes, the day was past its noon. On the distant mountain
+peaks looming above the nearby horizon; it seemed that the sheen of
+coming night was mingled with the red sunlight.
+
+Anita and Snap laid Venza on the rocks. I suddenly remembered the two
+blobs in the sky behind us, which had seemed to be following. I stood
+gazing across the river. The red sky there seemed empty.
+
+"Thank God, she's reviving!" Snap called at me and I joined them.
+Venza was stirring. Color was coming into her cheeks. Her lips were
+murmuring as though she were talking in her sleep.
+
+Then she opened her eyes. Her gaze fixed on us as we bent over her.
+"Why, what's the matter? Where are we? I thought we were in the
+tree-tops. Snap, don't look at me like that, dear. I'm all right--only
+confused."
+
+She could remember nothing since that gruesome thing bit into her arm,
+but the attack of its poison in her veins seemed definitely over. We
+sat with her, soothing her, explaining what had happened. And she was
+wholly rational. Her strength came back; her mind cleared.
+
+The brief red day came to its close. The sun plunged below the
+horizon; the stars winked into being. The red-purple Wandl night
+again was here. And now we saw that the whole firmament was swinging,
+the rotation made visible.
+
+The darkness leaped around us. Shadows filled the rock hollows. The
+caves and recesses of this rocky shore turned black with darkness. And
+in the sky now we saw another of those familiar opalescent beams. This
+was the one from Mars: we could identify the red disc of the planet.
+
+And then, from the mountains ahead of us but still below our horizon,
+the Wandl control station shot its attacking beam upward. Again there
+was that conflict in the sky. The axis of Mars was being altered, its
+rotation slowed.
+
+We could see now that we were much nearer than before to the control
+station. It seemed only about twenty miles ahead of us. The scream
+from it was deafening.
+
+The Wandl beam died presently. The electrical scream from the control
+station was stilled.
+
+The Earth's axis had been altered. Now Mars; and next would be Venus.
+A few more of these gravitational attacks and then the helpless
+planets, with rotation checked, would be towed away by Wandl, out into
+the deadly cold of interstellar space.
+
+Anita abruptly gave a startled outcry. The four of us, sitting in a
+group, had no time to rise. From behind a dark crag nearby, two
+figures appeared. The starlight showed them clearly.
+
+Molo and Wyk! They lunged forward at us.
+
+
+
+
+14
+
+
+We were unarmed. I had flung my weapon at the thing in the forest; and
+Snap had exhausted all his bolts firing at the multitude of green
+eyes. Molo and Wyk came with a dive through the air. Two tiny flashes
+leaped from them to the rocks behind them, and flung them forward.
+
+Snap and I seized Venza and Anita. It was a second of confusion; then
+I saw we would not be able to rise in time. The driving, oncoming
+figures were no more than twenty feet away.
+
+"Protect Venza, Snap! Get her behind you!"
+
+Snap shoved Venza behind him; I got myself in front of Anita. We had
+almost gained our feet. I tried to thrust Anita and myself violently
+upward. We rose, but only a few feet. And then we were struck by the
+oncoming body of Wyk, like a huge, light-shelled, three-pound insect
+lunging in mid-air against us. The two longest tentacle arms wrapped
+around us. Anita twisted and kicked. The gruesome, goggling face of
+Wyk thrust itself almost into mine. The hollow voice panted, "I have
+you fast."
+
+One of my arms was free and I struck with my fist at the gaping,
+upended mouth. There was a crack. My fist sank through the shell; a
+cold, sticky ooze spurted out.
+
+Wyk screamed. His encircling arms fell away. The grisly smashed face
+was white with ooze and pulp where my fist had gone in.
+
+We had sunk back to the rocks. I kicked the dead body of Wyk away.
+
+"Anita! Swim up!"
+
+"No!"
+
+Sinking beside us were the flailing bodies of Molo, Snap and Venza
+were drifting down. They seemed intermingled. Snap was shouting: "No
+you don't! Drop that!"
+
+I leaped for them. Something long and thin and glowing was dangling
+from Molo's hand. He broke loose from the struggling Snap and Venza;
+his feet struck the rocks and he shoved himself backward. My leap had
+carried me too high. I saw that in his hand was a six-foot length of
+glowing wire. He whirled it. The weight on its end described an arc,
+and then he flung the handle. The weighted wire struck Venza and Snap
+just as their repulsive ray shot down against the rocks and shoved
+them upward. The whirling wire wrapped itself around them, bound them
+together. Its glow vanished. Snap had been shouting, "Gregg, come up."
+But it died in his throat.
+
+All this while, in those few seconds, I was vaulting over Molo, trying
+to get back to the ground to leap again. I saw that Anita was crawling
+on the rocks. My gravity cylinder was at my belt. I had jammed it
+there to leave my hands free just as Wyk struck me.
+
+I saw that Snap and Venza, wrapped together by the wire, had dropped
+their gravity projector. Their entwined figures went up some fifty
+feet and stopped; then began drifting down.
+
+Molo was shouting, "You, Gregg Haljan! Now for you!"
+
+I struck the rocks and fell twenty feet beyond him. I jerked out my
+gravity projector, but I did not know what I wanted to do with it. And
+in that second I saw that the standing Molo was aiming at me. Directly
+over my head the inert bound bodies of Venza and Snap were falling.
+
+A flash leaped over the dark rocks from Molo. There was a split-second
+when I thought it was the end of me. But I was still alive. The bodies
+of Venza and Snap struck my head and shoulders; knocked me down. I
+felt Molo's ray upon me. Not death, but only his gravity ray, like a
+giant hand pulling me. Apparently he wanted us alive. I was scrambling
+on the rocks, entangled with Venza and Snap. Molo's radiance clung.
+All three of us went tumbling forward toward him. I flashed my own
+ray, but I was rolling end over end, and it went wild.
+
+I dropped it, saw Molo's beam vanish, saw his upright standing figure
+towering above me. Snap, Venza and I were in a heap at his feet. He
+leaned down and seized me. "Now, Gregg Haljan, I will teach you not to
+try escaping like this!"
+
+With the huge, muscular Martian gripping me, his fist striking for my
+face but missing and hitting my shoulder, this was a semblance of
+normality. I could understand fighting like this. I wrapped my legs
+around him; my fingers reached for his brawny throat as he kicked us
+into the air free of the entangling bodies of Snap and Venza.
+
+We rose a few feet and sank back, gripping each other, lunging and
+striking. He was very powerful, this Martian. I caught the round
+pillar of his throat with my hands. For an instant I shut off his
+wind, but I could not hold the grip. He struck me a glancing blow in
+the face, then the heel of his hand was under my chin. It forced back
+my head, broke my hold on his throat. With returning breath, he gasped
+an inhalation. And I heard his exulting words: "You are not strong
+enough!"
+
+We rolled and bumped over the rocks. I caught a blow from his fists
+full in my face. It was almost the end; I felt my strength going. He
+laughed as he struck away my answering swing. I was on my back against
+the rocks, with his body on top of me. Then beyond and behind his
+hulking shoulder, silhouetted against the sky, I saw Anita rise up.
+She was lifting a jagged gray mass of stone, full four feet in
+diameter. She poised it, then crashed it down on Molo's head. He sank
+away from me; his arms relaxed. The boulder rolled beside him.
+
+It was over now. Wyk was dead; his gruesome body with its smashed face
+lay near us. Molo was unconscious, breathing heavily, lying
+motionless, with a wound on the back of his head, the blood welling
+out, matting his hair.
+
+Anita and I were uninjured, victorious--but what a hollow victory. On
+the rocks here, bound together by that strange wire, Snap and Venza
+lay inert. We bent over them. The wire was cold to the touch now. It
+resisted our efforts to untwine it. We pulled frantically as we
+pleaded: "Snap, speak to us! Venza, can't you speak?"
+
+Their eyes were open. I was aware that there was no starlight above
+us, but instead, a lurid sky of flying clouds, shot with a greenish
+cast. The darkness here was green. The glow of it struck upon the
+wide-open staring eyes of Venza and Snap. It seemed that there was
+intelligence in those eyes.
+
+"Snap, can't you hear us?"
+
+His eyelids came down and up again, slowly, as though by a horrible
+effort. "Can you move, Snap?"
+
+His right eyelid moved. Was his answer, no?
+
+Anita and I had never felt so horrible a sense of aloneness as that
+which swept us in those succeeding minutes. A breeze was springing up
+in the lurid green night. It came from the mountains. It wafted across
+the nearby river, rippling the surface which was now green and sullen.
+We did not know where to go, what to do.
+
+We found at last that we could untwist the stiffly clinging wire. We
+laid Venza and Snap on the rocks side-by-side, about thirty feet back
+from the river. The glowing wire had burned their clothes only a
+little, as the current was absorbed by the contact with their bodies.
+
+"Snap, are you in pain?"
+
+His eyes seemed to be trying to talk to me. Anita rose from Venza:
+"Oh, Gregg, what shall we do? Can't we carry them?"
+
+But where? To what purpose? Wild thoughts thronged me: Wandl's control
+station, bringing chaos and death upon Earth. Mars and Venus. What was
+that now to me? I thought of Molo's ship.
+
+"Anita, if we can get to the _Star-Streak_, seize it and escape from
+this world...."
+
+"Carry Snap and Venza there now? But we don't know where it is. Can we
+make Molo lead us?"
+
+But Molo lay unconscious. I could not rouse him.
+
+Anita and I were so alone! We clung together.
+
+"Gregg, look at that sky!"
+
+The mounting wind was tugging at us. It whined through the dark
+mountain defiles, surged out over the river where the water now was
+beginning to toss with waves crossing the swift current. The sky was
+shot with green shafts of radiance. Over us, the lowering, leaden
+clouds were scudding, riding the wind.
+
+It burst now upon us; I found suddenly that Anita and I were bracing
+against it. A puff dislodged us, so that we were blown a dozen feet,
+bringing up against a crag, as though we were balloons.
+
+"Anita--this wind--we can't maintain ourselves here. We...."
+
+Horror checked me at the thought of Venza and Snap, lying there on the
+rocks. We saw the body of Wyk, like a great dried insect, lifted by
+the wind, whirled like a brown leaf over and over, and carried away.
+
+A little pebble came hurtling and struck me. Then a rain of pebbles,
+like hailstones was pelting at us.
+
+The storm was probably caused by the axial rotation of Wandl. The
+light-beam upon Earth had been attacked by the Wandl control station
+without axial rotation. But to attack the beam from Mars, a
+manipulation of Wandl was necessary. The planet's rotation was
+started; and suddenly checked. It remained night now, here in this
+hemisphere. Perhaps there were natural storm tendencies here; perhaps
+the operators of the control station were unduly eager, manipulating
+the rotation too suddenly.
+
+At all events, it was frightening. I shouted above its whine and the
+clatter of the pebbles: "Hold onto me! We'll get to Venza and Snap."
+
+We reached the two inert forms, where they had blown into a niche
+between two boulders. "Can't stay here, Anita."
+
+"No! If it begins again!"
+
+"Over there! A cave!"
+
+We got Venza and Snap into it, just as another gust came, with a rain
+of dirt and loose stones pelting past outside.
+
+Suddenly I thought of Molo. "Anita, stay here! Must get to Molo."
+
+"Gregg, no!"
+
+"I must. If we can bring him to consciousness, make him tell us where
+the _Star-Streak_ is...."
+
+I flung off her restraining hold. The wind had eased up. I leaped out
+into it, swimming. The rocks slid by close under me in a swift
+sidewise drift. In a moment I would be carried out over the river. It
+was a chaos of green, windswept darkness. But there was bursting light
+now overhead and rumbling claps, like thunder.
+
+I saw Molo's body where the wind held him pinned against the side of a
+flat, ten-foot rock butte, and dove for him, swimming down frantically
+until I struck against the rock with a blow that almost knocked the
+breath from me. Molo was still obviously unconscious.
+
+How long it took me to get back to Anita, floundering with Molo's
+body, I do not know. I managed to keep against the ground; was blown
+back, and struggled forward again. The wind came with strange puffs.
+In one of the lulls, I hauled Molo through the air and into the cave.
+
+"Gregg!" Anita held to me, her arms around me. "Gregg dear, you were
+gone so long!"
+
+I was battered and bruised and breathless. The cave's mouth was like a
+ten-foot tunnel leading downward into blackness.
+
+"Gregg, I put Venza and Snap here."
+
+They lay side by side, like two dead bodies, here in the greenish
+darkness. We placed Molo with them. Together Anita and I crouched
+beside them, clinging to each other, listening to the wild sweep of
+the wind outside. The storm had burst into full fury now. It would
+whirl us away like feathers, outside there now. The lightning and
+thunder hissed and crashed. Stones and boulders were being flung like
+hailstones.
+
+This flimsy, weightless world! It seemed as though the rocks here on
+which we were crouching would be shifted and carried away.
+
+"Gregg! Gregg, is this the end?"
+
+A mass of rocks fell at the opening, closing it, so that we were
+buried here in the darkness. "Anita, my darling, I will never stop
+loving you."
+
+Darkness, with her arms around me and a shuddering world outside. But
+here, only Anita and her soft arms.
+
+"Gregg!"
+
+Horror was in her voice. Then I saw what she was seeing. It was not
+just Anita and I buried here in the darkness with the bodies of Snap
+and Venza and Molo. Something else was here.
+
+From the blackness of the cave, two green, glowing eyes were staring.
+Their radiance showed me the outlines of a distended head. An insane
+thing? But it was not another of the forest insects. This seemed to be
+an animal. The glow of its distended head disclosed a lythe,
+horizontal body, seemingly solid and muscled. A chattering, insane
+animal, here in the dark with us! We heard mouthing, mumbling words,
+and an eerie, cackling laugh as it came padding toward us.
+
+The thing in the cave stared at us as we clung together in the
+darkness, transfixed for a moment by horror. The distended head,
+ghastly of face with its green glowing eyes, wobbled upon a long,
+spindly neck. The eyes seemed luminous of their own internal light.
+The radiance from them faintly lighted the black cave so we were able
+to see its tawny, hairy body. It was long sleek, the size of an Earth
+leopard. A muscled body, with ponderable weight, it was moving toward
+us, padding on the rocks.
+
+I recovered my wits and shoved Anita behind me. I crouched on one
+knee. There was no escape, nowhere to run. This tunnel was blocked by
+a fallen rock mass behind us, with the wild storm raging outside. The
+thing was some twenty feet away, where the tunnel broadened into a
+black cave of unknown size. Beside me Snap and Venza lay inert, the
+still-unconscious Molo with them.
+
+There was nothing to do but crouch here and protect Anita. I waved my
+arms, shouted above the outside surge of the storm; my voice
+reverberated with a muffled roar in this subterranean darkness.
+
+"Get back! Back! Back, away from me!"
+
+It stopped. Round ears stood up from the bloated head. Then it laughed
+again. I felt Anita shoving a rock at my hand, a chunk of rock the
+size of my head. "Its face, Gregg! Aim for its face!"
+
+The rock felt like a ball of cork. I flung it and hit the thing on the
+body. Its laughter checked abruptly; it crouched, as though gathering
+for a spring.
+
+And then I thought of my gravity projector. I flashed on the repulsive
+ray to its full intensity.
+
+The tawny body leaped. It came hurtling, but my beam met it in
+mid-air. For a second I thought that I had been too late. The thing
+was clawing the air; its momentum carried it against the push of my
+ray. For an instant it hung, snarling, and then laughed that wild
+laugh.
+
+The ray forced it back. It receded through the air, back across the
+blackness of the cave, gathering speed until, in a moment it brought
+up against the opposite wall some forty feet away. There it hung,
+pinned as I held the ray upon it. The body had struck the rocky wall
+but the head was uninjured. It was writhing and twisting: the cave was
+filled with the reverberations of its screams.
+
+Over the screams, I heard another voice: "Oh Gregg, where are you?"
+
+Snap! Behind me, Anita was moving sidewise toward where Snap and Venza
+were lying. The thing pinned in my light stopped its screaming, with
+curiosity perhaps at this new sound.
+
+"Snap! We're here, Snap!"
+
+Then Venza's voice: "It's letting me talk. We're better now."
+
+They were recovering, Anita was bending over them. "Gregg, they're all
+right. The shock is wearing off, thank God."
+
+But I did not dare move to them. My light on the snarling thing across
+the cave held it, but I did not dare to relax my attention.
+
+I called, "Stay with them, Anita." I moved slowly forward, holding the
+beam steady. The cave floor was littered with loose stones and
+boulders. Ten feet from the pinned animal I selected a great chunk of
+rock. It towered in my hand, but the weight of it was only a few
+pounds.
+
+The gravity held the animal as though I had pinned it by a pole. From
+the distance of a few feet I heaved the boulder. The palpitating head
+mashed against the wall. The body and the pulp of the head and the
+boulder sank to the floor when I removed the beam.
+
+"Snap, thank God you've recovered! And you, Venza!"
+
+Anita and I sat with them. They had been fully conscious all the
+while, but they were out of it now.
+
+An hour passed while we sat crouched, listening to the storm.
+
+"It's letting up," Venza said out of a silence.
+
+Anita was sitting over the prone form of Molo. He had stirred and
+mumbled several times.
+
+"Let's see if we can get out of here," Snap suggested.
+
+Rocks had fallen and blocked the only exit from the cave. But to our
+strength, even the hugest of the rocks was movable.
+
+"Shall we try it now, Gregg?"
+
+As though we were elephants, heaving and pushing, we struggled with
+the litter choking the passage. There was a danger that the whole
+thing would cave in on us; but we were careful of that. We tossed the
+small rocks aside like pebbles. There was one main mass. Together we
+pulled and tugged and shifted it. A small opening was disclosed, large
+enough for our bodies. The wind puffed in through it.
+
+The girls called us. Molo had regained consciousness. The blow from
+the rock had only stunned him. We bound his wrists with a portion of
+his belt which we cut into strips.
+
+"What is it you do with me? Is Wyk dead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He lay silent and sullen. "Look here, Molo, we're going to get out of
+this, and you're going to help us. If you don't...." The knife which
+we had taken from him to cut his belt was in my hand. I drew its blade
+lightly across his throat. "Will you talk freely and truthfully?"
+
+"Yes, I will talk the truth."
+
+"Do you know where the control station is located?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Not far."
+
+"The hell with that!" Snap burst out. "Get it meshed in your mind,
+Molo, that we're in no mood for talk like that. How far is it?"
+
+"On Earth you would call it ten miles."
+
+"In these mountains?"
+
+"He told us it was," said Anita. "Underground."
+
+"Do you know where your ship is?" I persisted.
+
+He told us that it was some thirty miles in another direction, not in
+the mountains, but in the outskirts of a city like Wor. It was
+equipped and ready for flight, all but the assembling of its crew.
+
+And now we had weapons! Molo was carrying several of the gravity
+projectors; two small searchlight beams, little hand torches; and
+three electronic ray-guns of short-range size.
+
+Hope filled us. The storm was abating. We could creep upon the single
+small control room of the gravity station, where usually but two
+operators were stationed. The delicate mechanisms there could be
+wrecked.
+
+And then we would seize the _Star-Streak_. No one would be on the
+lookout for us. The fact that Molo's prisoners had escaped was as yet
+unknown; he and Wyk had not dared tell it. Meka was back there
+waiting. Our absence from the globe dwelling might have been
+discovered; but Meka would say that we were with Molo. She was waiting
+there, hoping that her brother and Wyk would recapture us. All this we
+dragged piecemeal from Molo.
+
+Snap and I shared the gravity projectors and the small electronic
+guns. "Let's get started, Gregg. The storm seems over."
+
+It was. We found the purple-red starry night again outside. The river
+was lashed white with waves, but they were spent. There was only a
+mild warm breeze remaining.
+
+Molo's legs were free, but his wrists were lashed behind him. I hooked
+an arm under his, holding him like a huge, but light, oblong bundle.
+Snap called, "Ready, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Snap flashed on his gravity ray and mounted, with the girls clinging
+to his ankles. Then I followed with Molo. By great arching swoops, we
+swung up into the frowning, tumbled mountains.
+
+
+
+
+15
+
+
+"This will be the place to land, Gregg Haljan."
+
+We were drifting down upon a barren region of naked crags, dark,
+frowning rock-masses, broken and tumbled, as though by some great
+cataclysm of nature. Mountains upon the Moon could not be more
+desolate of aspect.
+
+We landed on the rocks. The heights here had a purple-red sheen from
+the starlight. We had seen frequent evidence of the storm; and it
+showed here. Rocks were abnormally piled in drifts; smooth areas
+showed, where the pebbles, stones and boulders had been swept away by
+the wind.
+
+Snap and the girls landed beside us. We spoke softly. None of us, not
+even Molo, knew how far sound would carry in this air.
+
+"Where is the place from here?" Snap demanded.
+
+"Off there."
+
+Molo spoke with docile, guarded softness. He gestured with his head
+and shoulder. A quarter of a mile away, over these uplands, the broken
+land went down in a sharp depression.
+
+"It is there. I think from here we should go on the ground. There is
+no guard, and I think seldom is anyone on top."
+
+"If I help you now, if we should wreck the gravity controls, then
+Wandl will be helpless to navigate space, or to interfere with the
+rotation of Earth, Mars and Venus. The allied worlds might then defeat
+the Wandl ships in battle. If that happened, perhaps your governments,
+because of my help here, would forgive what my _Star-Streak_ has
+done."
+
+"Your piracy?" I said.
+
+"Yes. I am outlawed. I might be reinstated if you would speak the good
+words for me."
+
+"Maybe."
+
+"Maybe even they would reward me. You think so, Gregg Haljan?"
+
+He wanted to be on the winning side; this suited us. "Let's try it and
+see, Molo. I'll speak plenty of good words for you."
+
+Now, as we landed on the uplands, he said, "You will do best to free
+my hands."
+
+"Oh, no!" Snap declared.
+
+"But I am a good fighter. Something unexpected might come."
+
+"Too good a fighter," I said. "We trust you because we have to, Molo,
+but no more than is necessary."
+
+A small recess in the rocks was near us. We put Molo there, with his
+hands bound, and with Anita and Venza to guard him. Venza held the
+electronic gun; she knew how to fire it. The girls crouched in a
+depression about twenty feet away. They could see Molo plainly; if he
+moved, a flash of the gun would kill him. He knew that.
+
+The girls gazed at us as we were ready to start. "Good-by, Gregg.
+Good-by, Snap. Good luck!"
+
+"We won't be long. Sit where you are." Snap touched Venza's shoulder
+for his good-by. "Listen, Venza: Molo has already told us enough to
+enable us to find the ship. If he tries anything, kill him."
+
+"Right," she said.
+
+We left them. A minute or two, cautiously shoving ourselves along the
+rocks, and we were crouching there. The cauldron was about two hundred
+feet broad and fifty feet deep; an irregular circular bowl. The
+starlight gleamed on it, and there were dots of small artificial
+light. We saw a group of small metal buildings, very low and squat,
+like balls mashed down, flattened in a bulging disc-shape; between
+them were tiny skeleton towers.
+
+The towers, twice the height of a man, were spread at irregular
+intervals in a hundred-foot circle, with a group of three or four in
+the center. There seemed some twenty of them. Taut wires connected
+their tops, each tower with every other, so that the wires were a
+lacework above the small disc buildings. The bottoms of the towers
+were grounded with electrical contacts, and every tower had a ground
+connection with each other by means of cables.
+
+Far to one side, across the bowl from us, was a single globe-dwelling
+with lighted windows. From its ground doorway, a narrow metal catwalk
+extended like a sidewalk on the ground, winding and branching among
+the towers and discs.
+
+This was the exterior of the Wandl gravity station. It lay silent and
+dark, save for the starlight and the little lights on the towers. No
+sign of humans. Then we saw movement in the globe-dwelling. A man came
+to the doorway, gazed at the sky and went back.
+
+I whispered, "Which is the best entrance to the underground rooms?"
+
+We saw where, at several points, the winding catwalk terminated in
+low, dome-like kiosks, giving ingress downward. One was on our slope
+of the cauldron. "That's the one we'll try," Snap murmured.
+
+He stopped suddenly. The top of the distant globe-dwelling was
+glowing. A little round patch there was radiant, like a lighted
+window. A transparent ray was coming from inside. The operators within
+this globe were observing the sky, training instruments upon it, no
+doubt.
+
+And now we saw in the sky the third of those sword-like beams. It had
+probably been visible there for some time but we had not noticed it.
+"That's Venus," I murmured.
+
+It seemed so. A blurred star, red in this atmosphere, was close above
+the horizon. The light-beam stood out from it, sweeping up to the
+zenith.
+
+The gravity station here was about to make contact with the Venus
+beam. We heard a muffled siren, a signal echoing from the subterranean
+control rooms. The current went into all these wires and towers and
+twenty-foot ground discs. The hissing and throbbing hum of it was
+audible. The discs and towers were glowing; red at first, then violet.
+Then that milky, opalescent white. The overhead wire-aerials were
+snapping with a myriad of tiny jumping sparks.
+
+I saw now that the top of each tower was a grid of radiant wires, a
+six-foot circular projector with a mirror reflector close beneath it
+and a series of prisms and lenses just above. It all glowed opalescent
+in a moment, a dazzling glare.
+
+Then the tower tops were swinging. The lights from them had reached
+the intensity of an upflung beam, and the projectors were swinging to
+focus the beam inward. The focal point seemed about a thousand feet
+overhead. All the beams merged there; and guided by the towers
+directly underneath, a single shaft was standing into the sky.
+
+The entire cauldron depression was now a blinding mass of opalescent
+light. We could see nothing but the milk-white inferno of glare. It
+painted the rocks up here on the rim so that we shrank back, shaded
+our eyes and gazed into the sky. And from the cauldron, the hum and
+the hiss of the current, the snapping of sparks, were all lost in a
+wild electrical screaming turmoil.
+
+Overhead, we saw the Wandl beam from Venus.
+
+Apparently this control station had two functions: the control of the
+planet's movements, its axial rotation and its orbital flight, and its
+ability to apply gravitational force to other celestial bodies.
+
+Wandl was controlling her own movements by applying gravity force,
+attraction and repulsion, to all the celestial starfield; and
+doubtless also by applying the repulsive beam tangentially against the
+ether like rocket streams. In this respect, I realized, the planet was
+probably operated not unlike one of our familiar spaceships. In
+effect, it was itself a gigantic globular vehicle. Later I learned
+that it was thought that Wandl's atmosphere could be highly
+electronized at will, with a resulting aberration of the natural
+light-ray reflected from her into space. This could have caused the
+blurring of the image of Wandl when viewed telescopically from other
+worlds.
+
+Again, for a moment of the contact, there was that bursting light in
+the sky.
+
+The contact with the Venus beam lasted a minute or two. Snap and I, on
+the cauldron rim, were engulfed in the blaze of reflected light and
+the wild scream of sound. Then presently the turmoil subsided. The
+contact in the sky was broken. The tow-rope of Venus jerked itself
+away. But on the next Venus rotation it would be attacked again.
+
+Another few minutes passed. The little circular depression beneath us
+was dim and silent as we had first seen it. Figures were moving within
+the dwelling structure. From several of the underground entrances
+figures came up, the ten-foot insect-like shapes of workers. Three or
+four of the brains came bouncing up, moving along the ground catwalk
+with little leaps. All the figures entered the distant main dwelling
+house. The contact was over.
+
+"Probably hardly anyone left down below," Snap whispered. "Now's our
+chance."
+
+"If we can get into that opening without being seen," I said.
+
+"Shadows, down the rocks to the left. Damnation, Gregg, we can make it
+in one calculated leap."
+
+"I'll try it first. I'll get in and wait for you."
+
+"Right."
+
+We each had a gravity cylinder at our belt and a ray-gun in our hand.
+The slope of the depression was dim here, merely starlit; it was a
+steep, broken and fairly shadowed descent, fifty feet to the little
+dome-like kiosk which marked the nearest subterranean entrance. I went
+down it with a swoop, landed in a heap beside the kiosk and ducked
+into it. Instinct made me fear a guard, but reason told me none would
+be here; there was only the danger of encountering someone coming up.
+
+I was at the top of a winding, descending passage, a step-terraced
+floor; there were occasional lights in the ceiling. In a moment Snap
+joined me. "Got here! I wonder how far down it goes?"
+
+I gripped him. "Snap, no matter what happens, do it with a rush. Keep
+with me. And if I shout to get out...."
+
+"We go out with a rush!"
+
+"Yes. Back to the girls. Use your ray-gun and the gravity projector in
+getting back to them and get away without me, if I fall."
+
+"Same for you, Gregg."
+
+We went down the deserted passage. We had had experience in movement
+on Wandl now; we handled ourselves more deftly. We went down several
+hundred feet. The passage branched, but there always seemed a main
+tunnel.
+
+It was all deserted. There were distant, dimly-lighted, silent rooms.
+Were these factories of the strange forms of electronic gravity
+currents Wandl used? Some were in operation. A hum issued from them.
+Workers moved about.
+
+We stopped to consult. The girls, and Molo himself, had described what
+we would find: a main route leading to the control room where the
+delicate mechanisms which operated all this were centralized, the
+nerve center of Wandl. It seemed that we were following that main
+route.
+
+A worker came with a swimming leap past us. We dropped into a hollowed
+shadow at a tunnel intersection, and he went swooping by.
+
+"Lord, Snap," I muttered, "that was too close for comfort."
+
+Again we advanced. The tunnel turned sharply. Down a short slope, a
+glowing room was disclosed, with two or three workmen moving within
+it.
+
+The main control room! We could not doubt it. Molo, in his enthusiasm,
+had once described it clearly to the girls, its great skeins of little
+thread-like wires spread upon the walls, the myriad tiny opalescent
+discs contacted with the small gray rock surface under the tangled
+masses of thread-wire, the levers and dials banked on the circular
+tables: they were unmistakable features.
+
+"There it is, Snap," I whispered in his ear. "In that central rack.
+Those insulated rods, see them? Anita told us they used them to adjust
+the discs. Watch out for the current."
+
+"But it's off now, Gregg!"
+
+"There's still danger in it, and you'd short-circuit somewhere. Keep
+your hands off. Use the rods."
+
+"The operators...."
+
+He got no further. A figure lunged into us from behind, a giant
+worker! His largest pincer bit into my shoulder; his hollow shout
+resounded. The operators of the control room came with leaps at us.
+
+There was a moment of wild confusion. Light, seemingly almost
+weightless bodies flapped against us. Arms gripped us, but they were
+flimsy. The huge body-shells cracked gruesomely as we struck with our
+solid fists.
+
+A moment of turmoil passed. No bolts were fired. The shouts were brief
+down here in the narrow confines of the tunnel. Panting, bruised more
+by our collisions against the rocks than by our adversaries, we ceased
+our wild lunges. We did not look at the scattered, broken and crushed
+bodies drifting now to the floor.
+
+"Now, Snap! Hurry! Others may come."
+
+We lunged into the glowing control room, seized the long insulated
+poles from the central rack. They had a grateful feel of weight. I
+picked one up, jumped with a twenty foot leap to the wall.
+
+The wires came down like cobwebs under my sweeping blows; the little
+discs knocked off as though they were fungus growth. Sparks flew
+around us. Shafts of electronic radiance spat out. The wall was
+hissing over all its length as I ranged up and down it. The tangled
+broken threads of wire writhed like living things on the floor; then
+crumpled, fused and turned black.
+
+I swept that wall-segment with frantic haste, lunged around and
+started another way. Across the room I saw Snap doing the same. A
+turmoil of electrical sound was reverberating around us, deafening,
+and the glare was blinding. A belt-shaft shot from the wreckage under
+my rod. It seared my left arm. My sleeve burned off; the arm hung limp
+and tingling at my side. I stopped to rub it; in a moment strength
+came back to its muscles.
+
+Snap was raging like a great heavy bird gone amok. Through the green
+fumes of electrical gases which were filling the room I saw him
+lunging at the circular tables, overturning them. They cracked like
+thin polished stone as they struck the metal floor.
+
+I finished with the wall. There was a twenty-foot square piece of
+metal apparatus, ramified and intricate; I heaved it over upon its
+side. A thousand little mirrors and prisms, dislodged from it, came
+out in a splintering deluge.
+
+I was aware of Snap fighting with a brown-shelled figure. Then he was
+free of it. I saw it mashed and broken at his feet as I dove past,
+swimming in the smoke to lunge the length of a great fluorescent tube
+which was still dimly glowing. My pole pried it over; it crashed with
+a brief puff of light and the rush of an explosion as air went into
+its vacuum.
+
+I found Snap panting beside me, clinging to me in mid-air. The glare
+was dying around us; the din was lessening. We were choking in the
+chemical fumes of the released, half-burned gases. Turgid darkness was
+coming to the wrecked room, with little hissing flares spitting
+through it.
+
+"Enough, Gregg! Listen! Up overhead...."
+
+A great siren from up there was screaming into the night.
+
+Snap panted, "Got to get out of here. Can't breathe."
+
+Together we lunged for the tunnel by which we had entered. I stood a
+moment, gazing back upon the strewn and scattered room.
+
+The delicate nerve-center of Wandl. Heavy green-black gas fumes
+swirled in it; darkness and silence closed down.
+
+
+
+
+16
+
+
+Over us was turmoil, that screaming siren. Then suddenly it was
+checked and we heard the thump and swish of what on Earth would have
+been called running footsteps and shouts.
+
+Snap shoved me. "Don't stay there, you fool!"
+
+We lunged up the passage. Figures barred it but they scattered; a bolt
+hissed at us, but missed. At the kiosk a group of workers and several
+peering little brains leaped away in terror to let us pass.
+
+We gained the open air. With the small gravity rays darting down with
+repulsion upon the rocks we mounted like rockets out of the cauldron.
+The upper plateau lay silent in the starlight, but the cauldron behind
+us was ringing with alarm, and again the danger siren was blaring.
+
+I changed my way of direction, swung it to the plateau rocks ahead.
+The arc of my flight was sharply bent as I went hurtling down. Over
+me, I saw Snap use the same tactics. I tried to aim for where we had
+left the girls and Molo. I could not see them down there amid the
+starlit crags; and suddenly a wild apprehension filled me. How had we
+dared leave them to Molo's trickery?
+
+Then, ahead and below me, I saw the slight figure of one of the girls,
+standing on a rock with arms outstretched to signal us. I changed my
+ray to repulsion barely in time to avoid crashing. The landing flung
+me in a heap. Twenty feet away, Snap came whirling down. We picked
+ourselves up, saw Anita waving from the rock, and bounded to her.
+
+The girls were safe. Venza sat intent, with unwavering watchful gaze
+across the intervening space to where Molo had flattened himself
+against his rock, not daring to move.
+
+"Still got him," Venza exulted. "He wasn't willing to take any chances
+with us. You did it, Snap?"
+
+"I'm a motor-oiler if we didn't. Come on; got to get out of this.
+They're after us! We wrecked the whole damn place, Venza. Wandl's a
+normal planet now. No more of this accursed dislocation of Earth."
+
+We learned later that our hope and our assumption that we had
+irretrievably wrecked the entire gravity control system of Wandl was
+proven to be a fact. Wandl was, in effect, a normal celestial body
+now. The beams planted in Greater New York, Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar
+still streamed across space. But there was no giant beam from Wandl to
+seize them, and Wandl now could not move through space of her own
+volition. Like Earth, and all other known planets, satellites, comets
+and asteroids, she was subject now to all the normal natural laws of
+celestial mechanics. We had done a thorough job of it.
+
+Now I shoved at Snap. "No time to talk. You tow the girls; I'll take
+Molo. Got to get to the _Star-Streak_."
+
+I lunged over and seized Molo. "We did it. Now for your vessel! It
+will be ill for you if she is not where you say she is."
+
+"She will be there, Gregg Haljan."
+
+He docilely put himself in position for me to hook my forearm under
+his crossed, bound wrists and carry him. Snap rose up past us, towing
+the girls. Over the nearby cauldron a figure mounted to gaze and see
+the nature of this strange attacking enemy, and then sank back.
+
+With Molo hanging to me, I mounted with my ray, following Snap and the
+girls into the starlight, with the turmoil of the cauldron receding
+until in a moment or so it was gone behind our horizon.
+
+We headed now, not toward Wor, whence we had come, but over at an
+angle to the side. Our great bounding arcs soon left the mountains
+behind. We crossed the river, another portion of the forest, and came
+over undulating lowlands.
+
+It was a flight of under half an hour. The pursuit, if indeed anyone
+followed us, remained below our little segment of curving horizon.
+Everywhere there was evidence of the storm; the forest trees were laid
+flat, strewn like driftwood over the area. The river had in several
+places lashed over its banks. The lowlands were dotted thick with
+globe-dwellings. Some were hanging awry on their stems; others were
+pulled from their place, cracked and piled into a litter.
+
+We kept well aloft. The surface scenes were only glimpses of wreckage,
+moving lights and people. And there were areas which the wind had
+seemingly spared.
+
+The confusion from the storm was mingled now with the spreading alarm
+from the gravity station; the sound of the danger siren there was
+still audible behind us. As we advanced into what now seemed the
+outskirts of a city like Wor, with a pile of solid-looking metal
+structures ranging the horizon ahead, I saw a distant spaceship rise
+up and wing away. Wandl was proceeding with the dispatching of her
+space navy to oppose the distantly gathering ships of Earth, Venus,
+and Mars. No doubt with the wrecking of the control station, the
+masters of Wandl immediately recognized the paramount importance of
+the coming battle.
+
+The huge, globular, disc-like ship sailed high over us, rotating with
+the impulse of its rocket-streams. In a moment it was lost in the
+stars. And then another rose and followed it.
+
+There were many human figures in the air around us now. I mounted
+higher, and Snap with the girls followed me. The figures, intent upon
+their own affairs, did not seem to heed us.
+
+Molo's vessel lay alone upon a low metal cradle. No other ship was
+near it; but half a mile away on both sides we could see others
+resting on their stages. Lights were moving around and upon them, but
+the _Star-Streak_ was dark and neglected.
+
+We poised a thousand feet over her, and to one side. I saw her as a
+long, low, pointed vessel, dead gray in color, longer than the
+_Cometara_, and seemingly narrower, but very similar in aspect.
+
+"Meka and I are supposed to be gathering our crew," said Molo. "No one
+bothers with my vessel. Will you take me to Wor now to get Meka?"
+
+"I will not."
+
+Snap was drifting down with the girls. They were near us. His arm
+waved at me with a gesture. And then came the muffled tone of his
+voice: "Shall we drop down, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes, but cautiously. Have your gun ready."
+
+Molo protested, "I would like to take Meka with us, and a few of my
+crew. You will have trouble handling the _Star-Streak_, just us three
+men."
+
+"We'll take our chances."
+
+We dropped swiftly down upon the dark and vacant platform. The gray
+hull of the _Star-Streak_ loomed beside us, her dome arched still
+higher. An inclined catwalk went up to her opened deck-port.
+
+"I'll go first," I said softly to Snap. "Come quickly after me. Watch
+out: there might be someone on board."
+
+Venza still clung to her weapon. Mine was in my hand as I lifted Molo.
+And, ignoring the incline, bounded the thirty feet for the deck-port.
+I landed safely, and stood Molo upon his feet. "Don't you move," I
+admonished him sternly.
+
+He stood docilely against the cabin wall of the superstructure. No one
+here. We had thought there might easily be one or two workers on
+board.
+
+Snap and the girls came sailing, one after the other, and landed on
+the deck beside me. We stood silent, alert. No one appeared from
+within the cabin or from the lengths of the deck. Venza was watching
+Molo with her weapon upon him. Snap and I had planned this boarding:
+Anita and Venza to stay here and guard Molo while we searched the
+ship, and inspected the controls. We started for the cabin door oval.
+
+"Gregg!"
+
+It was all the warning Snap could give. I was within the dim cabin,
+but he, behind me, was still on the deck. I whirled to see a dozen
+dark forms leaping from the roof of the cabin superstructure. Snap was
+all but buried by them. These were not men of Wandl, but Molo's pirate
+crew, Martians, Earthmen and Venusians. Snap's ray-gun spat as he went
+down; one of the men dropped away. I saw Venza turn with startled
+horror, as the huge figure of Meka leaped down upon her and Anita from
+the roof.
+
+For an instant, weapon in hand, I paused in the doorway. I could not
+fire into the turmoil of that struggling group, so instead plunged
+into it, striking with my fists.
+
+Molo was shouting, "Do not kill them! I was ordered not to kill them!"
+
+These men, so different from the insect-like workers and the brains of
+Wandl, were solid in my grip; but we were all so weightless! I felled
+one, but others gripped me, pounded me. A struggling mass of bodies,
+arms and legs, we surged up to the superstructure roof and dropped
+upon it. My weapon was gone. Half a dozen adversaries had me pinioned.
+
+Down on the deck I saw that Venza had lost her weapon; Molo and Meka
+were clutching her. Snap was fighting with several antagonists. Anita
+was loose. She dove for the group in which Snap was struggling, hit
+them, kicked and bounded upward, to be seized by two of my own
+captors.
+
+"Anita, don't fight! They'll kill you!"
+
+I tried to break loose, but four huge Martians were holding me.
+
+"Oh, Gregg!"
+
+There was horror in Anita's voice. Snap had broken away. At the open
+deck-port he stood, as though undecided what to do. The deck was
+almost black around him; he was silhouetted against the outside
+starlight. From almost at his side, in the darkness, a tiny bolt spat
+upward at his head. His arms went wildly out; he tumbled backward. At
+the top of the boarding incline his body seemed spasmodically to kick,
+and the thrust whirled it down into the darkness.
+
+The end of Snap! A pang went through me. Snap, my best friend!
+
+Molo cursed the unknown man of his crew who had fired the shot. But
+none would admit who did it.
+
+"Get to your posts," Molo roared in Martian. "Enough of you are here.
+Lash up the prisoners; we're launching away now." He thumped his
+brawny sister as she passed him. "Well played, Meka!"
+
+These wily Martians! Molo had planned that Meka was to gather the crew
+and wait here at the ship for him and Wyk. If they returned with us as
+captives, it would be here that they would come. But if by chance
+things went adversely, Molo reasoned we would act just as we did; and
+Meka and her men were lurking here in ambush, waiting for us.
+
+All the many various ports swung shut. Anita, Venza, and I, with arms
+and legs bound, were taken by Molo to the forward observation and
+control room.
+
+The ship was resounding with signals. The interior controls in the
+hull-base raised the gravity-pull within the vessel to a strength
+comparable to that of Earth. Within a few minutes the _Star-Streak_
+lifted from the stage. Strange, weird Wandl fell away from us. We
+slid upward through the atmosphere, following one of the globular
+Wandl vessels, and headed into space toward the point where, a few
+million miles distant, the ships of allied Earth, Venus, and Mars were
+gathering.
+
+
+
+
+17
+
+
+"They are visible." Molo turned from the eyepiece of his
+electro-telescope. "Do you want to see them, Gregg Haljan?"
+
+We were in the forward control and observation turret of the
+_Star-Streak_, Molo and his sister Meka, Venza, Anita and myself.
+Unobtrusively squatting on the floor was a small, gray, rat-faced
+fellow, put there, weapon in hand, to watch us. He was a ruffian from
+the underworld of Grebhar, a member of the _Star-Streak's_ pirate
+crew.
+
+We were some ten hours out from Wandl. A group of four of the globular
+Wandl ships were with us, strung in a line some ten thousand miles to
+our left. We had been heading diagonally toward Mars. Some fifteen
+other Wandl vessels were ahead and others following.
+
+We were no more than fifteen million miles from Mars when Molo sighted
+the allied ships. "Will you observe them, Gregg Haljan?"
+
+I moved to take his place at the 'scope-grid, with the gaze of Anita
+and Venza upon me. They sat huddled together on a low bench against
+the back curve of the circular turret.
+
+It was dim here, with little spots of instrument lights, and the
+radiance coming in the glassite plates of the encircling dome. The
+loss of Snap had put a grim look upon the girls. They were dispirited,
+docile with Meka. They had hardly had a word with me. I think that all
+of us had about given up hope during those hours. Molo had consulted
+me several times with his policies of navigation.
+
+But I saw no chance to trick him. He was indeed, far more experienced
+than I, and more skillful, in celestial mechanics. I worked with him.
+I learned the operation and the handling of the _Star-Streak_, which
+was not greatly different from the _Cometara_ or the _Planetara_.
+
+Poor Snap! He and I had planned to capture and navigate this
+_Star-Streak_. We could have handled her. There were, I gathered, some
+fifteen men aboard her now, but no more than two or three were engaged
+at the navigating mechanisms. Even they could be dispensed with at
+times, for the ship's controls were all automatic, handled directly
+from the forward turret.
+
+I learned too, something, though not much, of the _Star-Streak's_
+weapons. They were similar to those of the allied ships, since Molo in
+equipping his pirate craft had seized upon all the best he could find
+of the three worlds.
+
+The _Star-Streak_, during this flight toward Mars, was in close
+communication with the Wandl craft. There was a giant vessel, the Wor,
+off to our left now. It carried the brain master in command of the
+Wandl forces. Molo took his orders from the Wor, but since his
+equipment and his weapons were so wholly different, the _Star-Streak_
+was set apart.
+
+"I can do what I like," Molo told me. "With my own judgement I can
+act; you shall see."
+
+"You've had plenty of experience, Molo."
+
+"Have I not! The terror of the starways, your world called me." He
+chuckled vaingloriously. "I must justify it now."
+
+"Act, do not talk," Meka commented sourly. "Children with toys make
+speeches like that, and then the toys get broken."
+
+"Fear not, sister. Never again will the _Star-Streak_ come to grief."
+
+And now I gazed through the 'scope at the waiting allied ships. They
+were lying some eight million miles off Mars. I gazed and saw the
+poised little group. There were perhaps fifty of them. The majority
+were Martian, long, low and very sharp-ended, and dull red in color.
+The wider Earth and Venus ships were silvery and drab. I could
+distinguish the several different types of craft in this hastily
+assembled fleet: many converted commercials like my ill-starred
+_Cometara_; a few rakish police ships; and about a dozen of the long,
+narrow supermodern warships. It was their first voyage into battle.
+They had only been built these past few years, by peaceful governments
+that protested there never again would be another war!
+
+The little fleet was lying waiting for us. It was being augmented by
+occasional other ships from Mars. They saw us coming now. The radiance
+of a Benson curve-light enveloped them, with a shaft toward us. The
+image of them shifted over a million miles to one side.
+
+Molo laughed when he saw it. "Protecting themselves already! But we
+are not going to attack them there."
+
+The first tactics of the Wandl commanders surprised me. We swung away
+from the course to Mars and headed diagonally toward Earth and Venus.
+Earth was the nearer to us, with Venus some forty million miles beyond
+her. For hours we turned in that sweeping curve. Then with our Wandl
+convoy following, we headed for Earth. I could not help admiring the
+way the _Star-Streak_ was handled. She turned more sharply than the
+Wandl craft; and before our next meal, we were leading them all.
+
+Would the allied ships follow us? It was immediately apparent they
+were coming; but from their poised position, hours of attaining
+velocity would be needed. The other allied vessels approaching from
+Venus and Earth checked their flight and turned after us. We passed
+within five or six hundred thousand miles of several of them.
+
+I found now that some twenty other Wandl ships, leaving Wandl after
+us, had headed directly for Earth. We were all together presently, the
+_Star-Streak_ and nearly fifty Wandl ships, gathered close to one side
+of the Moon. The allies, about a hundred of them, were strung through
+space, scattered, with varying velocities and flight direction, but
+most of them endeavoring to get between the Moon and Earth.
+
+This was the day! I call it that: a routine of meals which Meka grimly
+served us in the turret, and a little sleep when she took the girls
+below and I lay on the turret floor. I wondered who was in command of
+this allied force, and did not learn until afterward that it was
+Grantline. The _Cometara_ had fallen upon the Moon Apennines, not very
+far from where my old _Planetara_ still lay, near the base of
+Archimedes. But Grantline and a few of his companions, with their
+powered suits, had struggled free from the gravity pull of the
+wreckage; and a few hours later, a ship out from Earth picked them
+up.
+
+Grantline, on one of the Earth police ships, commanded the fleet now,
+and he afterward told me in detail how he endeavored to conduct his
+forces in the battle, thus enabling me to describe it from both
+viewpoints. He had been cruising toward Mars when he saw us make the
+turn. He thought a landing upon Earth might be planned and hastened
+all his ships into the area between the Moon and Earth to cut us off.
+
+But that was what Wandl wanted. The Wandl ships, with the
+_Star-Streak_ among them, made a complete slow circuit of the Moon. It
+took another day. Molo said very little to me in explanation of the
+Wandl tactics, but I could see that the object was to lure Grantline
+into following. A few of the allied ships did follow us around, but
+not many. The rest stayed carefully guarding the line between the Moon
+and Earth.
+
+There had been no encounter yet between the hostile ships. The huge
+distances involved in the engagement must be kept in mind. The gravity
+rays from the Wandl ships were only a slight disturbing element at
+such a long distance; Grantline's Zed-rays and Benson curve-lights
+were defensive only. For offence, Grantline's electronic guns and
+other weapons were of varying range, but none for such distances as
+these.
+
+Wandl seemed unwilling to begin the battle, and Grantline was cautious
+as well. He did not know what weapons these strange globular vessels
+would use; his only experience had been our encounter with the
+whirling discs.
+
+Then, at the end of the second day, came the first clash. The
+_Star-Streak_, and all the Wandl ships, were again clustered on the
+Earth side of the Moon; they were hovering perhaps twenty thousand
+miles above its surface. Grantline's force was a hundred thousand
+miles off, toward Earth. One of the Wandl ships came tentatively
+forward, and Grantline sent one of the new-style warships to meet it.
+
+They encircled each other. Both were cautious, but there was a passing
+within fifty miles. The Earth ship fired her bolts. The insulated
+barrage of the Wandl ship withstood them. There was a shower of ether
+sparks close to the ship, and a reddening of the hull, but nothing
+more. It seemed that the electro-barrages of the Wandl and allied
+ships were very similar in nature, an aura of electro-magnetism,
+enclosing the ship like a curtain fifty feet away, absorbed the
+electronic stream of the enemy bolt. The Wandl ship flung no bolts;
+she loosed a score of the whirling discs during the passing. They were
+of varying sizes, but similar to those which cut and wrecked the
+_Cometara_; in this instance, the Grantline ship was able to destroy
+each of them as it came close.
+
+This was the first encounter. The Earth warship went back to its
+squadron and the Wandl vessel rejoined its fellows. It had fired no
+bolts. Grantline suspected now what afterward proved to be the fact:
+these Wandl vessels were not equipped with long-range electronic guns.
+The Wandl defensive tactics were necessary; they feared a widespread
+encounter. They were hovering in a compact group, covering a five
+hundred mile area, over the Moon surface. Their purpose was not yet
+apparent, but Grantline saw now that one of the Wandl ships was
+dropping down and landing on the Moon. It skimmed the Apennines and
+landed not far from Archimedes.
+
+What was that for? Grantline noticed that the lowering,
+closely-gathered Wandl fleet tried to mask the landing. And their
+gravity-rays, with repulsive force, darted out to impede the Grantline
+vessels should they try to advance.
+
+This Earthward hemisphere of the Moon was now largely in shadow, but
+Grantline's Zed-ray magnifiers showed the vessel on the Moon.
+Apparatus was being unloaded. It seemed, down there on the rocky Moon
+plain in the foothills of the Apennines, that some extensive,
+elaborate base was being prepared.
+
+It was for this the hovering Wandl fleet was waiting, holding off from
+conflict until this Moon base was ready. When Grantline reached that
+conclusion, he ordered all his vessels forward to a general attack.
+
+
+
+
+18
+
+
+During this time, on the _Star-Streak_, as we and the Wandl fleet made
+that preliminary circuit of the Moon, an incident occurred which
+changed everything for me. I had noticed several times as we gathered
+in the _Star-Streak's_ forward turret, that Venza and Anita were eying
+me. Their expressions were furtive, but I realized that they were
+trying to attract my attention.
+
+We had no opportunity to speak secretly. Molo or Meka, or that
+rat-faced guard, were always too near us; and Molo kept me busy with
+computations of our course.
+
+We rounded the Moon. We gathered with the Wandl fleet some twenty
+thousand miles above the lunar surface, and I watched that ship
+descend and land. Like Grantline, I wondered what for. Molo gave me no
+hint. I saw, through his 'scope, bloated figures in pressure suits
+unloading mechanisms. They seemed to be placing huge contact-discs in
+a circle on the lunar rocks. It was reminiscent of the Wandl gravity
+station, and the contact-beam which Molo had planted in Great-New
+York.
+
+Then at last the girls had an opportunity to whisper to me. A swift
+phrase came from Anita. "Gregg! Snap is alive. Hiding on board."
+
+I gasped. Snap alive?
+
+"Planning to rescue us. You and he can capture the _Star-Streak_!"
+
+"Anita! Tell me how."
+
+"No more now! Our room below--he's near it. He spoke to us."
+
+No more. She moved away from me. But it was enough. Snap alive! I
+recalled that when he fell beside the ship, no one had bothered to go
+down after the body, and at that time the hull-ports were open.
+
+After a time Meka took the girls below. I sat with Molo, gazing down
+at the dark and gloomy surface of the Moon. I had finished the
+mathematical work Molo had given me. My thoughts were with Anita and
+Venza, down in their cabin now with Meka. Perhaps even now Snap was
+joining them.
+
+I hardly heard Molo's low, muttered curses, as he set his lenses for a
+slight alteration of our slow circular course among the Wandl fleet.
+"That fellow at my gravity-shifts acts like a nitwit. He has them
+disarranged."
+
+It snapped me to sudden alertness. "Something wrong, Molo? Nonsense!"
+
+"These men of my crew answer my controls too slowly. They should jump
+when my signals come."
+
+The plates suddenly shifted normally, but there had been an interval
+of delay. Molo was puzzled and annoyed. My heart pounded as I wondered
+if he would investigate. But he did not.
+
+"You had better sleep, Haljan. Take advantage now; we shall have
+action presently. Did you figure our emerging curve?"
+
+I shoved my computations across the table to him. "There."
+
+"You are quick, Haljan."
+
+"We should emerge from the Moon's shadow in about two hours."
+
+"But I will not hold that course. We're staying close near here with
+the other vessels, but I want some velocity always. Take your sleep,
+Haljan."
+
+I stretched on the narrow floor mattress. The turret was silent.
+
+I was aroused from a doze by Molo's activities in the turret. The
+girls and Meka were still below. The ever-silent Venusian, squatting
+in the turret corner, still had his gun upon me.
+
+I saw that Grantline's ships, over a wide fan-shaped spread, were
+advancing.
+
+And presently we were engaged in the soundless turmoil of battle. I
+cannot relate more than fragments, things I saw and experienced,
+during six or more hours of bursting electronic light and puffs of
+darkness in that spread of battle area within the Moon-shadow. It was
+a silent battle of crossing lights, ships a thousand miles apart,
+gathering velocity with great tangential curves; passing each other in
+a second; sweeping a thousand miles apart again; turning and coming
+back. A hundred engagements.
+
+The _Star-Streak_ was very fast, very mobile, and, unlike all the
+other Wandl ships, had the allies' own weapons to use against them. I
+saw now why they called Molo the terror of the starways!
+
+We swept into the shadowed battle area. Over all its thousand-mile
+spread were the radiant Wandl gravity-beams, disturbing and impeding
+the course of Grantline's ships. There was the luminous gleam of
+projectile rockets, like little comets, soundless, launched by the
+Wandl craft, and the radiance of the rocket-streams which all the
+vessels were using now for close maneuvering; the glare of Grantline's
+searchlight bombs and his white search-beams to disclose the deadly
+whirling discs which the weapons of his vessel must seek out and
+destroy. A chaos of silent light, stabbed here and there with
+Grantline's darkness bombs, bombs of limited local range which
+exploded in space and which, for a few minutes duration, absorbed all
+light-rays, giving a temporary effect of darkness.
+
+And then wreckage! Broken, leprous Wandl vessels whose barrage at
+close range had been smashed by Grantline's guns; torn and littered
+allied ships, struck by the huge exploding comet-projectiles and the
+whirling discs; airless hulks, and scattered fragments which no longer
+resembled a ship at all but only a hull plate or a torn segment of
+dome. And little drifting blobs, the survivors in pressure suits who
+had leaped from the wreckage; little blobs ignored, whirled away or
+drawn forward as by chance the sweeping gravity-beams fell upon them;
+tiny derelicts, floating stormtossed until the Moon's attraction
+caught and pulled them down, or a whirling disc cut through them, or
+the distant aura of a bolt shocked them to a merciful death.
+
+It was a three-dimensional, thousand-mile spread of fantasy infernal.
+Out of it, after an hour or two, a steady sift of every manner of
+wreckage was drifting down upon the Moon. The scene began to blur. A
+haze like glowing star-dust, or the radiance from a comet's tail, was
+spreading a weirdly luminous mist, blurring, obscuring the scene. This
+was the released electrons and the dissipating gases of the space guns
+and exploding projectiles, forming dust which glowed in the mingled
+starlight and Earthlight.
+
+The _Star-Streak_ had plunged, during those six or eight hours,
+through the battle area. Our several encounters were all characterized
+by the _Star-Streak's_ extreme flexibility, her speed, mobility, and
+Molo's reckless skill. We came through unscathed. There is a certain
+advantage for the man who seems not to care for his own life. But
+there was an encounter, the last one as it chanced, just before we
+emerged downward out of the fog and found ourselves no more than a
+thousand miles above the Moon's surface, where our adversary was
+equally reckless and only Molo's skill saved us.
+
+We came upon a Venus police ship. We plunged, as though seeking a
+collision, and the Venus ship was willing. For a moment of chaos, both
+barrages held against the exchange of bolts. Then we rolled over and
+tilted down from the impulse of the stern rockets. The passing must
+have been within feet, not miles; and in that second, Molo timed a
+shot to strike at the enemy bottom. It went through their barrage.
+Behind us, a second later, there was only strewn wreckage of the ship,
+so finely powdered that it became a silvery radiance, like moonlight
+shining on a little patch of fog.
+
+"Not too bad?" Molo gazed around for appreciation. "Not bad, Gregg
+Haljan? Molo is not too unskillful?"
+
+We hung now close above the Moon's surface, with the battle area over
+us. Out of the fog up there came the drifting wreckage; and now the
+Wandl ships were coming down, one by one. Not so many of them now; no
+more than ten of them emerged.
+
+Grantline did not follow. His ships withdrew the other way. The fog
+gradually dispersed. Grantline could now take stock of the battle; he
+had been victorious. One might call it that, since his percentage of
+strength, numerically, was greater now than when the battle began. Ten
+remaining Wandl ships, and the allies had about twenty-five.
+
+Another hour passed. Grantline's twenty-five ships were gathered in a
+close group, ten thousand miles above the Moon's surface. Under them,
+the ten Wandl vessels and the _Star-Streak_ seemed ranging in a five
+hundred mile circle. Down through it, on the rocks of the Moon in the
+foothills of the Apennines, the mechanism established there abruptly
+sprang into action.
+
+It was a giant gravity-beam. Of infinitely greater power than any
+Wandl vessel could generate, it flung out its spreading, conical ray.
+
+So this had been the purpose of all the Wandl tactics, to manipulate
+Grantline into his present position. This gravity-beam, though far
+smaller, was comparable to the one used by the Wandl control station.
+A rock contact against a huge mass, Wandl, and here, the Moon were
+necessary to give the ray its power. No ship could generate such a
+ray, so the Wandlites chose this battleground where they could
+establish themselves upon our deserted Moon.
+
+The beam had about a hundred foot diameter at its base on the rocks;
+it passed upward through the circle of Wandl vessels and its spread
+bathed all of Grantline's ships at once. An attractive beam, so
+powerful that the ships were helpless; against all their efforts they
+were pinned and drawn downward. A slight velocity at first, but with a
+tremendous acceleration.
+
+Within an hour they were hurtling, coming together as they speeded
+down the narrowing cone of the beam. The ten thousand miles, their
+distance above the Moon, was cut to five thousand. The Wandl ships
+drew aside, keeping well out of range to let them pass; in another
+thirty minutes they would crash against the rocks.
+
+I gazed in horror from the _Star-Streak's_ turret. We were sidewise to
+the angle of the beam. Grantline's ships were pulled together now into
+almost a fifty-mile group. They hung all askew, helplessly pinned,
+some broadside, some upended. The movement of their fall was so rapid
+that even with the naked eye it was apparent.
+
+"Got them now," Molo chuckled. "This is the end for them, Gregg
+Haljan."
+
+There were only three of us in the turret: Molo and I, and my
+watchful, silent guard who sat cross-legged, with a ray-gun pointed at
+me.
+
+Meka and the two girls were below during all the engagement.
+
+It was over now.
+
+During this lull Molo had sent the men from the deck gun ports to
+their hull quarters. Our decks were empty now; the bridges and
+catwalks up here had momentarily no occupants. The _Star-Streak_ had
+little velocity, only a slow drift downward toward the Moon's surface,
+which now was only a few hundred miles beneath us.
+
+The lunar disc was a great dark spread of desolation, with only the
+sunlight topping the distant horizon limb. And from under us, to the
+side, was the source of the giant gravity-beam. Over us were the
+watch-Wandl vessels, and, still higher, the helpless knot of
+Grantline's ships hurtling down.
+
+"Got them now," Molo repeated. "In another...."
+
+He never finished. From the open doorway of the turret a figure rose
+up. Snap! His aspect, even more than his appearance, transfixed me.
+Snap, with his clothes torn; grimy and spattered with blood; his face
+pale and gaunt, with hollow, blazing eyes. And above it, the shock of
+rumpled red hair. In one hand he clutched a ray-gun, and in the other
+a blood-stained knife!
+
+My guard squatting on the floor, half-turned. Snap's bolt met him
+before he could raise his weapon. He tumbled dead almost at my feet.
+And mingled with the hiss of the bolt was Snap's shout at the unarmed
+Molo.
+
+"Into the corner, you! Back up, you damned traitor, else I'll kill you
+as I've killed everyone else on this ship!"
+
+
+
+
+19
+
+
+I had leaped and seized the gun which was still in the hand of the
+dead guard. "Snap, the girls!"
+
+"Down below. Free. They've got Meka bound and gagged, locked and
+sealed in a bunk-room. You bring them up! I'll hold this accursed
+traitor. No need to kill him. By the gods, I've killed enough!"
+
+He saw for the first time the vast silent drama in the firmament
+outside the dome windows. "Gregg, for the love of...."
+
+"No time now, Snap! I'll get the girls."
+
+"Watch out. I might have missed somebody down below."
+
+He had. Three men appeared on the forward deck near the foot of our
+turret ladder. My bolt spat down upon them; two of them fell. The
+other ran aft, toward where I saw Venza and Anita appearing from the
+lounge doorway of the cabin superstructure. I fired again, and the
+running man tumbled forward on his face. He was the last of the pirate
+crew.
+
+Molo was crouching, half-bending forward over his instrument table,
+with Snap's gun upon him. The girls burst upon us. We armed them. Meka
+was safely fastened down below. We backed Molo to the floor in the
+corner, with Venza and Anita watching him.
+
+Snap and I were in control of the ship. For temporary periods the
+automatics would handle the gravity-shifters. I could operate them
+here from the turret. We had a downward velocity toward the Moon. Five
+hundred miles below us, no more, was the base of that diabolical
+gravity-ray which was so swiftly pulling the twenty-five Grantline
+ships to their destruction.
+
+I gripped Snap and told him what we must do. "The forward gun on the
+starboard side is almost identical with our Earth guns, the Francine
+projectors. With a short range you can handle it and I'll give you a
+close mark!"
+
+He dashed for the deck. I set the levers. Gravity-plates with full bow
+attraction. Stern repulsion to the Earth and the stern rocket-streams
+at highest power.
+
+The _Star-Streak_ responded smoothly; with acceleration such as only
+Molo's famous terror of the starways could attain, we dove for the
+Moon.
+
+Breathless minutes! Those Wandl ships up in the firmament behind our
+stern would probably do nothing; they would not understand this sudden
+move of their friendly ship. The brain masters, the insect-like
+Wandlites down on the Moon rocks operating the mechanism of the
+gravity-ray, would not suspect until too late what the _Star-Streak_
+was doing.
+
+Uprushing rocks, the Apennines to one side; the dark yawning maw of
+Archimedes on the other. We were diving parallel with the gravity-ray
+now, hardly a mile from it, diving for the mechanisms of its source.
+Twenty thousand feet of altitude. I bent our rocket-streams up for the
+start of our turning. Bow-hull gravity-plates next. Ten thousand feet.
+Five thousand.
+
+How close we went I never knew. It was seconds now, not minutes. I
+shifted all the controls. Our bow lifted as we straightened. The whole
+spreading lunar surface tilted and dipped. Snap fired. I saw the bolt
+flash at the tilting landscape and a puff of light down there on the
+rocks. And an instant later there were vacant rocks where the little
+cluster of men and mechanisms had been. And the upflung gravity-beam
+was gone!
+
+The giant towering cliffs of the mountain of Archimedes seemed to rush
+at our upturning bow. The great dark crater-mouth slid under our hull.
+But we cleared it; the maw of blackness slid down and away; the whole
+lunar world tilted down and dwindled as we mounted again into the
+starlight.
+
+Minutes passed while we mounted. Above our upstanding bow was a new
+drama. The suddenly-released Grantline ships, almost level with the
+ten Wandl vessels when the ray vanished, turned sidewise. The poised
+Wandl craft, devoid of velocity, could not pick up the ray to
+escape now. Grantline, for those minutes, ignored the frantically
+flung discs; it was a desperate encounter, all at close quarters. We
+saw the spitting, puffing lights and the silent turmoil, hidden
+presently by the spreading clouds of luminous fog.
+
+Then out of it came drifting the wreckage. We plunged through an end
+of the glowing fog, encountered nothing but two triumphant Venus
+vessels. With them we mounted into the upper starlight.
+
+This was the end of the battle. The victorious Grantline ships one by
+one came lunging up: only twelve of them now. No Wandl vessels were
+left.
+
+The great spreading cloud drifted down like a shroud to hide the
+wreckage, drifted and settled to the lunar surface, a great, radiant
+area of fog, gleaming in the Earthlight.
+
+
+
+
+20
+
+
+There is very little more, pertinent to this narrative, that I need
+add of the events on Earth, Venus, and Mars during this momentous
+summer. The main facts are history now: the wild storms, the damage
+done by outraged nature and the panic among the people--all of it has
+been detailed as public news. The strange light-beams planted by Wandl
+in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn have not yet burned
+themselves away. But they are lessening and scientists say that they
+will soon be gone.
+
+The changed calendars call this the New Era. The axis of each of the
+three worlds was not appreciably altered; the climates are at last
+restoring to normal. But the axial rotations of all three planets were
+slowed by that attacking Wandl beam before we wrecked the gravity
+station. The Earth day has been lengthened, resulting in the new
+calendar, the New Era. Our year, formerly of approximately 365-1/4
+days, now contains, but 358.7 days.
+
+Molo and Meka have been returned to Ferrok-Shahn. They were tried
+there for piracy and treason and are imprisoned.
+
+And Wandl? With her gravity-controls wrecked, Wandl became subject to
+the balancing celestial forces. During those succeeding months of the
+summer and autumn no other spaceships appeared from her: nor did our
+world investigate. Her presence here, even a little world one-sixth
+the size of the Moon, was causing disturbance enough!
+
+Wandl moved with slow velocity, like a dallying, strangely sluggish
+comet about to round our Sun. What would her final orbit be? By
+fortunate chance she headed in, far from the Earth and Venus; missed
+Mercury by a wide margin; went close around the Sun: came out again.
+
+But the pull of the Sun, and Mercury dragged her back. Her velocity
+was not great enough.
+
+I recall that late autumn afternoon when, with Anita, Snap, and Venza,
+I sat in the observatory near Washington, gazing at Wandl through the
+dark glass of the solar-scope. Doomed invader! She showed now as a
+tiny dark dot over the Sun's giant, blazing surface. This was her
+final plunge. The dot was presently swallowed and gone. It seemed,
+amid those giant, licking streamers of blazing gas, that there was an
+extra puff of light.
+
+And some claim now that for a brief time our sunlight was a trifle
+warmer, a little pyre to mark the end of Wandl, the Invader.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A CLASSIC NOVEL OF INTERPLANETARY WARFARE
+
+There were nine major planets in the Solar System and it was within
+their boundaries that man first set up interplanetary commerce and
+began trading with the ancient Martian civilization. And then they
+discovered a tenth planet--a maverick!
+
+This tenth world, if it had an orbit, had a strange one, for it was
+heading inwards from interstellar space, heading close to the
+Earth-Mars spaceways, upsetting astronautic calculations and raising
+turmoil on the two inhabited worlds.
+
+But even so none suspected then just how much trouble this new world
+would make. For it was WANDL THE INVADER and it was no barren
+planetoid. It was a manned world, manned by minds and monsters and
+traveling into our system with a purpose beyond that of astronomical
+accident!
+
+It's a terrific novel from the classic days of great science-fiction
+adventure--now first published in book form. When RAY CUMMINGS took
+leave of this planet early in 1957, the world of modern
+science-fiction lost one of its genuine founding fathers. For the
+imagination of this talented writer supplied a great many of the most
+basic themes upon which the present superstructure of science-fiction
+is based. Following the lead of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, Cummings
+successfully bridged the gap between the early dawning of
+science-fiction in the last decades of the Nineteenth Century and the
+full flowering of the field in these middle decades of the Twentieth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Born in 1887, Cummings acquired insight into the vast possibilities of
+future science by a personal association with Thomas Alva Edison.
+During the 1920's and 1930's, he thrilled millions of readers with his
+vivid tales of space and time. The infinite and the infinitesimal were
+all parts of his canvas, and past, present, and future, the
+interplanetary and the extra-dimensional, all made their initial
+impact on the reading public through his many stories and novels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Here's a quick checklist of recent releases of
+
+ACE SCIENCE-FICTION BOOKS
+
+D-449  THE GENETIC GENERAL by Gordon R. Dickson
+       and TIME TO TELEPORT by Gordon R. Dickson
+
+D-453  THE GAMES OF NEITH by Margaret St. Clair
+       and THE EARTH GODS ARE COMING
+       by Kenneth Bulmer
+
+D-455  THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE-FICTION
+       Fourth Series, edited by Anthony Boucher.
+
+D-457  VULCAN'S HAMMER by Philip K. Dick
+       and THE SKYNAPPERS by John Brunner
+
+D-461  THE TIME TRADERS by Andre Norton
+
+D-465  THE MARTIAN MISSILE by David Grinnell
+       and THE ATLANTIC ABOMINATION
+       by John Brunner
+
+D-468  SENTINELS OF SPACE by Eric Frank Russell
+
+D-471  SANCTUARY IN THE SKY by John Brunner
+       and THE SECRET MARTIANS by Jack Sharkey
+
+D-473  THE GREATEST ADVENTURE by John Taine
+
+D-479  TO THE TOMBAUGH STATION by Wilson Tucker
+       and EARTHMAN GO HOME by Poul Anderson
+
+D-482  THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER
+       by A. E. Van Vogt
+
+35¢
+
+If you are missing any of these, they can be obtained directly from
+the publisher by sending 35¢ per book (plus 5¢ handling fee) to Ace
+Books, Inc. (Sales Dept.), 23 W. 47th St., New York 36, N.Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Wandl the Invader, by Raymond King Cummings
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wandl the Invader, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wandl the Invader
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: March 20, 2007 [EBook #20859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDL THE INVADER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<p>Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div>
+
+<h1>WANDL THE<br />
+INVADER<br /></h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>by</h3>
+<h2>RAY CUMMINGS</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>ACE BOOKS, INC.</h3>
+<h4>23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y.</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>Copyright &copy;, 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.</h4>
+
+<h4>Magazine version serialized in <i>Astounding Stories</i>,<br />
+Copyright, 1932, by Clayton Publications, Inc.</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+<h2>1</h2>
+
+
+<p>"It's a planet," I said. "A little world."</p>
+
+<p>"How little?" Venza demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"One-fifth the mass of the Moon. That's what they've calculated now."</p>
+
+<p>"And how far is it away?" Anita asked. "I heard a newscaster say
+yesterday...."</p>
+
+<p>"Newscasters!" Venza broke in scornfully. "Say, you can take what they
+tell you about any danger or trouble and cut it in half; and even then
+you'll be on the gloomy side. See here, Gregg Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not giving you newscasters' blare," I retorted. Venza's
+extravagant vehemence was always refreshing. The Venus girl glared at
+me. I added: "Anita mentioned newscasters; I didn't."</p>
+
+<p>Anita was in no mood for smiling. "Tell us, Gregg." She sat upright
+and tense, her chin cupped in her hands. "Tell us."</p>
+
+<p>"For a fact, they don't know much about it yet. You can call it a
+planet, a wanderer."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say it was a wanderer!" Venza exclaimed. "Coming from heaven
+knows where beyond the stars, swimming in here like a comet."</p>
+
+<p>"They calculated its distance yesterday at some sixty-five million
+miles from Earth," I said. "It isn't so far beyond the orbit of Mars,
+coming diagonally and heading very nearly for the Sun. But it's not a
+comet."</p>
+
+<p>The thing was indeed inexplicable; for many weeks now, astronomers had
+been studying it. This was early summer of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> the year 2070 A.D. All of
+us had recently returned from those extraordinary events I have
+already recounted, when we came close to losing Johnny Grantline's
+radiactum treasure on the Moon, and our lives as well. My ship, the
+<i>Planetara</i>, in the astronomical seasons when the Earth, Mars, and
+Venus were within comfortable traveling distances of each other, had
+carried mail and passengers from Greater New York to Ferrok-Shahn, of
+the Martian Union, and to Grebhar, of the Venus Free State. Now it was
+wrecked on the Moon.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See "Brigands of the Moon", Ace Book, D-324</p></div>
+
+<p>I had been under navigating officer of the <i>Planetara</i>. Upon her, I
+had met Anita Prince, whose only living relative, her brother, was
+among those killed in the struggle with the brigands; Anita and I were
+soon to marry, we hoped.</p>
+
+<p>I was waiting now in Greater New York upon the decision of the Line
+officials regarding another spaceship. Perhaps I would have command of
+it, since Captain Carter of the <i>Planetara</i> had been killed.</p>
+
+<p>It was a month or so before that adventure, April, 2070, that this
+mysterious visitor from interstellar space first appeared upon our
+astronomical horizon. A little thing, at first, a mere unusual dot, a
+pinpoint on a photo-electric star diagram which should not have been
+there. It occasioned no comment at the time, save that some thought it
+might be another planet beyond Pluto; but this was not taken seriously
+enough to get into the newscasts. None of us had heard about it as
+late as May, when the <i>Planetara</i> set out on what was to be her final
+voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, it was seen that the object could not be a planet of our
+solar system; Coming in at tremendous speed, it daily changed its
+aspect, gathering velocity until soon it was not a dot, but a streak
+on every diagram-plate.</p>
+
+<p>In a week or so the thing passed from an astronomical curiosity to an
+item of public news. And now, early in June, when it had cut through
+the orbit of Jupiter and was approaching that of Mars, fear was
+growing. The visitor was a menace. No astronomical body could come
+among us, with a mass as great as a fifth of the Moon, without causing
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>The newscasters, with a ready skill for lurid possibilities, were
+blaring of all sorts of horrible events impending.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
+<p>I told the girls all I knew of the approaching wanderer. The density
+was similar to that of Earth. The oncoming velocity and the calculated
+elements of its orbit now were such that within a few weeks more the
+new planet would round our Sun and presumably head outward again. It
+would pass within a few million miles of us, causing a disturbance to
+Earth's orbit, even a change of the inclination of our axis, affecting
+our tides and our climate.</p>
+
+<p>"So I've heard," Venza interrupted me. "They say that, and then they
+stop. Why can't a newscaster tell you what is so mysterious?"</p>
+
+<p>"For a very good reason, Venza: because you can't throw people into a
+panic. This whole thing, up to today, has been withheld from the
+public of Earth and Venus. The Martian Union tried to withhold it, but
+could not. Every heliogram between the worlds is censored."</p>
+
+<p>"And still," said Venza sarcastically, "you don't tell us what is so
+mysterious about this wanderer."</p>
+
+<p>"For one thing," I said, "it changes its direction. No normal heavenly
+body does that. They calculated the elements of its orbit last April.
+They've done it twenty times since, and every time the projected orbit
+is different. Just a little at first, but last week the accursed thing
+actually took a sudden turn, as though it were a spaceship."</p>
+
+<p>The girls stared at me. "What does that mean?" Anita asked.</p>
+
+<p>"They're beginning to make wild guesses but we won't go into that."</p>
+
+<p>"What else is mysterious?" Venza demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"The thing isn't normally visible."</p>
+
+<p>Venza shifted her silk-sheathed legs. "Don't talk in code!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not normally visible," I repeated. "A world one-fifth as large as the
+Moon could be seen plainly by our 'scopes when well beyond Pluto. It's
+now between Jupiter and Mars, invisible to the naked eye, of course,
+but still it's not very far away. I've been out there myself. With
+instruments, we ought to be able to see its surface; see whether it
+has land and water, inhabitants perhaps. You should be able to
+distinguish an object on its surface as large as a city, but you
+can't."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Anita. "Are the clouds too thick? What causes it?"</p>
+
+<p>"They don't even know that," I retorted. "There is some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>thing abnormal
+about the light-waves coming from it. Not exactly blurred, but a
+distortion, a fading. It's some abnormality of the light-waves."</p>
+
+<p>A swift rapping on our door-grid interrupted me, and Snap Dean burst
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"Hola-lo, everybody! Is it a conference? You look so solemn."</p>
+
+<p>He dashed across the room, kissed Venza, pretended that he was about
+to kiss Anita, and winked at me. He was a dynamic little fellow,
+small, wiry, red-headed and freckle-faced, and had been the
+radio-helio operator of the ill-fated <i>Planetara</i>. He was a perfect
+match for Venza, for all the millions of miles that separated their
+native lands. Venza, too was small and slim, her manner as readily
+jocular as his.</p>
+
+<p>"And where have you been?" Venza demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Me? My private life is my own, so far. We're not married yet, since
+you insist on us going to Grebhar for the ceremony."</p>
+
+<p>"Do stop it," protested Anita. "We've been talking of...."</p>
+
+<p>"I know very well what you've been talking about. Everybody is. I've
+got news for you, Gregg." He went abruptly solemn and lowered his
+voice. "Halsey wants to see us, right away."</p>
+
+<p>I regarded him blankly and my mind swept back. No more than a few
+short weeks ago Detective-Colonel Halsey of Divisional Headquarters
+here in Greater New York had sent for us, and we had been precipitated
+into the Grantline affair. "Halsey!" I burst out.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy, Gregg." Snap cast a vague look around Anita's draped apartment.
+An open window was beside us, leading to a tiny catwalk balcony. It
+was moonlit now, and two hundred feet above the pedestrian viaduct.</p>
+
+<p>But Snap continued to frown. "Easy, I tell you. Why shout about
+Halsey? The air can have ears."</p>
+
+<p>Venza moved and closed and sealed the window.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" I asked, more softly.</p>
+
+<p>But Snap was not satisfied. "Anita, do you have a complete isolation
+barrage for this room?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I haven't, Snap."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Gregg do you have a detector with you?"</p>
+
+<p>I had none. Snap produced his little coil and indicator dial. "It's
+out of order, but let's see now. Shove over that chair, Gregg."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He disconnected one of the room's tube-lights and contacted with the
+cathode. It was a makeshift method, but as he dropped to the floor,
+uncoiling a little length of his wire for an external pick-up, we saw
+that the thing worked. The pointer on the dial-face was swaying.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg!" he muttered. "Look at that. Didn't I tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>The pointer quivered in positive reaction. An eavesdropping ray was
+upon us.</p>
+
+<p>Anita gasped, "I had no idea!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I did." Snap added softly. "No one very close."</p>
+
+<p>He and I carried the detector to the length of the hall. The indicator
+went nearer normal. "It must be the other way," I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>We went to the moonlit balcony. "Way down there on the pedestrian
+arcade," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll soon fix that," Snap said.</p>
+
+<p>Inside the room, we made connection with a newscaster's blaring voice.
+Under cover of it we could talk. Snap gathered us close around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Halsey has something important, and it's about this interstellar
+invader. It all connects. His office paged me on a public mirror. I
+happened to see it at Park-Circle 40. When I answered it, Halsey's man
+wanted me to talk in code. I can't talk in code; I have enough to
+worry about with the interplanetary helios. Then they sent me to an
+official booth, where I got examined for positive legal
+identification, and then they put me on the official split-wave
+length. After all of which precautions I was told to be at Halsey's
+office tonight at midnight, and told a few other things."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" demanded Venza breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Only hints. Why take chances, by repeating them now?"</p>
+
+<p>"You said he wants me, too?" I put in.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You and Venza. We've got to get into his office secretly, by the
+vacuum cylinders. We're to meet a man from his office at the Eighth
+Postal switch-station."</p>
+
+<p>"Venza?" Anita said sharply. "What in the universe can he want with
+Venza? If she's going, I'm going too!"</p>
+
+<p>Snap gazed at her and grinned. "That sounds like a logical deduction.
+Naturally he must want you; that's why he said Venza."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going," Anita insisted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We left half an hour before midnight. The girls were both in gray,
+with long capes. We took the public monorail into the mid-Manhattan
+section under the city roof of the business district, and into the
+Eighth Postal switch-station where the sleek bronze cylinders came
+tumbling out of the vacuum ports to be re-routed and dispatched again.</p>
+
+<p>A man was on the lookout for us. "Daniel Dean and party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We were ordered here."</p>
+
+<p>The detective gazed at the girls and at me. "It was three, Dean."</p>
+
+<p>"And now it's four," said Snap cheerfully. "The extra one is Miss
+Anita Prince. Ever heard of her?"</p>
+
+<p>He had indeed. "All right," he said. "If you and Haljan say so."</p>
+
+<p>We were put into one of the oversized mail cylinders and routed
+through the tubes like sacks of recorded letters; in ten minutes, with
+a thump that knocked the breath out of all of us, we were in the
+switch-rack of Halsey's outer office.</p>
+
+<p>We clambered from the cylinder. Our guide led us down one of the
+gloomy metal corridors. It echoed with our tread.</p>
+
+<p>A door lifted.</p>
+
+<p>"Daniel Dean and party."</p>
+
+<p>The guard stood aside. "Come in."</p>
+
+<p>The door slid down behind us. We advanced into the small blue-lit
+apartment, steel-lined like a vault.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>2</h2>
+
+
+<p>Colonel Halsey sat at his desk, with a few papers before him and a
+bank of instrument controls at his elbow. He pushed his audiphone and
+mirror-grid to one side.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, please." He gave us each the benefit of a welcoming smile,
+and his gaze finished upon Anita.</p>
+
+<p>"I came because you sent for Venza," Anita said quickly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> "Please,
+Colonel Halsey, let me stay. I thought, whatever you want her for, you
+might need me, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so, Miss Prince. Perhaps I shall." It seemed that in his mind
+were many of the thoughts thronging my own, for he added: "Haljan, I
+recall I sent for you like this once before. I hope this may be a more
+auspicious occasion."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Snap said, "We've been afraid hardly to do more than a whisper. But
+you're insulated here, and we're mighty curious."</p>
+
+<p>Halsey nodded. "I can talk freely to you, and yet I cannot." His gaze
+went to Venza. "It is you in whom I am most interested."</p>
+
+<p>"Me? You flatter me, Colonel Halsey." She sat gracefully reclining in
+the metal chair before his desk, seeming small as a child between its
+big, broad arms. Her long gray skirt had parted to display her
+shapely, gray-satined legs. She had thrown off the hood of her cloak.
+Her thick black hair was coiled in a knot low at the back of her neck;
+her carmine lips bore an alluring smile. It was all instinctive. To
+this girl from Venus it came as naturally as she breathed.</p>
+
+<p>Halsey's gray eyes twinkled. "Do not look at me quite like that, Miss
+Venza, or I shall forget what I have to say. You would get the better
+of me; I'm glad you're not a criminal."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I," she declared. "What can I do for you, Colonel Halsey?"</p>
+
+<p>His smile faded at once. His glance included us all. "Just this. There
+is a man here in Greater New York, a Martian whom they call <i>Set</i>
+Molo. He has a younger sister, <i>Setta</i> Meka. Have any of you heard of
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>We had not. Halsey went on, slowly now, apparently choosing his words
+with the greatest care. "There are things that I can tell you and
+there are things that I cannot."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" asked Venza.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, for one thing, if you are going to help me you can do it
+best by not knowing too much. For another, I have my orders; this
+thing concerns the very highest authorities, not only of the U.S.W.,
+but in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar too."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, but none of us spoke. Then Halsey said quietly, "Well, this
+Martian and his sister are here now in Greater New York. They have
+some secret. They are engaged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> in some activity, and I want to find
+out what it is. I have picked up only little parts of it."</p>
+
+<p>He stopped; and out of the silence Snap said, "If you don't mind,
+Colonel Halsey, it seems to me you are mostly talking in code."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not, but I'm trying to tell you as little as possible. You, Miss
+Venza, need only understand this: the Martian, Molo, must be induced
+to give you some idea of what he is doing here."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am to induce him?" Venza asked calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is my idea." The faint shadow of a smile swept Halsey's thin,
+intent face. "My dear, you are a girl of Venus. More than that, you
+have far more than your normal share of wits and brains."</p>
+
+<p>It did not make Venza smile. She sat tense now, with her dark-eyed
+gaze fastened on Halsey's face. Anita, equally breathless, reached
+over and gripped her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Then Venza said slowly, "I realize, Colonel Halsey, that this is
+something vital."</p>
+
+<p>"As vital, my child, as it could be." He drew a long breath. "I want
+you to understand I am doing my duty. Doing, what seems the best
+thing, not for you, perhaps, but for the world."</p>
+
+<p>I seemed to see into his mind at that moment. He might have been a
+father, sending a daughter into danger.</p>
+
+<p>"I need not disguise the danger. I have lost a dozen men." He lighted
+a cigarette. "I don't seem to be able to frighten you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," she said. And I heard Anita murmur, "Oh, Venza!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you frighten me," said Snap. "Colonel, look here; you know I'm
+going to marry this girl very soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know. You'll have to consider this a sacrifice, a voluntary
+descent into danger, for a great cause in a great crisis. You four
+have just come out of a very considerable danger. We know of what
+stuff you are made, all of you."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled again. "Perhaps that prominence is unfortunate for you, but
+let me settle it now. Is there any one of you who will not take my
+orders and trust my judgement of what is best? And do it, if need be,
+blindly? Will you offer yourselves to me?"</p>
+
+<p>We gazed at each other. Both the girls instantly murmured, "Yes."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said at last. It was not too hard for me, for I thought I was
+yielding him Venza, not Anita.</p>
+
+<p>Snap was very pale. He stared from one to the other of us.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said finally. "But Colonel, surely you can tell us more."</p>
+
+<p>Halsey tossed his cigarette away. "I will tell you as much as I think
+best. These Martians, Molo and his sister, do not know of Venza; at
+least, I think that they do not. They apparently have not been here
+very long. How they got here, we don't know. There was no passenger or
+freight ship. In Ferrok-Shahn, they have a dubious reputation at best;
+but I won't go into that.</p>
+
+<p>"Venza, I will show you these Martians and the rest depends upon you.
+There is a mystery; you will find out what it is."</p>
+
+<p>He reached for his inter-office audiphone. "I want to locate the
+Martian <i>Set</i> Molo. Francis, Staff X2, has it in charge."</p>
+
+<p>The audible connection came in a moment. "Francis?"</p>
+
+<p>We could hear the answering microphonic voice, "Yes Colonel."</p>
+
+<p>"Is the fellow in a public place by any chance?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the Red Spark Cafe, Colonel. With his sister and a party."</p>
+
+<p>"Good enough. The Red Spark has an image-finder. Have you visual
+connection?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the whole room; they have a dozen finders."</p>
+
+<p>"Use a magnifier. Get me the closest view you can."</p>
+
+<p>"It's done, Colonel. I did it just in case you called."</p>
+
+<p>"Connect it."</p>
+
+<p>In a moment our mirror-grid was glowing with the two-foot square image
+of the interior of the Red Spark Cafe. I knew the place by reputation:
+a fashionable, more or less disreputable eating, drinking and dancing
+restaurant, where money and alcholite flowed freely. The patrons were
+successful criminals of the three worlds, intermingled with thrilled,
+respectable tourists who hoped they would see something really evil.</p>
+
+<p>The Red Spark was not far from Halsey's office; it was perched high in
+a break of the city roof, almost directly over Park-Circle 29.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is," said Halsey.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We crowded around his desk. The image showed the interior of a large
+oval room, balconied and terraced; a dais dance-floor, raised high in
+the center with three professional couples gyrating there; and beneath
+them the public dance-grid, slowly rotating on its central axis. A
+hundred or so couples were dancing. The lower floor was crowded with
+dining tables; others were upon the little catwalk balconies, and
+still others in the terraced nooks and side niches, half-enshrouded,
+half-revealed by colored draperies.</p>
+
+<p>The image now was silent, for Halsey was not bothering with audio
+connection. But it was a riot of color, flashing colored floodlights
+bathing the dancers in vivid tints; and there were twinkling spots of
+colored tube-lights on all the tables. I saw, too, the blank
+rectangles of darkness against the walls which marked the private
+dining rooms, insulated against sight and sound. Here one might go for
+frivolous indiscretion, or for conspiracy, perhaps, and be as secure
+from interruption as we were, here in Halsey's office.</p>
+
+<p>Venza asked eagerly, "Which is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Over there on the third terrace to the left. That table. There seem
+to be six of them in the party."</p>
+
+<p>We heard Francis' voice; he was in Halsey's lower Manhattan office,
+with this same image before him. "We'll get a closer view."</p>
+
+<p>The table in question was no more than a square inch on our image. We
+could see an apparently gay party of men and women. One of the couples
+was gigantic, a Martian man and woman, obviously. The others seemed to
+be Earth or Venus people.</p>
+
+<p>Francis' voice added: "I've got an audio magnifier on them. Foley's
+been listening for an hour. Nice, clear English. Much good it does us;
+this fellow is as cautious as a director of the lower air-lane. Here's
+your near-look."</p>
+
+<p>Our image shifted to another view. The lens-eye with which we were
+connected now gave us a view directly over the Martian's table. We
+were looking down diagonally upon the table, at a distance of no more
+than ten feet.</p>
+
+<p>There were three Earthwomen in the party. There was nothing peculiar
+about them. They were rather handsome, dissolute in appearance, all of
+them obviously befuddled by alcholite. There was a man who could have
+been Anglo-Saxon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> A wastrel, probably, with more money than wit; he
+wore a black dinner suit edged with white.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention focussed upon the other two. They were tall, as are all
+Martians. The young woman, <i>Setta</i> Meka, seemed perhaps twenty or
+twenty-five years of age, by Earth reckoning, in stature perhaps very
+nearly my own height, which is six feet two. It is difficult to tell a
+Martian's age, but she was very handsome, even by Earth standards; and
+in Ferrok-Shahn she would be considered a beauty. Her gray-black hair
+was parted and tied at the back with a plaited metal rope. Her short
+dark cloak, so luminous a fabric that it caught and reflected the
+sheen of all the gaudy restaurant lights, was parted, its ends thrown
+back over her shoulders. Beneath it she wore the characteristic
+Martian leather jacket, and short, wide leather trousers ornamented
+with spun metal fringes and tassels. Most Martian women have an
+amazonian aspect, but I saw now that <i>Setta</i> Meka was an exception.</p>
+
+<p>Her brother, who sat beside her, was a full seven feet or more. A
+hulking sort of fellow, far less spindly than most of his race, he
+might have come from the polar outposts beyond the Martian Union. He
+was bare-headed, his gray-black hair clipped close upon a round bullet
+head, with the familiar Martian round eyes.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed into the face of Molo, as momentarily he turned his head. It
+was a rough-hewn, strongly masculine face with a hawk-like nose, bushy
+black brows frowning above deepset round eyes. The face of a keen
+scoundrel, I could not doubt, though the smooth-plucked gray skin was
+flushed now with alcholite, and the wide, thin-lipped mouth was
+leering at the woman across the table from him.</p>
+
+<p>Like his sister, he had thrown back his cloak, disclosing a brawny,
+powerful figure, leather clad, with a wide belt of dangling ornaments,
+some of which probably were weapons.</p>
+
+<p>How long we gazed at this silent colored image of the restaurant table
+I do not know. I was aware of Halsey's quiet voice: "Look him over,
+Miss Venza. It depends on you."</p>
+
+<p>Another interval passed. It seemed, as we watched, that Molo's
+interest in his party was very slight. I got the impression, too, that
+though at first he had seemed to be intoxicated, actually he was not.
+Nor was his sister. Anxiety seemed upon her; the smile she had for
+jests seemed forced; and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> intervals she would cast a swift, furtive
+glance across the gay restaurant scene.</p>
+
+<p>More drinks arrived. The Earthpeople at the table here seemed upon the
+verge of stupor; and suddenly it appeared that Molo had completely
+lost interest in them. With a gesture to his sister, he abruptly rose
+from his seat. She joined him. They left the table, and a red-clad
+floor manager of the restaurant came at their call. Then in a moment
+they were moving across the room.</p>
+
+<p>Halsey called sharply into his audiphone: "Francis! Hold us to them if
+you can."</p>
+
+<p>They were standing now by the opened door of one of the Red Spark's
+private insulated rooms. We caught a glimpse of its interior, a gaily
+set table with a bank of colored lights over it.</p>
+
+<p>The figure of a man was in there. He was on his feet, as though he had
+just arrived to meet the Martians here, and a hooded long cloak
+enveloped him. It may have been a magnetic "invisible" cloak, with the
+current now off.</p>
+
+<p>We caught only the fleetest of impressions before the insulated door
+closed and barred our vision. The glimpse was an accident. Molo, taken
+by surprise at this appearance of his visitor, could hardly have
+guarded against it. The waiting figure was very tall, some ten feet,
+and very thin. The hood shrouded his face and head. In his hand he
+held a large circular box of black shiny leather, of the sort in which
+women carry wide-brimmed hats. As Molo joined him he put the box
+gently on the floor. He handled it as though it were extraordinarily
+heavy; and as he took a step or two, he seemed weighted down. Just as
+the room door was hastily closing, Meka sliding it from the inside, we
+caught a fleeting glimpse of horror.</p>
+
+<p>The lid of the hat box had lifted up. Inside was a great round thing
+of gray-white, a living thing; a distended ball of membrane, with a
+network of veins and blood-vessels showing beneath the transparent
+skin.</p>
+
+<p>For the instant we gazed, stricken. The ball was palpitating,
+breathing! I saw convolutions of inner tissue under the transparent
+skin of membrane; a little tentacle, like an arm with a flat-webbed
+hand, was holding up the lid of the box.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> The lid rose a trifle
+higher; the colored lights overhead gave us a brief but clear view of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The thing in the box was a huge living brain. I saw goggling,
+protruding eyes; an orifice that could have been a nose, and a gash
+upended for a vertical mouth. It was a face. And the little tentacle
+arm holding up the box-lid was joined to where the ear should have
+been.</p>
+
+<p>Was this something human? A huge distended human brain, with the body
+withered to that tiny arm?</p>
+
+<p>The palpitating thing sank down in the box and the lid dropped. And
+upon our horrified gaze the insulated door of the room slid too.</p>
+
+<p>"By the gods!" exclaimed Halsey. "One of them dares come to the Red
+Spark. Here, almost in public."</p>
+
+<p>So Halsey knew what this meant. His eyes were blazing now; his face
+was white, with an intensity of emotion that transfigured it.</p>
+
+<p>"Francis, tell Foley I'll be in the manager's office in five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>He snapped off; our image connection with the Red Spark went dead.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to the Red Spark," he announced. "This changes
+everything, yet I don't know. Venza, I may need you more than ever,
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Halsey herded us to the office door. From his desk he had snatched up
+a few portable instruments, and he flung on a cloak.</p>
+
+<p>It was a brief trip to the Red Spark, on foot through the sub-cellar
+arcade to where, under Park Circle 29, we went up in a vertical lift
+to the roof. We were in the side entrance oval of the restaurant in
+five minutes.</p>
+
+<p>In the dim metal room of Orentino, the Red Spark's manager, a barrage
+was up and Foley was waiting for us. We could hear it faintly humming.
+Now we could talk.</p>
+
+<p>Halsey slammed the door down. He said swiftly, "My men caught one of
+these things this morning. They have it now and I think Molo does not
+yet know we captured it. A brain; we're convinced it understands
+English and can talk, but no one has been able to make it talk yet.
+Foley, order that damned Orentino to de-insulate the room Molo is in.
+Now, by the gods, we may see and hear something."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The frightened manager of the Red Spark was in the control room.
+Halsey killed our barrage to let the outside connections get through
+to us. We all crowded around the mirror-grid which stood on Orentino's
+desk. Foley gave us connection with the control room. We saw
+Orentino's face, his eyes nearly popping with fright. "Colonel Halsey,
+I will do whatever you tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"What room is that Martian occupying?"</p>
+
+<p>"Insulated 39."</p>
+
+<p>"Break off the insulation. Do it slowly and he may not notice. Then
+give us connection, audio and vision."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have no image-finders in the insulated rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"Cut off the barrage. I'll get connection there."</p>
+
+<p>Foley was already setting up his eavesdropper on the desk. The mirror
+blurred a little; then it clarified. We had the interior of the secret
+room, and voices were coming out of Foley's tiny receiver.</p>
+
+<p>The image showed the box on the floor, with its lid down. The tall
+hooded shape of the stranger stood with Molo and his sister by the
+table. They were talking in swift, vehement undertones. The language
+was Martian, a dialect principally used in Ferrok-Shahn. Our equipment
+brought it in and I could understand it.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was saying: "But you are the fool to have dared to come here!"</p>
+
+<p>"The master knows that there is danger. Something is wrong." The
+hooded stranger spoke like a foreigner, but not a Martian, nor an
+Earthman, and not like any person of Venus I had ever heard. It was a
+strange, indescribable intonation, a flat, hollow voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I say the master is concerned."</p>
+
+<p>"Let him be."</p>
+
+<p>"And he demanded I bring him here to find you. He is displeased that
+you are here."</p>
+
+<p>What gruesome thing was this? Their glances seemed to go to the box on
+the floor at their feet, as though the master were in there. But the
+lid of the box did not rise.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you have found me," Molo declared impatiently. "When you know
+me better, always you will find I have my wits. The thing is for
+tomorrow night, not tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"But that, my master is not sure." The hollow voice was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> deferential
+but insistent. "He fears danger; something has gone wrong. He is
+working on it now, striving to receive the message! There is a
+message. He knows that much. Perhaps from our world, Wandl, itself."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Molo had no answer. His sister had not spoken. I noticed
+that her gaze seemed roving the room.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it I should do?" Molo asked at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with us to your home-room."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have everything ready there. The contact is ready for tomorrow
+night. Your world will control Earth."</p>
+
+<p>"But if it be tonight?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Molo was silent. My breath stopped. On our mirror I saw the
+stranger's hood part just a little. There seemed to be no face; just
+the blur of something brownish.</p>
+
+<p>"But if it be tonight?" the voice insisted.</p>
+
+<p>"I will go," Molo said abruptly, "but your coming here was dangerous.
+Suppose we cannot get out undetected? You know I will never go to
+where all our instruments are set up and have some damnable spy follow
+me. Is all going well on Venus and Mars?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. My master feels so. He seems to get messages. The contacts will
+be made simultaneously." A gruesome chuckle. "The capture of these
+three worlds. We shall have all three enchained at once. Helpless."</p>
+
+<p>The lid of the black box seemed again about to rise when there came a
+sharp cry from Meka. "This room is not insulated!"</p>
+
+<p>Our eavesdropping was discovered. Beside me, I heard Halsey give a low
+curse. On our mirror we saw sudden action. The ten-foot, cloaked
+figure laboriously lifted the black box, and swung with it toward the
+outer wall of the room. I saw now clearly with what a dragging, heavy
+tread that giant shape moved, as though it weighed, here on Earth, far
+more than the normal weight to which it was accustomed.</p>
+
+<p>"Over there!" Molo gasped. "The escape-port; this room has one. Meka,
+go with him. I will join you. You know where."</p>
+
+<p>Foley cried, "Colonel, I may be able to stop them!"</p>
+
+<p>But Halsey saw on our image that Molo was staying. "Wait. Let them go.
+If we have the Martian here, that's better."</p>
+
+<p>I saw the room's escape-port swing open as Meka and the hooded shape
+carrying the box moved for it. The moonlit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> darkness of the outer
+catwalk enveloped the disappearing figures.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was left alone. He closed the port swiftly. His detector now was
+in his hand, but Halsey anticipated him by a second or two. Our
+listener went dead; our mirror darkened. Doubtless Molo was never sure
+whether he had been spied on or not.</p>
+
+<p>Halsey was on his feet. "Foley, get out into the main room. Stay with
+him."</p>
+
+<p>But there was no need to follow Molo. He had sent his visitor and
+sister out by the escape-port, which was usual enough; now he was back
+in the main room as though nothing of importance had happened, with an
+appearance of intoxication about him. He wavered jovially across the
+room, threading his way through the gay diners, and reached the table
+where his party still sat carousing.</p>
+
+<p>Again Halsey shut us off.</p>
+
+<p>"He's got a base somewhere in the city; you heard what they said about
+it. We've got to trick him into going there, unsuspecting."</p>
+
+<p>Halsey seized the audiphone. "Your chance, Venza. It's the only way.
+Foley, keep away from that Martian. Shut off all contacts. I'll meet
+you out there in a moment. I'm sending a girl; she'll go after him."</p>
+
+<p>"Now?" Venza asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. It's the only way. Perhaps you can get him drinking. Venza, use
+all the wiles you possess now."</p>
+
+<p>"No!" gasped Snap. "It's too dangerous!"</p>
+
+<p>Anita was clinging to Venza. "Colonel Halsey, I'm going too."</p>
+
+<p>Halsey stared, then made a swift decision. "Right. That is still
+better."</p>
+
+<p>I jumped to my feet. "Colonel, I should prefer that one of us men...."</p>
+
+<p>He gripped me by the shoulders. "Gregg Haljan, I take no suggestions
+from you!" His blazing eyes bored into me. "There isn't a second to
+lose. Don't you realize this means destruction of our three inhabited
+planets? I'll sacrifice myself, you, or these girls! Venza, take Anita
+outside. I'll join you immediately, give you last instructions. Take a
+portable audiphone with you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He turned to Snap. "This is the only way. These demons can't be
+forced. You know that."</p>
+
+<p>The girls were moving toward the door. I met Snap's anguished gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, don't let them go!"</p>
+
+<p>"No! No, I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>I made a lunge past Halsey, with Snap after me. Halsey did not move,
+but one of his rays struck us. With all senses numbed, I felt myself
+falling.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg&mdash;don't&mdash;let them...."</p>
+
+<p>Snap had tumbled upon me. My senses did not quite fade. I was aware of
+Anita's and Venza's horrified cries, but Halsey pushed them toward the
+door. It slid up. I vaguely saw the two girls going out with Halsey
+after them; and the door coming down.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>3</h2>
+
+
+<p>I have no idea how long it was before Halsey came back. Snap and I
+were seated on a low metal bench against the wall. The effect of the
+paralysing ray was wearing off. We were tingling all over, our senses
+still confused.</p>
+
+<p>Halsey stalked in upon us. "So you are recovered?"</p>
+
+<p>Snap stammered, "We&mdash;I say, we're sorry as hell we acted like that."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you are." His voice softened. "If I could have done anything
+else, believe me, I would have. But I don't think harm will come to
+them. They're clever."</p>
+
+<p>"Are they outside?" I asked. "Did they find a way of meeting the
+Martians? How long have you been gone?"</p>
+
+<p>Halsey merely stared at me as though he had no intention of answering.
+And then the audiphone on the desk buzzed.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Halsey," he said. "Yes, I have them here. Bring them&mdash;did you
+say bring them?"</p>
+
+<p>We could not hear the answering voice, for Halsey had the muffler in
+contact.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No, I would prefer not to come. I'm watching something. I'm at the
+Red Spark Cafe. Well, I'm going back to my office presently to wait
+there."</p>
+
+<p>He continued in code. Like Snap, I had never had occasion to learn it.
+The words were a strange sounding staccato gibberish. He ended, "I
+will send them, Grantline. Very well, I'll tell them to locate him. At
+once, yes." He closed off the audiphone.</p>
+
+<p>Halsey swung on us. "You're all right now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." I stood up, drawing Snap up with me. "What is wanted of us
+Colonel?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's better, Gregg." He smiled, but he was still grim. "I wanted
+you here to wait for this call from the Conclave of Public Safety. It
+met at midnight. They have ordered both of you there."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a secret meeting, isn't it?" asked Snap. "There was no report
+of it over the air tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Secret." He was leading us to the door. "They won't need you for
+more than half an hour. When they finish, come back to my office. You
+can come openly." He stood with his finger on the door lever.
+"Good-by, lads. Foley will lead you to the service room. You are to
+take a mail cylinder for Postal Switch-station 20. They'll re-route
+you from there to the conclave auditorium."</p>
+
+<p>The door slid up. "When you disembark," he added, "Ask for Johnny
+Grantline. You are to sit with him."</p>
+
+<p>He showed us out and the door slid down before him. We trudged the
+corridor, and Snap gripped me.</p>
+
+<p>"For myself," he whispered swiftly, "I'll go to the damnable conclave
+because I'm ordered. But I won't stay there long. Once we get out of
+it, if I don't route myself back to the Red Spark, I'm a motor-oiler."</p>
+
+<p>I agreed with him. We had a mental picture of Anita and Venza in the
+Red Spark's public room. Doubtless Orentino had created a way for them
+to meet Molo. They would sit there in the Red Spark with that drinking
+party, and in less than an hour we would be back.</p>
+
+<p>But as we crossed diagonally across an end of the main room with Foley
+leading us, we caught a glimpse of Molo's table. The party was still
+there, but Molo, Anita, and Venza were gone!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We had no time to get any information. Foley abruptly left us and
+another man took his place. In the service room a passenger cylinder
+was waiting. Our guide entered it with us.</p>
+
+<p>At the switch station we had the breath knocked out of us. After
+another ten minutes in the vacuum tube, we reached our unknown
+destination. The cylinder-slide opened. We found ourselves with a lone
+guard; and through a gloomy arcade opening, Johnny Grantline was
+advancing, to greet us.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, so here you are, Gregg. Hell to pay heaven, going on here. Come
+on in; I'll tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"We were sent for," Snap said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but they don't want you yet. Come in here."</p>
+
+<p>He waved away the guard and led us through a padded arcade into a
+low-vaulted audience room, windowless and gloomy. Across it, a doorway
+panel stood ajar. Grantline peered through it. There was the glow of
+light from the adjoining room and the distant murmur of many voices.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline closed the door. "Sit down and I'll tell you...."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The ninth Conclave Hall."</p>
+
+<p>I knew its location: Lower Manhattan, high under the city roof.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline produced little cigarette cylinders. "Steady your nerves,
+lads; you'll need it."</p>
+
+<p>He grinned at us. The hand with which he lighted my cylinder was
+steady as a tower-base, but he was excited. I could see it by the
+glint in his eyes, and hear it in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What's going on?" Snap demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"It's about this invading planet. By the gods, when you hear what's
+really been learned about it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>He sketched what he had heard this night at the conclave. The
+mysterious invader was inhabited.</p>
+
+<p>"How do they know that?" Snap put in.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait. I'll tell you the rest of it. The accursed thing changes its
+orbit. It banks and turns like a spaceship! It stopped out in space;
+it's poised out there now between Mars and Jupiter. A world about a
+fifth the size of the Moon, and the beings on it can control its
+movements. They've brought it in from interstellar space, into our
+solar system. Evidently the point they've reached now is far as they
+want to come. They've poised out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> there, getting ready to attack, not
+only us, but Mars and Venus simultaneously."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline gazed at us through the smoke of his cigarette. He was much
+like Snap, small, wiry, brisk of movement and manner, but older. His
+hair was graying at the temples; his voice carried the authority of
+one accustomed to commanding men.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me for the technicalities of how they reached these
+conclusions. I'm no astronomer. I'm only telling you their conclusions
+and what their discussions have been here for the past hour."</p>
+
+<p>Heaven knows, we had no inclination to dispute him. What we had seen
+and heard at the Red Spark tallied with his words.</p>
+
+<p>He went on swiftly, "The attack, of whatever nature it may be, is
+impending at once. Not next month, or next week, but now. Lord, Gregg,
+I don't blame you for staring like that. You don't know what's been
+going on for the past two days on Earth, and Venus and Mars. It's all
+been suppressed. Neither did I, until I heard it here tonight. The
+U.S.W., the Martian Union, the Venus Free State, are all preparing for
+war. Every government spaceship on Earth is being commissioned. We're
+not going to sit around and wait for invaders to land; the war won't
+be fought on Earth if we can help it."</p>
+
+<p>We stared. Snap asked, "What makes them so sure?"</p>
+
+<p>"That war is coming? Plenty. This new planet has sent out spaceships.
+The planet itself is hovering sixty million miles away from us, about
+forty million miles from Mars and close to ninety million from Venus.
+Perhaps its leaders think that's the most strategic spot.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it sent out spaceships, three of them. One is hovering close to
+Venus. Another is near Mars, and the third is some 200,000 miles off
+Earth. Several of our interplanetary freighters are overdue; it seems
+now that they must have encountered these invading ships and been
+destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>"Still more, and worse: these three hovering ships have already landed
+the enemy on Mars and Venus. The helio-reports mention mysterious
+encounters in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar. For three or four days, Mars
+has been in a panic of apprehension; Venus almost as bad. And some
+have landed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> here. Not many, perhaps; but one has been captured. A
+thing&mdash;God, it's almost beyond description."</p>
+
+<p>We could well agree with that, since Snap and I had just seen one.</p>
+
+<p>"They've got it here," Grantline was saying. "They've tried to make it
+talk. They can't but they're going to try again."</p>
+
+<p>He jumped to his feet and went to the door. "They're bringing it in."
+Upon his face was a look of awed horror.</p>
+
+<p>We stood crowding the small door-oval. It gave onto a darkened balcony
+of the conclave hall. The girders of the city roof were over us. There
+were a few official spectators sitting up here in the dark on the
+balcony, but none noticed us.</p>
+
+<p>The lower floor of the hall was lighted. Around the polished oblong
+tables perhaps a hundred scientists and high governmental officials of
+the three worlds were seated. Near the center of the hall was a small
+dais-platform. On a table there, someone had just placed a circular
+black box, similar to the one we had seen previously.</p>
+
+<p>The hall was hushed and tense. On the dais stood a group of Earth
+officials. One of them spoke. "Here it is, gentlemen. And this time,
+by God, we'll make it speak."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline whispered, "That's the War Secretary from Greater London."</p>
+
+<p>I recognized him: Brayley, Commander in Chief of the land, air, water
+and space armies of the United States of the World. He was gigantic in
+stature, with a great shock of gray-white hair. A commanding figure,
+if there ever was one.</p>
+
+<p>Beside him, Nippor, the Japanese representative in Greater New York,
+seemed a pigmy. The acoustics of the silent hall carried his soft
+voice up to us. "I would be afraid of drugs. Will we use force? It is
+vital."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, by God! Anything."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that everyone in the hall must be shuddering: I could feel
+it like an aura pounding up at me. Brayley lifted the box-lid, reached
+in and raised the horrible thing. He held it up, a two-foot ball of
+palpitating gray-white membrane. Another living brain.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, damn you, you're going to talk to us! Understand that? We're
+going to make you talk. Get that box out of the way."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They flung the box to the floor, and Brayley placed the brain on the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>A glare of light, focussed on it, showed beneath the stretched taut
+membrane the convolutions of the brain, like tangled purple worms. The
+blood-vessels seemed distended almost to bursting now. The gruesome
+face, with popping eyes and that gaping mouth, showed a horrible
+travesty of terror. From where its ears should have been, a crooked
+little arm of flabby, gray-white flesh came down, one on each side and
+braced the table. And I saw now that it had a shriveled body, or at
+least little legs, bent, almost crushed under by its weight.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, damn you," Brayley said, rubbing off his hands on a rough towel,
+"for the last time: will you talk?"</p>
+
+<p>The goggling eyes held a terrified but baleful gaze upon Brayley's
+face. Did it understand? The eyes were fronted our way, and suddenly
+their glance swung up so that I seemed for an instant to see down into
+them. And it struck me then: this was a thing of greater intelligence
+than my own. A humanoid, with brain so developed that through myriad
+generations the body was shriveled, almost gone. A mind was housed
+here, an intelligence housed in this monstrous brain.</p>
+
+<p>Were these the beings of the new planet which had come to attack us?
+But how could this helpless creature, incapable of almost everything,
+obviously, save thought, do the work of its world?</p>
+
+<p>Then I recalled again that insulated room of the Red Spark Cafe: the
+thin, ten-foot hooded shape which was carrying the box. Was that,
+perhaps, an opposite type of being with the brain submerged, dwarfed,
+and the body paramount? Were there, on this mysterious planet, two
+co-existing types, each a specialist, one for the physical work and
+the other for the mental?</p>
+
+<p>I stood with Snap and Grantline in that dark balcony doorway, gazing
+down to where the giant brain stood braced upon its shriveled arms and
+legs, and realized why we of Earth and Venus and Mars are all cast in
+the same mould we call human. It is a little family of planets, here
+in our solar system; for countless eons we have been close neighbors.
+The same sunlight, the same general conditions of life, the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+seed, were strewn here by a wise Creator. A man from the Orient is
+different from an Anglo-Saxon; a man of Mars differs a little more.
+But basically they are the same.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, confronting us now was a new type, from realms of interstellar
+space, far beyond our solar system.</p>
+
+<p>"For the last time, will you talk?" snapped Brayley.</p>
+
+<p>There was another interval of silence. The eyes of the brain were very
+watchful. Its gaze roved the hall as though it were seeking for help.
+It shifted its little arms on the table, seemingly exhausted from the
+physical effort of supporting itself.</p>
+
+<p>Brayley's voice came again. "Doubtless you can feel pain acutely. We
+shall see."</p>
+
+<p>With what effort of will to overcome his revulsion we may only guess,
+he reached forward and pinched the little arm. The result was
+electrifying. From the upended slit of mouth in that goggling face,
+came a scream. It pierced the heavy tense silence of the hall, ghastly
+in its timbre, like nothing any of us had ever heard before. And in it
+was conveyed agony as though Brayley had not merely pinched that
+flabby arm, but had thrust a red-hot knife into its vitals.</p>
+
+<p>The brain could feel pain indeed. It crouched with stiffened arms and
+legs. The membrane of its great head seemed to bulge with greater
+distension; the knotted blood-vessels were gorged with purple blood.
+The eyes rolled. Then it closed its mouth. Its gaze steadied upon
+Brayley's face, so baleful a gaze that as I could see the reflection
+of its luminous purple glow a shudder of fear and revulsion swept me.</p>
+
+<p>"So you did not like that?" Brayley steadied his voice. "If you don't
+want more, you had better speak. How did you get here on Earth? What
+are you trying to do here?"</p>
+
+<p>There seemed an interminable silence; then Nippor took a menacing step
+forward. "Speak! We will force it from you!"</p>
+
+<p>And then it spoke. "Do&mdash;not&mdash;touch&mdash;me&mdash;again."</p>
+
+<p>Indescribable voice! Human, animal or monster no one could say. But
+the words were clear, precise; and for all their terror, they seemed
+to hold an infinite command.</p>
+
+<p>A wave of excitement swept the hall, but Brayley's gesture silenced
+it. He leaped forward and bent low over the palpitating brain.</p>
+
+<p>"So you can talk. You came as an enemy. We have given<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> you every
+chance today for friendship, and you have refused. What are you trying
+to do to us?"</p>
+
+<p>It only glared.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not tell you anything."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, you will."</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>All the men on the platform were crowding close to it now.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!" ordered Brayley again. "Here in Greater New York is a hiding
+place. Where is it?"</p>
+
+<p>No answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is it? You are perhaps a leader of your world. I lead ours, and
+I'm going to master you now. Where is this hiding place?"</p>
+
+<p>The thing suddenly laughed, a gruesome, eerie cackle. "You will know
+when it is too late. I think it is too late already."</p>
+
+<p>"Too late for what?"</p>
+
+<p>"To save your world. Doomed, your three worlds! Don't touch&mdash;me!"</p>
+
+<p>It ended with a scream of apprehension as Nippor grasped the crooked
+little arm. "Tell us!"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" It screamed again. "Let&mdash;me&mdash;go!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us!" Nippor strengthened his squeezing grip. The thing was
+writhing, the thin ball of membrane palpitating, heaving. And suddenly
+it burst. Over all its purpled surface, blood came with a gush.</p>
+
+<p>Nippor and Brayley staggered backward. The scream of the brain ended
+in a choking gurgle. The little legs and tiny body wilted under it;
+the round ball of membrane sank to the table. It rolled sidewise upon
+one arm and ear, and in a moment its palpitation ceased. A purple-red
+mass of blood, it lay deflated and flabby.</p>
+
+<p>It was dead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>4</h2>
+
+
+<p>"But see here," I said, "did they mention the Martian, Molo, at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were discussing Molo before you arrived," Grantline told us.</p>
+
+<p>We had drawn back from the doorway. The conference, with the dead
+thing removed, was proceeding. Snap and I had momentarily forgotten
+Anita and Venza; but now we were in a panic to get back to the Red
+Spark.</p>
+
+<p>"But you can't go," said Grantline. "Brayley ordered you here. He'll
+want to see you in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why doesn't he see us now?" Snap protested. "I'm not going to
+cool myself off sitting here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, you are."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline sent word to Brayley that we were here. In a moment the
+answer came. We were to wait a short time; he would want to see us.</p>
+
+<p>We swiftly told Grantline what had happened at the Red Spark, and
+found that already he knew. Francis had relayed it to the conference,
+and Halsey was in constant communication with the officials here.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what is happening?" I demanded. "Where are the girls? Has Halsey
+heard from them?"</p>
+
+<p>Again Grantline went to a nearby room.</p>
+
+<p>"Anita sent a message," he said, when he returned. "They are with
+Molo. Halsey is ordering a squad of men to be ready."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline told us what had been happening in the Red Spark. Anita and
+Venza, simulating drunkenness with a skill for acting which I knew
+both of them possessed, had joined Molo's party. Perhaps if Meka had
+been there she would have seen through them.</p>
+
+<p>But Molo did not. And they have since told me that the Martian himself
+was far from sober, although he was probably not aware of it. He
+yielded to their demands to leave the restaurant with him. He wanted,
+as we know, to leave unobtrusively; and Venza threatened a scene
+unless she could go.</p>
+
+<p>He took them, leaving openly in a public fare-car. Doubtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> he at
+first intended to de-rail them somewhere, but they convinced him that
+he was not being followed. Twice he used his detector, and Anita and
+Halsey were clever enough to throw off their rays in time to avoid it.
+Then Halsey lost connection with the fleeing car, and after that Molo
+changed his mind about ditching the girls.</p>
+
+<p>"But where are they now?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"You," said Grantline sternly, "are out of it. Do you think that
+Halsey, under Brayley's orders, will neglect any chance to find out
+where Molo is hiding? Something is about to happen. This conference is
+wrestling with it. In Grebhar and Ferrok-Shahn they're striving to
+find out what it is. Something impending <i>now</i>. Helios are pouring in
+here from Venus and Mars. They're mobilizing their spaceships, just as
+we are."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline at last was letting out all his apprehensions on us, with
+this burst. "Halsey didn't tell you that the entire resources of his
+organization are out upon this thing tonight. Here at this conclave
+there's a room of information-sorters. That's just where I came from a
+moment ago. Every country on our Earth is making ready&mdash;for what,
+nobody knows!</p>
+
+<p>"He's had two fragmentary calls from Anita. He has a hundred men ready
+to rush to their aid, and to capture Molo's lair. He expects another
+message from Anita any moment. This conference here knows every
+movement that is being made, within ten or twenty seconds of its
+making. Perhaps upon Anita and Venza the whole outcome of this thing
+may hang."</p>
+
+<p>We had no answer to that. "Do you know who Molo is? He's an
+interplanetary pirate; his ship is the <i>Star-Streak</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord!"</p>
+
+<p>We had heard of him. For five years past, a gray spaceship, with a
+base supposedly hidden in the Polar deserts of Mars, had been
+terrorizing interplanetary shipping.</p>
+
+<p>"They think," Grantline went on, "that Molo was cruising with his
+pirate ship. He has, as you know, a band of criminals drawn from all
+the three worlds. There are about fifty of them, commanded by his
+sister and himself. We think that Molo encountered the three ships
+which that new planet sent out. The <i>Star-Streak</i> was captured,
+perhaps destroyed. Molo and his band, joined with this new enemy, to
+save themselves, and because they have been promised rewards."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But why should these brains want their help?" Snap demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Wouldn't you say it was because, in Ferrok-Shahn, Grebhar and here in
+Greater New York, simultaneously tonight, something has to be
+accomplished, something the brains themselves could not do? Molo and
+his band know all three cities. How they landed here in Greater New
+York nobody knows; the enemy spaceship is 200,000 miles out. Obviously
+they came from it, landed secretly with some smaller ship somewhere on
+Earth and made their way here."</p>
+
+<p>A buzzer sounded beside us. A voice commanded: "Grantline, bring Gregg
+Haljan and Daniel Dean to room six at once."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In room six we stood before the War Secretary, who had arrived there a
+moment ahead of us.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Haljan and Dean. I'm glad to see you."</p>
+
+<p>He was still white and shaken. Beads of perspiration stood upon his
+forehead. He mopped them off.</p>
+
+<p>"I've just had a rather terrible experience." He did not suggest that
+we sit down. He went on crisply: "Grantline no doubt has told you of
+what's going on. Disturbing, terrifying. Haljan, we have a ship being
+rushed into commission tonight. You know her, the <i>Cometara</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I know her," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so. She is taking off as soon as we can ready her. She will
+carry about fifty men. Grantline is in charge of the armament and men.
+You, Dean, we want to handle her radio-helio."</p>
+
+<p>"Right," said Snap.</p>
+
+<p>"And you, Haljan, we can think of no one better to navigate her."</p>
+
+<p>He waved away my appreciation. "Within a brief time we shall have
+thirty such ships in space. Mars and Venus also are mobilizing."</p>
+
+<p>He stood up. "We feel, Haljan, that if anyone can handle the
+<i>Cometara</i> with skill enough to combat this lurking enemy, it will be
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"We know that. The ship is leaving from the Tappan Inter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>planetary
+Stage shortly after dawn. When have you and Dean last slept?"</p>
+
+<p>"Last night," we both said.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so. Then you need sleep now. I want you to go at once to the
+Tappan Fieldhouse. The commander there will make you comfortable. Eat,
+and sleep if you can. We want you in good shape. You're to keep out of
+this night's activities here in the city; you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes sir."</p>
+
+<p>An orderly was approaching behind Brayley. "I'll be back in a moment,
+Rollins."</p>
+
+<p>He shook hands with us. "I may not see you again before it's over.
+Good luck, lads. Grantline, they need you for a moment in the hall;
+something about electronic space weapons, further equipment for the
+<i>Cometara</i>. Then you'd better go to Tappan House too, and get some
+sleep."</p>
+
+<p>We were dismissed. Snap and I regarded each other hesitantly. I said
+impulsively, "Mr. Brayley, Detective-Colonel Halsey is using two
+girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we're watching that, Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>"They're the girls we're to marry," I added. "May we communicate with
+Colonel Halsey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Call him from here." He smiled wanly. "But keep out of it; we
+need you at dawn."</p>
+
+<p>The Tappan departure-stage was only a few miles up the Hudson; we
+could get there in half an hour. It was now nearly trinight, halfway
+between midnight and dawn. I had my portable audiphone and got Halsey
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>"You Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. They're through with us at the Conclave. Where is Anita?"</p>
+
+<p>"We heard from her twice. I'm expecting...."</p>
+
+<p>We could hear someone interrupting him. Then he came back. "Gregg?
+Molo took them somewhere. I didn't dare fling after them. He had his
+detector going, and Anita warned me not to try it. She had to stop
+connection herself. God knows how she was able to whisper to me at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>His voice, like Brayley's, had the ring of a man strained to the
+breaking point. I could appreciate how Halsey must feel, forced to
+remain at his desk with its encircling banks of instruments; holding
+all the network of his farflung activities<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> centralized; his
+decisions, his commands in a hundred places almost simultaneously,
+while his body sat there inactive.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, the girls must have arrived at Molo's place by now. If only
+they know where they are! I have lookouts throughout the city with
+intricate and complete connecting equipment. Gregg, I must
+disconnect."</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel, give me Anita's frequency. Maybe Snap or I can pick up the
+message."</p>
+
+<p>He named the oscillating frequency, then disconnected.</p>
+
+<p>"Try that frequency," Snap suggested. "We've got to do something."</p>
+
+<p>The door-slide opened suddenly and an orderly appeared. "Haljan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Get the hell away," roared Snap. "We've had our orders; we don't want
+any from you."</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg Haljan and Daniel Dean are paged on the mirrors."</p>
+
+<p>Someone in the city wanted us; our names were appearing on the various
+mirror-grids publicly displayed throughout the city in the hope that
+we would answer.</p>
+
+<p>"That's different," said Snap. "Answer it for us, that's a good
+fellow. We're busy."</p>
+
+<p>"It must be important," the orderly insisted. "The caller registered a
+fee at the Search Bureau; that's how they located you here. He paid
+the highest fee to search you. An emergency call."</p>
+
+<p>It was against the law to invoke the services of the Search Bureau
+unless based upon actual impending danger. "We'll take it," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me." He turned to the left and down the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>We hastened with him to a corridor cubby. Upon the audiphone there I
+was at once connected with a voice, and an anxious man's face with a
+two-day growth upon it.</p>
+
+<p>"Haljan! Thank God you answered. This is Dud Ardley. Me and Shac are
+here. Listen, this is the lower cellar corridor, Lateral 3, under
+Broadway. Me and Shac just have seen your girls down here."</p>
+
+<p>News of Anita and Venza! I could see in the mirror-image, behind Dud's
+head the outlines of the little public cubby from which he was
+calling. He and his brother, on some illicit errand of their own in
+East Side lower Manhattan, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> seen figures alighting from a
+fare-car. They had caught a glimpse of the faces of Anita and Venza.
+The girls were hooded and cloaked; a hooded man was with them. The
+fare-car quickly rolled away, and the hooded figures, suddenly
+becoming invisible within their magnetic cloaks, had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>"S'elp me, we couldn't do nothin'. You know we take no chances with
+the police by carryin' cylinders. So I paged you in a hurry."</p>
+
+<p>"Dud, that's damn nice of you. Where are you now? Tell me again."</p>
+
+<p>The Ardleys, knowing nothing of the events of this night, supposed
+that the girls were being abducted, and decided I should be informed.</p>
+
+<p>"Damn right, Dud. We'll come at once. You two wait for us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. If you got instruments, maybe we can track 'em. It wasn't a
+quarter of a mile from here, over toward the river. Plenty of rotten
+dumps down there."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait for us, Dud. We'll come in a rush."</p>
+
+<p>I slammed shut the audiphone. Snap, beside me, had heard it all. He
+shoved the astonished orderly out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the nearest exit-route out of here?"</p>
+
+<p>"To the city roof, sir. Up this incline."</p>
+
+<p>We dashed up the spiral incline, through a low exit-port, and were in
+the starlight of the city roof.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Connect it, Gregg! You can't tell; her message might come over any
+minute."</p>
+
+<p>I tuned my coils to the seldom used oscillation frequency which Halsey
+had told us Anita's transmitter was sending.</p>
+
+<p>"Anything, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Dead channel."</p>
+
+<p>The air, in Anita's channel, was bafflingly silent.</p>
+
+<p>We had been challenged by a roof-guard when we appeared from the upper
+port of the Conclave Hall; the city roof was not open to public
+traffic. But with our identifications, he found us a single-seat
+hand-tram, and started us southward on the deserted route.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cloudless night, with stars like thickly-strewn dia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>monds on
+purple velvet. The city roof lay glistening in the starlight. In my
+great-grandfather's time there had been no roof here; the open city
+was exposed to all the inclement weather. But gradually the arcades
+and overhead viaducts, cross balconies and catwalks which spanned the
+canyon street between the giant buildings became a roof. It spread,
+now terraced and sloped to top the lofty buildings, like a great
+rumpled sheet propped by the knees of sleeping giants. Some of the
+roof was of opaque alumite, dark patches, alternating with the great
+glassite panes which in places admitted the daylight.</p>
+
+<p>Our little tram sped along southward, wending its way over the
+terraces. Save for the guards and lookouts in their occasional
+cubbies, and the air-traffic directors in their towers, we were alone
+up here. The roof was tangled with air-pipes, line-wire conduits,
+aerials, arterial systems of the ventilating and lighting devices. As
+far as one could see the ventilators stood fronting the night breeze
+like listening ears. There were water tanks, great cross-bulkheads and
+flumes to handle the rain and snow. A few traffic towers maintained
+order in the overhead air-lanes. Their beacons shot up into the sky
+when the passing lights marked the thinly-strewn trinight traffic.</p>
+
+<p>We were stopped at intervals, but in each case were passed promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing yet, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Anita's channel remained empty. It was, I suppose, no more than ten
+minutes during which we sped south along the grotesque maze of the
+roof; but to us it was an eternity. If only some message would come!</p>
+
+<p>"I'll pull up here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I gathered up my little audiphone, thrust it under my dark flowing
+cloak. If only our cloaks were magnetic!</p>
+
+<p>We leaped from our car. "In a rush, Haljan?" asked a guard.</p>
+
+<p>"That's us. Orders from Mr. Brayley."</p>
+
+<p>We left him and plunged into a descending automatic lift. A drop of a
+thousand feet; we shot downward past all the deserted levels, past the
+ground-level, the undersurface transportation lanes, the sub-river
+tubes, the sub-cellar, down to the very bottom of the city.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come on, Gregg. Two segments from here."</p>
+
+<p>We advanced at a run. At this hour of night, hardly a pedestrian was
+in evidence. It was an arched vaulted corridor, almost a tunnel, dimly
+blue-lit with short lengths of fluorescent tubes at intervals on the
+ceiling. For all the vaunted mechanisms of our time, the air here was
+heavy and fetid. Moisture dripped from the concrete roof. It lay on
+the metal pavement of the ground; the smell of it was dank, tomb-like.</p>
+
+<p>There were frequent cross-tunnels. We turned eastward into one of
+them. For a segment there were the lower entrances to the cellars of
+the giant buildings overhead. We passed a place where the
+tunnel-corridor widened into a great underground plaza. The sewerage
+and wire-pipes lay like tangled pythons on its floor. Half across it,
+by the glow of temporary lights strung on a cable, a group of
+repairmen were working. We passed them, headed in to where the tunnel
+narrowed again and there were now occasional cubby entrances to
+underground dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rabbit warren from here to the river, haunted by criminals
+and by miserable families, many of whom never saw the daylight for
+weeks at a time. The giant voices of the city hardly carried down
+here, so that an oppressive silence hung upon everything.</p>
+
+<p>"That next crossing, Gregg. They said they'd wait for us there."</p>
+
+<p>Occasional escalators led upward. In advance of us was a narrow
+intersection. There were a few lights in the bullseyes of the
+subterranean dwelling rooms, but most of them were dark.</p>
+
+<p>"Easy, Snap. Not so fast."</p>
+
+<p>I pulled Snap to a walk. We edged over against the tunnel side. We had
+passed a small lighted audiphone cubby, evidently the one from which
+Dud and Shac had paged us. They should have been here waiting; but
+there was nothing but the empty, gloomy tunnels.</p>
+
+<p>"Something is coming!" Snap clutched at me; we drew our cloaks around
+us and waited in a shadowed recess. Down a side incline, a segment
+behind us, a small automatic food truck came lurching. It pulled up at
+an arcade entrance. Its driver slid the portals, deposited his cases
+of food, locked the panel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> after him; and in a moment he and his truck
+were gone up the incline.</p>
+
+<p>We heard, in the ensuing silence, a low groan near at hand; then
+abruptly it stopped. We saw, within twenty feet of us, two dark
+figures lying on the pavement grid in a black patch of shadow where
+the mailtube came down in a curve and disappeared into the tunnel
+wall.</p>
+
+<p>We bent over the figures of two men. They lay together, one half upon
+the other, black-garbed figures with white, staring faces. One
+twitched a little and then lay still.</p>
+
+<p>They were Shac and Dud Ardley.</p>
+
+<p>"Murdered, Gregg! Good Lord!"</p>
+
+<p>Both were dead, but we could see no marks on either of them.</p>
+
+<p>I found my wits. "Snap, we can't stand like this wholly visible."</p>
+
+<p>I pulled Snap away. We darted a few feet. The light of the tunnel
+intersection was directly over us. "Not here, Snap! Run!"</p>
+
+<p>Under the curving vacuum tube a little further along, we found
+shelter. Snap murmured: "The girls went past here. But which way,
+Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>As though I knew!</p>
+
+<p>I felt at that moment, under the shirt against my skin, the anode of
+my audiphone tingling. A receiving signal! In the gloom, I could see
+Snap's white face as he watched me bring it out.</p>
+
+<p>We heard a tiny microphonic voice, Anita's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Halsey. Yes I have the location. Lafayette 4&mdash;East corridor,
+lowest level. A descending entrance. Don't you speak again; I've only
+a minute! Venza safe&mdash;but send help. Something we don't understand&mdash;a
+strange mechanism here."</p>
+
+<p>Then Halsey's interrupting voice. "Anita, escape! You and Venza!"</p>
+
+<p>"We can't. They've got us!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sending men. They'll be there in ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p>"Ten minutes will be too late. Molo is...."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that we heard her scream; then the waves blurred and died.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lafayette 4&mdash;East corridor, lowest level. "Snap, that's here! A
+descending entrance."</p>
+
+<p>We stood back against the great curving side of the postal vacuum
+tube. Within it I heard the hiss and clank as a mail cylinder flashed
+past. Halsey's secret orders must be going out now. His men nearest
+this place would come in a rush. But Anita said that would be too
+late.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and I were frantically searching. Somewhere here was an entrance
+to Molo's lair. It seemed in the silence that Anita's scream was still
+ringing in my ears. Had it been entirely from the instrument, or were
+we so close that we had heard its distant echoes?</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, help me." Snap was tugging at a horizontal door-slide, like a
+trap in the tunnel floor, partly under the vacuum tube. "Stuck!" he
+gasped.</p>
+
+<p>It yielded with our efforts. It slid aside. Steps led downward into
+blackness. We plunged in, caution gone from us. The steps went down
+some twenty feet; we were in another smaller corridor. It was vaguely
+lighted by a glow from somewhere, and as my pupils expanded, I could
+see this was a shabby alley, opening ahead into a winding passage with
+the slide-port above us like its back gate. A warren of cubbies was
+here, a little sequestered segment of disreputable dwellings.</p>
+
+<p>We stood peering, listening. "Shall I try the eavesdropper, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. No, wait!" I thought I heard distant sounds.</p>
+
+<p>"Voices, Snap. Listen."</p>
+
+<p>More than voices. A thud: footsteps running. A commotion, back in this
+warren, within a hundred feet of us.</p>
+
+<p>"This way," I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>We plunged into a black gash. There was a glow of light, a glassite
+pane in a house wall nearby. The commotion was louder, and under it
+now we heard a vague humming: something electrical. It was an
+indescribably weird sound, like nothing I had ever heard before.</p>
+
+<p>Snap clutched at me. "In here, but where is the accursed door?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a glassite pane, but we could find no door. In our hands we
+held small electronic bolt-cylinders, short-range weapons.</p>
+
+<p>The hum and hissing was louder. It seemed to throb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> within us, as
+though vibration were communicating to every fiber of our bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Light was streaming through the glassite pane, and we glimpsed the
+interior of the room. The light now came from a strange mechanism set
+in the center of the metal cubby. I caught only an instant's glimpse
+of it, a round thing of coils and wires. The metal floor of the room
+was cut away, exposing the gray rock of Manhattan Island. And against
+the rock, in a ten-foot circle, a series of discs were contacted, with
+wires leading from them to the central coils.</p>
+
+<p>The whole was glowing with opalescent light. It was dazzling,
+blinding. Within in it the goggled figure of Molo was moving,
+adjusting the contacts. He stooped. He straightened, drew back from
+the light.</p>
+
+<p>Only an instant's glimpse, but we saw the girls, crouching with black
+bandages on their eyes. Meka, goggled like her brother, was holding
+them. A tall shape carrying a round black box darted through the light
+and ran. Molo leaped for the girls; the hum had mounted to a wild
+electrical scream. Molo flung his sister back out of the light.</p>
+
+<p>They all vanished. There was nothing but the light, and the mounting
+dynamic scream.</p>
+
+<p>Beside me, Snap was pounding on the glassite panel. I joined him.
+Everything was dreamlike, blurring as though unconsciousness was upon
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Where was Snap? Gone? Then I saw him nearby. He had found a door, but
+it wouldn't yield. I saw his arm go up in a gesture to me.</p>
+
+<p>He ran; I found myself running after him, but I stumbled and fell.
+Then over me the scream burst into a great roar of sound. It seemed so
+intense, so gigantic a sound that it must ring around the world.</p>
+
+<p>And the light burst with an exploding puff. The black metal cubby
+walls seemed to melt like phantoms in a dream. A titan's blowtorch,
+the opalescent light shot upward, a circular ten-foot beam, eating its
+way through all the city levels as though they were paper, up through
+the city roof.</p>
+
+<p>Molo's cubby was gone. His mechanism was eaten by the light and
+destroyed. There was only this motionless, upstanding beam, contacted
+here with the Earth, streaming like an opalescent sword into the
+starry sky.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>5</h2>
+
+
+<p>I must paint now upon a broader canvas to depict the utter chaos of
+this most memorable night in the history of the Earth, Venus and Mars.</p>
+
+<p>From that point in the bowels of Greater New York, near the southern
+tip of Manhattan Island, the mysterious light-beam shot up. It
+screamed with its weird electrical voice for an hour, so penetrating a
+sound that it was heard with the unaided ears as far away as
+Philadelphia. A titan voice it was, shrill as if with triumph. There
+were millions of people awakened by it this night; awakened and struck
+with a chill of fear at this nameless siren shrilling its note of
+danger. The sound gradually subsided; it seemed to reach its peak
+within a few minutes of the appearance of the light, and within an
+hour it had ceased.</p>
+
+<p>But the light beam remained. Those who inspected it closely have given
+a clear description of its aspect; but to this day its real nature has
+never been determined.</p>
+
+<p>It was a circular beam of about a ten-foot diameter. In color it was
+vaguely opalescent, rather more brilliant at night than in the day.
+With the coming of the sun it did not fade, but remained clearly
+visible, with a spectrum sheen when the sunlight hit it so that it had
+somewhat the appearance of a titanic, straightened rainbow.</p>
+
+<p>From that contact point with our Earth, the inexplicable beam stood
+vertically upward. It ate a vertical hole like a chimney up through
+all the city levels, through the roof and into the sky. It had a
+tremendous heat, communicable by contact so that it melted the city
+above it with a clean round hole. But the heat was non-radiant.</p>
+
+<p>I was found lying within fifty feet of the base of the beam. There had
+been an explosion, so that Molo's metal room was gone; but from where
+I lay there was only a warmth to be felt from the light.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Halsey's men found me within half an hour. I was unconscious but not
+injured. I think now that the sound and not the light overcame me. I
+presently recovered consciousness; for another hour I was blind and
+deaf, but that quickly wore off. They rushed me through the chaos of
+the city to the Tappan Headquarters. Grantline was there, but not
+Snap. I sent them back when once I was fully conscious. They searched
+all the vicinity at the base of the light. Snap, alive or dead, was
+not to be found.</p>
+
+<p>Anita and Venza were gone. I had seen Molo and Meka plunge away with
+them as the light-beam burst forth. They were gone, and Snap was gone.</p>
+
+<p>There was, by now, a turmoil unprecedented throughout all the
+metropolitan area. The motionless light-beam itself had done little
+damage, but its appearance brought instant chaos. Within a radius of
+five miles of its base, the city was plunged into darkness. All power
+was cut off. Every vehicle, even the aeros passing overhead, and, the
+ventilating system stopped. Audiphones were wrecked; it subsided
+within an hour, though, and after that, lights and instruments brought
+into the area were not affected.</p>
+
+<p>But during that hour, south Manhattan was in panic. A multitude of
+terrified people awakened in the night to find blackness and that
+screaming sound. The streets and corridors and traffic levels were
+jammed with throngs trampling and killing one another in their efforts
+to escape.</p>
+
+<p>This was in the stricken area; but everywhere else the panic was
+spreading. Transportation systems were almost all out of commission.
+The panic spread until by dawn there was a wild exodus of refugees
+jamming the bridges and viaducts and tunnels, streaming from all the
+city exits.</p>
+
+<p>This was Greater New York. But from Venus and Mars came similar
+reports. In Grebhar and in Ferrok-Shahn, doubtless almost simultaneous
+with Greater New York, similar light-beams appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"But what can it be?" I demanded of Grantline. "Something Molo
+contacted there? He did it. That was what he was working for, and he
+accomplished his purpose. But what will the beam do to us?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's doing plenty," said Grantline grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't intend that. There was something else."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But what? As yet, no one knew. I had already told the authorities what
+I had seen. I was the only eye-witness to Molo's activities; and
+heaven knows I had but a brief, confused glimpse.</p>
+
+<p>The beam remained; it streamed upward from the rock. They thought,
+this night, that Molo's strange current had set up a disintegration of
+the atoms, and that electronic particles from them were streaming into
+space.</p>
+
+<p>The light-beam seemed impervious to attack. Within a few hours the
+authorities were attacking its base with various vibratory weapons but
+without success.</p>
+
+<p>From where Grantline and I sat, we saw the dawn coming. But the
+radiance-beam remained unaffected. "Gregg, look there at Venus!"</p>
+
+<p>To the east of us there was a distant line of metal structures
+surmounting the mid-Westchester hills; above them, in the brightening
+sky of dawn, Venus was just rising. Mars had already set at our
+longitude. Venus, fairly close to the Earth now, was the "Morning
+Star."; it mounted now above that line of metal stages in the
+distance.</p>
+
+<p>And as Grantline gestured, I saw from Venus the same sword-like beam
+streaming off almost to cross our own.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline and I, with a mutual thought, ran around the balcony and
+gazed to where Mars had set. A narrow radiance was streaming up among
+the stars off there.</p>
+
+<p>Three swinging swords of light in the sky! With the rotation of the
+planets, they swept the firmament. The mysterious enemy had planted
+them&mdash;but why? What was coming next?</p>
+
+<p>And as though to answer us, from far to the south, over mid-Jersey,
+came a new manifestation. We saw a speck rising, a distant mounting
+speck of something dark, with streamers of tiny radiance flowing from
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"A spaceship, Gregg."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed so. It came slowly from above the maze of distant
+structures, gathered speed, and in a moment was gone.</p>
+
+<p>But others, better equipped, had observed it. It was a cylindrical
+projectile, with stream-fluorescence propelling it upward, an unusual
+form of spaceship. Telescopically it was seen until well after dawn.
+Speeding out in the direction of the Moon.</p>
+
+<p>Molo and his weird allies had escaped, I thought. With<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> their work
+done here on Earth, they were off to rejoin the hovering enemy ship
+200,000 miles out.</p>
+
+<p>I stood gripping Grantline on that balcony, and gazed with sinking
+heart. Were Anita and Venza prisoners on that mounting ship? And Snap:
+I prayed he was there with the girls to lend them the protection I had
+failed to give.</p>
+
+<p>"Haljan and Grantline wanted below."</p>
+
+<p>The voice of a mechanic on the balcony behind us roused us from our
+thoughts. We went down through the busy building.</p>
+
+<p>The workshops of Tappan Interplanetary Headquarters had for hours been
+ringing with busy activity. The <i>Cometara</i> rested upon her departure
+stage outside, with a score of workmen conditioning her.
+Newly-installed additional armament was aboard, ready to be assembled
+after the start. The men to handle it were embarked. My half dozen
+officers and the ten members of the crew I had already briefly met.
+They were waiting for me.</p>
+
+<p>"On we go, Gregg. Let's wish ourselves luck." From grim, silent
+abstraction, Grantline had now sprung into his familiar dynamic self.</p>
+
+<p>There was a solemn group of officers and a hundred or so workmen here;
+they stopped their fevered labors now to watch the <i>Cometara</i> get
+away, first of Earth's ships speeding into space to confront this
+nameless enemy. Grantline and I went past them with silent handshakes
+and murmured good-bys. I saw the towering figure of Brayley. He raised
+an arm for a farewell gesture to us.</p>
+
+<p>We mounted the incline to the <i>Cometara</i>. She rested upon her stage, a
+great, sleek bronze ship, low and rakish, with pointed ends and a
+flattened, arched turtle-back dome of glassite covering the
+superstructure and the decks from bow to stern. She lay quiescent,
+gleaming in the glow of the departure beacons; but there was an aspect
+of latent power upon her.</p>
+
+<p>My ship! My first command! As we went through the opened port of the
+domeside and I touched foot upon the deck, I prayed that I might
+justify the faith reposed in me.</p>
+
+<p>Men crowded the narrow, covered deck. I saw the space-guns at the deck
+pressure-ports, partly assembled. My chief officer, a young fellow
+named Drac Davidson, who with his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> twin brother had been in the
+Interplanetary Freight Service, rushed up to me.</p>
+
+<p>"We're ready, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, Drac."</p>
+
+<p>He hurried me to the turret control room. Grantline instantly had
+plunged into details of assembling the weapons.</p>
+
+<p>"Her ports are all closed," said Drac. He spoke calmly, but his thin
+face was pale and his dark eyes glowed with excitement. "The interior
+pressure is set at fifteen pounds. You can ring us up at once."</p>
+
+<p>No formalities to this departure! With pounding heart I entered the
+small circular turret and mounted its tiny spiral stairs to the upper
+control room. But as I touched the levers, calmness came to me with
+these familiar tasks at which I was skilled.</p>
+
+<p>I slid a central-hull gravity-plate. It went smoothly, perfectly
+operated by the magnets. The vessel trembled, lifted; outside the
+enclosing dome I could see the dawn-light of the sky and paling
+floodlights of the stage. Figures of men out there, made silent
+gestures of farewell, dropping slowly beneath our hull as we lifted.</p>
+
+<p>The bow gravity-plates slid into the repulsive-force positions. The
+bow lifted. The <i>Cometara</i> responded smoothly. We went up, poised at a
+forty-five degree angle. I saw the outer beacons on the stage swing
+upward with their warning to passing traffic in the lower lanes.</p>
+
+<p>"Light our bow-beacon, Drac."</p>
+
+<p>We lifted through the lower thousand and two thousand-foot lanes. The
+lights of Tappen were dwindling beneath us. The interior of the
+<i>Cometara</i> was humming with the whirr of its circulators and
+air-receivers, mingled with the throb of air pressure pumps. At three
+thousand feet I started the air-rocket engines. They came on with a
+gentle purring. The fluorescence from them streamed along our hull and
+down past the stern, like twin rocket tails.</p>
+
+<p>With gathering speed we slid smoothly upward through the highest
+traffic lanes, out of the atmosphere, through the stratosphere and
+into space.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the stratosphere, I cut off the air-rocket engines, slid the
+stern gravity-plates for the Earth's repulsion and the bow plates for
+the attraction of the Moon and Sun. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> firmament swung, in a slow
+arc, and steadied with the Earth behind us and the Sun and Moon in
+advance of our bow. We were on our course, plunging through space with
+accelerating velocity toward the unknown enemy ship hovering two
+hundred thousand miles ahead of us. My orders were to find the ship
+and maneuver us close to it; and Grantline's orders were to assail it.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed down at the convex North Atlantic with the reddening coastline
+of North America spread like a map.</p>
+
+<p>What was the nature of this strange enemy whom we sought? That
+opalescent beam from Greater New York mounted with its radiance into
+the dome-like starfield; the one from Venus and the other from Mars
+seemed crossing overhead amid the stars.</p>
+
+<p>Three swords crossing the sky! What did they mean?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Will you swing east or west of the Moon?"</p>
+
+<p>"We haven't decided."</p>
+
+<p>Drac Davidson and I were alone in the <i>Cometara's</i> control turret.</p>
+
+<p>We were some ten hours out from Earth. Over such short astronomical
+distances it was impossible to attain any great velocity. When once we
+were clear of the Earth's atmospheric envelope, the rocket-stream
+engines were useless. The <i>Cometara</i> was equipped also with
+tail-streamers of electronic nature. They exerted a slight pressure,
+useful for sudden curving and turning; but they had only negligible
+influence upon the main velocity of the vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>I used the repulsion of the Earth upon our negatively charged stern
+gravity-plates; and with those of the bow electronified to the
+positive reaction, we were drawn forward by the Sun and the Moon.</p>
+
+<p>For three or four hours I held to this combination with steady
+acceleration; but then I had to retard. In close quarters such as
+this, the retarding velocity must be calculated with a nicety many
+hours in advance.</p>
+
+<p>We hung now, very nearly poised, within some forty thousand miles of
+the surface of the Moon. Bleak and cold, sharply black and white, it
+hung in a gigantic crescent in advance of our bow. The Sun, whose
+attraction I had ceased using some hours back, was visible sharply to
+one side now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> Its great gas streams of giant flame licked up into the
+blackness of the firmament. The sunlight caught the lunar mountains
+with a white glare, and left the valleys black with shadow; moonlight
+and the mingled sunlight painted our bow. Behind our stem the great
+disk of Earth hung somber and glowing.</p>
+
+<p>And everywhere else was the great black enclosing firmament. The stars
+blazed with a new white glory never seen through the haze of an
+atmosphere. Like a little world in the vastness of this awesome void,
+we hung poised.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline came into the turret. "I've got everything ready, Gregg. By
+the gods, once you can lay telescope upon that accursed enemy ship,
+I'm ready to open fire on it."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," I said.</p>
+
+<p>But the thought of hurling our bolts at this enemy ship had struck
+terror into my heart for hours past. I was convinced that the three
+who in all the world were dearest to me&mdash;Anita, Venza, and Snap&mdash;were
+upon that enemy vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline asked, "Are you going closer to the Moon?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"The ship couldn't be between us and the Moon. Waters and I have been
+in the helio room for the past hour, searching with the 'scope there.
+Nothing doing, Gregg. Not a sign."</p>
+
+<p>"I know. Our instruments here show that."</p>
+
+<p>"There might be a way of sighting them," Drac put in.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try the Zed-ray," I suggested. "Drac and I have it corrected.
+But I doubt if it would penetrate the sort of invisibility this enemy
+would use."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline nodded. "Or the Benson curve-light. You think the ship went
+behind the Moon? Or landed on the Moon?"</p>
+
+<p>"It could have done either. Has Waters still got contact with the
+Earth? Have they seen it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>I made a sudden decision. It would take us two hours at least to make
+a careful scanning with the Zed-ray; and to take an elaborate series
+of spectro-heliographs of the Moon's surface, which might show the
+enemy vessel if it had landed there, was a laborious process.</p>
+
+<p>After brief thought, I discarded the idea. "We'll go to the helio
+room," I told Grantline. "I'm going to try the Benson curve-light."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grantline and I left the turret, heading along the catwalk under the
+glassite dome toward the helio cubby where the rotund, middle-aged
+Waters was in charge. It made my heart sink to think of the helio
+room. Snap should have been there.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the transverse catwalk. The superstructure roof was under
+us. Farther down, the narrow decks showed with Grantline's men grouped
+at the firing ports, where his weapons were mounted and ready. As I
+saw those grouped men loitering on the deck, waiting for me to give
+them a sighting, I prayed I could do so; and yet there was the
+shuddering fear that the first blast would bring death to Anita.</p>
+
+<p>Waters met us at the door of his cubby. His face was red; he mopped
+the perspiration from his bald head. "I'm so glad you came! Will you
+want the Benson-light? I say, I've lost connection with the Earth. I
+had the Washington transmitter. Five minutes ago they sent me a flash
+of the Mars and Venus news. They both sent ships, out."</p>
+
+<p>He gasped for breath, then added in a rush: "Both the Mars and Venus
+ships were destroyed and the enemy escaped!"</p>
+
+<p>Grantline and I gasped with horror.</p>
+
+<p>"Destroyed?" I said. "How?"</p>
+
+<p>Waters did not know. The news came; then, immediately after, the
+Washington transmitter changed its wavelength and he lost connection.</p>
+
+<p>"But why, in heaven's name, man, didn't you ring and tell us?"
+Grantline demanded. "Destroyed&mdash;only that! Just destroyed."</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid to leave my instruments," Waters said. "How could I
+tell? I might be able to renew connections with Washington any minute.
+Come on in. Do you want to try the Benson curve-light, Mr. Haljan?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said. "I do." We entered the dim helio cubby. "See here,
+Waters, what about the projectile that ascended from Earth last night?
+Did the Washington observatory report what happened to it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not a word. They lost it, evidently."</p>
+
+<p>Our 'scopes on the <i>Cometara</i> had not been able to locate the
+projectile. The large instruments of Earth had lost it. Was that
+because, with tremendous velocity, it had sped directly for the new
+planet out beyond Mars?</p>
+
+<p>Or, with some form of invisibility, might it be close to us<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> now, just
+as the lurking ship might be somewhere around here?</p>
+
+<p>From the little circular helio cubby, perched here under the dome like
+an eagle's nest, I could see down all the length of the ship, and out
+the side ports of the dome to the blazing firmament. The Sun, Moon and
+Earth and all the starfield were silently turning as Drac swung us
+upon our new course.</p>
+
+<p>Waters bent over the projector of the Benson curve-light, making
+connections. The cubby was silent and dim, with only a tiny spotlight
+where Waters was working, and a glow upon his table where his recent
+messages from Earth were filed. Grantline and I glanced at them.</p>
+
+<p>Panic in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn. The three
+strange beams which the enemy had planted on Earth, Venus and Mars
+still remained unchanged. I could see them now plainly from the helio
+cubby windows, great shafts of radiance sweeping the firmament.</p>
+
+<p>Waters straightened from his task. "That will do it, Mr. Haljan." He
+met me in the center of the cubby. "When you locate the enemy, do you
+think they'll destroy us as they did those other ships?"</p>
+
+<p>Grantline laughed grimly. "Maybe so, Waters. But let's hope not."</p>
+
+<p>Fat little Waters was anything but a coward, but being closed up here
+all these hours with a stream of dire messages from Earth had shaken
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"What I mean, Mr. Grantline, is that prudence is sometimes better than
+reckless valor. The <i>Cometara</i> is no warship. If Earth had sent an
+international patrol vessel...."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline did not answer. He joined me at the Benson projector. "Can
+we operate it from here, Gregg, or will you mount it in the bow?"</p>
+
+<p>"From here. Drac's swinging. When he's on the course I gave him, I can
+throw the Benson-ray through the bow dome-port. Waters, you're all
+done in. Go below and sleep awhile."</p>
+
+<p>But he stood his ground. "No, sir; I don't want to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"We've had ours," said Grantline. "We'll call you if anything shows
+up."</p>
+
+<p>We sent Waters away. "Ready, Gregg?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I've got the range."</p>
+
+<p>The coils hummed and heated with the current, and in a moment the
+Benson curve-beam leaped from the projector.</p>
+
+<p>The Benson curve-light was similar to an ordinary white searchlight
+beam, except that its path, instead of being straight could be bent at
+will into various curves&mdash;hyperbola, parabola, and for its extreme
+curve, the segment of an ellipse&mdash;gradually straightening as it left
+its source. It was effective for police work, with hand torches for
+seeing around opaque obstructions. It had also another advantage,
+especially when used at long range: the enemy, when gazing back at its
+source, would under normal circumstances conceive it to be a straight
+beam and thus be misled as to the location of its source. Or even
+realizing it to be curved, one had no means of judging the angle of
+the curve.</p>
+
+<p>A narrow white stream of light, it flung through our window-oval,
+forward under the dome and through the bow dome bullseye, into space.
+I saw the men on the deck spring into sudden alertness with the
+realization we were using it. The bow lookout on the forward
+observation bridge crouched at his 'scope-finder to help us search.</p>
+
+<p>From the control turret came an audiphone buzz, and Drac's voice: "Am
+I headed right? The swing is almost completed."</p>
+
+<p>"Finish the job and don't bother me now."</p>
+
+<p>I bent over the field-mirror of the projector. On its glowing ten-inch
+grid the shifting image of my range was visible, a curving, brilliant
+limb of the Moon, with the sunlight on the jagged mountain peaks;
+everywhere else was the black firmament and the blazing dots of stars.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline crouched beside me. "I'll work the amplifiers. Going to
+spread it much, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. A full spread first. We're in no mood for a detailed narrow
+search."</p>
+
+<p>I gradually widened the light. Three feet here at its source, it
+spread in a great widening arc. With the naked eye we could see its
+white radiance, fan-shaped as an edge of it fell upon the Moon. And
+though optically it was not apparent, the elliptical curve of it was
+rounding the Moon, disclosing the hidden starfield to our
+instruments.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nothing yet?" I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try a narrower spread and less curve."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline was searching the magnified images on the series of
+amplifier grids. There was nothing. For an hour we worked; then
+suddenly Grantline cried: "Gregg! Wait! Hold it!"</p>
+
+<p>I tensed, stricken. I held the angle and the spread of light steady.</p>
+
+<p>"Two seconds of arc, east; try that. The damned thing is shifting." He
+gripped me. "It's at the eastern edge of the field; it shifts off. It
+must be in rapid motion."</p>
+
+<p>Then I saw it, a mere moving dot of black; but suddenly it clarified.
+I saw a dot which I could imagine was a shape with discs along its
+edge, moving with high velocity. Grantline was shifting our field to
+hold it.</p>
+
+<p>"Got it, Gregg. By God, that's it! Now we'll see."</p>
+
+<p>Then presently we saw that from its bow a very faint radiant beam was
+streaming. Beside me I heard Grantline gasp, "Gregg, am I crazy or is
+that bow beacon like the light-beam planted in Greater New York?"</p>
+
+<p>There did seem to be a similarity, but thought of it abruptly was
+swept from my mind. Our cubby was alive with signals. Both the bow and
+the stern observers saw the enemy ship now with their 'scopes gazing
+directly along our Benson-light. And Drac was calling, "I've got the
+measurement of its velocity. Doubling every ten seconds. God, what
+acceleration!"</p>
+
+<p>I flung off the Benson-light. The enemy ship had come from behind the
+limb of the Moon; our straight-light telescopes showed it clearly. It
+was heading unmistakably in our direction.</p>
+
+<p>Drac was pleading, "We need velocity! Are you coming to the turret?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline and I rushed out upon the catwalk. Waters was mounting the
+spiral ladder from the deck. "Into your cubby," I shouted. "Call
+Earth. Keep calling until you get them."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline rushed for the deck. I gained the control turret, Drac, with
+his thin face white and set, met me at the door. "We need velocity."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. "We'll get it, Drac; have no fear of that."</p>
+
+<p>I set the gravity-plates for the greatest possible acceleration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+forward and added the stern rocket engines for narrow-angle
+maneuvering.</p>
+
+<p>With gathering speed we plunged directly for the oncoming enemy ship.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>6</h2>
+
+
+<p>"But there's something wrong, Drac."</p>
+
+<p>"We've got grade five acceleration."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline had joined us in the control turret. "How far would you say,
+at a rough guess, that ship is from us now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thirty thousand miles; about that." Drac scanned his page of
+calculations. "Impossible to gauge with any exactness; they change
+their pace so often and I can't figure out how large the damn thing
+is."</p>
+
+<p>"Say they've got a forty thousand velocity; added to our ten, that's
+fifty."</p>
+
+<p>"And we're accelerating. In half an hour we'll be within range."</p>
+
+<p>"But there's something wrong," I persisted.</p>
+
+<p>For several minutes now I had been aware that the <i>Cometara</i> was
+acting strangely. A sluggish response to the controls, I thought, but
+when I called engine chief Franklin, he had not noticed it. Yet I was
+certain.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline stared at me. "Something wrong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Drac, try orienting us. I did it ten minutes ago." I shoved him
+at my equations, giving the angles with the Sun, Earth and Moon which
+we should now have. "There's our flight course as it ought to be.
+Measure how we're heading, actual position. If it's what it ought to
+be, with the plate-combinations I'm using, then I'm crazy."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're just naturally apprehensive," Grantline said.</p>
+
+<p>But we were not where we should be. The <i>Cometara</i> was off her
+predetermined course. And then I realized the factor of error. There
+was a gravitational force here for which I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> not allowing. The
+error was not within the <i>Cometara</i>; she was responding perfectly. But
+there was a force upon her, and not that of the Sun, Earth, Moon or
+the distant starfield. I had calculated all of these. It was something
+else. Some gravitational pull, so that we were not upon the course of
+flight we should have been on.</p>
+
+<p>"But what could be wrong?" Grantline demanded.</p>
+
+<p>It was Drac who guessed it. "That radiance from the enemy's bow?"</p>
+
+<p>It was that, we felt certain. Even at this thirty thousand mile
+distance, the bow-beacon seemed streaming upon us. We could not see
+that it illumined the <i>Cometara</i>, nor could our instruments measure
+any added illumination. Our flight-orbit, if held, would carry us with
+a swing some ten thousand miles above the South Pole of the Moon. It
+would cross diagonally in front of the trajectory that the enemy
+vessel was maintaining. But we were off our predetermined course, with
+a side-drift toward the enemy. That bow-beacon radiance was exerting a
+force upon us, a strange gravitational pull.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline gasped when Drac said it. "If it's that now, what will it be
+when we get closer?"</p>
+
+<p>The minutes were passing. The thirty thousand miles between us and the
+enemy was cut to ten thousand; to five. The ship was soon visible to
+the naked eye. Its visual movement, for all this time measurable only
+as a drift upon the amplified images of our instruments, now was
+obvious. We could see it plunging forward, could see that probably we
+would cross its bow. Within fifty miles? We hoped and guessed that
+would be the result, so that with this first passing we could use our
+weapons. Fifty miles of distance at combined speeds of some fifty
+thousand miles an hour: that would be something like three seconds
+from a collision. The danger of a collision, which both ships would do
+anything to avert, was negligible; in the immensity of space two
+objects so small could not strike each other, even with intention,
+once in a million times.</p>
+
+<p>We could not calculate the passing so closely, but suddenly it seemed
+that perhaps the enemy could. The bow-beacon radiance, so obviously a
+miniature of the weird light-beams streaming from Earth, Mars and
+Venus, now swung away from us and was extinguished. Whatever
+alteration of our course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> the enemy had made, they seemed to be
+satisfied. The passing would be to their liking. Would it be to ours?</p>
+
+<p>Grantline had left the turret. He was down on the deck, ready with his
+men. The weapons were ready.</p>
+
+<p>We had long since advanced beyond the possibility of mathematical
+calculations keeping pace with our changing position in relation to
+the enemy, but it seemed that the passing would be within fifty miles.
+Grantline's weapons would carry their bolt that far.</p>
+
+<p>It was barely two thousand miles away now. Two minutes of time before
+the passing. I stared at it, a long, low ship of dark metal, red where
+the moonlight struck upon it. I estimated its size to be about that of
+the <i>Cometara</i>, but it was much more nearly globular. Upon its top,
+seeming to project from the terraced dome, was an up-pointing funnel,
+like the smokestack of an old-fashioned surface steam vessel; or like
+a great black muzzle of an old-fashioned gun. And in a row along the
+bulging middle of the hull there was a series of little discs.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel was still a tiny blob, but every instant it was enlarging,
+doubling its visual size. Drac said tensely, "Fifteen hundred miles!
+We'll pass in a minute and a half."</p>
+
+<p>I turned the angle of the stern rocket-streams. The firmament slowly
+began swinging; the enemy ship seemed swaying up over us. I was
+turning our top to it, so that Grantline might fire directly upward
+from both sides almost simultaneously. It might be possible, if I
+could roll us over at just the proper seconds.</p>
+
+<p>But the enemy anticipated us. As they observed our roll, again the
+bow-beacon flashed on. It visibly struck us, bathed all our length in
+its spreading opalescent radiance.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed for an instant to do nothing. Our dome did not crack; there
+was no shock. But our side-roll slowed. The heavens stopped their
+swing, and then swung back! We were upon an even keel again, the enemy
+level with our bow. Against the force of my turning rocket-streams
+this radiation had righted us. It clung a few seconds more, and again
+vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline's deck audiphone rang with his startled voice: "Gregg, roll
+us over! Quick! I can only fire from one side."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was too late now. A few hundred miles of distance! Drac stood
+clutching me, staring through the port. And I stared, breathless,
+awaiting the results of these next few seconds.</p>
+
+<p>The ships passed like crossing, speeding meteors. A few seconds of
+final approach; I saw the enemy vessel as an elongated, flattened
+globe, with a triple-terraced dome and terraced decks beneath it. That
+queer stack on top! The round discs, like ten-foot eyes, gleamed along
+the equator of the bulging hull.</p>
+
+<p>One of Grantline's weapons fired a silent flash. Still out of range.
+The spit of our electrons leaped from our side. The enemy was
+untouched.</p>
+
+<p>The thought stabbed at me: <i>Anita! Not killed by that one.</i></p>
+
+<p>Another shot from Grantline.</p>
+
+<p>No result. It seemed that I saw the bolt strike. There was a
+reddening, a flash upon that bulging hull, but nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware again of the enemy bow-beam swinging upon us. The beam was
+pressing us over again so that in a moment we would be hull-bottom to
+the enemy and Grantline could not fire.</p>
+
+<p>He anticipated it. The ship was broadside to us. In the split second
+of that passing I saw that it was not fifty miles away, hardly ten.
+Grantline flung his remaining bolts. The enemy was a streaked blur
+going by; and all in that second it was past, reddening in the
+distance. Untouched by our bolts? It seemed so. The bow radiance
+darted ahead of it. The globular shape, unharmed, dwindled in the
+distance behind us.</p>
+
+<p>And it had done nothing to us!</p>
+
+<p>The control levers were in my hands. I would shift the gravity-plates,
+and make the quickest turn we could. We would go around the Moon,
+probably, and come back within an hour or two. Perhaps our adversary
+would also turn to encounter us again.</p>
+
+<p>At that second I had not seen the little discs, but I saw them now!
+They came sailing in a line, ten foot, flat, circular discs of a dark
+metal; they gleamed reddish where the sunlight painted them. They had
+been fastened outside the enemy vessel and in our passing they had
+been discharged. They sailed now like whirling plates. There seemed
+perhaps twenty of them, heading in a curve toward us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Grantline's voice came again from the deck audiphone. "Missed them,
+Gregg. That's what I thought but at least two of our bolts must have
+struck. But it didn't hurt them."</p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied. "It seemed not. They must have a defensive barrage."</p>
+
+<p>Drac was pulling at me. "Those things out there, those discs...."</p>
+
+<p>Grantline demanded, "Yes, what in hell are they?"</p>
+
+<p>We could not tell. It seemed that their curve would take them behind
+our stern. Grantline added: "Will you try going back after that ship?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>But I did not. To the naked eye the enemy ship had already
+disappeared; but with the 'scopes we saw that it seemed to be turning.</p>
+
+<p>I did not attempt to turn us, for we were afraid of those oncoming
+discs which took all our attention. They passed within five miles
+astern of us, but in a great curve they swung and now seemed heading
+across our bow. With what tremendous velocity they had been endowed by
+their firing mechanisms! Their elliptical curve swung them a mile or
+so ahead of us.</p>
+
+<p>They were circling us like tiny satellites in a narrowing spiral
+ellipse. Our attraction, the normal gravity of our close bulk, was
+drawing them to us.</p>
+
+<p>The men on the <i>Cometara's</i> deck stood gazing, surprised but not yet
+alarmed. The lookout calls sounded with routine notification each time
+the discs passed across our bow and stern. In the helio cubby, Waters
+was still trying to raise an Earth station.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline came running to the control turret. "If those cursed things,
+should strike us, Gregg!"</p>
+
+<p>I had set the gravity-plates into new combinations, turning our course
+downward, trying to swing us under the plane of the discs' orbit. But
+they swung downward with us; they were no more than two thousand feet
+away now.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline said, "At the next broadside passing I'll fire at them."</p>
+
+<p>Drac looked up from his calculating instruments. "Look! A circular
+rotation: Horribly swift. But I've caught a picture. Look!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had a still image of one of the discs. It had saw-teeth at its thin
+knife-like outer circumference. Whirling at tremendous speed, these
+saw-toothed metal discs might cut into our dome, or some other part of
+our ship.</p>
+
+<p>At the next round, Grantline fired. The discs reddened a little, but
+came on unharmed. From the other side, he fired again. Three of the
+discs seemed to have been caught full. His bolts, sustained for their
+fullest ten seconds of duration at this close, thousand-foot range,
+took effect. The three discs seemed to crumble with a puff of
+queerly-radiant vacuum spark-glows, then were gone.</p>
+
+<p>But the others came closing in.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cometara</i> rang now with the excitement and alarm of the men.
+Grantline could not set his gauges fast enough to fire at every round.</p>
+
+<p>I had a sudden thought. With the rear rockets, I rolled us over. For a
+moment we were hull-down to the passing discs. From our hull
+gravity-plates I flung a full repulsion. Would it stave them off, bend
+their orbit outward? It did not. Their course was unaltered.</p>
+
+<p>Again Grantline was shouting at me, "Roll us back! I must fire!"</p>
+
+<p>It had been an error, that rolling; Grantline lost several shots
+because of it. I swung us level. The discs passed within a hundred
+feet; half a dozen of them were still closer. Gleaming, whirling
+circles, thin as knife-blades; they passed close under our stern, came
+broadside.</p>
+
+<p>These were tense, horrible seconds. The discs skimmed our bow; one
+seemed to miss our dome by inches. Grantline's volley annihilated four
+more, but there were still eight of them. They swung in at our stern.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware of confusion throughout the <i>Cometara</i>. The crew and
+stewards were running up to the bow quarter-deck. My second officer
+stood there, stricken. The stern lookout screamed his futile warning.</p>
+
+<p>Useless! I saw one of the discs strike our stern dome, then another.
+Still others. They were silent blows, but it seemed that I could feel
+them cutting into the dome-plates.</p>
+
+<p>The dome was cracking! Then, after that horrible instant, came the
+sound: crunch, a rumble; the grind of crushed and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> breaking metal;
+then the puff and surge of the outward explosion.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the whole tip of the stern dome cracking, bursting outward,
+forced by our interior air pressure. And over all the <i>Cometara</i> the
+outgoing air was sucking and whining with a growing rush of wind.</p>
+
+<p>I shouted, "Drac! Close the stern bulkhead!"</p>
+
+<p>I set the word-buttons for the distress siren, and pulled the lever.
+Its voice screamed over the uproar. "<i>Keep forward! Take the
+space-suits! Prepare to abandon ship!</i>"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>7</h2>
+
+
+<p>In the midst of the chaos I was aware that all the remaining discs
+struck us upon the port stern quarter. The broken dome of the stern
+showed a jagged hole, but the up-sliding cross-bulkhead partially shut
+it off. Two or three of the crew and the stern lookout were gone
+behind that closing bulkhead. Their bodies in a moment would be blown
+into space.</p>
+
+<p>"It may hold, Drac. Order Waters out of his cubby. Forward!"</p>
+
+<p>I was calling the engine-room. "Order your men up by the bow, not the
+stern." But I got no answer from the engine-chief.</p>
+
+<p>I raised Grantline. "Order your men forward: Clear amidships! I want
+to close the central bulkheads. If the stern one breaks with the
+pressure...."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, Gregg. Are we lost?"</p>
+
+<p>"God knows! We'll know in a minute or two. Get all your men into their
+space-suits. Keep in the bow. Prepare the exit-port there."</p>
+
+<p>"Right, Gregg. You coming down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. When I finish." I cut him off. "Drac, get out of here! Did you
+order Waters forward?"</p>
+
+<p>"He won't leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Why the hell not?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He thinks he may be able to get communication with Earth."</p>
+
+<p>"He can't stay where he is; there's no protection up here! When that
+stern bulkhead goes...."</p>
+
+<p>It was breaking. I could see it bending sternward under the pressure.
+And at best it was leaking air, so that the decks were a rush of wind.
+Already Drac and I were gasping with the lowered pressure.</p>
+
+<p>"Drac, get out of here. Go get Waters; bring him forward. The hell
+with his transmitter: this is life or death!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm coming down. From the forward deck, call the hull control rooms.
+Order everybody forward and to the deck."</p>
+
+<p>"What about the pressure pumps?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can keep them going from here."</p>
+
+<p>I set the circulating system to guide the fresh air forward, but it
+was futile against the sucking rush of wind toward the stern. As the
+pumps speeded up I saw, with the little added pressure, the great
+cross panel of the stern bulkhead straining harder. It would go in a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>Drac was clinging to me. "Tell me what to do!"</p>
+
+<p>"I've told you what to do!" I shoved him to the catwalk. "Get out of
+here. Get Waters forward. Get the men out of the hull."</p>
+
+<p>His anguished eyes stared at me; then he turned and ran forward on the
+catwalk. I saw him forcibly dragging the bald-headed Waters from the
+helio cubby. It was the last time I ever saw either of them.</p>
+
+<p>A buzzer was ringing in the turret, and I plunged back for it. The
+exertion put a band of pain across my chest, a panting constriction
+from the lowering pressure.</p>
+
+<p>Fanning, assistant engineer, was still at the pressure pumps. His
+voice came up: "Pumps and renewers working. Will you use the gravity
+shifters?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hell, no! Get out of there, Fanning. We're smashed. Air going. It's a
+matter of minutes&mdash;abandoning ship. Get forward!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the stern bulkhead cracked with a great diagonal rift. I
+waited a moment to give them all time to get forward; then I slid all
+the cross 'midship bulkheads.</p>
+
+<p>It was barely in time. The stern bulkhead went out with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> gale of
+wind, but the barrier amidships stemmed it. Half of the vessel
+sternward was devoid of air, but here in the bow we could last a
+little longer. Beneath me I could see Grantline's men&mdash;some of them,
+not all&mdash;and a few of the stewards, crew and officers, crowding the
+deck, donning space-suits. The two side chambers were ready; half a
+dozen men crowded into each of them. The deck doors slid closed. The
+outer ports opened; helmeted, goggled, bloated figures were blown by
+the outgoing air from the chamber into space. Then the outer slides
+went closed. The pumps filled up the chambers; the deck doors opened
+again. Another batch of men....</p>
+
+<p>I saw Grantline, suited but with his helmet off, dashing from one side
+of the deck to the other, commanding the abandonment.</p>
+
+<p>The central bulkheads seemed momentarily holding. Then little red
+lights in the panel board before me showed where in the hull corridors
+the doors were leaking, cracking, giving away, breaking under the
+strain. The whole ribbed framework of the vessel was strained and
+slued. The bulkhead sides no longer set true in the casements. Air was
+whining everywhere and pulling sternward.</p>
+
+<p>It was the last stand; I was aware that the alarm siren had ceased.
+There was a sudden stillness, with only the shouts of the remaining
+men at the exit-ports mingling with the whine of the wind and the
+roaring in my head. I felt detached, far-away; my senses were reeling.</p>
+
+<p>I staggered to the gauges of the Erentz system, the system whereby an
+oscillating current, circling within the double-shelled walls of hull
+and dome, absorbed into negative energy much of the interior pressure.
+The main walls of the vessel were straining outward. The <i>Cometara</i>
+could collapse at any moment. I started for the catwalk door. The
+electro-telescope stood near it and I yielded to a vague desire to
+gaze into the eyepiece. The instrument was still operative. I swept it
+sternward.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy ship had not vanished. By what strange means, I cannot say,
+its velocity had been checked. A few thousand miles from us, it was
+making a narrow, close-angle turn. Coming back? I thought so.</p>
+
+<p>I suddenly realized my intention of having all the gravity-plates in
+neutral before abandoning the ship. I seized the con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>trols now. An
+agony of fear was upon me that the shifting valves would fail. But
+they did not. The plates slid haltingly, reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>I recall staggering to the catwalk. It seemed that the central
+bulkhead was breaking. There were fallen figures on the deck beneath
+me. I stumbled against the body of a man who had tangled himself in
+the stays of the ladder rail and was hanging there.</p>
+
+<p>I think I fell the last ten feet to the deck. The roaring in my ears,
+the bands tightening about my chest encompassed all the world.</p>
+
+<p>Then I was on my feet again, and I stumbled over another body. It was
+garbed in a space-suit, with the helmet beside it. I stripped it of
+the suit. I was panting, with all the world whirling in a daze,
+bursting spots of light before my eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Ten feet away down the deck was the opened door of the pressure
+chamber. A bloated figure came into my dreamlike vista, moving for the
+pressure door. It turned, saw me, came leaping and bent over me. I saw
+behind the vizor that it was Grantline. His bloated, gloved hands
+helped me don my suit.</p>
+
+<p>He helped me with my helmet. The metal tip on Grantline's gloved hand
+touched the contact-plate on my shoulder. His voice sounded from the
+tiny audiphone grid within my helmet. "Gregg! Thank God I found you!
+All right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." My head was clearing.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got the chamber ready. We're the last, Gregg."</p>
+
+<p>I gripped his shoulder. "You're sure there's nobody else?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. I've been everywhere I could reach. The central bulkheads are
+almost gone."</p>
+
+<p>He pushed me into the pressure chamber. There was hardly need to close
+the door after us. I stood gripping him as he opened the small outer
+slides. The abyss was at our feet; the outgoing wind tore at us like a
+gale, so that we stood gripping the casements.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God you've got a power-suit, Gregg. So have I. We must keep
+together."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>I could feel the floor grid of the chamber shuddering beneath my feet.
+The <i>Cometara</i> was cracking, bursting outward throughout her length;
+at any instant she might collapse.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment we stood poised. Beneath us, here at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> brink were
+millions upon millions of miles of emptiness, the remote, unfathomable
+void. Blazing worlds down there in the black darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by, Gregg. It may be the end for us."</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck, Johnny."</p>
+
+<p>His bloated figure dropped away from me. I waited just an instant, and
+then I dove into space.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment there was a chaos of strangeness, the wrench to my sense
+of the transition. I had been the inhabitant of a little world, the
+<i>Cometara</i>, with a gravity beneath my feet. Now, in a breath, I had no
+world to inhabit. I was alone in space. No gravity; nothing solid to
+touch; emptiness.</p>
+
+<p>I was in a world to myself, and the abnormality of it brought a mental
+shock. But in a moment the adjustment came. I passed the transition,
+the sense of falling.</p>
+
+<p>The firmament steadied and my senses cleared. My dive from the
+<i>Cometara</i> carried me in a slow arc some three hundred feet away.
+There had been a sense of falling, but no actual fall. My velocity was
+retarded, with the mass of the <i>Cometara</i> pulling at me. I went like a
+toy boat in water shoved by a child, quickly slowing. In a few
+moments, the velocity was gone, and I hung poised. I saw Grantline's
+bloated form not over fifty feet from me. He waved an arm at me.</p>
+
+<p>Out here in the void I lay weightless, as though upon an infinitely
+soft feather bed. I could kick, flounder, but not endow myself with
+motion. I craned my neck, gazed around through the bulging vizor pane.</p>
+
+<p>The Earth and the Sun hung level with the white star-dots strewn
+everywhere. I could not see that unknown light-beam from Greater New
+York; it was shafting out now in the other direction, so that the
+Earth hid it from me. Venus was visible to one side of the Sun. The
+enemy light-stream from Grebhar was apparent; and as I turned my body
+and bent double to look behind me, I saw Mars and the sword-like ray
+from Ferrok-Shahn. The beams streamed off like the radiance of the
+Milky Way, faintly luminous but seemingly visible for an infinite
+distance.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cometara</i> was obviously falling now toward the Moon, drawn
+irresistibly, and all of us with her, toward the lunar surface. It
+seemed so close, that black and white mountainous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> disc. We were, I
+suppose, some twenty thousand miles from it, gathering speed as it
+pulled at us. But that motion was not apparent now. Distance dwindled
+all these celestial motions, so that all the firmament seemed frozen
+into immobility.</p>
+
+<p>But there was some motion. Twenty or more bloated figures, the
+survivors from the wreck of the <i>Cometara</i>, were encircling it in
+varying orbits, revolving around it like tiny satellites. Some were
+closing in, drawn against it. I saw one plunge against the wrecked
+dome, and begin crawling like a fly. And I found that the forces of
+the firmament were molding my orbit also. My outward plunge was
+checked. I poised for an indeterminate instant, and then I took my
+orbit. I too, was a satellite of the <i>Cometara</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed at the wreck of the <i>Cometara</i>. My ship! My first command! So
+smoothly, confidently rising from the Earth only a few hours ago; and
+she had come to this. She lay askew in the heavens. The dome was
+cracked throughout all its length and smashed like a shell at the
+sterntip.</p>
+
+<p>I could see the interior litter beneath the dome, the twisted and
+strained lines of the hull. A dead ship now, the mechanisms stilled;
+dead and silent inside, with all the warmth gone out of it. All the
+air dissipated, so that in every cubby, every dark corridor of that
+broken hull there was the coldness and silence of interplanetary
+space.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose these thoughts swept me within a few seconds. I saw myself
+starting to revolve in my orbit. Perhaps my motion would carry me
+around indefinitely; or I might be drawn down to the vessel as those
+other survivors had been drawn.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline, with one of the few power suits, was coming toward me now,
+with tiny fluorescent streams back along his body from his shoulder
+blades. I switched on my own mechanism. It moved me toward him, and
+our gravity attracted us. We shut off the power when twenty feet
+apart; drifted together; contacted; bounced apart like rubber balls as
+our inflated suits struck. Then in a moment we had drifted back and
+clung.</p>
+
+<p>I touched the metal plate of his shoulder. "Working all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Thank God for this much, Gregg. I wonder how many are alive."</p>
+
+<p>In the chaos of the abandonment, many of the men's air<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> mechanisms had
+failed to operate. It is always so in times of disaster. We could see,
+revolving around the wreck, and motionless against its dome, those
+horrible flabby, deflated suits where the delicate Erentz mechanism
+had failed. Within was only a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>"Too many," I said. "And not more than four or five of us with power.
+What shall we do first? Round them up? We must all get together."</p>
+
+<p>His answering voice was grim. "We can tow them from the wreck. Six or
+seven of us altogether have power. Do you suppose we can get away,
+Gregg? Get loose from the ship before she falls?"</p>
+
+<p>Only trying it could tell us that. The <i>Cometara</i>, and all of us with
+her, were plunging for the Moon. We would seek out the men who were
+alive and tow them in a string. If we could break the gravity pull of
+the ship, and then struggle upward from the Moon, we could maintain
+ourselves here in space until some rescue ship from Earth, Venus or
+Mars would come and pick us up.</p>
+
+<p>"You take one side, Gregg; I'll take the other. Don't go aboard; she
+might collapse."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll pick up the men without power and alive. The others with power
+suits will do the same. Then we'll meet out here, about where we are
+now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. And hurry, Gregg! Every mile toward the Moon makes it that much
+harder. We're falling fast."</p>
+
+<p>"Good luck!" I shoved away from him. And within a minute, as he went
+in an arc toward the <i>Cometara</i> bow and I toward her stern, I suddenly
+thought of that returning enemy vessel. My last look through the
+'scope had shown that she was returning; and then I had forgotten it.</p>
+
+<p>My gaze swept the firmament now. I had no 'scope instruments within
+the helmet. With the naked eye the enemy ship was not in sight. But I
+knew that meant little; within a moment she could come in view and be
+here if she were going at any great velocity.</p>
+
+<p>There were on the <i>Cometara</i>, at the time of the disaster, some
+sixty-odd men; perhaps forty had gotten away. And I could see very
+soon that not more than fifteen, or less, out here were alive. Two
+with power were ahead of me now, slowly floating past the wrecked dome
+of the stern. One had picked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> up two others, found them alive and was
+towing them out. They went past me, moving very slowly so that I could
+see that two were all that one of us could tow and attain any velocity
+at all.</p>
+
+<p>I contacted with the leader. He was one of Grantline's men.</p>
+
+<p>"Two or three hundred feet out," I directed. I gestured. "Grantline
+said to meet out there. I'll tow others."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Around the stern you'll find&mdash;God! Haljan, look!"</p>
+
+<p>A mile from us the enemy ship was in view. Passing&mdash;no! Stopping! With
+incredible retardation she had plunged into view, was here, and yet
+had no great forward velocity. She seemed no more rapid than a great
+air liner winging past, so close that her reddish-tinged bulging hull
+length showed clearly. The discs were gone. The funnel set on top of
+her was sloped diagonally toward us as she rolled on her side, so that
+momentarily I could see down into it. There was some mechanism down
+there. The bow radiance was a narrow opalescent beam in advance of the
+bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Slowing, Haljan!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, stopping. Don't try to meet Grantline. Tow your men away!"</p>
+
+<p>"Or should we board the <i>Cometara</i> and hide?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. They've come back to bombard her."</p>
+
+<p>I kicked at him violently. With his two drifting figures clinging
+behind, he swung past me. I headed behind the stern. Upon its dangling
+framework several of our men were glued, lying there inert. I caught a
+glimpse of the interior of the stern, the littered deck; men lying
+there had been stricken before they had time to get into their suits.</p>
+
+<p>On the outside, forward, I saw Grantline come rounding the bow, towing
+a figure and heading for another. On the outside of the bow-peak a
+group of others were perched, gesticulating for help. I started that
+way; then I saw another, and nearer figure in a power suit heading for
+them. I swung back. There were two figures on the outside of the
+under-hull whom I could more quickly reach. Inverted flies. Their feet
+were on the keel. They stooped and waved toward me.</p>
+
+<p>I took a swoop. Passing close down the hull, my rocket-streams struck
+the hull plates and gave me sudden downward velocity. I shot down, out
+past the keel. And again I saw the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> enemy ship. She hung poised, no
+more than two miles away. And as I looped over, with all the black,
+star-strewn firmament in a dizzy whirl, the great Moon-disc, first
+above, and then below me, I saw the bow-beam of the enemy swinging. It
+came to the <i>Cometara</i>, and there it clung.</p>
+
+<p>I had gone perhaps fifty feet below the keel with my dive when I
+righted. I was mounting. I saw the opalescent ten-foot circle of the
+beam moving along the <i>Cometara</i> hull. It seemed to do no damage; then
+suddenly it darted down and clung to me.</p>
+
+<p>I felt nothing save the impact of a gentle push, something shoving
+with a ponderable force against me.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the <i>Cometara</i> receding, the heavens swinging as I turned over.
+The red disc of the distant Earth swooped. The Moon surface
+momentarily seemed rotating and lifting above me.</p>
+
+<p>I was helpless, rolling, then whirling end-over-end. Then again I
+steadied. The beam was gone from me.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the <i>Cometara</i>, a full mile away from me! The enemy ship was
+again in motion, moving toward me, and between the <i>Cometara</i> and the
+Earth. And the beam was steady upon the <i>Cometara's</i> mid-section.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cometara</i> had a new velocity now. I could not miss it. She was
+dwindling rapidly in visual size; relative to me, she was receding,
+falling upon the Moon. More than that she was being pushed downward by
+the repulsive force of the strange enemy beam upon her. I stared, as
+with all the little dots which were our men around and upon her, she
+went down into the void.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself presently alone up here, with the enemy ship hovering
+nearby. Its maneuvering to thrust the wrecked <i>Cometara</i> toward the
+Moon had brought it within a mile of me. The bow-beam was still on the
+<i>Cometara</i>; and then abruptly it vanished.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cometara</i> had almost dwindled beyond the sight of my unaided
+vision. By chance, undoubtedly, the beam had fallen upon me and thrust
+me from the wreck. I was alone up here now with the enemy, but they
+may not have noticed me, or cared. I found my power mechanism intact.
+I turned it on; slowly, like a log in water, I began moving away.</p>
+
+<p>A minute. Five minutes. The <i>Cometara</i> was lost. Grantline,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> all the
+men, were lost; with that added downward thrust they could never free
+themselves from the falling wreck.</p>
+
+<p>I was jerked out of my thoughts by the sight of an oncoming red blob.
+Something was coming from the enemy ship, red with the sunlight and
+earthlight, silvered by the Moon and the stars. It took form. It was a
+disc, another of those cursed whirling discs, sent to annihilate me!</p>
+
+<p>Then, when it was a quarter of a mile away, I saw that it was a disc
+which was turning slowly. Rocket radiances came from its rotating
+circumference; it came sailing directly at me, so swiftly that my own
+velocity was futile.</p>
+
+<p>Another minute and I was caught. I saw that the disc was some fifteen
+feet in diameter, and that it bulged, so that within its convex floor
+and ceiling was a space of several feet.</p>
+
+<p>I cut off my power and with pounding heart lay waiting. The space-suit
+had no weapons for equipment save a knife hung in the belt. I drew it
+out, held it in my gloved fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The disc sailed upon its level, vertical axis. Its rotation slowed; I
+saw little windows set around its convex middle. It came up and bumped
+me with its metal side. I kicked away, shoved off. Shapes were moving
+in a dim interior light behind the port-panes. Little hand-beams of
+radiance darted out. They seemed to seize me, draw me.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself glued helplessly to the convex outer surface of the
+disc. The rotation gathered speed again, but I looked presently only
+at the gleaming surface to which I was pinned. Had I been a metal bar
+upon the horns of an electro-magnet, I could not have been more
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p>An interval passed. With the contact plate of my fingers against this
+hull it seemed that I could hear voices within, strange,
+indistinguishable words. I twisted, but could not see into the port.</p>
+
+<p>Again the rotation was slowing. The near shape of the enemy vessel
+swung close and past; and again and again I saw that we were over it,
+dropping down into the wide black opening of the funnel-top. It yawned
+presently like a great black tunnel, into which we fell.</p>
+
+<p>The jar of landing knocked me loose, and no doubt the attraction
+radiance also released me. I fell another space, bounced up and sank
+back. I thought that something like a sliding port-door closed over
+me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And then, in the dimness, figures were gripping me. I lashed and
+struck, but the knife was wrenched away.</p>
+
+<p>I was a prisoner in a pressure-port of the enemy ship!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>8</h2>
+
+
+<p>It seemed that the small room had a very faint radiance showing
+through my vizor pane. Narrow enclosing walls were visible. It was a
+triangular-shaped space, fifteen feet or so down one side, with a
+concave ceiling overhead. I was lying on the floor. The darkness at
+first had been impenetrable. The figures which had flung me down and
+seized my knife were gone; I had not seen them nor where they went.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I lay cushioned by my bloated suit. When I struggled to
+my feet, I was almost weightless. The movement of getting upright
+flung me upward as though I were a tossed feather. My helmet struck
+the metal ceiling, so sharp a blow that I feared for an instant I had
+smashed the helmet.</p>
+
+<p>From the ceiling, with flailing arms and legs, I sank back to the
+grid-floor; and in a moment I was able to stand upright with so slight
+a feeling of weight that I could have been a bit of thistle ready to
+blow away in the least wind.</p>
+
+<p>There was, as I stood there balancing myself, a queer feeling of
+triumph within me. A triumphant hope; for coming down in the ship's
+capacious funnel&mdash;larger than it had seemed from a distance&mdash;I had
+seen what appeared to be a small projectile, resting in some strange
+landing gear. The disc bearing me had settled on a stage alongside it.
+Was that the projectile from Earth?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p><p>A growing air pressure was around me; the tiny Erentz dials within my
+helmet had been immovable, but now they were showing outside pressure. I
+stood waiting. Whatever sounds were here I could not tell. Then
+presently the dials stopped. They registered seventeen pounds&mdash;whatever
+that might mean here. I loosed the helmet and took it off.</p>
+
+<p>With the first gasping breath my senses reeled. I sank to the floor,
+and though I tried to replace the helmet, it was too late. My thoughts
+were fading. A strange chemical odor was in my nostrils. It was like
+breathing a thin, perfumed water.</p>
+
+<p>The drifting away was pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>Tortured dreams came with my awakening. I found myself in the same dim
+room upon the floor. I could breathe better now, and in a few more
+hours the strangeness had almost gone. I found now that I was not
+injured, but I was ravenously hungry.</p>
+
+<p>Again, gingerly as before, I stood up and slid my space-suit from me;
+and now I was aware of movement and sound. The floor-grid vibrations
+were apparent. And there was a dim, distant, tiny throbbing; it was
+much like the interior of the <i>Cometara</i> while in flight.</p>
+
+<p>And there were other sounds, indescribably faint, yet strangely clear.
+I thought they might be distant voices.</p>
+
+<p>I took a cautious step. I could see a dim blank wall nearby with what
+seemed a bowl-like article of furniture on the floor against the wall.
+For all my caution, I sailed upward; but this time I held my balance.
+And I found that with my negligible weight, I could almost swim in
+this strange air! I hit the wall and slid slowly down it to the floor
+again, like a man sinking to the bottom of a tank.</p>
+
+<p>It suddenly occurred to me to put my ear against the wall. At once the
+sounds all became incredibly louder. It was a confusion of sound: the
+mechanisms of the vessel, some of which I thought I could identify,
+and some not; the strange swish and thump of what might have been
+people moving; and there were voices.</p>
+
+<p>The voices seemed mingled babble coming from everywhere. The timber of
+the sound was very strange. It held no suggestion of how far away from
+me the voices might be. There were so many of them I could only think
+they were scattered about the ship; and yet they all seemed together.
+After a moment, the blend was less confusing. Again, very strangely my
+hearing seemed able to separate one from the other.</p>
+
+<p>I was to learn that the atmosphere handled sound vibrations
+differently from that of Earth. Voices had a muffled tone, as though
+they were smothered. There was undoubtedly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> a vibrational distortion;
+and a sound-wave speed slower than Earth's normal-pressure rate of
+1,050 feet a second, perhaps as slow as 700. Yet sounds remained
+audible over longer distances than on Earth.</p>
+
+<p>In this instance now, as I listened with my ear to the wall of the
+ship, I was hearing all its sounds picked up and carried by the metal.</p>
+
+<p>Now I heard a strange tongue: two types of voices, slow, measured,
+carefully-intoned phrases, and voices of a curiously sepulchral,
+hollow sound. My mind went back to the Red Spark restaurant room.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly I realized that amid the babble I was hearing English. A
+man's voice, talking English. I caught, very clearly the phrase:</p>
+
+<p>"Master, yes. She means well. Can you not see it?"</p>
+
+<p>Molo's voice! Then the girls must be here also.</p>
+
+<p>Another voice: "I am not sure. Perhaps. The Great Intelligence will
+talk with her when we are arrived." It was the slow measured voice of
+one of the brains.</p>
+
+<p>"When will that be? Pretty soon now, won't it, Molo?"</p>
+
+<p>Venza! A great wave of thankfulness swept me. And then I heard Anita.
+"Your two captives, where are they? You're not going to kill them, are
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Molo. "Perhaps not. No one has inspected the new one yet.
+The other is being cared for. The Great Intelligence will question him
+when we arrive."</p>
+
+<p>"We are arriving," said Venza. "That's your world, Wandl, down there,
+isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We are dropping fast."</p>
+
+<p>The voice of the brain: "Come, Wyk. The instruments are showing events
+on our captured worlds. Take me to watch. I am tired of movement."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Master."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that the brain was being carried away; Molo and the two
+girls were being left alone. I had thought at first that they were in
+the adjacent room to me, but they could have been far distant. They
+had mentioned two captives. One, obviously, was myself. Was the other
+Snap?</p>
+
+<p>"Come," Molo was saying, "stand here with me and we will watch this
+world. Not mine, Venza <i>chia</i>, as you just called it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> But my adopted
+world. And it will be yours, until we rule the new Mars."</p>
+
+<p>I heard them moving to gaze through the window-port. Then came Anita's
+voice: "If it's anything like this ship, it will be very strange."</p>
+
+<p>"Strange indeed, little dove. I was there only once, a month ago, and
+for a few hours only. The Great Intelligence, as they call him, talked
+with me, absorbing my knowledge: they call it that. And he was much
+impressed by me, and made very wonderful promises in exchange for my
+fidelity. And for my sister, too."</p>
+
+<p>I learned further how Molo and Meka became identified with the
+Wandlites; it was as we had suspected.</p>
+
+<p>"You will rule Mars?" Venza was saying. "When this is over, you mean
+you will really be given Mars to rule?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would rather live on the Earth," said Anita. "There was a young man
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"He will not be there much longer." Molo laughed. "You are very lucky
+that I fancy you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Lucky indeed," Venza echoed. "No death for me. I'm too young."</p>
+
+<p>"But all those millions dead. It seems so terrible."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, for them!" Molo was in high good humor, pleased with himself
+and with these girls. "See down there; that blurring is the heavy air.
+We're almost down into it now."</p>
+
+<p>I heard the sound of someone joining them, and then the hollow voice
+again: "Molo! Bad tidings come from Mars. One of the Masters was
+captured there in Ferrok-Shahn. They tortured him as they did the one
+on Earth. But he did not die unyielding. He spoke and told our plans!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hah! Did I not advise you to keep those helpless things on Wandl?"</p>
+
+<p>"But it is done now. The worlds know our purpose. They are preparing
+spaceships. Already some are rising from Ferrok-Shahn, from Grebhar
+and from Greater New York."</p>
+
+<p>"We knew they were doing that."</p>
+
+<p>"But now they know our purpose. The Master Intelligence fears that
+they will come raiding Wandl. Our vessels are being made ready to go
+out and repel them."</p>
+
+<p>The hollow voice ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"Your purpose discovered?" asked Anita. "What does that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> mean? Won't
+you tell us now? Twin queens for your future Mars, and you treat us
+like children!"</p>
+
+<p>"That light-beam he so cleverly planted in Greater New York," Venza
+hinted.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will tell you. Without me in New York and my men who went with
+these Wandlites to Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar, the vital gravity beams
+could never successfully have been planted. The apparatus was
+complicated; you saw it. You saw the labor I had making the contact?"</p>
+
+<p>"But what are the light-beams for?"</p>
+
+<p>I listened, breathless, as he told them. The electronic beams could
+not be destroyed; a disintegration of the rock atoms had been set up.
+With each rotation of the Earth it was sweeping the sky. From a great
+control station, Wandl was flinging attraction gravity upon that beam,
+using it as a monstrous lever upon the rotation of Earth. With every
+daily passage now the force was being exerted. The rotation was
+slowing. In a few days it would stop, with the end of the beam drawn
+to Wandl and held there.</p>
+
+<p>And the beams from Grebhar and Ferrok-Shahn were the same. Three giant
+chains! Then Wandl, traveling of its own gravitational volition, would
+withdraw from our solar system. The gravitational chains would pull
+the Earth, Venus and Mars after it!</p>
+
+<p>Titanic tow-ropes! The destruction, not of our worlds, but of all life
+upon them, for the cold of interstellar space would leave no living
+organism. Three dead worlds; Wandl would draw them to her own Sun and
+then free them, send them, with new orbits, around the distant blazing
+star. Three new worlds brought home triumphantly by Wandl to join the
+little family of inhabited planets revolving around this other Sun.
+Three fair and lovely worlds, warmed back by the other sunlight to be
+green mansions untenanted, ready to receive the new beings who would
+come and possess them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>9</h2>
+
+
+<p>"You, Snap!"</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg! But how...?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush! They might hear us."</p>
+
+<p>"They can do more than that. They can almost hear you think."</p>
+
+<p>"Anita and Venza are here."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it. I was with them for a time. This accursed gravity! I can't
+walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Careful," I whispered. "You can crack your head on something with the
+least false step. Are they taking us ashore?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess so. How did you happen...?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell you later."</p>
+
+<p>They had come for me in that dark pressure-port, taken me along a dim
+corridor of the ship, which evidently had landed a few moments before.
+Then Snap, with strange figures around him, had been flung at me.</p>
+
+<p>These weird beings! The brains were here, but not many; I saw half a
+dozen on the ship. They could move easily now. They bounced upon their
+small arms and legs, hitching with little leaps of a few feet. Close
+at hand they were gruesome; from a distance they had the aspect of
+thirty-inch ovoids, bouncing of their own volition. And I saw too that
+underneath, toward the back, was a shriveled body.</p>
+
+<p>The other figures were wholly different; they seemed at first to be
+ten-foot, upright insects. The two legs were like stilts, the body
+narrow but with bulging chest. The neck was thin, holding the small
+round head, about the size of my own.</p>
+
+<p>Words seem futile to picture this thing which was a man of Wandl.
+There was no skin, but instead what seemed to be a glossy, hard brown
+shell. It was laid in scales; and upon the legs was a brown fuzz of
+stiff hair. There were many joints, both of the legs and the torso.
+Clothing was worn; a single garment, hanging from a wide belt halfway
+down the legs seemed incongruous, fantastically aping humanity.</p>
+
+<p>This was the worker, equipped by nature for mechanical tasks. There
+were not two arms, but at least ten. From what could have been called
+the shoulders, they were tentacles,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> half the length of an elephant's
+trunk, with many-fingered hands at the ends. From the waist depended
+huge lobster-like pincers; and from the chest and back the arms were
+smaller, each with a different type finger-claw.</p>
+
+<p>The head and face were most of all a personal mocking of mankind.
+Wide, upstanding, listening ears were upon the sides of the head, one
+on the forehead and one on the back. The face was mobile, with tiny
+brown scales small as a fish. A nose orifice, with two protruding
+brown eyes above it was set outward on stems, and an upended slit of a
+mouth. There was an eye in the back of the head.</p>
+
+<p>Probably, over eons of upward development from what was perhaps an
+original single type, these two specialized forms had developed. The
+"Masters," as they were known upon Wandl, neglected the body for the
+brain, and the "Workers," the reverse. There was no separate
+individual for the female. As is the case with primitive organisms,
+they were all bi-sexual, the parent dying in the reproduction of
+offspring.</p>
+
+<p>Of necessity I have been forced into digression. But at the time, Snap
+and I clung together, whispering, as a group of workers pushed us down
+a descending incline. Snap, back there in Greater New York when Molo's
+contact light had burst into existence, had fallen, half unconscious.
+They picked him up. Molo was going to kill him, but the girls
+persuaded him to take Snap with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Anita and Venza pretended never to have seen me before," Snap
+whispered to me now. "You take the same line."</p>
+
+<p>"If we get with them."</p>
+
+<p>"We will."</p>
+
+<p>It was weird, this landing upon Wandl. We had left the vessel's
+side-port and were descending what seemed a narrow, hundred-foot
+landing incline. We were outdoors, and it was night. Shafts of colored
+radiance flashed around us. The ship was poised on a disc-like
+platform, with skeleton legs. It seemed a hundred feet or more down to
+the ground level from where the colored lights were darting up.
+Overhead was a cloudless, purple-red sky of blurred, reddish stars. No
+doubt the curious atmosphere of Wandl gave the sky and stars this
+abnormal look.</p>
+
+<p>Later, what a multiplicity of obscure wonders we were to glimpse upon
+Wandl! The slowing rotation of the Earth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> caused climatic changes
+there, volcanic and tidal disturbances, but Wandl rotated and stopped
+at will. Undoubtedly she was equipped to withstand the shock. Her
+internal fires could not break into eruption; she had very little
+fluid surface. And the nature of her atmosphere was such that it was
+not easily disturbed into storms. Only if there was laxity in the
+handling of the planet's motion would a storm come.</p>
+
+<p>But now, questions pounded at me. Earth, Venus and Mars were to be
+towed into interstellar space; all life on our worlds would perish in
+the cold of that stellar journey. Yet Wandl had made that journey. Was
+her atmosphere inherently such that it did not transmit rays of heat?</p>
+
+<p>Snap and I had been pushed down the incline with half a dozen figures
+in advance of us. Without difficulty we could have leapt down that
+hundred feet, unaided. Figures were leaping into mid-air from several
+pressure-ports of the ship. They did not fall, but floated, drifted
+down. I saw one of the insect-like workers drop with motionless
+outstretched arms. Others came mounting up, using their arms and legs
+with sweeping strokes, as though swimming. It was like being under
+water.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange, weird scene, the vessel wavering above us; the
+flashing lights; waving beams of radiance. A fantastic structure
+nearby reared itself several hundred feet with lights on top and
+outlining its many lateral balconies one above the other. The air was
+full of the leaping, swimming insect-like figures. The brains, the
+masters, were not in evidence; then I saw one of them being carried,
+and others, floating down like distended falling balloons, to be
+caught by the workers in small nets and thus saved from jarring
+contact.</p>
+
+<p>Snap was suddenly whispering: "That fellow back of us is our guard. I
+can feel his ray. Some form of attraction; it's pulling at me."</p>
+
+<p>Snap was a little behind me. I turned and saw the faint radiance of a
+narrow light-beam upon him. It came from an instrument in an upper
+shoulder hand of the insect figure following us, no doubt the reverse
+form of the same ray which had been used to thrust the wrecked
+<i>Cometara</i> toward the Moon.</p>
+
+<p>We reached the bottom. I saw now that the group of workers in advance
+of us were carrying metal cubes, seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>ingly of considerable weight;
+they also had to use the incline.</p>
+
+<p>We stood presently on a smooth ground surface. We had not seen Anita
+and Venza, nor Molo and his sister. The insect figure who was our
+guard came forward. "You stand here. Molo comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" I demanded. "I want to see him." I stopped myself
+quickly; I had very nearly mentioned the girls. "And talk with him."</p>
+
+<p>"He comes soon."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm hungry." I gestured to my stomach. "Food. You know what that is?"</p>
+
+<p>The brown scaly face contorted for a smile, a ghastly grimace. "Yes.
+You shall have food and drink."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that the hollow voice came not from the neck but from the
+shell-like, bulging chest. He stood aside, with the globular weapon of
+the ray in a pincer hand.</p>
+
+<p>We waited, standing gingerly together, wavering with our slight
+weight. A wind would have blown us away, but there was no wind.
+Instead, there was a heavy, sultry air, warm as a mid-summer Earth
+night, warmer even than the Neo-time of Venus.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and I were dressed much the same, wearing heavy boots, for which
+weight we were thankful, tight, puttee-like trousers, flaring at the
+top, and high-necked white blouses. Both of us were bare-headed.
+Doubtless we were as fantastic a sight to these Wandlites as they to
+us. Some of the workers crowded up, reaching out to pluck at us, but
+Snap waved them away and our guard dispersed them.</p>
+
+<p>One of the master brains came bouncing up. Upon his little upright
+body the great head wavered.</p>
+
+<p>"You will wait here." His eyes glowed up at us.</p>
+
+<p>"But listen," Snap began.</p>
+
+<p>"You will wait here for the Martian. He has his orders to take you to
+the Great Intelligence." The little arm from the side of the head had
+a hand with a finger pointing for a gesture. "There is a meeting place
+there. We decided now what to do to destroy the warships of your
+worlds. I do not like your thoughts; they are black. I will inform the
+Great Intelligence when he can spare the thought for you."</p>
+
+<p>He added something in the Wandl tongue. A worker came forward; lifted
+him carefully, held him in the hollow of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> encircling tentacle. And
+with a bound, the worker sailed upward and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Again we stood through an interval. I noticed now that the towering
+structure near us, with its storied balconies, was not perpendicular.
+Its front curved up and back. It was convex, somewhat in the fashion
+of an irregular globe, a three-hundred foot ball, with a flattened
+base set here on the ground. The balconies were segments of its front
+curve. At the top, the roof was as though the ball had been sliced
+off, like a giant apple with a slice gone for a base and another for
+the roof. At the bottom was a huge portal with a glow of light from
+within. And at the terraced balcony levels were lighted windows.</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the meeting place?" Snap whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably. And look to the side of it, Snap."</p>
+
+<p>It was a city. There was a vista of distance to one side of the great
+globe structure. Now that our eyes were more accustomed to the
+queerness of this night upon Wandl, we could ignore the colored
+light-beams of the landing stage and the disembarking palisade upon
+which we were standing. Gazing into the distance, the curvature of the
+surface of this little world was immediately apparent. The reddish
+firmament of stars came down to meet the sharply-curving surface at a
+horizon line which seemed about a mile away.</p>
+
+<p>Spread upon this near distance were a variety of structures with
+little roads of open space winding between them. Most of the buildings
+seemed globular in shape. Some were small, little round mound-shaped
+individual dwellings. Others were larger. Some were tiered like half a
+dozen apples speared in a row upon a stick and set upright.</p>
+
+<p>I saw a ribbon of what might be a river in the distance, with the
+reddish starlight glinting upon it. To our left, half a mile away
+perhaps, was a row of buttes and rocks which stood like a miniature
+range of mountains. The city seemed entirely to encompass them; and
+every little rock-peak had upon its top a globelike dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>Lights were winking everywhere and figures bounded a hundred feet and
+more, and sailed in an arc, coming down to the ground to bound again.
+A row of workers went by overhead, not swimming or leaping but stiffly
+motionless. Tiny<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> opalescent rays went from them to the ground, as
+though to give them power.</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes of Earth-time might have passed while Snap and I gazed at
+this busy night scene in this Wandl city upon the occasion of the
+landing of their ship so triumphantly returned from its mission to
+Earth. As I stood, certainly a helpless captive if ever there was one,
+nevertheless a strange sense of my own power was within me.</p>
+
+<p>This was so small a world; the people were so flimsy. With a poke of
+my fist I could kill any one of these master brains. The ten-foot
+workers seemed mere shells, light and fragile; even the buildings were
+light and flimsy. The little globe-houses on their sticks seemed to
+waver, almost like nodding flowers. If we ran amuck we could smash
+everything we saw here on Wandl.</p>
+
+<p>We became aware of Molo approaching. What a solid giant this
+seven-foot Martian seemed now in the midst of this buoyant, almost
+weightless city! He was still bare-headed and wearing his garments of
+ornamented leather, with his brawny legs bare. Upon his feet were
+strange-looking, wide-soled shoes. His hands and forearms were thrust
+into loops of small shields. These shields appeared to be constructed
+of a heart-shaped flexible framework, covered with an opaque membrane.
+They were about two feet long and half as wide. With a hand and
+forearm thrust into fabric loops, the shield appeared to serve as
+wings so that the arms had more thrust against the air. He came at us
+with a sort of swimming stroke. He landed somewhat awkwardly,
+half-stumbled and almost fell, but gathered himself up and confronted
+us.</p>
+
+<p>He gained his balance and waved our guard aside. His gaze went to me.</p>
+
+<p>"You are the new prisoner taken from that wrecked Earth-ship?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name? You are an Earthman, evidently."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." I hesitated. I had seen Molo and heard him talk, back there in
+Greater New York; but he had not seen me nor heard of me probably.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg Haljan." I added, "I am a skilled navigator; perhaps it was
+fortunate you saved me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He flung me a look and there was a tinge of amusement in it. "You
+would save your own skin now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? You're a Martian, and this is a war also against Mars."</p>
+
+<p>His look darkened, but then again sardonic amusement struck him.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see what the Great Master says. There will be a few of our
+type humans, men and women, wanted when the worlds begin anew. The
+Great Master said so. He wants to study life on Earth as it was before
+the destruction."</p>
+
+<p>Molo's glance swept behind us. I turned to see three figures
+approaching. My heart pounded. They were Anita, Venza and Molo's
+sister, Meka. They came slowly, trying to walk, with balancing
+outstretched arms. With a dozen curious Wandl workers crowding them,
+they came and joined Molo before us. My heart was pounding, but I
+flung them a curious, impersonal stare.</p>
+
+<p>"You are here," said Molo. "Good. We go now." He bent over Snap and
+me. "I advise you make no effort to leap away, though it may look
+easy."</p>
+
+<p>"Not me," said Snap. "Where would I go alone in this damned world? I
+can't very well leap back to Earth, can I?"</p>
+
+<p>"True enough," said Molo. "You have sense, little fellow. But I just
+warn you: the guard who will watch you always is very sharp of eye.
+And the weapons here bring very swift death."</p>
+
+<p>I could feel Anita's gaze upon me, but I did not dare look her way.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's go," I said, "You will have no trouble with me."</p>
+
+<p>With Molo leading us, and the giant insect-like guard following close
+behind, we made our slow, awkward way across the esplanade portals of
+the huge globular building.</p>
+
+<p>And within, we traversed a cylinder-like, padded corridor and came
+presently upon the strangest interior scene I had ever beheld.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>10</h2>
+
+
+<p>The room was so large that it seemed almost the entire interior of the
+building. It was a globular room, a hundred and fifty feet or more in
+diameter. The inner surface was crowded with people. It was a huge,
+hollow interior of a ball; and upon its concave surface a throng of
+the brown-shelled workers were gathered. They sat on low seats at the
+curved bottom of the room, where we entered, and up the sides and upon
+the slopes and the top, like flies in a globe, hanging head downward.
+There was no up or down here; the slight gravity made little
+difference.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed up amazed to where, a hundred and fifty feet above me, head
+downward, the crowd of figures were calmly seated. These were
+clinging, of course; the pound-weight of each of them would drop them
+down if they let loose. But it required only a slight effort.</p>
+
+<p>Between the tiers, there were narrow open aisles bearing glowlights at
+intervals. With Molo leading us, we stared up the curving incline of
+one of these aisles.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg! Good Lord, it's weird!" Snap said. "Where are we going to sit?
+Don't speak to the girls yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you spoken to them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. A little, on the ship. They're watching for an opportunity but
+we have to be cautious. Gregg, I've got so much to tell you, but no
+chance. The brains can just about hear your thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>We went only a short distance up the incline. There were vacant seats
+seemingly held ready for us. Our passage created a commotion among the
+figures. Some leaped up and over us to get a better look. I found that
+we were clinging to the mound-like convex surface of a small
+half-globe. It raised us some ten feet above the floor. There were low
+seats with arms against the side-pull of gravity. I found Anita close
+beside me. Her hand touched me, but she did not turn her head or
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was on my other side. I chanced to see his feet. They were
+planted firmly on the floor. He wore wide-soled shoes equipped with
+suction pads, no doubt, which would enable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> him, like the Wandlites,
+to walk and stand upon the upper inner surfaces of buildings.</p>
+
+<p>As during the moments when Snap and I stood on the landing esplanade,
+there was so much here that at first I could not encompass it. But now
+I began to grasp other details of the strange scene.</p>
+
+<p>Poised in mid-air, almost exactly in the center of the huge globular
+room, was a metal globe of some thirty feet in diameter. It was held,
+not by any solid girders, but by four narrow beams of light which
+mounted to it from widespread points of the convex room.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the entire surface of this thirty-foot globe, a group of masters
+were seated, in little, cup-like seats upon resilient stems. They
+swayed and nodded with movement. There seemed to be glowing wires and
+grids and thread-like beams of light carrying current. Light-threads
+shot from the mechanisms to the heads of the seated brains. All the
+devices were evidently in operation; and upon this poised central
+globe the attention of the audience was directed.</p>
+
+<p>Molo bent over me. "The Great Intelligence soon will see you."</p>
+
+<p>Snap, from the other side of Molo, whispered: "What are they doing up
+there?"</p>
+
+<p>The faint hiss and throb of the devices were audible. I stared, trying
+to understand. Images, and sounds, invisible and inaudible were being
+received from across the millions of miles of space, and they were
+being transmuted within the brains themselves. I saw that discs were
+fastened upon the bulging foreheads of the brains, upon which the tiny
+light-beams carrying the vibrations impinged.</p>
+
+<p>These brains, receiving "waves" of some unknown variety were, within
+the mechanism of the brain-cell, transmuting, translating the
+vibrations into things knowable. They were not seeing, not hearing,
+but <i>knowing</i> what went on millions of miles across space!</p>
+
+<p>Again Molo bent over me. "They are about to show this audience what is
+happening on the three worlds."</p>
+
+<p>Upon the thirty-foot globe I saw now a dozen or so balls of about
+three-foot diameter. These had been dark and I had not noticed them.
+Now they began glowing, not from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> wires carrying the current, but from
+the little hands of the brains touching them.</p>
+
+<p>I stared at the brain nearest me. His flabby little arm was extended;
+his hand touched the image-ball; gave it light and color, like a
+fortune-teller of Earth with a crystal before her.</p>
+
+<p>Even though I was some sixty feet from it, I could see the moving
+images clearly, and recognized the scene. The Tappan Interplanetary
+Stage. Ships were rising; two of our spaceships mounting.</p>
+
+<p>And all in an instant the scene blurred, took form again. The
+red-green spires and minarets of Ferrok-Shahn. The Central Canal
+extended like a gash across the foreground; the "Mushroom Mountains"
+were in a line upon the horizon. Three Martian space-flyers slid up
+while we watched.</p>
+
+<p>And now Grebhar. The silver forest in all its shining beauty, where
+Venza was born. The sunlight sparkled on the river. A spaceship was
+rising in the distant sky over the shining forest.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond Anita, I heard Venza murmuring, "Home! If only we were there."</p>
+
+<p>I could feel Anita move to silence her.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was whispering: "They come. But we will be ready for them."</p>
+
+<p>Another image: mid-space. The allied ships gathering, waiting for
+others to arrive. A group here of about ten of our ships from the
+three worlds: poised, waiting.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware that upon the mound-like protuberance of the room-floor
+where we were sitting, a door was opening. It slid, or melted away. At
+our feet was an opening downward into the small interior of the mound.</p>
+
+<p>Molo whispered, "The great Master. Sit quiet! He will talk to us."</p>
+
+<p>Over us now a barrage came with a hiss, a circular curtain of
+insulation. The huge globular room faded. We were alone on the mound,
+Snap, Molo, myself, Anita, Venza and Meka upon the end of our bench.
+Behind us stood our single Wandlite guard, with a weapon in his
+shoulder hand.</p>
+
+<p>At our feet an opening yawned into the mound-interior. It was a tiny,
+lighted room. In a cup-like seat a brain was perched, just below the
+level of our feet: the great Master Brain of Wandl. He was alone here.
+Not attended by retinue;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> no pomp and ceremony to usher us into his
+presence; no underlings obsequiously bowing to mark him for a great
+ruler.</p>
+
+<p>We stared down, and the great brain stared up at us, seemingly equally
+curious. His head was a full four feet in diameter; the little body
+sat in the cup, with dangling legs. The clothes were ornamented: there
+was a glowing device on the chest.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with a measured rumble, in Martian. "You are Molo, of
+Ferrok-Shahn."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Molo.</p>
+
+<p>"You must say, 'Yes, Great Master.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Great Master."</p>
+
+<p>"I know about you. I know that we trust you."</p>
+
+<p>The huge round eyes next fastened upon me. Then to Snap, and back to
+me. The words were English this time. "Men of Earth, are you decided,
+like the Martian, to join with us?"</p>
+
+<p>I tried with sudden vehemence to still my thoughts, or to change them
+so that they lied. Fear surged upon me. Could this vast mechanism of
+human mind here at my feet interpret the vibrations of my thoughts?
+Could this Great Master of Wandl see into my mind?</p>
+
+<p>The brain said, "You are uncertain. You do not want to die?"</p>
+
+<p>"No Great Master," we both answered.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not, unless you attempt to cause us trouble. Your thoughts
+are black." He addressed Molo. "Have they ever been read?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Great Master."</p>
+
+<p>"When opportunity comes, have them read." He added to Snap and me: "I
+plan to take prisoners. My Supreme Rulers, rulers of a neighboring
+more powerful planet, which sent Wandl upon her mission of conquest,
+ordered it. When your worlds are vacant of life, those who command me
+will want some of you left alive to be studied. Your thoughts are very
+black, Earthman. I think when they are carefully read you will prove
+no great advantage to us."</p>
+
+<p>There was irony in the voice, and upon the monstrous bulging face came
+the horrible travesty of a grin.</p>
+
+<p>The grin on the brain's face faded. His interest went again to Molo.
+"That is your sister." The eyes swung to Meka and back.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Great Master."</p>
+
+<p>"She is caring for this Earth-girl and this girl from Venus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Great Master. I am fond of them. I have plans."</p>
+
+<p>"They are in your charge, Martian; I will not interfere with you. But
+guard them well. I trust you and your sister. These others...."</p>
+
+<p>"The Earth and the Venus girl can be of help to me, Great Master."</p>
+
+<p>"How?"</p>
+
+<p>"They knew young men who were in the Spaceship Service. They can tell
+me the armament of men and weapons on most of the spaceships which
+Earth will send against us."</p>
+
+<p>Did Molo really believe that? Probably not, but he wanted the girls
+with him. Again came that grotesque smile. "Let them not bother you,
+Martian. You have work to do. Listen carefully. There will be a
+battle. Earth, Mars, and Venus may perhaps have a hundred ships. I
+cannot bring destruction upon those three worlds in a day. We soon
+will make contact with the light-beam you placed on Earth. That I will
+show you. But the rotation cannot be stopped at once. It will take
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"The enemy ships might dare to come to Wandl, but I shall not wait for
+that. All my spaceships are very nearly ready. If there is to be a
+battle, it shall be far from here, in the neighborhood of the enemy
+worlds. We are at this time about sixty-two million of your miles from
+the Earth, a third less than that from Mars, and about a third more
+from Venus. I understand, Martian, that you are skilled in space
+warfare."</p>
+
+<p>The brain went on, "I have given you a vessel to command. You will be
+surprised to know its name: the <i>Star-Streak</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Meka gasped, "But you destroyed it, Great Master!"</p>
+
+<p>"Only wrecked it, Martian girl. It is repaired now. You, Molo&mdash;and
+your sister to help you&mdash;who could command it to more advantage? All
+your own weapons, and ours of Wandl have been added. You may select
+your crew. Is it to your liking?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Great Master."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be housed in this city, Wor, in the dwelling-globe you
+occupied before. Keep your prisoners with you, if you like."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"These two Earthmen...." began Molo, but he was interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"Settle that later. I do not want the annoyance."</p>
+
+<p>I was dimly conscious of a great clanging, coming through the curtain
+of barrage which was over us.</p>
+
+<p>The brain added, "Keep Wyk with you, to guard the prisoners; he will
+also attend your needs. In the battle, Martian, I expect great things
+of you and your <i>Star-Streak</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Great Master, you will not be disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>"And prisoners, but not too many. Bring me a few young specimens like
+these, representative of Venus, Mars and the Earth. I want both of the
+sexes, an equal number of each."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Great Master."</p>
+
+<p>"The warning signal is coming. You will now see our first contact."</p>
+
+<p>The light at our feet was fading. It clung last by the gruesome face
+of the huge brain; the goggling eyes shone green, and as the light in
+the little mound-room dimmed there was in a moment nothing left but
+those lurid green pools of the brain's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then I was aware that the aperture at our feet had closed. Over us,
+the barrage curtain was dissipating, sight and sound coming in to us.
+The huge ball-shaped conclave room again became visible, the audience
+crowding its entire inner surface.</p>
+
+<p>I suddenly felt Anita's fingers twitching at my sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, darling, can you hear me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Be careful."</p>
+
+<p>But Molo was gazing up over our heads. The crowd was shifting, bending
+so that they all seemed gazing at their feet. A dim white radiance,
+seeming to come from down here somewhere near us, lay in a splotch on
+a segment of the throng overhead. Molo was watching.</p>
+
+<p>I whispered, "All right, Anita. Quick, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The great control station is not far from here. Venza and I have been
+trying to find out where it is exactly."</p>
+
+<p>She stopped, evidently fearful of Meka. Then she added:</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, we haven't been guarded very closely; they're not suspicious
+of us."</p>
+
+<p>"Later, Anita. Can't talk now."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Watch our chance. Later."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I turned toward Molo. "What's that up there?"</p>
+
+<p>"The transparent ray is opening the top of the globe."</p>
+
+<p>The clanging signal gong had stilled. The audience was hushed and
+expectant. The white patch of light overhead spread until it
+encompassed all the top of the globe. The whole area was glowing. The
+people were white, spectral shapes, transparent! And the top of the
+globe was transparent; I saw the night sky, with the gleaming reddish
+stars.</p>
+
+<p>It was, in a moment, as though we were staring up at a huge square
+window orifice cut in the top of the room. A broad vista of cloudless
+sky and stars was visible. Across it, like a shining sword, was a
+narrow, opalescent beam.</p>
+
+<p>"The Earth-beam which I planted," Molo whispered triumphantly. "Our
+control station will contact with it now. The first contact!"</p>
+
+<p>Earth was below our angle of vision, but the beam from Greater New
+York, sweeping the sky with the Earth's rotation, was passing now
+comparatively close to Wandl.</p>
+
+<p>There was an expectant moment. Then into the sky leaped another ray,
+narrow, luridly green. It swung up from Wandl and darted into space.
+The hissing, agonized electrical scream from it as it burst through
+the Wandl atmosphere was deafening. I saw it strike the Earth-beam,
+grip it with a blinding burst of radiance up there in the sky,
+clinging, pulling against the rotation of the Earth with a lever sixty
+million miles long.</p>
+
+<p>A moment of screaming sound in the atmosphere around us, and that
+conflict of light in the sky. Then the screaming suddenly stilled. The
+Wandl beam vanished.</p>
+
+<p>The Earth-beam still swept the heavens like a stiff, upstanding sword.
+But in that moment when Wandl gripped it, the axis of the Earth had
+been changed a little. The rotation was slowed. By a few minutes, the
+day and the night on Earth were lengthened.</p>
+
+<p>It was the beginning of Earth's desolation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>11</h2>
+
+
+<p>"But when do we eat?" Snap demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon," said Molo.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so."</p>
+
+<p>We were leaving the great room as we had come. Walking? I can only
+call it that, though the word is futile to describe our progress as we
+made our way to the lighted esplanade, across its side and into what
+might have been called a street. Globular houses, single, or one set
+upon another, or half a dozen swaying on a stick, gardens of
+vegetables and flowers. I saw what seemed to be a round patch of
+hundred-foot tree-stalks, like a thick batch of bamboo. It was laced
+and latticed thick with vines.</p>
+
+<p>"A house," Snap murmured. "That's a house."</p>
+
+<p>Another type of dwelling. This patch of vegetable growth, so flimsy it
+was all stirring with the movement of the night breeze, was woven into
+circular thatched rooms, birds' nests of little dwellings. Staring up,
+I seemed to see a hundred of them. Rope-vine ladders; flimsy vine
+platforms; tiny lights winking up there in the trees.</p>
+
+<p>On a platform twenty feet above us a group of tiny infant brains sat
+in a gruesome row, goggling down on us.</p>
+
+<p>We passed the tree patch; again the city seemed all a thin, flexible
+metal. The ground was like a smooth rock surface, alternating with
+small patches of soil where things were growing.</p>
+
+<p>We walked in a slow, unsteady line. Molo led. Behind Snap and me came
+the girls, ignoring us; and at the rear, the brown-shelled giant guard
+stalked after us.</p>
+
+<p>Molo stopped at a large globe-dwelling. "We rest here. I will go see
+that our rooms are ready." He gestured to his sister. "Meka, you come
+with me. Wyk will guard them."</p>
+
+<p>We stood at an oval doorway. A worker came out, stared at us, then
+went back. On an upper balcony, a brain was gazing down at us.</p>
+
+<p>I caught Molo's brawny arm. "Won't you tell us what's going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Rest here with Wyk."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?" asked Snap.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to select my men for battle."</p>
+
+<p>"When do you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"In a few hours, Earth-time."</p>
+
+<p>"And you're taking us on the ship, Molo? Where is your <i>Star-Streak</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I must find out." He, gazed at us with a slow, faint smile. "Not
+far. Nothing is far on Wandl. I do not know if I will take you on my
+ship. You might be of help, or you might be troublesome. The Great
+Master wants prisoners, or I would have killed you long ago."</p>
+
+<p>He took his sister and left us. There was a brief moment when Wyk,
+standing aside incuriously, gave us opportunity for swift whispers.</p>
+
+<p>Again Anita clutched me. "Gregg, we'll be separated now. But with Molo
+gone, Venza and I can get away from Meka."</p>
+
+<p>Venza whirled on us. "Gregg, listen! Snap, be quiet! If we're ever
+going to escape, now is the time. You get away from Wyk. We'll handle
+Meka."</p>
+
+<p>"And do what?" Snap demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"The control station! We'll find it!"</p>
+
+<p>Anita whispered, "We've got to wreck it, Gregg. Stop those contacts.
+It'll mean the end of Earth if we don't."</p>
+
+<p>I protested. "Better try for Molo's vessel. We might be able to
+navigate it, escape from this world."</p>
+
+<p>"The control station first," Anita insisted. "Gregg, we know something
+about it. You and Snap, with your strength, can demolish it. And then,
+if we can locate the <i>Star-Streak</i>...."</p>
+
+<p>It was a desperate, mad plan, but there seemed nothing better. The
+girls insisted now that though they did not know where the control
+station was located, they knew the details of its interior; its
+physical layout; its human operators.</p>
+
+<p>"In an hour," whispered Snap. "Have you got a timer? Is it going?"</p>
+
+<p>The little timers we still had with us were undoubtedly operating
+differently from on Earth; but they were in agreement.</p>
+
+<p>"An hour by our timers," I whispered. "We'll make the break then, try
+to find you inside. Anita, if you get free of Meka, don't come out."</p>
+
+<p>"All right."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We had only a moment to try and plan it. "Anita, in an hour, with Molo
+gone...."</p>
+
+<p>He came suddenly with a driving leap from the doorway and dropped
+among us. "All is ready. Come."</p>
+
+<p>We ignored the girls. Snap again protested that he was hungry, which
+indeed, for me at least, was certainly the truth. And I was parched
+with thirst. I felt that this vaunted strength of my Earth body would
+not last long without food and drink.</p>
+
+<p>We entered the globular interior. There were narrow corridors;
+triangular rooms; a slatted, ladder-like incline leading upward to a
+higher level.</p>
+
+<p>The girls followed Meka up the incline. Molo and Wyk herded us into a
+nearby room. "You will have your food and drink here. Cause Wyk no
+trouble and you will be quite safe."</p>
+
+<p>He turned, but Snap plucked at him. "When are you coming back?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not too long."</p>
+
+<p>I said, "We will cause you no trouble. Take us on the ship."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see."</p>
+
+<p>He murmured to Wyk in Martian, then left us.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The small triangular room had no windows and only the single door. Wyk
+touched a mechanism and it slid closed. The place was a queer
+apartment indeed. The floor was convex, curving upward to the walls.
+The light radiance dimly glowed, as though inherent to the metal
+ceiling. There was strange metal furniture: a table and chairs, high
+and large; bunks of a size evidently for the ten-foot workers.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, and a worker brought us food and drink. Wyk sat apart
+and watched us while we consumed the meal. I noticed that he seldom
+let himself get close to us. He sat stiffly upright, with his jointed
+legs bent double under him, his many arms and pincers hanging inert,
+save the one short shoulder-arm with flexible fingers gripping his
+weapon. At his waist, and upon several hook-like protuberances of his
+chest, other weapons and devices were hanging.</p>
+
+<p>Snap gazed up from where, on the floor, we were ravenously eating and
+drinking. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked Wyk.</p>
+
+<p>"No."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You eat often?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>An incurious, taciturn creature, this insect-like being. Snap
+whispered, "Got to talk to him; make him let us get close. That
+weapon...."</p>
+
+<p>How the weapon operated, we did not know; but that a flash from it
+would bring instant death we well imagined.</p>
+
+<p>Half of that hour of waiting was past.</p>
+
+<p>I said to Wyk, "You would call this night on your world; the sun
+obviously is on the other hemisphere. When will it be day?"</p>
+
+<p>His gaze swung on me. His hollow voice, deep from the capacious shell
+of chest, echoed and blurred in the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I think Wandl has no rotation now. Or almost none."</p>
+
+<p>He was not as taciturn, as he had seemed, and presently we had him
+talking. We learned several things regarding the gravity-controls of
+Wandl, by which at will the planet could be rotated on its axis; and
+by which also it could navigate space. We learned that the great
+control station contained these gravitational mechanisms, as well as
+the mechanism by which the Earth had been attacked. But we could not
+discover where on Wandl that station was located.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with our meal finished, Snap rose to his feet. "Those arms of
+yours, seem very strange to us. But they must be mighty useful."</p>
+
+<p>Snap had taken a cautious, shoving step. It wafted him directly toward
+the guard.</p>
+
+<p>The weird, brown-scaled face of Wyk, with its popping eyes upon stems
+and its upended mouth, contorted with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Back! Don't come near me!"</p>
+
+<p>He flung himself back, but struck the wall of the room. All his arms
+were writhing. Alarm was in his voice. It was the first time either
+Snap or I had made an unexpected move, and it startled Wyk.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait! Let me go!" Snap cried.</p>
+
+<p>Wyk's longest arms were around Snap, like the tentacles of an octopus,
+and Snap was struggling, fighting. We had not intended this at this
+time, but the opportunity was here.</p>
+
+<p>I scrambled from the floor. Now, with the need for powerful action,
+the lack of gravity was a tremendous handicap. I went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> up with
+flailing arms into the air. Wyk fired his weapon, but it missed me, a
+soundless, dimly-white bolt. It hissed along the curving wall of the
+room. The smell of it was a stench in my nostrils.</p>
+
+<p>I hit the concave ceiling, shoved down, and like a swimmer in water
+struck against the struggling bodies of Snap and the guard. The waving
+little shoulder arm with the weapon came at me.</p>
+
+<p>Snap shouted, "Gregg, look out!"</p>
+
+<p>I seized the little arm; it felt like the shell of a huge crab. For a
+moment we were all three entangled, floundering, unable to find a
+foothold. Then suddenly I felt Snap pulling me loose.</p>
+
+<p>"We've got him!"</p>
+
+<p>The brown-shelled body of Wyk sank away from us, hit the floor and lay
+still. I felt the floor under me, and Snap clutching at me.</p>
+
+<p>In my hand I was clutching Wyk's little shoulder arm, with fingers
+still gripping the weapon. I had jerked it out of his shoulder socket.
+With a shudder I cast the noisome thing away. Whether Wyk was dead or
+not we did not know. He lay on his back; the hideous face stared
+upward.</p>
+
+<p>"I cracked the shell," Snap gasped. "We've got to get out of here.
+Better try and get the girls loose now."</p>
+
+<p>We wasted no further time on Wyk. Snap snatched several of his weapons
+and mechanical devices. We stowed them hastily in our pockets. One was
+like another to us; we could only guess at their uses.</p>
+
+<p>"His shoes, Gregg. I can't get the damn things off him."</p>
+
+<p>"Here are shoes."</p>
+
+<p>A small pile of shoes was in a corner of the room; wide, resilient
+suction soles, built like sandals. They were very large, but the
+things were so placed that it seemed we could fasten them to our
+boots.</p>
+
+<p>"But not now, Snap."</p>
+
+<p>We snatched up four pairs of the shoes.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed nothing else to do. Could we get the door open? Snap was
+already fumbling at it. "Accursed thing! It won't give."</p>
+
+<p>Then it slid open. The dim corridor was visible. No one, nothing, out
+there. "Come on, Gregg! In a rush!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We went like bouncing rubber figures up the incline ladder.</p>
+
+<p>"Snap, watch out!" He all but cracked his head with an upward leap.
+Every instant we expected to be set upon. There was a terraced upper
+hall, black with shadow; dark ovals of doorways led into rooms.</p>
+
+<p>No one here. As yet we were not discovered.</p>
+
+<p>We stood at the intersection of two corridors. One went almost
+vertically up, like a chimney extending into the dome peak of the
+globe. Its sides were latticed; we could go up it hand over hand, like
+monkeys. The other sloped at an angle downward.</p>
+
+<p>"Which way?" Snap whispered. "What do you think? Got to find them."</p>
+
+<p>It still lacked about five minutes of our designated time, but it
+would not do to burst in upon the girls, perhaps to find Molo and
+guards there.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's wait a minute, listen, see if we can't get some idea."</p>
+
+<p>We were backed against the corridor wall, almost in darkness. From the
+dark length of the descending corridor came a thump, the sound of a
+struggle, and then a muffled scream. Venza! And we heard her words:
+"Anita! Look out for her! She's got a knife!"</p>
+
+<p>As though diving into water, Snap and I plunged head first into the
+blackness of the corridor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>12</h2>
+
+
+<p>Later, we learned that Anita and Venza had tried much the same tactics
+on Meka that we had used on Wyk, but their task was more difficult.
+She was suspicious of them. Venza asked her where the control station
+was, but she wouldn't answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Your brother said it was just beyond the dark forest," Anita said.
+"What is the dark forest?"</p>
+
+<p>"A place with trees where no one lives."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Off that way." Venza gestured. "That's what Molo said. Will it be day
+soon, or will the night keep on?"</p>
+
+<p>"If they cause Wandl to rotate, it will soon be day." An ironic look
+crossed Meka's face. "I am in no mood for answering more of your silly
+questions. Save the breath."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if that's they way you feel about it," replied Venza laughing,
+"we will. There's not much air in here." She shoved herself across the
+floor toward the closed window.</p>
+
+<p>"Get back!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right&mdash;all right!"</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Meka herself felt there was not enough air. She stood
+waveringly upright, and pushed herself with a slow leap for the
+window. Her back for that moment was to Anita and Venza. They shoved
+from the floor, whirled through the air and were upon her.</p>
+
+<p>It was a brief struggle, and instantly they knew that they had lost.
+The huge Martian whirled and flung them off. Her upflung fist, with a
+blow like a man's, caught Anita's thigh and knocked her toward the
+ceiling. She sank in a heap on the floor, saw that Venza had shoved
+back, but was standing upright.</p>
+
+<p>Anita bent double, with her feet braced against a chair, tensed to
+shove forward again. At the still unopened window, Meka crouched.
+Anita heard Venza's warning outcry. "Anita, look out for her! She's
+got a knife!"</p>
+
+<p>Upon this scene, in a moment, Snap and I came with a rush. The closed
+door was not barred. We slid it down and catapulted through the
+opening. Meka sailed over us. I swam up at her; seized her. The knife
+ripped my blouse and slit the flesh of my upper arm with a glancing
+blow. Then Snap came and struck against us; we sank to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Meka had fought silently, but now she was shouting. I twisted her
+wrist, seized the knife handle and flung the knife away. I was aware
+of Anita lunging to retrieve it. And over us Venza appeared, waving a
+metal chair as though it were a huge feather.</p>
+
+<p>Snap gasped, "Gregg get your hand over her mouth. Shut her up!"</p>
+
+<p>We had her subdued in a moment, but it seemed almost too late. Outside
+the opened door a distant shout sounded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I shoved Meka toward the door. "If you don't do what I say, I'll kill
+you," I whispered into her ear.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>There came another shout, closer, now. Someone was coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Call out in Martian. Say there's no trouble, nothing wrong. You were
+arguing with these girls."</p>
+
+<p>She did as I commanded. The voice down the corridor answered, and then
+subsided.</p>
+
+<p>Snap slid the door closed. "Hurry! We'll go by the window. I dropped
+those damn shoes."</p>
+
+<p>Anita and Venza tore their dark coats into strips. We bound and gagged
+Meka, laid her in a corner of the room. We had dropped the shoes as we
+came plunging through the door oval. We found that we could all fasten
+their things to our feet. I put Meka's knife in my belt.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry, all of you!" Snap was saying. "Got to get out of here; jump by
+the window."</p>
+
+<p>"Say, look at these wing-shields!" From a recess in a corner of the
+room Venza appeared with an armful of the small shields. We thrust our
+hands and forearms into their loops. The shields extended from a few
+inches beyond our fingers to the elbow.</p>
+
+<p>Snap had slid the window blind. I bent over the prone form of Meka.
+"Don't try to move. Molo will release you when he comes back."</p>
+
+<p>We gathered on the starlit balcony. The city stretched around us.
+There was as yet no alarm. No swimming figures near here; but a
+distance away we saw the towering conclave globe, with its audience
+just beginning to emerge, like bees coming from a hive.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me go first." I held Anita and Venza at the rail. "It's like
+swimming. I suppose we'll get the way of it pretty quickly."</p>
+
+<p>I balanced on the rail, and then leaped off. With the others after me,
+we swam awkwardly upward into the reddish starlight.</p>
+
+<p>The city structures dropped away, showing in a dark blur with winking
+lights. Over us were the stars and the cloudless night sky. Behind,
+the flashing light beams of radiance at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> landing stage, the
+figures fluttering, the great globe, all dropped swiftly beneath a
+sharply curving horizon.</p>
+
+<p>We had passed the city. A thousand feet below us, a dark forest
+stretched. It was beyond this that the control station was located.</p>
+
+<p>The swimming flight became less awkward, but it was an effort in this
+abnormal Wandl air. Snap and Venza were behind me. Anita was leading,
+a strange, bird-like little figure. White blouse; long parted dark
+skirt from which her gray-sheathed legs kicked out as she swam,
+sometimes half upon one side, or with a breast stroke. The braids of
+her dark hair fell forward over her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>She was tiring: I could not miss it. How far had we gone? Ten miles,
+perhaps. There was only a small vista of this little world visible at
+once, it was so sharply convex. A line of distant mountains was to our
+left. We had crossed a river at the forest edge.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose we had been half an hour swimming those ten-miles. Was
+daylight coming? It seemed that the sideline of mountain-tops had a
+little light on them. The opalescent beam from Earth had swept this
+portion of the sky and was gone below the horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently there was no pursuit from the city. Behind me, Venza
+panted, "Say, I'm about finished. Can't we rest?"</p>
+
+<p>With this altitude we could cease our efforts and drift down. It would
+take several minutes.</p>
+
+<p>We gathered together, falling with a slow drift toward the dark forest
+under us. The trees seemed huge and spindly, a porous growth something
+on the Martian style, with huge leaves and a tangle of matter vines.
+They came mounting up at us as we fell with slowly gathering speed.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we go on?" I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes." But she was tired, and Anita as well.</p>
+
+<p>"Girls," I asked, "where is the <i>Star-Streak</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>They did not know.</p>
+
+<p>Anita said, "Perhaps we can land in the trees, and examine what
+devices we have here."</p>
+
+<p>The girls had carefully watched Molo upon several occasions. They
+thought we might find we had a hand-globe or a couple of the repulsive
+rays. With these we could attain rapid flight without effort.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We sank, fluttering, into a dark and tangled mass of the forest
+tree-top growth. I had understood that Wandl was crowded with its
+human population, yet this dark and silent forest evidently was
+uninhabited. We clung, like awkward birds, to a swaying limb of a
+tree-top. The trees were close together.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see what you've got," Venza demanded.</p>
+
+<p>We handed the girls the various devices we had taken from Wyk. Most of
+them were the size of my fist: globular metallic projectors like hand
+bombs; ray cylinders; a device with multiple barrels the size of one's
+finger, set in a small circumference of a circular grid of wires.</p>
+
+<p>Anita said, "I saw Molo with one of these. He killed an unwilling
+worker on the ship."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll take a look around," Snap said anxiously. "Suppose we're being
+followed? Give me that weapon."</p>
+
+<p>There was vegetation partly over us, so that the sky was half
+obscured. Snap took the weapon, and like a monkey swaying
+precariously, he ran and leaped among the upper branches, crashing his
+way until he could see back toward the horizon beyond which lay the
+city of Wor.</p>
+
+<p>We heard his voice. "All clear. Nothing in sight. You coming up?
+Better get started."</p>
+
+<p>I put the weapons in my pocket. Snap had one now in the branches over
+us. I was examining an electronic bolt, when suddenly there came
+Snap's call. "Gregg! Look out!"</p>
+
+<p>We heard the hiss and saw the flash of his bolt.</p>
+
+<p>Anita swung at me. "Gregg, see there!"</p>
+
+<p>I followed her gesture, and then I knew why this forest was shunned by
+humans!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>13</h2>
+
+
+<p>The forest swarmed with living things. Here in the dark they had been
+crawling upon us. Every branch of this leafy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> tree-top angle had
+something staring at us; the darkness was suddenly glowing with a
+myriad little green torches which were their eyes. They all winked on
+in an instant, as though at a signal, or at the sound of Snap's shout
+and the hiss of his bolt.</p>
+
+<p>Insects? I suppose I should call them that. With a glance I saw that
+they were of many sizes and shapes; tiny little things with eyes like
+lanterns; things of many legs, finger-length, hand-length, and some as
+long as my forearm. Brown-shelled things, with eyes glowing on stems.
+There was one quite near us, a smooth, brown-shelled body; a round
+head on top, as big as my fist. And these things had heads like little
+distended brains.</p>
+
+<p>What horrible jest of nature this was, with miniatures of the Wandl
+workers, crawling here, unable to stand erect, groping with little
+pincers. And miniature brains with naked, shriveled bodies.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that the eyes of that little brain were fixed on me with a
+baleful green glare in the darkness. Anita and Venza were floundering
+to their feet in horror. They all but slipped from the limb. The
+weapons and devices they had arranged there slid off and went down
+into the darkness unheeded. From above us came Snap's horrified shouts
+and the hiss of his bolts.</p>
+
+<p>"Here!" I gasped. "My hand&mdash;Anita, Venza, jump!"</p>
+
+<p>I shoved Anita upward. The little eyes suddenly were all in movement,
+advancing upon us. Anita floundered, fluttered, got into the air and
+mounted toward Snap. Again Venza slipped off the limb. I lunged and
+drew her up. Green eyes nearest us came swooping. I did not dare fire
+a bolt; it was too close to Venza. I flung the entire weapon at the
+green eyes, but I missed.</p>
+
+<p>The little thing bit Venza's arm. She screamed and her flailing hand
+hit the tiny distended head. Its hideous little scream mingled with
+hers. It floated downward, massed and purple-red with gushing blood.</p>
+
+<p>I struggled upward with the inert form of Venza under one arm. Anita
+was mounting, free. Snap came lunging down.</p>
+
+<p>"Fired every bolt in the damn weapon!" He saw the unconscious Venza.
+"Good God, Gregg!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Never have I heard such anguish in his tone. "Gregg, she isn't...."</p>
+
+<p>"One of them bit her. Help me."</p>
+
+<p>He floundered up with her, a hundred feet above the tree-tops of that
+horrible forest. The little lanterns of eyes down there had all winked
+out. The open starlight was over us.</p>
+
+<p>Anita came swimming, then Venza stirred. She murmured, "... all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>She had fainted. It seemed nothing more; but I found her upper arm
+swelling. She tried to bend her body and sit up; but it threw us all
+out of balance.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie straight," Snap murmured. "Venza, are you all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Why not?" And then she laughed. It sent a shuddering chill over
+me. "What's the fuss about? Let's get away from here. Somebody will be
+coming."</p>
+
+<p>She was swimming now and we let her loose, but stayed close by her.
+The reddish firmament was like an inverted bowl. The curving Wandl
+surface gave us a narrow little vista, the forest rolling up from the
+horizon in front. Then we saw where the forest seemed to end. Water
+was beyond it: a ribbon like a broad river, and beyond that, frowning
+mountains, terraced and spired with jagged peaks.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and I suddenly recalled the gravity ray projectors. We tried
+them; found that they would fling little beams of two varieties.
+Pencil points of radiance, they seemed to have an effective range of
+no more than a few hundred feet.</p>
+
+<p>I let myself drift downward, experimenting. The tiny beam struck the
+forest-top. I felt the projector pulling violently downward in my
+hand. I clung to it. I was being drawn swiftly down by the attractive
+gravity force of the ray. The forest rose rapidly under me: I was all
+but flung upon it before I could find the other controls.</p>
+
+<p>Then the ray altered its nature; the projector in my hand pulled me
+steadily up. But after a few hundred feet, I felt I was mounting only
+of my own momentum, with gravity and air-friction retarding me.</p>
+
+<p>Snap had tried similar experiments. We rejoined the swimming girls. I
+stared into Venza's face; it was pale but she did not seem distressed.
+She winked at me.</p>
+
+<p>"How's your arm, Venza?"</p>
+
+<p>"It hurts, but I guess it's all right."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I turned to Snap. "I guess we can work these things. Get Venza to
+cling to you."</p>
+
+<p>Our progress now was far less difficult. Venza clung to Snap's ankles
+and Anita to mine. With the repulsing rays directed downward, we had a
+strong upward and forward thrust. We went forward with great
+thousand-foot bounds. The forest rolled back under us. We came over
+the gleaming river. It seemed several miles broad. It appeared to have
+a swift current.</p>
+
+<p>I saw sunlight upon the mountain ahead. The darkness had been paling.
+Now day suddenly burst upon us. The sun, smaller than on Earth,
+mounted swiftly up. It was a flattened, distorted, dull-red disc,
+blurred by Wandl's strange atmosphere. We were in a dim red daylight.</p>
+
+<p>Anita twitched at my ankles. "Look back of us!"</p>
+
+<p>We were going up. Venza and Snap, behind us, were in a descending arc.
+Above them, far back in the direction from which they had come, two
+blobs were visible up against the reddish day sky.</p>
+
+<p>Pursuit? It seemed so. The blobs went down, but came up again,
+traveling with rays, like ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>I called to Snap, "Someone after us! Two figures back there!"</p>
+
+<p>He was shouting, "Gregg! Gregg, help!"</p>
+
+<p>My gaze had been on the distant figures. I saw now that at the bottom
+of his arc, and starting upward again, Snap had lost Venza. The
+impulse of his ray had twitched his ankle from her grasp. Or had she
+let loose? He was about a hundred feet above the river, and Venza,
+with acceleration downward unchecked, was falling into it.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, help! Venza, swim up!" His frenzied call reached me as I used
+the attractive ray and Anita and I whirled over and lunged downward.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, help! Venza use your arms! Swim!"</p>
+
+<p>She was lying inert, making no effort to keep from falling. Her body
+turned slowly, end-over-end. She struck the swiftly-flowing river
+surface but did not sink; instead, she half emerged, came up and lay
+in a crumpled heap; and with its rapid current, the river carried her
+away.</p>
+
+<p>It was several minutes before we could reach Venza. Snap was already
+there, floundering on the water, awkwardly main<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>taining his balance,
+bending over Venza. "Gregg, she's unconscious. Fainted again."</p>
+
+<p>The bite of that insect! The thought of it turned me cold.</p>
+
+<p>The river surface was like a very soft rubber mattress. The water
+clung to us, wet us. We could not kneel or stand erect; but in sitting
+down only a few inches of our bodies were submerged. We floated like
+corks, we were so light, and so little water did we displace.</p>
+
+<p>We struggled with Venza across the gluey river surface. She had fallen
+near the further shore. Rocks, crags and strewn boulders were passing
+as the current swept us along at a speed of about ten miles an hour.
+She lay in our arms, eyes closed, her face pallid but calm. She seemed
+to breathe rapidly; but that on Wandl was normal.</p>
+
+<p>We landed on the rocky shore. It was still daylight. The blurred sun
+was winging across the zenith so swiftly that its movement was
+visible. Wandl had been suddenly endowed with axial rotation. Even in
+these few minutes, the day was past its noon. On the distant mountain
+peaks looming above the nearby horizon; it seemed that the sheen of
+coming night was mingled with the red sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>Anita and Snap laid Venza on the rocks. I suddenly remembered the two
+blobs in the sky behind us, which had seemed to be following. I stood
+gazing across the river. The red sky there seemed empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God, she's reviving!" Snap called at me and I joined them.
+Venza was stirring. Color was coming into her cheeks. Her lips were
+murmuring as though she were talking in her sleep.</p>
+
+<p>Then she opened her eyes. Her gaze fixed on us as we bent over her.
+"Why, what's the matter? Where are we? I thought we were in the
+tree-tops. Snap, don't look at me like that, dear. I'm all right&mdash;only
+confused."</p>
+
+<p>She could remember nothing since that gruesome thing bit into her arm,
+but the attack of its poison in her veins seemed definitely over. We
+sat with her, soothing her, explaining what had happened. And she was
+wholly rational. Her strength came back; her mind cleared.</p>
+
+<p>The brief red day came to its close. The sun plunged below the
+horizon; the stars winked into being. The red-purple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> Wandl night
+again was here. And now we saw that the whole firmament was swinging,
+the rotation made visible.</p>
+
+<p>The darkness leaped around us. Shadows filled the rock hollows. The
+caves and recesses of this rocky shore turned black with darkness. And
+in the sky now we saw another of those familiar opalescent beams. This
+was the one from Mars: we could identify the red disc of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>And then, from the mountains ahead of us but still below our horizon,
+the Wandl control station shot its attacking beam upward. Again there
+was that conflict in the sky. The axis of Mars was being altered, its
+rotation slowed.</p>
+
+<p>We could see now that we were much nearer than before to the control
+station. It seemed only about twenty miles ahead of us. The scream
+from it was deafening.</p>
+
+<p>The Wandl beam died presently. The electrical scream from the control
+station was stilled.</p>
+
+<p>The Earth's axis had been altered. Now Mars; and next would be Venus.
+A few more of these gravitational attacks and then the helpless
+planets, with rotation checked, would be towed away by Wandl, out into
+the deadly cold of interstellar space.</p>
+
+<p>Anita abruptly gave a startled outcry. The four of us, sitting in a
+group, had no time to rise. From behind a dark crag nearby, two
+figures appeared. The starlight showed them clearly.</p>
+
+<p>Molo and Wyk! They lunged forward at us.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>14</h2>
+
+
+<p>We were unarmed. I had flung my weapon at the thing in the forest; and
+Snap had exhausted all his bolts firing at the multitude of green
+eyes. Molo and Wyk came with a dive through the air. Two tiny flashes
+leaped from them to the rocks behind them, and flung them forward.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and I seized Venza and Anita. It was a second of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> confusion; then
+I saw we would not be able to rise in time. The driving, oncoming
+figures were no more than twenty feet away.</p>
+
+<p>"Protect Venza, Snap! Get her behind you!"</p>
+
+<p>Snap shoved Venza behind him; I got myself in front of Anita. We had
+almost gained our feet. I tried to thrust Anita and myself violently
+upward. We rose, but only a few feet. And then we were struck by the
+oncoming body of Wyk, like a huge, light-shelled, three-pound insect
+lunging in mid-air against us. The two longest tentacle arms wrapped
+around us. Anita twisted and kicked. The gruesome, goggling face of
+Wyk thrust itself almost into mine. The hollow voice panted, "I have
+you fast."</p>
+
+<p>One of my arms was free and I struck with my fist at the gaping,
+upended mouth. There was a crack. My fist sank through the shell; a
+cold, sticky ooze spurted out.</p>
+
+<p>Wyk screamed. His encircling arms fell away. The grisly smashed face
+was white with ooze and pulp where my fist had gone in.</p>
+
+<p>We had sunk back to the rocks. I kicked the dead body of Wyk away.</p>
+
+<p>"Anita! Swim up!"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>Sinking beside us were the flailing bodies of Molo, Snap and Venza
+were drifting down. They seemed intermingled. Snap was shouting: "No
+you don't! Drop that!"</p>
+
+<p>I leaped for them. Something long and thin and glowing was dangling
+from Molo's hand. He broke loose from the struggling Snap and Venza;
+his feet struck the rocks and he shoved himself backward. My leap had
+carried me too high. I saw that in his hand was a six-foot length of
+glowing wire. He whirled it. The weight on its end described an arc,
+and then he flung the handle. The weighted wire struck Venza and Snap
+just as their repulsive ray shot down against the rocks and shoved
+them upward. The whirling wire wrapped itself around them, bound them
+together. Its glow vanished. Snap had been shouting, "Gregg, come up."
+But it died in his throat.</p>
+
+<p>All this while, in those few seconds, I was vaulting over Molo, trying
+to get back to the ground to leap again. I saw that Anita was crawling
+on the rocks. My gravity cylinder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> was at my belt. I had jammed it
+there to leave my hands free just as Wyk struck me.</p>
+
+<p>I saw that Snap and Venza, wrapped together by the wire, had dropped
+their gravity projector. Their entwined figures went up some fifty
+feet and stopped; then began drifting down.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was shouting, "You, Gregg Haljan! Now for you!"</p>
+
+<p>I struck the rocks and fell twenty feet beyond him. I jerked out my
+gravity projector, but I did not know what I wanted to do with it. And
+in that second I saw that the standing Molo was aiming at me. Directly
+over my head the inert bound bodies of Venza and Snap were falling.</p>
+
+<p>A flash leaped over the dark rocks from Molo. There was a split-second
+when I thought it was the end of me. But I was still alive. The bodies
+of Venza and Snap struck my head and shoulders; knocked me down. I
+felt Molo's ray upon me. Not death, but only his gravity ray, like a
+giant hand pulling me. Apparently he wanted us alive. I was scrambling
+on the rocks, entangled with Venza and Snap. Molo's radiance clung.
+All three of us went tumbling forward toward him. I flashed my own
+ray, but I was rolling end over end, and it went wild.</p>
+
+<p>I dropped it, saw Molo's beam vanish, saw his upright standing figure
+towering above me. Snap, Venza and I were in a heap at his feet. He
+leaned down and seized me. "Now, Gregg Haljan, I will teach you not to
+try escaping like this!"</p>
+
+<p>With the huge, muscular Martian gripping me, his fist striking for my
+face but missing and hitting my shoulder, this was a semblance of
+normality. I could understand fighting like this. I wrapped my legs
+around him; my fingers reached for his brawny throat as he kicked us
+into the air free of the entangling bodies of Snap and Venza.</p>
+
+<p>We rose a few feet and sank back, gripping each other, lunging and
+striking. He was very powerful, this Martian. I caught the round
+pillar of his throat with my hands. For an instant I shut off his
+wind, but I could not hold the grip. He struck me a glancing blow in
+the face, then the heel of his hand was under my chin. It forced back
+my head, broke my hold on his throat. With returning breath, he gasped
+an inhalation. And I heard his exulting words: "You are not strong
+enough!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We rolled and bumped over the rocks. I caught a blow from his fists
+full in my face. It was almost the end; I felt my strength going. He
+laughed as he struck away my answering swing. I was on my back against
+the rocks, with his body on top of me. Then beyond and behind his
+hulking shoulder, silhouetted against the sky, I saw Anita rise up.
+She was lifting a jagged gray mass of stone, full four feet in
+diameter. She poised it, then crashed it down on Molo's head. He sank
+away from me; his arms relaxed. The boulder rolled beside him.</p>
+
+<p>It was over now. Wyk was dead; his gruesome body with its smashed face
+lay near us. Molo was unconscious, breathing heavily, lying
+motionless, with a wound on the back of his head, the blood welling
+out, matting his hair.</p>
+
+<p>Anita and I were uninjured, victorious&mdash;but what a hollow victory. On
+the rocks here, bound together by that strange wire, Snap and Venza
+lay inert. We bent over them. The wire was cold to the touch now. It
+resisted our efforts to untwine it. We pulled frantically as we
+pleaded: "Snap, speak to us! Venza, can't you speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Their eyes were open. I was aware that there was no starlight above
+us, but instead, a lurid sky of flying clouds, shot with a greenish
+cast. The darkness here was green. The glow of it struck upon the
+wide-open staring eyes of Venza and Snap. It seemed that there was
+intelligence in those eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Snap, can't you hear us?"</p>
+
+<p>His eyelids came down and up again, slowly, as though by a horrible
+effort. "Can you move, Snap?"</p>
+
+<p>His right eyelid moved. Was his answer, no?</p>
+
+<p>Anita and I had never felt so horrible a sense of aloneness as that
+which swept us in those succeeding minutes. A breeze was springing up
+in the lurid green night. It came from the mountains. It wafted across
+the nearby river, rippling the surface which was now green and sullen.
+We did not know where to go, what to do.</p>
+
+<p>We found at last that we could untwist the stiffly clinging wire. We
+laid Venza and Snap on the rocks side-by-side, about thirty feet back
+from the river. The glowing wire had burned their clothes only a
+little, as the current was absorbed by the contact with their bodies.</p>
+
+<p>"Snap, are you in pain?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His eyes seemed to be trying to talk to me. Anita rose from Venza:
+"Oh, Gregg, what shall we do? Can't we carry them?"</p>
+
+<p>But where? To what purpose? Wild thoughts thronged me: Wandl's control
+station, bringing chaos and death upon Earth. Mars and Venus. What was
+that now to me? I thought of Molo's ship.</p>
+
+<p>"Anita, if we can get to the <i>Star-Streak</i>, seize it and escape from
+this world...."</p>
+
+<p>"Carry Snap and Venza there now? But we don't know where it is. Can we
+make Molo lead us?"</p>
+
+<p>But Molo lay unconscious. I could not rouse him.</p>
+
+<p>Anita and I were so alone! We clung together.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, look at that sky!"</p>
+
+<p>The mounting wind was tugging at us. It whined through the dark
+mountain defiles, surged out over the river where the water now was
+beginning to toss with waves crossing the swift current. The sky was
+shot with green shafts of radiance. Over us, the lowering, leaden
+clouds were scudding, riding the wind.</p>
+
+<p>It burst now upon us; I found suddenly that Anita and I were bracing
+against it. A puff dislodged us, so that we were blown a dozen feet,
+bringing up against a crag, as though we were balloons.</p>
+
+<p>"Anita&mdash;this wind&mdash;we can't maintain ourselves here. We...."</p>
+
+<p>Horror checked me at the thought of Venza and Snap, lying there on the
+rocks. We saw the body of Wyk, like a great dried insect, lifted by
+the wind, whirled like a brown leaf over and over, and carried away.</p>
+
+<p>A little pebble came hurtling and struck me. Then a rain of pebbles,
+like hailstones was pelting at us.</p>
+
+<p>The storm was probably caused by the axial rotation of Wandl. The
+light-beam upon Earth had been attacked by the Wandl control station
+without axial rotation. But to attack the beam from Mars, a
+manipulation of Wandl was necessary. The planet's rotation was
+started; and suddenly checked. It remained night now, here in this
+hemisphere. Perhaps there were natural storm tendencies here; perhaps
+the operators of the control station were unduly eager, manipulating
+the rotation too suddenly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At all events, it was frightening. I shouted above its whine and the
+clatter of the pebbles: "Hold onto me! We'll get to Venza and Snap."</p>
+
+<p>We reached the two inert forms, where they had blown into a niche
+between two boulders. "Can't stay here, Anita."</p>
+
+<p>"No! If it begins again!"</p>
+
+<p>"Over there! A cave!"</p>
+
+<p>We got Venza and Snap into it, just as another gust came, with a rain
+of dirt and loose stones pelting past outside.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly I thought of Molo. "Anita, stay here! Must get to Molo."</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, no!"</p>
+
+<p>"I must. If we can bring him to consciousness, make him tell us where
+the <i>Star-Streak</i> is...."</p>
+
+<p>I flung off her restraining hold. The wind had eased up. I leaped out
+into it, swimming. The rocks slid by close under me in a swift
+sidewise drift. In a moment I would be carried out over the river. It
+was a chaos of green, windswept darkness. But there was bursting light
+now overhead and rumbling claps, like thunder.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Molo's body where the wind held him pinned against the side of a
+flat, ten-foot rock butte, and dove for him, swimming down frantically
+until I struck against the rock with a blow that almost knocked the
+breath from me. Molo was still obviously unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>How long it took me to get back to Anita, floundering with Molo's
+body, I do not know. I managed to keep against the ground; was blown
+back, and struggled forward again. The wind came with strange puffs.
+In one of the lulls, I hauled Molo through the air and into the cave.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg!" Anita held to me, her arms around me. "Gregg dear, you were
+gone so long!"</p>
+
+<p>I was battered and bruised and breathless. The cave's mouth was like a
+ten-foot tunnel leading downward into blackness.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg, I put Venza and Snap here."</p>
+
+<p>They lay side by side, like two dead bodies, here in the greenish
+darkness. We placed Molo with them. Together Anita and I crouched
+beside them, clinging to each other, listening to the wild sweep of
+the wind outside. The storm had burst into full fury now. It would
+whirl us away like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> feathers, outside there now. The lightning and
+thunder hissed and crashed. Stones and boulders were being flung like
+hailstones.</p>
+
+<p>This flimsy, weightless world! It seemed as though the rocks here on
+which we were crouching would be shifted and carried away.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg! Gregg, is this the end?"</p>
+
+<p>A mass of rocks fell at the opening, closing it, so that we were
+buried here in the darkness. "Anita, my darling, I will never stop
+loving you."</p>
+
+<p>Darkness, with her arms around me and a shuddering world outside. But
+here, only Anita and her soft arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg!"</p>
+
+<p>Horror was in her voice. Then I saw what she was seeing. It was not
+just Anita and I buried here in the darkness with the bodies of Snap
+and Venza and Molo. Something else was here.</p>
+
+<p>From the blackness of the cave, two green, glowing eyes were staring.
+Their radiance showed me the outlines of a distended head. An insane
+thing? But it was not another of the forest insects. This seemed to be
+an animal. The glow of its distended head disclosed a lythe,
+horizontal body, seemingly solid and muscled. A chattering, insane
+animal, here in the dark with us! We heard mouthing, mumbling words,
+and an eerie, cackling laugh as it came padding toward us.</p>
+
+<p>The thing in the cave stared at us as we clung together in the
+darkness, transfixed for a moment by horror. The distended head,
+ghastly of face with its green glowing eyes, wobbled upon a long,
+spindly neck. The eyes seemed luminous of their own internal light.
+The radiance from them faintly lighted the black cave so we were able
+to see its tawny, hairy body. It was long sleek, the size of an Earth
+leopard. A muscled body, with ponderable weight, it was moving toward
+us, padding on the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>I recovered my wits and shoved Anita behind me. I crouched on one
+knee. There was no escape, nowhere to run. This tunnel was blocked by
+a fallen rock mass behind us, with the wild storm raging outside. The
+thing was some twenty feet away, where the tunnel broadened into a
+black cave of unknown size. Beside me Snap and Venza lay inert, the
+still-unconscious Molo with them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to do but crouch here and protect Anita. I waved my
+arms, shouted above the outside surge of the storm; my voice
+reverberated with a muffled roar in this subterranean darkness.</p>
+
+<p>"Get back! Back! Back, away from me!"</p>
+
+<p>It stopped. Round ears stood up from the bloated head. Then it laughed
+again. I felt Anita shoving a rock at my hand, a chunk of rock the
+size of my head. "Its face, Gregg! Aim for its face!"</p>
+
+<p>The rock felt like a ball of cork. I flung it and hit the thing on the
+body. Its laughter checked abruptly; it crouched, as though gathering
+for a spring.</p>
+
+<p>And then I thought of my gravity projector. I flashed on the repulsive
+ray to its full intensity.</p>
+
+<p>The tawny body leaped. It came hurtling, but my beam met it in
+mid-air. For a second I thought that I had been too late. The thing
+was clawing the air; its momentum carried it against the push of my
+ray. For an instant it hung, snarling, and then laughed that wild
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>The ray forced it back. It receded through the air, back across the
+blackness of the cave, gathering speed until, in a moment it brought
+up against the opposite wall some forty feet away. There it hung,
+pinned as I held the ray upon it. The body had struck the rocky wall
+but the head was uninjured. It was writhing and twisting: the cave was
+filled with the reverberations of its screams.</p>
+
+<p>Over the screams, I heard another voice: "Oh Gregg, where are you?"</p>
+
+<p>Snap! Behind me, Anita was moving sidewise toward where Snap and Venza
+were lying. The thing pinned in my light stopped its screaming, with
+curiosity perhaps at this new sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Snap! We're here, Snap!"</p>
+
+<p>Then Venza's voice: "It's letting me talk. We're better now."</p>
+
+<p>They were recovering, Anita was bending over them. "Gregg, they're all
+right. The shock is wearing off, thank God."</p>
+
+<p>But I did not dare move to them. My light on the snarling thing across
+the cave held it, but I did not dare to relax my attention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I called, "Stay with them, Anita." I moved slowly forward, holding the
+beam steady. The cave floor was littered with loose stones and
+boulders. Ten feet from the pinned animal I selected a great chunk of
+rock. It towered in my hand, but the weight of it was only a few
+pounds.</p>
+
+<p>The gravity held the animal as though I had pinned it by a pole. From
+the distance of a few feet I heaved the boulder. The palpitating head
+mashed against the wall. The body and the pulp of the head and the
+boulder sank to the floor when I removed the beam.</p>
+
+<p>"Snap, thank God you've recovered! And you, Venza!"</p>
+
+<p>Anita and I sat with them. They had been fully conscious all the
+while, but they were out of it now.</p>
+
+<p>An hour passed while we sat crouched, listening to the storm.</p>
+
+<p>"It's letting up," Venza said out of a silence.</p>
+
+<p>Anita was sitting over the prone form of Molo. He had stirred and
+mumbled several times.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's see if we can get out of here," Snap suggested.</p>
+
+<p>Rocks had fallen and blocked the only exit from the cave. But to our
+strength, even the hugest of the rocks was movable.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we try it now, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>As though we were elephants, heaving and pushing, we struggled with
+the litter choking the passage. There was a danger that the whole
+thing would cave in on us; but we were careful of that. We tossed the
+small rocks aside like pebbles. There was one main mass. Together we
+pulled and tugged and shifted it. A small opening was disclosed, large
+enough for our bodies. The wind puffed in through it.</p>
+
+<p>The girls called us. Molo had regained consciousness. The blow from
+the rock had only stunned him. We bound his wrists with a portion of
+his belt which we cut into strips.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it you do with me? Is Wyk dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>He lay silent and sullen. "Look here, Molo, we're going to get out of
+this, and you're going to help us. If you don't...." The knife which
+we had taken from him to cut his belt was in my hand. I drew its blade
+lightly across his throat. "Will you talk freely and truthfully?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I will talk the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where the control station is located?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not far."</p>
+
+<p>"The hell with that!" Snap burst out. "Get it meshed in your mind,
+Molo, that we're in no mood for talk like that. How far is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"On Earth you would call it ten miles."</p>
+
+<p>"In these mountains?"</p>
+
+<p>"He told us it was," said Anita. "Underground."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where your ship is?" I persisted.</p>
+
+<p>He told us that it was some thirty miles in another direction, not in
+the mountains, but in the outskirts of a city like Wor. It was
+equipped and ready for flight, all but the assembling of its crew.</p>
+
+<p>And now we had weapons! Molo was carrying several of the gravity
+projectors; two small searchlight beams, little hand torches; and
+three electronic ray-guns of short-range size.</p>
+
+<p>Hope filled us. The storm was abating. We could creep upon the single
+small control room of the gravity station, where usually but two
+operators were stationed. The delicate mechanisms there could be
+wrecked.</p>
+
+<p>And then we would seize the <i>Star-Streak</i>. No one would be on the
+lookout for us. The fact that Molo's prisoners had escaped was as yet
+unknown; he and Wyk had not dared tell it. Meka was back there
+waiting. Our absence from the globe dwelling might have been
+discovered; but Meka would say that we were with Molo. She was waiting
+there, hoping that her brother and Wyk would recapture us. All this we
+dragged piecemeal from Molo.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and I shared the gravity projectors and the small electronic
+guns. "Let's get started, Gregg. The storm seems over."</p>
+
+<p>It was. We found the purple-red starry night again outside. The river
+was lashed white with waves, but they were spent. There was only a
+mild warm breeze remaining.</p>
+
+<p>Molo's legs were free, but his wrists were lashed behind him. I hooked
+an arm under his, holding him like a huge, but light, oblong bundle.
+Snap called, "Ready, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>Snap flashed on his gravity ray and mounted, with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> girls clinging
+to his ankles. Then I followed with Molo. By great arching swoops, we
+swung up into the frowning, tumbled mountains.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>15</h2>
+
+
+<p>"This will be the place to land, Gregg Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>We were drifting down upon a barren region of naked crags, dark,
+frowning rock-masses, broken and tumbled, as though by some great
+cataclysm of nature. Mountains upon the Moon could not be more
+desolate of aspect.</p>
+
+<p>We landed on the rocks. The heights here had a purple-red sheen from
+the starlight. We had seen frequent evidence of the storm; and it
+showed here. Rocks were abnormally piled in drifts; smooth areas
+showed, where the pebbles, stones and boulders had been swept away by
+the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and the girls landed beside us. We spoke softly. None of us, not
+even Molo, knew how far sound would carry in this air.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the place from here?" Snap demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Off there."</p>
+
+<p>Molo spoke with docile, guarded softness. He gestured with his head
+and shoulder. A quarter of a mile away, over these uplands, the broken
+land went down in a sharp depression.</p>
+
+<p>"It is there. I think from here we should go on the ground. There is
+no guard, and I think seldom is anyone on top."</p>
+
+<p>"If I help you now, if we should wreck the gravity controls, then
+Wandl will be helpless to navigate space, or to interfere with the
+rotation of Earth, Mars and Venus. The allied worlds might then defeat
+the Wandl ships in battle. If that happened, perhaps your governments,
+because of my help here, would forgive what my <i>Star-Streak</i> has
+done."</p>
+
+<p>"Your piracy?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I am outlawed. I might be reinstated if you would speak the good
+words for me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Maybe."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe even they would reward me. You think so, Gregg Haljan?"</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to be on the winning side; this suited us. "Let's try it and
+see, Molo. I'll speak plenty of good words for you."</p>
+
+<p>Now, as we landed on the uplands, he said, "You will do best to free
+my hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" Snap declared.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am a good fighter. Something unexpected might come."</p>
+
+<p>"Too good a fighter," I said. "We trust you because we have to, Molo,
+but no more than is necessary."</p>
+
+<p>A small recess in the rocks was near us. We put Molo there, with his
+hands bound, and with Anita and Venza to guard him. Venza held the
+electronic gun; she knew how to fire it. The girls crouched in a
+depression about twenty feet away. They could see Molo plainly; if he
+moved, a flash of the gun would kill him. He knew that.</p>
+
+<p>The girls gazed at us as we were ready to start. "Good-by, Gregg.
+Good-by, Snap. Good luck!"</p>
+
+<p>"We won't be long. Sit where you are." Snap touched Venza's shoulder
+for his good-by. "Listen, Venza: Molo has already told us enough to
+enable us to find the ship. If he tries anything, kill him."</p>
+
+<p>"Right," she said.</p>
+
+<p>We left them. A minute or two, cautiously shoving ourselves along the
+rocks, and we were crouching there. The cauldron was about two hundred
+feet broad and fifty feet deep; an irregular circular bowl. The
+starlight gleamed on it, and there were dots of small artificial
+light. We saw a group of small metal buildings, very low and squat,
+like balls mashed down, flattened in a bulging disc-shape; between
+them were tiny skeleton towers.</p>
+
+<p>The towers, twice the height of a man, were spread at irregular
+intervals in a hundred-foot circle, with a group of three or four in
+the center. There seemed some twenty of them. Taut wires connected
+their tops, each tower with every other, so that the wires were a
+lacework above the small disc buildings. The bottoms of the towers
+were grounded with electrical contacts, and every tower had a ground
+connection with each other by means of cables.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Far to one side, across the bowl from us, was a single globe-dwelling
+with lighted windows. From its ground doorway, a narrow metal catwalk
+extended like a sidewalk on the ground, winding and branching among
+the towers and discs.</p>
+
+<p>This was the exterior of the Wandl gravity station. It lay silent and
+dark, save for the starlight and the little lights on the towers. No
+sign of humans. Then we saw movement in the globe-dwelling. A man came
+to the doorway, gazed at the sky and went back.</p>
+
+<p>I whispered, "Which is the best entrance to the underground rooms?"</p>
+
+<p>We saw where, at several points, the winding catwalk terminated in
+low, dome-like kiosks, giving ingress downward. One was on our slope
+of the cauldron. "That's the one we'll try," Snap murmured.</p>
+
+<p>He stopped suddenly. The top of the distant globe-dwelling was
+glowing. A little round patch there was radiant, like a lighted
+window. A transparent ray was coming from inside. The operators within
+this globe were observing the sky, training instruments upon it, no
+doubt.</p>
+
+<p>And now we saw in the sky the third of those sword-like beams. It had
+probably been visible there for some time but we had not noticed it.
+"That's Venus," I murmured.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed so. A blurred star, red in this atmosphere, was close above
+the horizon. The light-beam stood out from it, sweeping up to the
+zenith.</p>
+
+<p>The gravity station here was about to make contact with the Venus
+beam. We heard a muffled siren, a signal echoing from the subterranean
+control rooms. The current went into all these wires and towers and
+twenty-foot ground discs. The hissing and throbbing hum of it was
+audible. The discs and towers were glowing; red at first, then violet.
+Then that milky, opalescent white. The overhead wire-aerials were
+snapping with a myriad of tiny jumping sparks.</p>
+
+<p>I saw now that the top of each tower was a grid of radiant wires, a
+six-foot circular projector with a mirror reflector close beneath it
+and a series of prisms and lenses just above. It all glowed opalescent
+in a moment, a dazzling glare.</p>
+
+<p>Then the tower tops were swinging. The lights from them had reached
+the intensity of an upflung beam, and the projectors were swinging to
+focus the beam inward. The focal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> point seemed about a thousand feet
+overhead. All the beams merged there; and guided by the towers
+directly underneath, a single shaft was standing into the sky.</p>
+
+<p>The entire cauldron depression was now a blinding mass of opalescent
+light. We could see nothing but the milk-white inferno of glare. It
+painted the rocks up here on the rim so that we shrank back, shaded
+our eyes and gazed into the sky. And from the cauldron, the hum and
+the hiss of the current, the snapping of sparks, were all lost in a
+wild electrical screaming turmoil.</p>
+
+<p>Overhead, we saw the Wandl beam from Venus.</p>
+
+<p>Apparently this control station had two functions: the control of the
+planet's movements, its axial rotation and its orbital flight, and its
+ability to apply gravitational force to other celestial bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Wandl was controlling her own movements by applying gravity force,
+attraction and repulsion, to all the celestial starfield; and
+doubtless also by applying the repulsive beam tangentially against the
+ether like rocket streams. In this respect, I realized, the planet was
+probably operated not unlike one of our familiar spaceships. In
+effect, it was itself a gigantic globular vehicle. Later I learned
+that it was thought that Wandl's atmosphere could be highly
+electronized at will, with a resulting aberration of the natural
+light-ray reflected from her into space. This could have caused the
+blurring of the image of Wandl when viewed telescopically from other
+worlds.</p>
+
+<p>Again, for a moment of the contact, there was that bursting light in
+the sky.</p>
+
+<p>The contact with the Venus beam lasted a minute or two. Snap and I, on
+the cauldron rim, were engulfed in the blaze of reflected light and
+the wild scream of sound. Then presently the turmoil subsided. The
+contact in the sky was broken. The tow-rope of Venus jerked itself
+away. But on the next Venus rotation it would be attacked again.</p>
+
+<p>Another few minutes passed. The little circular depression beneath us
+was dim and silent as we had first seen it. Figures were moving within
+the dwelling structure. From several of the underground entrances
+figures came up, the ten-foot insect-like shapes of workers. Three or
+four of the brains came bouncing up, moving along the ground catwalk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+with little leaps. All the figures entered the distant main dwelling
+house. The contact was over.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably hardly anyone left down below," Snap whispered. "Now's our
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>"If we can get into that opening without being seen," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Shadows, down the rocks to the left. Damnation, Gregg, we can make it
+in one calculated leap."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try it first. I'll get in and wait for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Right."</p>
+
+<p>We each had a gravity cylinder at our belt and a ray-gun in our hand.
+The slope of the depression was dim here, merely starlit; it was a
+steep, broken and fairly shadowed descent, fifty feet to the little
+dome-like kiosk which marked the nearest subterranean entrance. I went
+down it with a swoop, landed in a heap beside the kiosk and ducked
+into it. Instinct made me fear a guard, but reason told me none would
+be here; there was only the danger of encountering someone coming up.</p>
+
+<p>I was at the top of a winding, descending passage, a step-terraced
+floor; there were occasional lights in the ceiling. In a moment Snap
+joined me. "Got here! I wonder how far down it goes?"</p>
+
+<p>I gripped him. "Snap, no matter what happens, do it with a rush. Keep
+with me. And if I shout to get out...."</p>
+
+<p>"We go out with a rush!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Back to the girls. Use your ray-gun and the gravity projector in
+getting back to them and get away without me, if I fall."</p>
+
+<p>"Same for you, Gregg."</p>
+
+<p>We went down the deserted passage. We had had experience in movement
+on Wandl now; we handled ourselves more deftly. We went down several
+hundred feet. The passage branched, but there always seemed a main
+tunnel.</p>
+
+<p>It was all deserted. There were distant, dimly-lighted, silent rooms.
+Were these factories of the strange forms of electronic gravity
+currents Wandl used? Some were in operation. A hum issued from them.
+Workers moved about.</p>
+
+<p>We stopped to consult. The girls, and Molo himself, had described what
+we would find: a main route leading to the control room where the
+delicate mechanisms which operated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> all this were centralized, the
+nerve center of Wandl. It seemed that we were following that main
+route.</p>
+
+<p>A worker came with a swimming leap past us. We dropped into a hollowed
+shadow at a tunnel intersection, and he went swooping by.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, Snap," I muttered, "that was too close for comfort."</p>
+
+<p>Again we advanced. The tunnel turned sharply. Down a short slope, a
+glowing room was disclosed, with two or three workmen moving within
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The main control room! We could not doubt it. Molo, in his enthusiasm,
+had once described it clearly to the girls, its great skeins of little
+thread-like wires spread upon the walls, the myriad tiny opalescent
+discs contacted with the small gray rock surface under the tangled
+masses of thread-wire, the levers and dials banked on the circular
+tables: they were unmistakable features.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is, Snap," I whispered in his ear. "In that central rack.
+Those insulated rods, see them? Anita told us they used them to adjust
+the discs. Watch out for the current."</p>
+
+<p>"But it's off now, Gregg!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's still danger in it, and you'd short-circuit somewhere. Keep
+your hands off. Use the rods."</p>
+
+<p>"The operators...."</p>
+
+<p>He got no further. A figure lunged into us from behind, a giant
+worker! His largest pincer bit into my shoulder; his hollow shout
+resounded. The operators of the control room came with leaps at us.</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of wild confusion. Light, seemingly almost
+weightless bodies flapped against us. Arms gripped us, but they were
+flimsy. The huge body-shells cracked gruesomely as we struck with our
+solid fists.</p>
+
+<p>A moment of turmoil passed. No bolts were fired. The shouts were brief
+down here in the narrow confines of the tunnel. Panting, bruised more
+by our collisions against the rocks than by our adversaries, we ceased
+our wild lunges. We did not look at the scattered, broken and crushed
+bodies drifting now to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Snap! Hurry! Others may come."</p>
+
+<p>We lunged into the glowing control room, seized the long insulated
+poles from the central rack. They had a grateful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> feel of weight. I
+picked one up, jumped with a twenty foot leap to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The wires came down like cobwebs under my sweeping blows; the little
+discs knocked off as though they were fungus growth. Sparks flew
+around us. Shafts of electronic radiance spat out. The wall was
+hissing over all its length as I ranged up and down it. The tangled
+broken threads of wire writhed like living things on the floor; then
+crumpled, fused and turned black.</p>
+
+<p>I swept that wall-segment with frantic haste, lunged around and
+started another way. Across the room I saw Snap doing the same. A
+turmoil of electrical sound was reverberating around us, deafening,
+and the glare was blinding. A belt-shaft shot from the wreckage under
+my rod. It seared my left arm. My sleeve burned off; the arm hung limp
+and tingling at my side. I stopped to rub it; in a moment strength
+came back to its muscles.</p>
+
+<p>Snap was raging like a great heavy bird gone amok. Through the green
+fumes of electrical gases which were filling the room I saw him
+lunging at the circular tables, overturning them. They cracked like
+thin polished stone as they struck the metal floor.</p>
+
+<p>I finished with the wall. There was a twenty-foot square piece of
+metal apparatus, ramified and intricate; I heaved it over upon its
+side. A thousand little mirrors and prisms, dislodged from it, came
+out in a splintering deluge.</p>
+
+<p>I was aware of Snap fighting with a brown-shelled figure. Then he was
+free of it. I saw it mashed and broken at his feet as I dove past,
+swimming in the smoke to lunge the length of a great fluorescent tube
+which was still dimly glowing. My pole pried it over; it crashed with
+a brief puff of light and the rush of an explosion as air went into
+its vacuum.</p>
+
+<p>I found Snap panting beside me, clinging to me in mid-air. The glare
+was dying around us; the din was lessening. We were choking in the
+chemical fumes of the released, half-burned gases. Turgid darkness was
+coming to the wrecked room, with little hissing flares spitting
+through it.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough, Gregg! Listen! Up overhead...."</p>
+
+<p>A great siren from up there was screaming into the night.</p>
+
+<p>Snap panted, "Got to get out of here. Can't breathe."</p>
+
+<p>Together we lunged for the tunnel by which we had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> entered. I stood a
+moment, gazing back upon the strewn and scattered room.</p>
+
+<p>The delicate nerve-center of Wandl. Heavy green-black gas fumes
+swirled in it; darkness and silence closed down.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>16</h2>
+
+
+<p>Over us was turmoil, that screaming siren. Then suddenly it was
+checked and we heard the thump and swish of what on Earth would have
+been called running footsteps and shouts.</p>
+
+<p>Snap shoved me. "Don't stay there, you fool!"</p>
+
+<p>We lunged up the passage. Figures barred it but they scattered; a bolt
+hissed at us, but missed. At the kiosk a group of workers and several
+peering little brains leaped away in terror to let us pass.</p>
+
+<p>We gained the open air. With the small gravity rays darting down with
+repulsion upon the rocks we mounted like rockets out of the cauldron.
+The upper plateau lay silent in the starlight, but the cauldron behind
+us was ringing with alarm, and again the danger siren was blaring.</p>
+
+<p>I changed my way of direction, swung it to the plateau rocks ahead.
+The arc of my flight was sharply bent as I went hurtling down. Over
+me, I saw Snap use the same tactics. I tried to aim for where we had
+left the girls and Molo. I could not see them down there amid the
+starlit crags; and suddenly a wild apprehension filled me. How had we
+dared leave them to Molo's trickery?</p>
+
+<p>Then, ahead and below me, I saw the slight figure of one of the girls,
+standing on a rock with arms outstretched to signal us. I changed my
+ray to repulsion barely in time to avoid crashing. The landing flung
+me in a heap. Twenty feet away, Snap came whirling down. We picked
+ourselves up, saw Anita waving from the rock, and bounded to her.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were safe. Venza sat intent, with unwavering watchful gaze
+across the intervening space to where Molo had flattened himself
+against his rock, not daring to move.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Still got him," Venza exulted. "He wasn't willing to take any chances
+with us. You did it, Snap?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm a motor-oiler if we didn't. Come on; got to get out of this.
+They're after us! We wrecked the whole damn place, Venza. Wandl's a
+normal planet now. No more of this accursed dislocation of Earth."</p>
+
+<p>We learned later that our hope and our assumption that we had
+irretrievably wrecked the entire gravity control system of Wandl was
+proven to be a fact. Wandl was, in effect, a normal celestial body
+now. The beams planted in Greater New York, Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar
+still streamed across space. But there was no giant beam from Wandl to
+seize them, and Wandl now could not move through space of her own
+volition. Like Earth, and all other known planets, satellites, comets
+and asteroids, she was subject now to all the normal natural laws of
+celestial mechanics. We had done a thorough job of it.</p>
+
+<p>Now I shoved at Snap. "No time to talk. You tow the girls; I'll take
+Molo. Got to get to the <i>Star-Streak</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I lunged over and seized Molo. "We did it. Now for your vessel! It
+will be ill for you if she is not where you say she is."</p>
+
+<p>"She will be there, Gregg Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>He docilely put himself in position for me to hook my forearm under
+his crossed, bound wrists and carry him. Snap rose up past us, towing
+the girls. Over the nearby cauldron a figure mounted to gaze and see
+the nature of this strange attacking enemy, and then sank back.</p>
+
+<p>With Molo hanging to me, I mounted with my ray, following Snap and the
+girls into the starlight, with the turmoil of the cauldron receding
+until in a moment or so it was gone behind our horizon.</p>
+
+<p>We headed now, not toward Wor, whence we had come, but over at an
+angle to the side. Our great bounding arcs soon left the mountains
+behind. We crossed the river, another portion of the forest, and came
+over undulating lowlands.</p>
+
+<p>It was a flight of under half an hour. The pursuit, if indeed anyone
+followed us, remained below our little segment of curving horizon.
+Everywhere there was evidence of the storm; the forest trees were laid
+flat, strewn like driftwood over the area. The river had in several
+places lashed over its banks. The lowlands were dotted thick with
+globe-dwellings. Some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> were hanging awry on their stems; others were
+pulled from their place, cracked and piled into a litter.</p>
+
+<p>We kept well aloft. The surface scenes were only glimpses of wreckage,
+moving lights and people. And there were areas which the wind had
+seemingly spared.</p>
+
+<p>The confusion from the storm was mingled now with the spreading alarm
+from the gravity station; the sound of the danger siren there was
+still audible behind us. As we advanced into what now seemed the
+outskirts of a city like Wor, with a pile of solid-looking metal
+structures ranging the horizon ahead, I saw a distant spaceship rise
+up and wing away. Wandl was proceeding with the dispatching of her
+space navy to oppose the distantly gathering ships of Earth, Venus,
+and Mars. No doubt with the wrecking of the control station, the
+masters of Wandl immediately recognized the paramount importance of
+the coming battle.</p>
+
+<p>The huge, globular, disc-like ship sailed high over us, rotating with
+the impulse of its rocket-streams. In a moment it was lost in the
+stars. And then another rose and followed it.</p>
+
+<p>There were many human figures in the air around us now. I mounted
+higher, and Snap with the girls followed me. The figures, intent upon
+their own affairs, did not seem to heed us.</p>
+
+<p>Molo's vessel lay alone upon a low metal cradle. No other ship was
+near it; but half a mile away on both sides we could see others
+resting on their stages. Lights were moving around and upon them, but
+the <i>Star-Streak</i> was dark and neglected.</p>
+
+<p>We poised a thousand feet over her, and to one side. I saw her as a
+long, low, pointed vessel, dead gray in color, longer than the
+<i>Cometara</i>, and seemingly narrower, but very similar in aspect.</p>
+
+<p>"Meka and I are supposed to be gathering our crew," said Molo. "No one
+bothers with my vessel. Will you take me to Wor now to get Meka?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will not."</p>
+
+<p>Snap was drifting down with the girls. They were near us. His arm
+waved at me with a gesture. And then came the muffled tone of his
+voice: "Shall we drop down, Gregg?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but cautiously. Have your gun ready."</p>
+
+<p>Molo protested, "I would like to take Meka with us, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> few of my
+crew. You will have trouble handling the <i>Star-Streak</i>, just us three
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll take our chances."</p>
+
+<p>We dropped swiftly down upon the dark and vacant platform. The gray
+hull of the <i>Star-Streak</i> loomed beside us, her dome arched still
+higher. An inclined catwalk went up to her opened deck-port.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go first," I said softly to Snap. "Come quickly after me. Watch
+out: there might be someone on board."</p>
+
+<p>Venza still clung to her weapon. Mine was in my hand as I lifted Molo.
+And, ignoring the incline, bounded the thirty feet for the deck-port.
+I landed safely, and stood Molo upon his feet. "Don't you move," I
+admonished him sternly.</p>
+
+<p>He stood docilely against the cabin wall of the superstructure. No one
+here. We had thought there might easily be one or two workers on
+board.</p>
+
+<p>Snap and the girls came sailing, one after the other, and landed on
+the deck beside me. We stood silent, alert. No one appeared from
+within the cabin or from the lengths of the deck. Venza was watching
+Molo with her weapon upon him. Snap and I had planned this boarding:
+Anita and Venza to stay here and guard Molo while we searched the
+ship, and inspected the controls. We started for the cabin door oval.</p>
+
+<p>"Gregg!"</p>
+
+<p>It was all the warning Snap could give. I was within the dim cabin,
+but he, behind me, was still on the deck. I whirled to see a dozen
+dark forms leaping from the roof of the cabin superstructure. Snap was
+all but buried by them. These were not men of Wandl, but Molo's pirate
+crew, Martians, Earthmen and Venusians. Snap's ray-gun spat as he went
+down; one of the men dropped away. I saw Venza turn with startled
+horror, as the huge figure of Meka leaped down upon her and Anita from
+the roof.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant, weapon in hand, I paused in the doorway. I could not
+fire into the turmoil of that struggling group, so instead plunged
+into it, striking with my fists.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was shouting, "Do not kill them! I was ordered not to kill them!"</p>
+
+<p>These men, so different from the insect-like workers and the brains of
+Wandl, were solid in my grip; but we were all so weightless! I felled
+one, but others gripped me, pounded me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> A struggling mass of bodies,
+arms and legs, we surged up to the superstructure roof and dropped
+upon it. My weapon was gone. Half a dozen adversaries had me pinioned.</p>
+
+<p>Down on the deck I saw that Venza had lost her weapon; Molo and Meka
+were clutching her. Snap was fighting with several antagonists. Anita
+was loose. She dove for the group in which Snap was struggling, hit
+them, kicked and bounded upward, to be seized by two of my own
+captors.</p>
+
+<p>"Anita, don't fight! They'll kill you!"</p>
+
+<p>I tried to break loose, but four huge Martians were holding me.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Gregg!"</p>
+
+<p>There was horror in Anita's voice. Snap had broken away. At the open
+deck-port he stood, as though undecided what to do. The deck was
+almost black around him; he was silhouetted against the outside
+starlight. From almost at his side, in the darkness, a tiny bolt spat
+upward at his head. His arms went wildly out; he tumbled backward. At
+the top of the boarding incline his body seemed spasmodically to kick,
+and the thrust whirled it down into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The end of Snap! A pang went through me. Snap, my best friend!</p>
+
+<p>Molo cursed the unknown man of his crew who had fired the shot. But
+none would admit who did it.</p>
+
+<p>"Get to your posts," Molo roared in Martian. "Enough of you are here.
+Lash up the prisoners; we're launching away now." He thumped his
+brawny sister as she passed him. "Well played, Meka!"</p>
+
+<p>These wily Martians! Molo had planned that Meka was to gather the crew
+and wait here at the ship for him and Wyk. If they returned with us as
+captives, it would be here that they would come. But if by chance
+things went adversely, Molo reasoned we would act just as we did; and
+Meka and her men were lurking here in ambush, waiting for us.</p>
+
+<p>All the many various ports swung shut. Anita, Venza, and I, with arms
+and legs bound, were taken by Molo to the forward observation and
+control room.</p>
+
+<p>The ship was resounding with signals. The interior controls in the
+hull-base raised the gravity-pull within the vessel to a strength
+comparable to that of Earth. Within a few minutes the <i>Star-Streak</i>
+lifted from the stage. Strange, weird Wandl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> fell away from us. We
+slid upward through the atmosphere, following one of the globular
+Wandl vessels, and headed into space toward the point where, a few
+million miles distant, the ships of allied Earth, Venus, and Mars were
+gathering.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>17</h2>
+
+
+<p>"They are visible." Molo turned from the eyepiece of his
+electro-telescope. "Do you want to see them, Gregg Haljan?"</p>
+
+<p>We were in the forward control and observation turret of the
+<i>Star-Streak</i>, Molo and his sister Meka, Venza, Anita and myself.
+Unobtrusively squatting on the floor was a small, gray, rat-faced
+fellow, put there, weapon in hand, to watch us. He was a ruffian from
+the underworld of Grebhar, a member of the <i>Star-Streak's</i> pirate
+crew.</p>
+
+<p>We were some ten hours out from Wandl. A group of four of the globular
+Wandl ships were with us, strung in a line some ten thousand miles to
+our left. We had been heading diagonally toward Mars. Some fifteen
+other Wandl vessels were ahead and others following.</p>
+
+<p>We were no more than fifteen million miles from Mars when Molo sighted
+the allied ships. "Will you observe them, Gregg Haljan?"</p>
+
+<p>I moved to take his place at the 'scope-grid, with the gaze of Anita
+and Venza upon me. They sat huddled together on a low bench against
+the back curve of the circular turret.</p>
+
+<p>It was dim here, with little spots of instrument lights, and the
+radiance coming in the glassite plates of the encircling dome. The
+loss of Snap had put a grim look upon the girls. They were dispirited,
+docile with Meka. They had hardly had a word with me. I think that all
+of us had about given up hope during those hours. Molo had consulted
+me several times with his policies of navigation.</p>
+
+<p>But I saw no chance to trick him. He was indeed, far more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> experienced
+than I, and more skillful, in celestial mechanics. I worked with him.
+I learned the operation and the handling of the <i>Star-Streak</i>, which
+was not greatly different from the <i>Cometara</i> or the <i>Planetara</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Snap! He and I had planned to capture and navigate this
+<i>Star-Streak</i>. We could have handled her. There were, I gathered, some
+fifteen men aboard her now, but no more than two or three were engaged
+at the navigating mechanisms. Even they could be dispensed with at
+times, for the ship's controls were all automatic, handled directly
+from the forward turret.</p>
+
+<p>I learned too, something, though not much, of the <i>Star-Streak's</i>
+weapons. They were similar to those of the allied ships, since Molo in
+equipping his pirate craft had seized upon all the best he could find
+of the three worlds.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Star-Streak</i>, during this flight toward Mars, was in close
+communication with the Wandl craft. There was a giant vessel, the Wor,
+off to our left now. It carried the brain master in command of the
+Wandl forces. Molo took his orders from the Wor, but since his
+equipment and his weapons were so wholly different, the <i>Star-Streak</i>
+was set apart.</p>
+
+<p>"I can do what I like," Molo told me. "With my own judgement I can
+act; you shall see."</p>
+
+<p>"You've had plenty of experience, Molo."</p>
+
+<p>"Have I not! The terror of the starways, your world called me." He
+chuckled vaingloriously. "I must justify it now."</p>
+
+<p>"Act, do not talk," Meka commented sourly. "Children with toys make
+speeches like that, and then the toys get broken."</p>
+
+<p>"Fear not, sister. Never again will the <i>Star-Streak</i> come to grief."</p>
+
+<p>And now I gazed through the 'scope at the waiting allied ships. They
+were lying some eight million miles off Mars. I gazed and saw the
+poised little group. There were perhaps fifty of them. The majority
+were Martian, long, low and very sharp-ended, and dull red in color.
+The wider Earth and Venus ships were silvery and drab. I could
+distinguish the several different types of craft in this hastily
+assembled fleet: many converted commercials like my ill-starred
+<i>Cometara</i>; a few rakish police ships; and about a dozen of the long,
+narrow supermodern warships. It was their first voyage into battle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+They had only been built these past few years, by peaceful governments
+that protested there never again would be another war!</p>
+
+<p>The little fleet was lying waiting for us. It was being augmented by
+occasional other ships from Mars. They saw us coming now. The radiance
+of a Benson curve-light enveloped them, with a shaft toward us. The
+image of them shifted over a million miles to one side.</p>
+
+<p>Molo laughed when he saw it. "Protecting themselves already! But we
+are not going to attack them there."</p>
+
+<p>The first tactics of the Wandl commanders surprised me. We swung away
+from the course to Mars and headed diagonally toward Earth and Venus.
+Earth was the nearer to us, with Venus some forty million miles beyond
+her. For hours we turned in that sweeping curve. Then with our Wandl
+convoy following, we headed for Earth. I could not help admiring the
+way the <i>Star-Streak</i> was handled. She turned more sharply than the
+Wandl craft; and before our next meal, we were leading them all.</p>
+
+<p>Would the allied ships follow us? It was immediately apparent they
+were coming; but from their poised position, hours of attaining
+velocity would be needed. The other allied vessels approaching from
+Venus and Earth checked their flight and turned after us. We passed
+within five or six hundred thousand miles of several of them.</p>
+
+<p>I found now that some twenty other Wandl ships, leaving Wandl after
+us, had headed directly for Earth. We were all together presently, the
+<i>Star-Streak</i> and nearly fifty Wandl ships, gathered close to one side
+of the Moon. The allies, about a hundred of them, were strung through
+space, scattered, with varying velocities and flight direction, but
+most of them endeavoring to get between the Moon and Earth.</p>
+
+<p>This was the day! I call it that: a routine of meals which Meka grimly
+served us in the turret, and a little sleep when she took the girls
+below and I lay on the turret floor. I wondered who was in command of
+this allied force, and did not learn until afterward that it was
+Grantline. The <i>Cometara</i> had fallen upon the Moon Apennines, not very
+far from where my old <i>Planetara</i> still lay, near the base of
+Archimedes. But Grantline and a few of his companions, with their
+powered suits, had struggled free from the gravity pull of the
+wreckage;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> and a few hours later, a ship out from Earth picked them
+up.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline, on one of the Earth police ships, commanded the fleet now,
+and he afterward told me in detail how he endeavored to conduct his
+forces in the battle, thus enabling me to describe it from both
+viewpoints. He had been cruising toward Mars when he saw us make the
+turn. He thought a landing upon Earth might be planned and hastened
+all his ships into the area between the Moon and Earth to cut us off.</p>
+
+<p>But that was what Wandl wanted. The Wandl ships, with the
+<i>Star-Streak</i> among them, made a complete slow circuit of the Moon. It
+took another day. Molo said very little to me in explanation of the
+Wandl tactics, but I could see that the object was to lure Grantline
+into following. A few of the allied ships did follow us around, but
+not many. The rest stayed carefully guarding the line between the Moon
+and Earth.</p>
+
+<p>There had been no encounter yet between the hostile ships. The huge
+distances involved in the engagement must be kept in mind. The gravity
+rays from the Wandl ships were only a slight disturbing element at
+such a long distance; Grantline's Zed-rays and Benson curve-lights
+were defensive only. For offence, Grantline's electronic guns and
+other weapons were of varying range, but none for such distances as
+these.</p>
+
+<p>Wandl seemed unwilling to begin the battle, and Grantline was cautious
+as well. He did not know what weapons these strange globular vessels
+would use; his only experience had been our encounter with the
+whirling discs.</p>
+
+<p>Then, at the end of the second day, came the first clash. The
+<i>Star-Streak</i>, and all the Wandl ships, were again clustered on the
+Earth side of the Moon; they were hovering perhaps twenty thousand
+miles above its surface. Grantline's force was a hundred thousand
+miles off, toward Earth. One of the Wandl ships came tentatively
+forward, and Grantline sent one of the new-style warships to meet it.</p>
+
+<p>They encircled each other. Both were cautious, but there was a passing
+within fifty miles. The Earth ship fired her bolts. The insulated
+barrage of the Wandl ship withstood them. There was a shower of ether
+sparks close to the ship, and a reddening of the hull, but nothing
+more. It seemed that the electro-barrages of the Wandl and allied
+ships were very similar in nature, an aura of electro-magnetism,
+enclosing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> ship like a curtain fifty feet away, absorbed the
+electronic stream of the enemy bolt. The Wandl ship flung no bolts;
+she loosed a score of the whirling discs during the passing. They were
+of varying sizes, but similar to those which cut and wrecked the
+<i>Cometara</i>; in this instance, the Grantline ship was able to destroy
+each of them as it came close.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first encounter. The Earth warship went back to its
+squadron and the Wandl vessel rejoined its fellows. It had fired no
+bolts. Grantline suspected now what afterward proved to be the fact:
+these Wandl vessels were not equipped with long-range electronic guns.
+The Wandl defensive tactics were necessary; they feared a widespread
+encounter. They were hovering in a compact group, covering a five
+hundred mile area, over the Moon surface. Their purpose was not yet
+apparent, but Grantline saw now that one of the Wandl ships was
+dropping down and landing on the Moon. It skimmed the Apennines and
+landed not far from Archimedes.</p>
+
+<p>What was that for? Grantline noticed that the lowering,
+closely-gathered Wandl fleet tried to mask the landing. And their
+gravity-rays, with repulsive force, darted out to impede the Grantline
+vessels should they try to advance.</p>
+
+<p>This Earthward hemisphere of the Moon was now largely in shadow, but
+Grantline's Zed-ray magnifiers showed the vessel on the Moon.
+Apparatus was being unloaded. It seemed, down there on the rocky Moon
+plain in the foothills of the Apennines, that some extensive,
+elaborate base was being prepared.</p>
+
+<p>It was for this the hovering Wandl fleet was waiting, holding off from
+conflict until this Moon base was ready. When Grantline reached that
+conclusion, he ordered all his vessels forward to a general attack.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>18</h2>
+
+
+<p>During this time, on the <i>Star-Streak</i>, as we and the Wandl fleet made
+that preliminary circuit of the Moon, an incident<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> occurred which
+changed everything for me. I had noticed several times as we gathered
+in the <i>Star-Streak's</i> forward turret, that Venza and Anita were eying
+me. Their expressions were furtive, but I realized that they were
+trying to attract my attention.</p>
+
+<p>We had no opportunity to speak secretly. Molo or Meka, or that
+rat-faced guard, were always too near us; and Molo kept me busy with
+computations of our course.</p>
+
+<p>We rounded the Moon. We gathered with the Wandl fleet some twenty
+thousand miles above the lunar surface, and I watched that ship
+descend and land. Like Grantline, I wondered what for. Molo gave me no
+hint. I saw, through his 'scope, bloated figures in pressure suits
+unloading mechanisms. They seemed to be placing huge contact-discs in
+a circle on the lunar rocks. It was reminiscent of the Wandl gravity
+station, and the contact-beam which Molo had planted in Great-New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>Then at last the girls had an opportunity to whisper to me. A swift
+phrase came from Anita. "Gregg! Snap is alive. Hiding on board."</p>
+
+<p>I gasped. Snap alive?</p>
+
+<p>"Planning to rescue us. You and he can capture the <i>Star-Streak</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"Anita! Tell me how."</p>
+
+<p>"No more now! Our room below&mdash;he's near it. He spoke to us."</p>
+
+<p>No more. She moved away from me. But it was enough. Snap alive! I
+recalled that when he fell beside the ship, no one had bothered to go
+down after the body, and at that time the hull-ports were open.</p>
+
+<p>After a time Meka took the girls below. I sat with Molo, gazing down
+at the dark and gloomy surface of the Moon. I had finished the
+mathematical work Molo had given me. My thoughts were with Anita and
+Venza, down in their cabin now with Meka. Perhaps even now Snap was
+joining them.</p>
+
+<p>I hardly heard Molo's low, muttered curses, as he set his lenses for a
+slight alteration of our slow circular course among the Wandl fleet.
+"That fellow at my gravity-shifts acts like a nitwit. He has them
+disarranged."</p>
+
+<p>It snapped me to sudden alertness. "Something wrong, Molo? Nonsense!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"These men of my crew answer my controls too slowly. They should jump
+when my signals come."</p>
+
+<p>The plates suddenly shifted normally, but there had been an interval
+of delay. Molo was puzzled and annoyed. My heart pounded as I wondered
+if he would investigate. But he did not.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better sleep, Haljan. Take advantage now; we shall have
+action presently. Did you figure our emerging curve?"</p>
+
+<p>I shoved my computations across the table to him. "There."</p>
+
+<p>"You are quick, Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>"We should emerge from the Moon's shadow in about two hours."</p>
+
+<p>"But I will not hold that course. We're staying close near here with
+the other vessels, but I want some velocity always. Take your sleep,
+Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>I stretched on the narrow floor mattress. The turret was silent.</p>
+
+<p>I was aroused from a doze by Molo's activities in the turret. The
+girls and Meka were still below. The ever-silent Venusian, squatting
+in the turret corner, still had his gun upon me.</p>
+
+<p>I saw that Grantline's ships, over a wide fan-shaped spread, were
+advancing.</p>
+
+<p>And presently we were engaged in the soundless turmoil of battle. I
+cannot relate more than fragments, things I saw and experienced,
+during six or more hours of bursting electronic light and puffs of
+darkness in that spread of battle area within the Moon-shadow. It was
+a silent battle of crossing lights, ships a thousand miles apart,
+gathering velocity with great tangential curves; passing each other in
+a second; sweeping a thousand miles apart again; turning and coming
+back. A hundred engagements.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Star-Streak</i> was very fast, very mobile, and, unlike all the
+other Wandl ships, had the allies' own weapons to use against them. I
+saw now why they called Molo the terror of the starways!</p>
+
+<p>We swept into the shadowed battle area. Over all its thousand-mile
+spread were the radiant Wandl gravity-beams, disturbing and impeding
+the course of Grantline's ships. There was the luminous gleam of
+projectile rockets, like little comets, soundless, launched by the
+Wandl craft, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> radiance of the rocket-streams which all the
+vessels were using now for close maneuvering; the glare of Grantline's
+searchlight bombs and his white search-beams to disclose the deadly
+whirling discs which the weapons of his vessel must seek out and
+destroy. A chaos of silent light, stabbed here and there with
+Grantline's darkness bombs, bombs of limited local range which
+exploded in space and which, for a few minutes duration, absorbed all
+light-rays, giving a temporary effect of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>And then wreckage! Broken, leprous Wandl vessels whose barrage at
+close range had been smashed by Grantline's guns; torn and littered
+allied ships, struck by the huge exploding comet-projectiles and the
+whirling discs; airless hulks, and scattered fragments which no longer
+resembled a ship at all but only a hull plate or a torn segment of
+dome. And little drifting blobs, the survivors in pressure suits who
+had leaped from the wreckage; little blobs ignored, whirled away or
+drawn forward as by chance the sweeping gravity-beams fell upon them;
+tiny derelicts, floating stormtossed until the Moon's attraction
+caught and pulled them down, or a whirling disc cut through them, or
+the distant aura of a bolt shocked them to a merciful death.</p>
+
+<p>It was a three-dimensional, thousand-mile spread of fantasy infernal.
+Out of it, after an hour or two, a steady sift of every manner of
+wreckage was drifting down upon the Moon. The scene began to blur. A
+haze like glowing star-dust, or the radiance from a comet's tail, was
+spreading a weirdly luminous mist, blurring, obscuring the scene. This
+was the released electrons and the dissipating gases of the space guns
+and exploding projectiles, forming dust which glowed in the mingled
+starlight and Earthlight.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Star-Streak</i> had plunged, during those six or eight hours,
+through the battle area. Our several encounters were all characterized
+by the <i>Star-Streak's</i> extreme flexibility, her speed, mobility, and
+Molo's reckless skill. We came through unscathed. There is a certain
+advantage for the man who seems not to care for his own life. But
+there was an encounter, the last one as it chanced, just before we
+emerged downward out of the fog and found ourselves no more than a
+thousand miles above the Moon's surface, where our adversary was
+equally reckless and only Molo's skill saved us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We came upon a Venus police ship. We plunged, as though seeking a
+collision, and the Venus ship was willing. For a moment of chaos, both
+barrages held against the exchange of bolts. Then we rolled over and
+tilted down from the impulse of the stern rockets. The passing must
+have been within feet, not miles; and in that second, Molo timed a
+shot to strike at the enemy bottom. It went through their barrage.
+Behind us, a second later, there was only strewn wreckage of the ship,
+so finely powdered that it became a silvery radiance, like moonlight
+shining on a little patch of fog.</p>
+
+<p>"Not too bad?" Molo gazed around for appreciation. "Not bad, Gregg
+Haljan? Molo is not too unskillful?"</p>
+
+<p>We hung now close above the Moon's surface, with the battle area over
+us. Out of the fog up there came the drifting wreckage; and now the
+Wandl ships were coming down, one by one. Not so many of them now; no
+more than ten of them emerged.</p>
+
+<p>Grantline did not follow. His ships withdrew the other way. The fog
+gradually dispersed. Grantline could now take stock of the battle; he
+had been victorious. One might call it that, since his percentage of
+strength, numerically, was greater now than when the battle began. Ten
+remaining Wandl ships, and the allies had about twenty-five.</p>
+
+<p>Another hour passed. Grantline's twenty-five ships were gathered in a
+close group, ten thousand miles above the Moon's surface. Under them,
+the ten Wandl vessels and the <i>Star-Streak</i> seemed ranging in a five
+hundred mile circle. Down through it, on the rocks of the Moon in the
+foothills of the Apennines, the mechanism established there abruptly
+sprang into action.</p>
+
+<p>It was a giant gravity-beam. Of infinitely greater power than any
+Wandl vessel could generate, it flung out its spreading, conical ray.</p>
+
+<p>So this had been the purpose of all the Wandl tactics, to manipulate
+Grantline into his present position. This gravity-beam, though far
+smaller, was comparable to the one used by the Wandl control station.
+A rock contact against a huge mass, Wandl, and here, the Moon were
+necessary to give the ray its power. No ship could generate such a
+ray, so the Wandlites chose this battleground where they could
+establish themselves upon our deserted Moon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The beam had about a hundred foot diameter at its base on the rocks;
+it passed upward through the circle of Wandl vessels and its spread
+bathed all of Grantline's ships at once. An attractive beam, so
+powerful that the ships were helpless; against all their efforts they
+were pinned and drawn downward. A slight velocity at first, but with a
+tremendous acceleration.</p>
+
+<p>Within an hour they were hurtling, coming together as they speeded
+down the narrowing cone of the beam. The ten thousand miles, their
+distance above the Moon, was cut to five thousand. The Wandl ships
+drew aside, keeping well out of range to let them pass; in another
+thirty minutes they would crash against the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>I gazed in horror from the <i>Star-Streak's</i> turret. We were sidewise to
+the angle of the beam. Grantline's ships were pulled together now into
+almost a fifty-mile group. They hung all askew, helplessly pinned,
+some broadside, some upended. The movement of their fall was so rapid
+that even with the naked eye it was apparent.</p>
+
+<p>"Got them now," Molo chuckled. "This is the end for them, Gregg
+Haljan."</p>
+
+<p>There were only three of us in the turret: Molo and I, and my
+watchful, silent guard who sat cross-legged, with a ray-gun pointed at
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Meka and the two girls were below during all the engagement.</p>
+
+<p>It was over now.</p>
+
+<p>During this lull Molo had sent the men from the deck gun ports to
+their hull quarters. Our decks were empty now; the bridges and
+catwalks up here had momentarily no occupants. The <i>Star-Streak</i> had
+little velocity, only a slow drift downward toward the Moon's surface,
+which now was only a few hundred miles beneath us.</p>
+
+<p>The lunar disc was a great dark spread of desolation, with only the
+sunlight topping the distant horizon limb. And from under us, to the
+side, was the source of the giant gravity-beam. Over us were the
+watch-Wandl vessels, and, still higher, the helpless knot of
+Grantline's ships hurtling down.</p>
+
+<p>"Got them now," Molo repeated. "In another...."</p>
+
+<p>He never finished. From the open doorway of the turret a figure rose
+up. Snap! His aspect, even more than his appear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>ance, transfixed me.
+Snap, with his clothes torn; grimy and spattered with blood; his face
+pale and gaunt, with hollow, blazing eyes. And above it, the shock of
+rumpled red hair. In one hand he clutched a ray-gun, and in the other
+a blood-stained knife!</p>
+
+<p>My guard squatting on the floor, half-turned. Snap's bolt met him
+before he could raise his weapon. He tumbled dead almost at my feet.
+And mingled with the hiss of the bolt was Snap's shout at the unarmed
+Molo.</p>
+
+<p>"Into the corner, you! Back up, you damned traitor, else I'll kill you
+as I've killed everyone else on this ship!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>19</h2>
+
+
+<p>I had leaped and seized the gun which was still in the hand of the
+dead guard. "Snap, the girls!"</p>
+
+<p>"Down below. Free. They've got Meka bound and gagged, locked and
+sealed in a bunk-room. You bring them up! I'll hold this accursed
+traitor. No need to kill him. By the gods, I've killed enough!"</p>
+
+<p>He saw for the first time the vast silent drama in the firmament
+outside the dome windows. "Gregg, for the love of...."</p>
+
+<p>"No time now, Snap! I'll get the girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Watch out. I might have missed somebody down below."</p>
+
+<p>He had. Three men appeared on the forward deck near the foot of our
+turret ladder. My bolt spat down upon them; two of them fell. The
+other ran aft, toward where I saw Venza and Anita appearing from the
+lounge doorway of the cabin superstructure. I fired again, and the
+running man tumbled forward on his face. He was the last of the pirate
+crew.</p>
+
+<p>Molo was crouching, half-bending forward over his instrument table,
+with Snap's gun upon him. The girls burst upon us. We armed them. Meka
+was safely fastened down below. We backed Molo to the floor in the
+corner, with Venza and Anita watching him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Snap and I were in control of the ship. For temporary periods the
+automatics would handle the gravity-shifters. I could operate them
+here from the turret. We had a downward velocity toward the Moon. Five
+hundred miles below us, no more, was the base of that diabolical
+gravity-ray which was so swiftly pulling the twenty-five Grantline
+ships to their destruction.</p>
+
+<p>I gripped Snap and told him what we must do. "The forward gun on the
+starboard side is almost identical with our Earth guns, the Francine
+projectors. With a short range you can handle it and I'll give you a
+close mark!"</p>
+
+<p>He dashed for the deck. I set the levers. Gravity-plates with full bow
+attraction. Stern repulsion to the Earth and the stern rocket-streams
+at highest power.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Star-Streak</i> responded smoothly; with acceleration such as only
+Molo's famous terror of the starways could attain, we dove for the
+Moon.</p>
+
+<p>Breathless minutes! Those Wandl ships up in the firmament behind our
+stern would probably do nothing; they would not understand this sudden
+move of their friendly ship. The brain masters, the insect-like
+Wandlites down on the Moon rocks operating the mechanism of the
+gravity-ray, would not suspect until too late what the <i>Star-Streak</i>
+was doing.</p>
+
+<p>Uprushing rocks, the Apennines to one side; the dark yawning maw of
+Archimedes on the other. We were diving parallel with the gravity-ray
+now, hardly a mile from it, diving for the mechanisms of its source.
+Twenty thousand feet of altitude. I bent our rocket-streams up for the
+start of our turning. Bow-hull gravity-plates next. Ten thousand feet.
+Five thousand.</p>
+
+<p>How close we went I never knew. It was seconds now, not minutes. I
+shifted all the controls. Our bow lifted as we straightened. The whole
+spreading lunar surface tilted and dipped. Snap fired. I saw the bolt
+flash at the tilting landscape and a puff of light down there on the
+rocks. And an instant later there were vacant rocks where the little
+cluster of men and mechanisms had been. And the upflung gravity-beam
+was gone!</p>
+
+<p>The giant towering cliffs of the mountain of Archimedes seemed to rush
+at our upturning bow. The great dark crater-mouth slid under our hull.
+But we cleared it; the maw of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> blackness slid down and away; the whole
+lunar world tilted down and dwindled as we mounted again into the
+starlight.</p>
+
+<p>Minutes passed while we mounted. Above our upstanding bow was a new
+drama. The suddenly-released Grantline ships, almost level with the
+ten Wandl vessels when the ray vanished, turned sidewise. The poised
+Wandl craft, devoid of velocity, could not pick up the ray to
+escape now. Grantline, for those minutes, ignored the frantically
+flung discs; it was a desperate encounter, all at close quarters. We
+saw the spitting, puffing lights and the silent turmoil, hidden
+presently by the spreading clouds of luminous fog.</p>
+
+<p>Then out of it came drifting the wreckage. We plunged through an end
+of the glowing fog, encountered nothing but two triumphant Venus
+vessels. With them we mounted into the upper starlight.</p>
+
+<p>This was the end of the battle. The victorious Grantline ships one by
+one came lunging up: only twelve of them now. No Wandl vessels were
+left.</p>
+
+<p>The great spreading cloud drifted down like a shroud to hide the
+wreckage, drifted and settled to the lunar surface, a great, radiant
+area of fog, gleaming in the Earthlight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>20</h2>
+
+
+<p>There is very little more, pertinent to this narrative, that I need
+add of the events on Earth, Venus, and Mars during this momentous
+summer. The main facts are history now: the wild storms, the damage
+done by outraged nature and the panic among the people&mdash;all of it has
+been detailed as public news. The strange light-beams planted by Wandl
+in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn have not yet burned
+themselves away. But they are lessening and scientists say that they
+will soon be gone.</p>
+
+<p>The changed calendars call this the New Era. The axis of each of the
+three worlds was not appreciably altered; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> climates are at last
+restoring to normal. But the axial rotations of all three planets were
+slowed by that attacking Wandl beam before we wrecked the gravity
+station. The Earth day has been lengthened, resulting in the new
+calendar, the New Era. Our year, formerly of approximately 365-1/4
+days, now contains, but 358.7 days.</p>
+
+<p>Molo and Meka have been returned to Ferrok-Shahn. They were tried
+there for piracy and treason and are imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>And Wandl? With her gravity-controls wrecked, Wandl became subject to
+the balancing celestial forces. During those succeeding months of the
+summer and autumn no other spaceships appeared from her: nor did our
+world investigate. Her presence here, even a little world one-sixth
+the size of the Moon, was causing disturbance enough!</p>
+
+<p>Wandl moved with slow velocity, like a dallying, strangely sluggish
+comet about to round our Sun. What would her final orbit be? By
+fortunate chance she headed in, far from the Earth and Venus; missed
+Mercury by a wide margin; went close around the Sun: came out again.</p>
+
+<p>But the pull of the Sun, and Mercury dragged her back. Her velocity
+was not great enough.</p>
+
+<p>I recall that late autumn afternoon when, with Anita, Snap, and Venza,
+I sat in the observatory near Washington, gazing at Wandl through the
+dark glass of the solar-scope. Doomed invader! She showed now as a
+tiny dark dot over the Sun's giant, blazing surface. This was her
+final plunge. The dot was presently swallowed and gone. It seemed,
+amid those giant, licking streamers of blazing gas, that there was an
+extra puff of light.</p>
+
+<p>And some claim now that for a brief time our sunlight was a trifle
+warmer, a little pyre to mark the end of Wandl, the Invader.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>A CLASSIC NOVEL OF INTERPLANETARY WARFARE</p>
+
+<p>There were nine major planets in the Solar System and it was within
+their boundaries that man first set up interplanetary commerce and
+began trading with the ancient Martian civilization. And then they
+discovered a tenth planet&mdash;a maverick!</p>
+
+<p>This tenth world, if it had an orbit, had a strange one, for it was
+heading inwards from interstellar space, heading close to the
+Earth-Mars spaceways, upsetting astronautic calculations and raising
+turmoil on the two inhabited worlds.</p>
+
+<p>But even so none suspected then just how much trouble this new world
+would make. For it was WANDL THE INVADER and it was no barren
+planetoid. It was a manned world, manned by minds and monsters and
+traveling into our system with a purpose beyond that of astronomical
+accident!</p>
+
+<p>It's a terrific novel from the classic days of great science-fiction
+adventure&mdash;now first published in book form. When RAY CUMMINGS took
+leave of this planet early in 1957, the world of modern
+science-fiction lost one of its genuine founding fathers. For the
+imagination of this talented writer supplied a great many of the most
+basic themes upon which the present superstructure of science-fiction
+is based. Following the lead of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, Cummings
+successfully bridged the gap between the early dawning of
+science-fiction in the last decades of the Nineteenth Century and the
+full flowering of the field in these middle decades of the Twentieth.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<p>Born in 1887, Cummings acquired insight into the vast possibilities of
+future science by a personal association with Thomas Alva Edison.
+During the 1920's and 1930's, he thrilled millions of readers with his
+vivid tales of space and time. The infinite and the infinitesimal were
+all parts of his canvas, and past, present, and future, the
+interplanetary and the extra-dimensional, all made their initial
+impact on the reading public through his many stories and novels.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<h4>Here's a quick checklist of recent releases of</h4>
+<h3>ACE SCIENCE-FICTION BOOKS</h3>
+<p>
+<b>D-449</b>  <b>THE GENETIC GENERAL</b> by Gordon R. Dickson<br />
+<span class="sp1">and <b>TIME TO TELEPORT</b> by Gordon R. Dickson</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-453</b>  <b>THE GAMES OF NEITH</b> by Margaret St. Clair<br />
+<span class="sp1">and <b>THE EARTH GODS ARE COMING</b></span><br />
+<span class="sp1">by Kenneth Bulmer</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-455</b>  <b>THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE-FICTION</b><br />
+<span class="sp1">Fourth Series, edited by Anthony Boucher.</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-457</b>  <b>VULCAN'S HAMMER</b> by Philip K. Dick<br />
+<span class="sp1">and <b>THE SKYNAPPERS</b> by John Brunner</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-461</b>  <b>THE TIME TRADERS</b> by Andre Norton<br />
+<br />
+<b>D-465</b>  <b>THE MARTIAN MISSILE</b> by David Grinnell<br />
+<span class="sp1">and <b>THE ATLANTIC ABOMINATION</b></span><br />
+<span class="sp1">by John Brunner</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-468</b>  <b>SENTINELS OF SPACE</b> by Eric Frank Russell<br />
+<br />
+<b>D-471</b>  <b>SANCTUARY IN THE SKY</b> by John Brunner<br />
+<span class="sp1">and <b>THE SECRET MARTIANS</b> by Jack Sharkey</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-473</b>  <b>THE GREATEST ADVENTURE</b> by John Taine<br />
+<br />
+<b>D-479</b>  <b>TO THE TOMBAUGH STATION</b> by Wilson Tucker<br />
+<span class="sp1">and <b>EARTHMAN GO HOME</b> by Poul Anderson</span><br />
+<br />
+<b>D-482</b> <b>THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER</b><br />
+<span class="sp1">by A. E. Van Vogt</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="center"><b>35&cent;</b></p>
+
+<p>If you are missing any of these, they can be obtained directly from
+the publisher by sending 35&cent; per book (plus 5&cent; handling fee) to Ace
+Books, Inc. (Sales Dept.), 23 W. 47th St., New York 36, N.Y.</p>
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Wandl the Invader, by Raymond King Cummings
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@@ -0,0 +1,6611 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wandl the Invader, by Raymond King Cummings
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wandl the Invader
+
+Author: Raymond King Cummings
+
+Release Date: March 20, 2007 [EBook #20859]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDL THE INVADER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                         Transcriber's Note:
+
+       Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
+       U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+
+
+                              WANDL THE
+                               INVADER
+
+
+                                  by
+                             RAY CUMMINGS
+
+
+
+                           ACE BOOKS, INC.
+                23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y.
+
+
+
+
+                Copyright (C), 1961, by Ace Books, Inc.
+
+         Magazine version serialized in _Astounding Stories_,
+            Copyright, 1932, by Clayton Publications, Inc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+1
+
+
+"It's a planet," I said. "A little world."
+
+"How little?" Venza demanded.
+
+"One-fifth the mass of the Moon. That's what they've calculated now."
+
+"And how far is it away?" Anita asked. "I heard a newscaster say
+yesterday...."
+
+"Newscasters!" Venza broke in scornfully. "Say, you can take what they
+tell you about any danger or trouble and cut it in half; and even then
+you'll be on the gloomy side. See here, Gregg Haljan."
+
+"I'm not giving you newscasters' blare," I retorted. Venza's
+extravagant vehemence was always refreshing. The Venus girl glared at
+me. I added: "Anita mentioned newscasters; I didn't."
+
+Anita was in no mood for smiling. "Tell us, Gregg." She sat upright
+and tense, her chin cupped in her hands. "Tell us."
+
+"For a fact, they don't know much about it yet. You can call it a
+planet, a wanderer."
+
+"I should say it was a wanderer!" Venza exclaimed. "Coming from heaven
+knows where beyond the stars, swimming in here like a comet."
+
+"They calculated its distance yesterday at some sixty-five million
+miles from Earth," I said. "It isn't so far beyond the orbit of Mars,
+coming diagonally and heading very nearly for the Sun. But it's not a
+comet."
+
+The thing was indeed inexplicable; for many weeks now, astronomers had
+been studying it. This was early summer of the year 2070 A.D. All of
+us had recently returned from those extraordinary events I have
+already recounted, when we came close to losing Johnny Grantline's
+radiactum treasure on the Moon, and our lives as well. My ship, the
+_Planetara_, in the astronomical seasons when the Earth, Mars, and
+Venus were within comfortable traveling distances of each other, had
+carried mail and passengers from Greater New York to Ferrok-Shahn, of
+the Martian Union, and to Grebhar, of the Venus Free State. Now it was
+wrecked on the Moon.[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: See "Brigands of the Moon", Ace Book, D-324]
+
+I had been under navigating officer of the _Planetara_. Upon her, I
+had met Anita Prince, whose only living relative, her brother, was
+among those killed in the struggle with the brigands; Anita and I were
+soon to marry, we hoped.
+
+I was waiting now in Greater New York upon the decision of the Line
+officials regarding another spaceship. Perhaps I would have command of
+it, since Captain Carter of the _Planetara_ had been killed.
+
+It was a month or so before that adventure, April, 2070, that this
+mysterious visitor from interstellar space first appeared upon our
+astronomical horizon. A little thing, at first, a mere unusual dot, a
+pinpoint on a photo-electric star diagram which should not have been
+there. It occasioned no comment at the time, save that some thought it
+might be another planet beyond Pluto; but this was not taken seriously
+enough to get into the newscasts. None of us had heard about it as
+late as May, when the _Planetara_ set out on what was to be her final
+voyage.
+
+Presently, it was seen that the object could not be a planet of our
+solar system; Coming in at tremendous speed, it daily changed its
+aspect, gathering velocity until soon it was not a dot, but a streak
+on every diagram-plate.
+
+In a week or so the thing passed from an astronomical curiosity to an
+item of public news. And now, early in June, when it had cut through
+the orbit of Jupiter and was approaching that of Mars, fear was
+growing. The visitor was a menace. No astronomical body could come
+among us, with a mass as great as a fifth of the Moon, without causing
+trouble.
+
+The newscasters, with a ready skill for lurid possibilities, were
+blaring of all sorts of horrible events impending.
+
+I told the girls all I knew of the approaching wanderer. The density
+was similar to that of Earth. The oncoming velocity and the calculated
+elements of its orbit now were such that within a few weeks more the
+new planet would round our Sun and presumably head outward again. It
+would pass within a few million miles of us, causing a disturbance to
+Earth's orbit, even a change of the inclination of our axis, affecting
+our tides and our climate.
+
+"So I've heard," Venza interrupted me. "They say that, and then they
+stop. Why can't a newscaster tell you what is so mysterious?"
+
+"For a very good reason, Venza: because you can't throw people into a
+panic. This whole thing, up to today, has been withheld from the
+public of Earth and Venus. The Martian Union tried to withhold it, but
+could not. Every heliogram between the worlds is censored."
+
+"And still," said Venza sarcastically, "you don't tell us what is so
+mysterious about this wanderer."
+
+"For one thing," I said, "it changes its direction. No normal heavenly
+body does that. They calculated the elements of its orbit last April.
+They've done it twenty times since, and every time the projected orbit
+is different. Just a little at first, but last week the accursed thing
+actually took a sudden turn, as though it were a spaceship."
+
+The girls stared at me. "What does that mean?" Anita asked.
+
+"They're beginning to make wild guesses but we won't go into that."
+
+"What else is mysterious?" Venza demanded.
+
+"The thing isn't normally visible."
+
+Venza shifted her silk-sheathed legs. "Don't talk in code!"
+
+"Not normally visible," I repeated. "A world one-fifth as large as the
+Moon could be seen plainly by our 'scopes when well beyond Pluto. It's
+now between Jupiter and Mars, invisible to the naked eye, of course,
+but still it's not very far away. I've been out there myself. With
+instruments, we ought to be able to see its surface; see whether it
+has land and water, inhabitants perhaps. You should be able to
+distinguish an object on its surface as large as a city, but you
+can't."
+
+"Why not?" asked Anita. "Are the clouds too thick? What causes it?"
+
+"They don't even know that," I retorted. "There is something abnormal
+about the light-waves coming from it. Not exactly blurred, but a
+distortion, a fading. It's some abnormality of the light-waves."
+
+A swift rapping on our door-grid interrupted me, and Snap Dean burst
+in.
+
+"Hola-lo, everybody! Is it a conference? You look so solemn."
+
+He dashed across the room, kissed Venza, pretended that he was about
+to kiss Anita, and winked at me. He was a dynamic little fellow,
+small, wiry, red-headed and freckle-faced, and had been the
+radio-helio operator of the ill-fated _Planetara_. He was a perfect
+match for Venza, for all the millions of miles that separated their
+native lands. Venza, too was small and slim, her manner as readily
+jocular as his.
+
+"And where have you been?" Venza demanded.
+
+"Me? My private life is my own, so far. We're not married yet, since
+you insist on us going to Grebhar for the ceremony."
+
+"Do stop it," protested Anita. "We've been talking of...."
+
+"I know very well what you've been talking about. Everybody is. I've
+got news for you, Gregg." He went abruptly solemn and lowered his
+voice. "Halsey wants to see us, right away."
+
+I regarded him blankly and my mind swept back. No more than a few
+short weeks ago Detective-Colonel Halsey of Divisional Headquarters
+here in Greater New York had sent for us, and we had been precipitated
+into the Grantline affair. "Halsey!" I burst out.
+
+"Easy, Gregg." Snap cast a vague look around Anita's draped apartment.
+An open window was beside us, leading to a tiny catwalk balcony. It
+was moonlit now, and two hundred feet above the pedestrian viaduct.
+
+But Snap continued to frown. "Easy, I tell you. Why shout about
+Halsey? The air can have ears."
+
+Venza moved and closed and sealed the window.
+
+"What is it?" I asked, more softly.
+
+But Snap was not satisfied. "Anita, do you have a complete isolation
+barrage for this room?"
+
+"Of course I haven't, Snap."
+
+"Well, Gregg do you have a detector with you?"
+
+I had none. Snap produced his little coil and indicator dial. "It's
+out of order, but let's see now. Shove over that chair, Gregg."
+
+He disconnected one of the room's tube-lights and contacted with the
+cathode. It was a makeshift method, but as he dropped to the floor,
+uncoiling a little length of his wire for an external pick-up, we saw
+that the thing worked. The pointer on the dial-face was swaying.
+
+"Gregg!" he muttered. "Look at that. Didn't I tell you?"
+
+The pointer quivered in positive reaction. An eavesdropping ray was
+upon us.
+
+Anita gasped, "I had no idea!"
+
+"No, but I did." Snap added softly. "No one very close."
+
+He and I carried the detector to the length of the hall. The indicator
+went nearer normal. "It must be the other way," I whispered.
+
+We went to the moonlit balcony. "Way down there on the pedestrian
+arcade," I said.
+
+"We'll soon fix that," Snap said.
+
+Inside the room, we made connection with a newscaster's blaring voice.
+Under cover of it we could talk. Snap gathered us close around him.
+
+"Halsey has something important, and it's about this interstellar
+invader. It all connects. His office paged me on a public mirror. I
+happened to see it at Park-Circle 40. When I answered it, Halsey's man
+wanted me to talk in code. I can't talk in code; I have enough to
+worry about with the interplanetary helios. Then they sent me to an
+official booth, where I got examined for positive legal
+identification, and then they put me on the official split-wave
+length. After all of which precautions I was told to be at Halsey's
+office tonight at midnight, and told a few other things."
+
+"What?" demanded Venza breathlessly.
+
+"Only hints. Why take chances, by repeating them now?"
+
+"You said he wants me, too?" I put in.
+
+"Yes. You and Venza. We've got to get into his office secretly, by the
+vacuum cylinders. We're to meet a man from his office at the Eighth
+Postal switch-station."
+
+"Venza?" Anita said sharply. "What in the universe can he want with
+Venza? If she's going, I'm going too!"
+
+Snap gazed at her and grinned. "That sounds like a logical deduction.
+Naturally he must want you; that's why he said Venza."
+
+"I'm going," Anita insisted.
+
+We left half an hour before midnight. The girls were both in gray,
+with long capes. We took the public monorail into the mid-Manhattan
+section under the city roof of the business district, and into the
+Eighth Postal switch-station where the sleek bronze cylinders came
+tumbling out of the vacuum ports to be re-routed and dispatched again.
+
+A man was on the lookout for us. "Daniel Dean and party?"
+
+"Yes. We were ordered here."
+
+The detective gazed at the girls and at me. "It was three, Dean."
+
+"And now it's four," said Snap cheerfully. "The extra one is Miss
+Anita Prince. Ever heard of her?"
+
+He had indeed. "All right," he said. "If you and Haljan say so."
+
+We were put into one of the oversized mail cylinders and routed
+through the tubes like sacks of recorded letters; in ten minutes, with
+a thump that knocked the breath out of all of us, we were in the
+switch-rack of Halsey's outer office.
+
+We clambered from the cylinder. Our guide led us down one of the
+gloomy metal corridors. It echoed with our tread.
+
+A door lifted.
+
+"Daniel Dean and party."
+
+The guard stood aside. "Come in."
+
+The door slid down behind us. We advanced into the small blue-lit
+apartment, steel-lined like a vault.
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+
+Colonel Halsey sat at his desk, with a few papers before him and a
+bank of instrument controls at his elbow. He pushed his audiphone and
+mirror-grid to one side.
+
+"Sit down, please." He gave us each the benefit of a welcoming smile,
+and his gaze finished upon Anita.
+
+"I came because you sent for Venza," Anita said quickly. "Please,
+Colonel Halsey, let me stay. I thought, whatever you want her for, you
+might need me, too."
+
+"Quite so, Miss Prince. Perhaps I shall." It seemed that in his mind
+were many of the thoughts thronging my own, for he added: "Haljan, I
+recall I sent for you like this once before. I hope this may be a more
+auspicious occasion."
+
+"So do I, sir."
+
+Snap said, "We've been afraid hardly to do more than a whisper. But
+you're insulated here, and we're mighty curious."
+
+Halsey nodded. "I can talk freely to you, and yet I cannot." His gaze
+went to Venza. "It is you in whom I am most interested."
+
+"Me? You flatter me, Colonel Halsey." She sat gracefully reclining in
+the metal chair before his desk, seeming small as a child between its
+big, broad arms. Her long gray skirt had parted to display her
+shapely, gray-satined legs. She had thrown off the hood of her cloak.
+Her thick black hair was coiled in a knot low at the back of her neck;
+her carmine lips bore an alluring smile. It was all instinctive. To
+this girl from Venus it came as naturally as she breathed.
+
+Halsey's gray eyes twinkled. "Do not look at me quite like that, Miss
+Venza, or I shall forget what I have to say. You would get the better
+of me; I'm glad you're not a criminal."
+
+"So am I," she declared. "What can I do for you, Colonel Halsey?"
+
+His smile faded at once. His glance included us all. "Just this. There
+is a man here in Greater New York, a Martian whom they call _Set_
+Molo. He has a younger sister, _Setta_ Meka. Have any of you heard of
+them?"
+
+We had not. Halsey went on, slowly now, apparently choosing his words
+with the greatest care. "There are things that I can tell you and
+there are things that I cannot."
+
+"Why not?" asked Venza.
+
+"My dear, for one thing, if you are going to help me you can do it
+best by not knowing too much. For another, I have my orders; this
+thing concerns the very highest authorities, not only of the U.S.W.,
+but in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar too."
+
+He paused, but none of us spoke. Then Halsey said quietly, "Well, this
+Martian and his sister are here now in Greater New York. They have
+some secret. They are engaged in some activity, and I want to find
+out what it is. I have picked up only little parts of it."
+
+He stopped; and out of the silence Snap said, "If you don't mind,
+Colonel Halsey, it seems to me you are mostly talking in code."
+
+"I'm not, but I'm trying to tell you as little as possible. You, Miss
+Venza, need only understand this: the Martian, Molo, must be induced
+to give you some idea of what he is doing here."
+
+"And I am to induce him?" Venza asked calmly.
+
+"That is my idea." The faint shadow of a smile swept Halsey's thin,
+intent face. "My dear, you are a girl of Venus. More than that, you
+have far more than your normal share of wits and brains."
+
+It did not make Venza smile. She sat tense now, with her dark-eyed
+gaze fastened on Halsey's face. Anita, equally breathless, reached
+over and gripped her hand.
+
+Then Venza said slowly, "I realize, Colonel Halsey, that this is
+something vital."
+
+"As vital, my child, as it could be." He drew a long breath. "I want
+you to understand I am doing my duty. Doing, what seems the best
+thing, not for you, perhaps, but for the world."
+
+I seemed to see into his mind at that moment. He might have been a
+father, sending a daughter into danger.
+
+"I need not disguise the danger. I have lost a dozen men." He lighted
+a cigarette. "I don't seem to be able to frighten you?"
+
+"No," she said. And I heard Anita murmur, "Oh, Venza!"
+
+"But you frighten me," said Snap. "Colonel, look here; you know I'm
+going to marry this girl very soon."
+
+"Yes, I know. You'll have to consider this a sacrifice, a voluntary
+descent into danger, for a great cause in a great crisis. You four
+have just come out of a very considerable danger. We know of what
+stuff you are made, all of you."
+
+He smiled again. "Perhaps that prominence is unfortunate for you, but
+let me settle it now. Is there any one of you who will not take my
+orders and trust my judgement of what is best? And do it, if need be,
+blindly? Will you offer yourselves to me?"
+
+We gazed at each other. Both the girls instantly murmured, "Yes."
+
+"Yes," I said at last. It was not too hard for me, for I thought I was
+yielding him Venza, not Anita.
+
+Snap was very pale. He stared from one to the other of us.
+
+"Yes," he said finally. "But Colonel, surely you can tell us more."
+
+Halsey tossed his cigarette away. "I will tell you as much as I think
+best. These Martians, Molo and his sister, do not know of Venza; at
+least, I think that they do not. They apparently have not been here
+very long. How they got here, we don't know. There was no passenger or
+freight ship. In Ferrok-Shahn, they have a dubious reputation at best;
+but I won't go into that.
+
+"Venza, I will show you these Martians and the rest depends upon you.
+There is a mystery; you will find out what it is."
+
+He reached for his inter-office audiphone. "I want to locate the
+Martian _Set_ Molo. Francis, Staff X2, has it in charge."
+
+The audible connection came in a moment. "Francis?"
+
+We could hear the answering microphonic voice, "Yes Colonel."
+
+"Is the fellow in a public place by any chance?"
+
+"In the Red Spark Cafe, Colonel. With his sister and a party."
+
+"Good enough. The Red Spark has an image-finder. Have you visual
+connection?"
+
+"Yes, the whole room; they have a dozen finders."
+
+"Use a magnifier. Get me the closest view you can."
+
+"It's done, Colonel. I did it just in case you called."
+
+"Connect it."
+
+In a moment our mirror-grid was glowing with the two-foot square image
+of the interior of the Red Spark Cafe. I knew the place by reputation:
+a fashionable, more or less disreputable eating, drinking and dancing
+restaurant, where money and alcholite flowed freely. The patrons were
+successful criminals of the three worlds, intermingled with thrilled,
+respectable tourists who hoped they would see something really evil.
+
+The Red Spark was not far from Halsey's office; it was perched high in
+a break of the city roof, almost directly over Park-Circle 29.
+
+"There he is," said Halsey.
+
+We crowded around his desk. The image showed the interior of a large
+oval room, balconied and terraced; a dais dance-floor, raised high in
+the center with three professional couples gyrating there; and beneath
+them the public dance-grid, slowly rotating on its central axis. A
+hundred or so couples were dancing. The lower floor was crowded with
+dining tables; others were upon the little catwalk balconies, and
+still others in the terraced nooks and side niches, half-enshrouded,
+half-revealed by colored draperies.
+
+The image now was silent, for Halsey was not bothering with audio
+connection. But it was a riot of color, flashing colored floodlights
+bathing the dancers in vivid tints; and there were twinkling spots of
+colored tube-lights on all the tables. I saw, too, the blank
+rectangles of darkness against the walls which marked the private
+dining rooms, insulated against sight and sound. Here one might go for
+frivolous indiscretion, or for conspiracy, perhaps, and be as secure
+from interruption as we were, here in Halsey's office.
+
+Venza asked eagerly, "Which is he?"
+
+"Over there on the third terrace to the left. That table. There seem
+to be six of them in the party."
+
+We heard Francis' voice; he was in Halsey's lower Manhattan office,
+with this same image before him. "We'll get a closer view."
+
+The table in question was no more than a square inch on our image. We
+could see an apparently gay party of men and women. One of the couples
+was gigantic, a Martian man and woman, obviously. The others seemed to
+be Earth or Venus people.
+
+Francis' voice added: "I've got an audio magnifier on them. Foley's
+been listening for an hour. Nice, clear English. Much good it does us;
+this fellow is as cautious as a director of the lower air-lane. Here's
+your near-look."
+
+Our image shifted to another view. The lens-eye with which we were
+connected now gave us a view directly over the Martian's table. We
+were looking down diagonally upon the table, at a distance of no more
+than ten feet.
+
+There were three Earthwomen in the party. There was nothing peculiar
+about them. They were rather handsome, dissolute in appearance, all of
+them obviously befuddled by alcholite. There was a man who could have
+been Anglo-Saxon. A wastrel, probably, with more money than wit; he
+wore a black dinner suit edged with white.
+
+Our attention focussed upon the other two. They were tall, as are all
+Martians. The young woman, _Setta_ Meka, seemed perhaps twenty or
+twenty-five years of age, by Earth reckoning, in stature perhaps very
+nearly my own height, which is six feet two. It is difficult to tell a
+Martian's age, but she was very handsome, even by Earth standards; and
+in Ferrok-Shahn she would be considered a beauty. Her gray-black hair
+was parted and tied at the back with a plaited metal rope. Her short
+dark cloak, so luminous a fabric that it caught and reflected the
+sheen of all the gaudy restaurant lights, was parted, its ends thrown
+back over her shoulders. Beneath it she wore the characteristic
+Martian leather jacket, and short, wide leather trousers ornamented
+with spun metal fringes and tassels. Most Martian women have an
+amazonian aspect, but I saw now that _Setta_ Meka was an exception.
+
+Her brother, who sat beside her, was a full seven feet or more. A
+hulking sort of fellow, far less spindly than most of his race, he
+might have come from the polar outposts beyond the Martian Union. He
+was bare-headed, his gray-black hair clipped close upon a round bullet
+head, with the familiar Martian round eyes.
+
+I gazed into the face of Molo, as momentarily he turned his head. It
+was a rough-hewn, strongly masculine face with a hawk-like nose, bushy
+black brows frowning above deepset round eyes. The face of a keen
+scoundrel, I could not doubt, though the smooth-plucked gray skin was
+flushed now with alcholite, and the wide, thin-lipped mouth was
+leering at the woman across the table from him.
+
+Like his sister, he had thrown back his cloak, disclosing a brawny,
+powerful figure, leather clad, with a wide belt of dangling ornaments,
+some of which probably were weapons.
+
+How long we gazed at this silent colored image of the restaurant table
+I do not know. I was aware of Halsey's quiet voice: "Look him over,
+Miss Venza. It depends on you."
+
+Another interval passed. It seemed, as we watched, that Molo's
+interest in his party was very slight. I got the impression, too, that
+though at first he had seemed to be intoxicated, actually he was not.
+Nor was his sister. Anxiety seemed upon her; the smile she had for
+jests seemed forced; and at intervals she would cast a swift, furtive
+glance across the gay restaurant scene.
+
+More drinks arrived. The Earthpeople at the table here seemed upon the
+verge of stupor; and suddenly it appeared that Molo had completely
+lost interest in them. With a gesture to his sister, he abruptly rose
+from his seat. She joined him. They left the table, and a red-clad
+floor manager of the restaurant came at their call. Then in a moment
+they were moving across the room.
+
+Halsey called sharply into his audiphone: "Francis! Hold us to them if
+you can."
+
+They were standing now by the opened door of one of the Red Spark's
+private insulated rooms. We caught a glimpse of its interior, a gaily
+set table with a bank of colored lights over it.
+
+The figure of a man was in there. He was on his feet, as though he had
+just arrived to meet the Martians here, and a hooded long cloak
+enveloped him. It may have been a magnetic "invisible" cloak, with the
+current now off.
+
+We caught only the fleetest of impressions before the insulated door
+closed and barred our vision. The glimpse was an accident. Molo, taken
+by surprise at this appearance of his visitor, could hardly have
+guarded against it. The waiting figure was very tall, some ten feet,
+and very thin. The hood shrouded his face and head. In his hand he
+held a large circular box of black shiny leather, of the sort in which
+women carry wide-brimmed hats. As Molo joined him he put the box
+gently on the floor. He handled it as though it were extraordinarily
+heavy; and as he took a step or two, he seemed weighted down. Just as
+the room door was hastily closing, Meka sliding it from the inside, we
+caught a fleeting glimpse of horror.
+
+The lid of the hat box had lifted up. Inside was a great round thing
+of gray-white, a living thing; a distended ball of membrane, with a
+network of veins and blood-vessels showing beneath the transparent
+skin.
+
+For the instant we gazed, stricken. The ball was palpitating,
+breathing! I saw convolutions of inner tissue under the transparent
+skin of membrane; a little tentacle, like an arm with a flat-webbed
+hand, was holding up the lid of the box. The lid rose a trifle
+higher; the colored lights overhead gave us a brief but clear view of
+it.
+
+The thing in the box was a huge living brain. I saw goggling,
+protruding eyes; an orifice that could have been a nose, and a gash
+upended for a vertical mouth. It was a face. And the little tentacle
+arm holding up the box-lid was joined to where the ear should have
+been.
+
+Was this something human? A huge distended human brain, with the body
+withered to that tiny arm?
+
+The palpitating thing sank down in the box and the lid dropped. And
+upon our horrified gaze the insulated door of the room slid too.
+
+"By the gods!" exclaimed Halsey. "One of them dares come to the Red
+Spark. Here, almost in public."
+
+So Halsey knew what this meant. His eyes were blazing now; his face
+was white, with an intensity of emotion that transfigured it.
+
+"Francis, tell Foley I'll be in the manager's office in five minutes."
+
+He snapped off; our image connection with the Red Spark went dead.
+
+"We're going to the Red Spark," he announced. "This changes
+everything, yet I don't know. Venza, I may need you more than ever,
+now."
+
+Halsey herded us to the office door. From his desk he had snatched up
+a few portable instruments, and he flung on a cloak.
+
+It was a brief trip to the Red Spark, on foot through the sub-cellar
+arcade to where, under Park Circle 29, we went up in a vertical lift
+to the roof. We were in the side entrance oval of the restaurant in
+five minutes.
+
+In the dim metal room of Orentino, the Red Spark's manager, a barrage
+was up and Foley was waiting for us. We could hear it faintly humming.
+Now we could talk.
+
+Halsey slammed the door down. He said swiftly, "My men caught one of
+these things this morning. They have it now and I think Molo does not
+yet know we captured it. A brain; we're convinced it understands
+English and can talk, but no one has been able to make it talk yet.
+Foley, order that damned Orentino to de-insulate the room Molo is in.
+Now, by the gods, we may see and hear something."
+
+The frightened manager of the Red Spark was in the control room.
+Halsey killed our barrage to let the outside connections get through
+to us. We all crowded around the mirror-grid which stood on Orentino's
+desk. Foley gave us connection with the control room. We saw
+Orentino's face, his eyes nearly popping with fright. "Colonel Halsey,
+I will do whatever you tell me."
+
+"What room is that Martian occupying?"
+
+"Insulated 39."
+
+"Break off the insulation. Do it slowly and he may not notice. Then
+give us connection, audio and vision."
+
+"But I have no image-finders in the insulated rooms."
+
+"Cut off the barrage. I'll get connection there."
+
+Foley was already setting up his eavesdropper on the desk. The mirror
+blurred a little; then it clarified. We had the interior of the secret
+room, and voices were coming out of Foley's tiny receiver.
+
+The image showed the box on the floor, with its lid down. The tall
+hooded shape of the stranger stood with Molo and his sister by the
+table. They were talking in swift, vehement undertones. The language
+was Martian, a dialect principally used in Ferrok-Shahn. Our equipment
+brought it in and I could understand it.
+
+Molo was saying: "But you are the fool to have dared to come here!"
+
+"The master knows that there is danger. Something is wrong." The
+hooded stranger spoke like a foreigner, but not a Martian, nor an
+Earthman, and not like any person of Venus I had ever heard. It was a
+strange, indescribable intonation, a flat, hollow voice.
+
+"I say the master is concerned."
+
+"Let him be."
+
+"And he demanded I bring him here to find you. He is displeased that
+you are here."
+
+What gruesome thing was this? Their glances seemed to go to the box on
+the floor at their feet, as though the master were in there. But the
+lid of the box did not rise.
+
+"Well, you have found me," Molo declared impatiently. "When you know
+me better, always you will find I have my wits. The thing is for
+tomorrow night, not tonight."
+
+"But that, my master is not sure." The hollow voice was deferential
+but insistent. "He fears danger; something has gone wrong. He is
+working on it now, striving to receive the message! There is a
+message. He knows that much. Perhaps from our world, Wandl, itself."
+
+For a moment Molo had no answer. His sister had not spoken. I noticed
+that her gaze seemed roving the room.
+
+"What is it I should do?" Molo asked at last.
+
+"Come with us to your home-room."
+
+"But I have everything ready there. The contact is ready for tomorrow
+night. Your world will control Earth."
+
+"But if it be tonight?"
+
+Again Molo was silent. My breath stopped. On our mirror I saw the
+stranger's hood part just a little. There seemed to be no face; just
+the blur of something brownish.
+
+"But if it be tonight?" the voice insisted.
+
+"I will go," Molo said abruptly, "but your coming here was dangerous.
+Suppose we cannot get out undetected? You know I will never go to
+where all our instruments are set up and have some damnable spy follow
+me. Is all going well on Venus and Mars?"
+
+"Yes. My master feels so. He seems to get messages. The contacts will
+be made simultaneously." A gruesome chuckle. "The capture of these
+three worlds. We shall have all three enchained at once. Helpless."
+
+The lid of the black box seemed again about to rise when there came a
+sharp cry from Meka. "This room is not insulated!"
+
+Our eavesdropping was discovered. Beside me, I heard Halsey give a low
+curse. On our mirror we saw sudden action. The ten-foot, cloaked
+figure laboriously lifted the black box, and swung with it toward the
+outer wall of the room. I saw now clearly with what a dragging, heavy
+tread that giant shape moved, as though it weighed, here on Earth, far
+more than the normal weight to which it was accustomed.
+
+"Over there!" Molo gasped. "The escape-port; this room has one. Meka,
+go with him. I will join you. You know where."
+
+Foley cried, "Colonel, I may be able to stop them!"
+
+But Halsey saw on our image that Molo was staying. "Wait. Let them go.
+If we have the Martian here, that's better."
+
+I saw the room's escape-port swing open as Meka and the hooded shape
+carrying the box moved for it. The moonlit darkness of the outer
+catwalk enveloped the disappearing figures.
+
+Molo was left alone. He closed the port swiftly. His detector now was
+in his hand, but Halsey anticipated him by a second or two. Our
+listener went dead; our mirror darkened. Doubtless Molo was never sure
+whether he had been spied on or not.
+
+Halsey was on his feet. "Foley, get out into the main room. Stay with
+him."
+
+But there was no need to follow Molo. He had sent his visitor and
+sister out by the escape-port, which was usual enough; now he was back
+in the main room as though nothing of importance had happened, with an
+appearance of intoxication about him. He wavered jovially across the
+room, threading his way through the gay diners, and reached the table
+where his party still sat carousing.
+
+Again Halsey shut us off.
+
+"He's got a base somewhere in the city; you heard what they said about
+it. We've got to trick him into going there, unsuspecting."
+
+Halsey seized the audiphone. "Your chance, Venza. It's the only way.
+Foley, keep away from that Martian. Shut off all contacts. I'll meet
+you out there in a moment. I'm sending a girl; she'll go after him."
+
+"Now?" Venza asked.
+
+"Yes. It's the only way. Perhaps you can get him drinking. Venza, use
+all the wiles you possess now."
+
+"No!" gasped Snap. "It's too dangerous!"
+
+Anita was clinging to Venza. "Colonel Halsey, I'm going too."
+
+Halsey stared, then made a swift decision. "Right. That is still
+better."
+
+I jumped to my feet. "Colonel, I should prefer that one of us men...."
+
+He gripped me by the shoulders. "Gregg Haljan, I take no suggestions
+from you!" His blazing eyes bored into me. "There isn't a second to
+lose. Don't you realize this means destruction of our three inhabited
+planets? I'll sacrifice myself, you, or these girls! Venza, take Anita
+outside. I'll join you immediately, give you last instructions. Take a
+portable audiphone with you."
+
+He turned to Snap. "This is the only way. These demons can't be
+forced. You know that."
+
+The girls were moving toward the door. I met Snap's anguished gaze.
+
+"Gregg, don't let them go!"
+
+"No! No, I won't!"
+
+I made a lunge past Halsey, with Snap after me. Halsey did not move,
+but one of his rays struck us. With all senses numbed, I felt myself
+falling.
+
+"Gregg--don't--let them...."
+
+Snap had tumbled upon me. My senses did not quite fade. I was aware of
+Anita's and Venza's horrified cries, but Halsey pushed them toward the
+door. It slid up. I vaguely saw the two girls going out with Halsey
+after them; and the door coming down.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+
+I have no idea how long it was before Halsey came back. Snap and I
+were seated on a low metal bench against the wall. The effect of the
+paralysing ray was wearing off. We were tingling all over, our senses
+still confused.
+
+Halsey stalked in upon us. "So you are recovered?"
+
+Snap stammered, "We--I say, we're sorry as hell we acted like that."
+
+"I know you are." His voice softened. "If I could have done anything
+else, believe me, I would have. But I don't think harm will come to
+them. They're clever."
+
+"Are they outside?" I asked. "Did they find a way of meeting the
+Martians? How long have you been gone?"
+
+Halsey merely stared at me as though he had no intention of answering.
+And then the audiphone on the desk buzzed.
+
+"This is Halsey," he said. "Yes, I have them here. Bring them--did you
+say bring them?"
+
+We could not hear the answering voice, for Halsey had the muffler in
+contact.
+
+"No, I would prefer not to come. I'm watching something. I'm at the
+Red Spark Cafe. Well, I'm going back to my office presently to wait
+there."
+
+He continued in code. Like Snap, I had never had occasion to learn it.
+The words were a strange sounding staccato gibberish. He ended, "I
+will send them, Grantline. Very well, I'll tell them to locate him. At
+once, yes." He closed off the audiphone.
+
+Halsey swung on us. "You're all right now?"
+
+"Yes." I stood up, drawing Snap up with me. "What is wanted of us
+Colonel?"
+
+"That's better, Gregg." He smiled, but he was still grim. "I wanted
+you here to wait for this call from the Conclave of Public Safety. It
+met at midnight. They have ordered both of you there."
+
+"That's a secret meeting, isn't it?" asked Snap. "There was no report
+of it over the air tonight."
+
+"Yes. Secret." He was leading us to the door. "They won't need you for
+more than half an hour. When they finish, come back to my office. You
+can come openly." He stood with his finger on the door lever.
+"Good-by, lads. Foley will lead you to the service room. You are to
+take a mail cylinder for Postal Switch-station 20. They'll re-route
+you from there to the conclave auditorium."
+
+The door slid up. "When you disembark," he added, "Ask for Johnny
+Grantline. You are to sit with him."
+
+He showed us out and the door slid down before him. We trudged the
+corridor, and Snap gripped me.
+
+"For myself," he whispered swiftly, "I'll go to the damnable conclave
+because I'm ordered. But I won't stay there long. Once we get out of
+it, if I don't route myself back to the Red Spark, I'm a motor-oiler."
+
+I agreed with him. We had a mental picture of Anita and Venza in the
+Red Spark's public room. Doubtless Orentino had created a way for them
+to meet Molo. They would sit there in the Red Spark with that drinking
+party, and in less than an hour we would be back.
+
+But as we crossed diagonally across an end of the main room with Foley
+leading us, we caught a glimpse of Molo's table. The party was still
+there, but Molo, Anita, and Venza were gone!
+
+We had no time to get any information. Foley abruptly left us and
+another man took his place. In the service room a passenger cylinder
+was waiting. Our guide entered it with us.
+
+At the switch station we had the breath knocked out of us. After
+another ten minutes in the vacuum tube, we reached our unknown
+destination. The cylinder-slide opened. We found ourselves with a lone
+guard; and through a gloomy arcade opening, Johnny Grantline was
+advancing, to greet us.
+
+"Well, so here you are, Gregg. Hell to pay heaven, going on here. Come
+on in; I'll tell you."
+
+"We were sent for," Snap said.
+
+"Yes, but they don't want you yet. Come in here."
+
+He waved away the guard and led us through a padded arcade into a
+low-vaulted audience room, windowless and gloomy. Across it, a doorway
+panel stood ajar. Grantline peered through it. There was the glow of
+light from the adjoining room and the distant murmur of many voices.
+
+Grantline closed the door. "Sit down and I'll tell you...."
+
+"Where are we?" I asked.
+
+"The ninth Conclave Hall."
+
+I knew its location: Lower Manhattan, high under the city roof.
+
+Grantline produced little cigarette cylinders. "Steady your nerves,
+lads; you'll need it."
+
+He grinned at us. The hand with which he lighted my cylinder was
+steady as a tower-base, but he was excited. I could see it by the
+glint in his eyes, and hear it in his voice.
+
+"What's going on?" Snap demanded.
+
+"It's about this invading planet. By the gods, when you hear what's
+really been learned about it!"
+
+"Well, what?" I asked.
+
+He sketched what he had heard this night at the conclave. The
+mysterious invader was inhabited.
+
+"How do they know that?" Snap put in.
+
+"Wait. I'll tell you the rest of it. The accursed thing changes its
+orbit. It banks and turns like a spaceship! It stopped out in space;
+it's poised out there now between Mars and Jupiter. A world about a
+fifth the size of the Moon, and the beings on it can control its
+movements. They've brought it in from interstellar space, into our
+solar system. Evidently the point they've reached now is far as they
+want to come. They've poised out there, getting ready to attack, not
+only us, but Mars and Venus simultaneously."
+
+Grantline gazed at us through the smoke of his cigarette. He was much
+like Snap, small, wiry, brisk of movement and manner, but older. His
+hair was graying at the temples; his voice carried the authority of
+one accustomed to commanding men.
+
+"Don't ask me for the technicalities of how they reached these
+conclusions. I'm no astronomer. I'm only telling you their conclusions
+and what their discussions have been here for the past hour."
+
+Heaven knows, we had no inclination to dispute him. What we had seen
+and heard at the Red Spark tallied with his words.
+
+He went on swiftly, "The attack, of whatever nature it may be, is
+impending at once. Not next month, or next week, but now. Lord, Gregg,
+I don't blame you for staring like that. You don't know what's been
+going on for the past two days on Earth, and Venus and Mars. It's all
+been suppressed. Neither did I, until I heard it here tonight. The
+U.S.W., the Martian Union, the Venus Free State, are all preparing for
+war. Every government spaceship on Earth is being commissioned. We're
+not going to sit around and wait for invaders to land; the war won't
+be fought on Earth if we can help it."
+
+We stared. Snap asked, "What makes them so sure?"
+
+"That war is coming? Plenty. This new planet has sent out spaceships.
+The planet itself is hovering sixty million miles away from us, about
+forty million miles from Mars and close to ninety million from Venus.
+Perhaps its leaders think that's the most strategic spot.
+
+"Then it sent out spaceships, three of them. One is hovering close to
+Venus. Another is near Mars, and the third is some 200,000 miles off
+Earth. Several of our interplanetary freighters are overdue; it seems
+now that they must have encountered these invading ships and been
+destroyed.
+
+"Still more, and worse: these three hovering ships have already landed
+the enemy on Mars and Venus. The helio-reports mention mysterious
+encounters in Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar. For three or four days, Mars
+has been in a panic of apprehension; Venus almost as bad. And some
+have landed here. Not many, perhaps; but one has been captured. A
+thing--God, it's almost beyond description."
+
+We could well agree with that, since Snap and I had just seen one.
+
+"They've got it here," Grantline was saying. "They've tried to make it
+talk. They can't but they're going to try again."
+
+He jumped to his feet and went to the door. "They're bringing it in."
+Upon his face was a look of awed horror.
+
+We stood crowding the small door-oval. It gave onto a darkened balcony
+of the conclave hall. The girders of the city roof were over us. There
+were a few official spectators sitting up here in the dark on the
+balcony, but none noticed us.
+
+The lower floor of the hall was lighted. Around the polished oblong
+tables perhaps a hundred scientists and high governmental officials of
+the three worlds were seated. Near the center of the hall was a small
+dais-platform. On a table there, someone had just placed a circular
+black box, similar to the one we had seen previously.
+
+The hall was hushed and tense. On the dais stood a group of Earth
+officials. One of them spoke. "Here it is, gentlemen. And this time,
+by God, we'll make it speak."
+
+Grantline whispered, "That's the War Secretary from Greater London."
+
+I recognized him: Brayley, Commander in Chief of the land, air, water
+and space armies of the United States of the World. He was gigantic in
+stature, with a great shock of gray-white hair. A commanding figure,
+if there ever was one.
+
+Beside him, Nippor, the Japanese representative in Greater New York,
+seemed a pigmy. The acoustics of the silent hall carried his soft
+voice up to us. "I would be afraid of drugs. Will we use force? It is
+vital."
+
+"Yes, by God! Anything."
+
+It seemed that everyone in the hall must be shuddering: I could feel
+it like an aura pounding up at me. Brayley lifted the box-lid, reached
+in and raised the horrible thing. He held it up, a two-foot ball of
+palpitating gray-white membrane. Another living brain.
+
+"Now, damn you, you're going to talk to us! Understand that? We're
+going to make you talk. Get that box out of the way."
+
+They flung the box to the floor, and Brayley placed the brain on the
+table.
+
+A glare of light, focussed on it, showed beneath the stretched taut
+membrane the convolutions of the brain, like tangled purple worms. The
+blood-vessels seemed distended almost to bursting now. The gruesome
+face, with popping eyes and that gaping mouth, showed a horrible
+travesty of terror. From where its ears should have been, a crooked
+little arm of flabby, gray-white flesh came down, one on each side and
+braced the table. And I saw now that it had a shriveled body, or at
+least little legs, bent, almost crushed under by its weight.
+
+"Now, damn you," Brayley said, rubbing off his hands on a rough towel,
+"for the last time: will you talk?"
+
+The goggling eyes held a terrified but baleful gaze upon Brayley's
+face. Did it understand? The eyes were fronted our way, and suddenly
+their glance swung up so that I seemed for an instant to see down into
+them. And it struck me then: this was a thing of greater intelligence
+than my own. A humanoid, with brain so developed that through myriad
+generations the body was shriveled, almost gone. A mind was housed
+here, an intelligence housed in this monstrous brain.
+
+Were these the beings of the new planet which had come to attack us?
+But how could this helpless creature, incapable of almost everything,
+obviously, save thought, do the work of its world?
+
+Then I recalled again that insulated room of the Red Spark Cafe: the
+thin, ten-foot hooded shape which was carrying the box. Was that,
+perhaps, an opposite type of being with the brain submerged, dwarfed,
+and the body paramount? Were there, on this mysterious planet, two
+co-existing types, each a specialist, one for the physical work and
+the other for the mental?
+
+I stood with Snap and Grantline in that dark balcony doorway, gazing
+down to where the giant brain stood braced upon its shriveled arms and
+legs, and realized why we of Earth and Venus and Mars are all cast in
+the same mould we call human. It is a little family of planets, here
+in our solar system; for countless eons we have been close neighbors.
+The same sunlight, the same general conditions of life, the same
+seed, were strewn here by a wise Creator. A man from the Orient is
+different from an Anglo-Saxon; a man of Mars differs a little more.
+But basically they are the same.
+
+Yet, confronting us now was a new type, from realms of interstellar
+space, far beyond our solar system.
+
+"For the last time, will you talk?" snapped Brayley.
+
+There was another interval of silence. The eyes of the brain were very
+watchful. Its gaze roved the hall as though it were seeking for help.
+It shifted its little arms on the table, seemingly exhausted from the
+physical effort of supporting itself.
+
+Brayley's voice came again. "Doubtless you can feel pain acutely. We
+shall see."
+
+With what effort of will to overcome his revulsion we may only guess,
+he reached forward and pinched the little arm. The result was
+electrifying. From the upended slit of mouth in that goggling face,
+came a scream. It pierced the heavy tense silence of the hall, ghastly
+in its timbre, like nothing any of us had ever heard before. And in it
+was conveyed agony as though Brayley had not merely pinched that
+flabby arm, but had thrust a red-hot knife into its vitals.
+
+The brain could feel pain indeed. It crouched with stiffened arms and
+legs. The membrane of its great head seemed to bulge with greater
+distension; the knotted blood-vessels were gorged with purple blood.
+The eyes rolled. Then it closed its mouth. Its gaze steadied upon
+Brayley's face, so baleful a gaze that as I could see the reflection
+of its luminous purple glow a shudder of fear and revulsion swept me.
+
+"So you did not like that?" Brayley steadied his voice. "If you don't
+want more, you had better speak. How did you get here on Earth? What
+are you trying to do here?"
+
+There seemed an interminable silence; then Nippor took a menacing step
+forward. "Speak! We will force it from you!"
+
+And then it spoke. "Do--not--touch--me--again."
+
+Indescribable voice! Human, animal or monster no one could say. But
+the words were clear, precise; and for all their terror, they seemed
+to hold an infinite command.
+
+A wave of excitement swept the hall, but Brayley's gesture silenced
+it. He leaped forward and bent low over the palpitating brain.
+
+"So you can talk. You came as an enemy. We have given you every
+chance today for friendship, and you have refused. What are you trying
+to do to us?"
+
+It only glared.
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"I will not tell you anything."
+
+"Oh, yes, you will."
+
+"No!"
+
+All the men on the platform were crowding close to it now.
+
+"Speak!" ordered Brayley again. "Here in Greater New York is a hiding
+place. Where is it?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Where is it? You are perhaps a leader of your world. I lead ours, and
+I'm going to master you now. Where is this hiding place?"
+
+The thing suddenly laughed, a gruesome, eerie cackle. "You will know
+when it is too late. I think it is too late already."
+
+"Too late for what?"
+
+"To save your world. Doomed, your three worlds! Don't touch--me!"
+
+It ended with a scream of apprehension as Nippor grasped the crooked
+little arm. "Tell us!"
+
+"No!" It screamed again. "Let--me--go!"
+
+"Tell us!" Nippor strengthened his squeezing grip. The thing was
+writhing, the thin ball of membrane palpitating, heaving. And suddenly
+it burst. Over all its purpled surface, blood came with a gush.
+
+Nippor and Brayley staggered backward. The scream of the brain ended
+in a choking gurgle. The little legs and tiny body wilted under it;
+the round ball of membrane sank to the table. It rolled sidewise upon
+one arm and ear, and in a moment its palpitation ceased. A purple-red
+mass of blood, it lay deflated and flabby.
+
+It was dead.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+
+"But see here," I said, "did they mention the Martian, Molo, at all?"
+
+"They were discussing Molo before you arrived," Grantline told us.
+
+We had drawn back from the doorway. The conference, with the dead
+thing removed, was proceeding. Snap and I had momentarily forgotten
+Anita and Venza; but now we were in a panic to get back to the Red
+Spark.
+
+"But you can't go," said Grantline. "Brayley ordered you here. He'll
+want to see you in a moment."
+
+"Well, why doesn't he see us now?" Snap protested. "I'm not going to
+cool myself off sitting here."
+
+"Oh yes, you are."
+
+Grantline sent word to Brayley that we were here. In a moment the
+answer came. We were to wait a short time; he would want to see us.
+
+We swiftly told Grantline what had happened at the Red Spark, and
+found that already he knew. Francis had relayed it to the conference,
+and Halsey was in constant communication with the officials here.
+
+"Then what is happening?" I demanded. "Where are the girls? Has Halsey
+heard from them?"
+
+Again Grantline went to a nearby room.
+
+"Anita sent a message," he said, when he returned. "They are with
+Molo. Halsey is ordering a squad of men to be ready."
+
+Grantline told us what had been happening in the Red Spark. Anita and
+Venza, simulating drunkenness with a skill for acting which I knew
+both of them possessed, had joined Molo's party. Perhaps if Meka had
+been there she would have seen through them.
+
+But Molo did not. And they have since told me that the Martian himself
+was far from sober, although he was probably not aware of it. He
+yielded to their demands to leave the restaurant with him. He wanted,
+as we know, to leave unobtrusively; and Venza threatened a scene
+unless she could go.
+
+He took them, leaving openly in a public fare-car. Doubtless he at
+first intended to de-rail them somewhere, but they convinced him that
+he was not being followed. Twice he used his detector, and Anita and
+Halsey were clever enough to throw off their rays in time to avoid it.
+Then Halsey lost connection with the fleeing car, and after that Molo
+changed his mind about ditching the girls.
+
+"But where are they now?" I demanded.
+
+"You," said Grantline sternly, "are out of it. Do you think that
+Halsey, under Brayley's orders, will neglect any chance to find out
+where Molo is hiding? Something is about to happen. This conference is
+wrestling with it. In Grebhar and Ferrok-Shahn they're striving to
+find out what it is. Something impending _now_. Helios are pouring in
+here from Venus and Mars. They're mobilizing their spaceships, just as
+we are."
+
+Grantline at last was letting out all his apprehensions on us, with
+this burst. "Halsey didn't tell you that the entire resources of his
+organization are out upon this thing tonight. Here at this conclave
+there's a room of information-sorters. That's just where I came from a
+moment ago. Every country on our Earth is making ready--for what,
+nobody knows!
+
+"He's had two fragmentary calls from Anita. He has a hundred men ready
+to rush to their aid, and to capture Molo's lair. He expects another
+message from Anita any moment. This conference here knows every
+movement that is being made, within ten or twenty seconds of its
+making. Perhaps upon Anita and Venza the whole outcome of this thing
+may hang."
+
+We had no answer to that. "Do you know who Molo is? He's an
+interplanetary pirate; his ship is the _Star-Streak_."
+
+"Good Lord!"
+
+We had heard of him. For five years past, a gray spaceship, with a
+base supposedly hidden in the Polar deserts of Mars, had been
+terrorizing interplanetary shipping.
+
+"They think," Grantline went on, "that Molo was cruising with his
+pirate ship. He has, as you know, a band of criminals drawn from all
+the three worlds. There are about fifty of them, commanded by his
+sister and himself. We think that Molo encountered the three ships
+which that new planet sent out. The _Star-Streak_ was captured,
+perhaps destroyed. Molo and his band, joined with this new enemy, to
+save themselves, and because they have been promised rewards."
+
+"But why should these brains want their help?" Snap demanded.
+
+"Wouldn't you say it was because, in Ferrok-Shahn, Grebhar and here in
+Greater New York, simultaneously tonight, something has to be
+accomplished, something the brains themselves could not do? Molo and
+his band know all three cities. How they landed here in Greater New
+York nobody knows; the enemy spaceship is 200,000 miles out. Obviously
+they came from it, landed secretly with some smaller ship somewhere on
+Earth and made their way here."
+
+A buzzer sounded beside us. A voice commanded: "Grantline, bring Gregg
+Haljan and Daniel Dean to room six at once."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In room six we stood before the War Secretary, who had arrived there a
+moment ahead of us.
+
+"Ah, Haljan and Dean. I'm glad to see you."
+
+He was still white and shaken. Beads of perspiration stood upon his
+forehead. He mopped them off.
+
+"I've just had a rather terrible experience." He did not suggest that
+we sit down. He went on crisply: "Grantline no doubt has told you of
+what's going on. Disturbing, terrifying. Haljan, we have a ship being
+rushed into commission tonight. You know her, the _Cometara_."
+
+"I know her," I said.
+
+"Quite so. She is taking off as soon as we can ready her. She will
+carry about fifty men. Grantline is in charge of the armament and men.
+You, Dean, we want to handle her radio-helio."
+
+"Right," said Snap.
+
+"And you, Haljan, we can think of no one better to navigate her."
+
+He waved away my appreciation. "Within a brief time we shall have
+thirty such ships in space. Mars and Venus also are mobilizing."
+
+He stood up. "We feel, Haljan, that if anyone can handle the
+_Cometara_ with skill enough to combat this lurking enemy, it will be
+you."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir."
+
+"We know that. The ship is leaving from the Tappan Interplanetary
+Stage shortly after dawn. When have you and Dean last slept?"
+
+"Last night," we both said.
+
+"Quite so. Then you need sleep now. I want you to go at once to the
+Tappan Fieldhouse. The commander there will make you comfortable. Eat,
+and sleep if you can. We want you in good shape. You're to keep out of
+this night's activities here in the city; you understand?"
+
+"Yes sir."
+
+An orderly was approaching behind Brayley. "I'll be back in a moment,
+Rollins."
+
+He shook hands with us. "I may not see you again before it's over.
+Good luck, lads. Grantline, they need you for a moment in the hall;
+something about electronic space weapons, further equipment for the
+_Cometara_. Then you'd better go to Tappan House too, and get some
+sleep."
+
+We were dismissed. Snap and I regarded each other hesitantly. I said
+impulsively, "Mr. Brayley, Detective-Colonel Halsey is using two
+girls."
+
+"Yes, we're watching that, Haljan."
+
+"They're the girls we're to marry," I added. "May we communicate with
+Colonel Halsey?"
+
+"Yes. Call him from here." He smiled wanly. "But keep out of it; we
+need you at dawn."
+
+The Tappan departure-stage was only a few miles up the Hudson; we
+could get there in half an hour. It was now nearly trinight, halfway
+between midnight and dawn. I had my portable audiphone and got Halsey
+at once.
+
+"You Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. They're through with us at the Conclave. Where is Anita?"
+
+"We heard from her twice. I'm expecting...."
+
+We could hear someone interrupting him. Then he came back. "Gregg?
+Molo took them somewhere. I didn't dare fling after them. He had his
+detector going, and Anita warned me not to try it. She had to stop
+connection herself. God knows how she was able to whisper to me at
+all."
+
+His voice, like Brayley's, had the ring of a man strained to the
+breaking point. I could appreciate how Halsey must feel, forced to
+remain at his desk with its encircling banks of instruments; holding
+all the network of his farflung activities centralized; his
+decisions, his commands in a hundred places almost simultaneously,
+while his body sat there inactive.
+
+"Gregg, the girls must have arrived at Molo's place by now. If only
+they know where they are! I have lookouts throughout the city with
+intricate and complete connecting equipment. Gregg, I must
+disconnect."
+
+"Colonel, give me Anita's frequency. Maybe Snap or I can pick up the
+message."
+
+He named the oscillating frequency, then disconnected.
+
+"Try that frequency," Snap suggested. "We've got to do something."
+
+The door-slide opened suddenly and an orderly appeared. "Haljan?"
+
+"Get the hell away," roared Snap. "We've had our orders; we don't want
+any from you."
+
+"Gregg Haljan and Daniel Dean are paged on the mirrors."
+
+Someone in the city wanted us; our names were appearing on the various
+mirror-grids publicly displayed throughout the city in the hope that
+we would answer.
+
+"That's different," said Snap. "Answer it for us, that's a good
+fellow. We're busy."
+
+"It must be important," the orderly insisted. "The caller registered a
+fee at the Search Bureau; that's how they located you here. He paid
+the highest fee to search you. An emergency call."
+
+It was against the law to invoke the services of the Search Bureau
+unless based upon actual impending danger. "We'll take it," I said.
+
+"Come with me." He turned to the left and down the corridor.
+
+We hastened with him to a corridor cubby. Upon the audiphone there I
+was at once connected with a voice, and an anxious man's face with a
+two-day growth upon it.
+
+"Haljan! Thank God you answered. This is Dud Ardley. Me and Shac are
+here. Listen, this is the lower cellar corridor, Lateral 3, under
+Broadway. Me and Shac just have seen your girls down here."
+
+News of Anita and Venza! I could see in the mirror-image, behind Dud's
+head the outlines of the little public cubby from which he was
+calling. He and his brother, on some illicit errand of their own in
+East Side lower Manhattan, had seen figures alighting from a
+fare-car. They had caught a glimpse of the faces of Anita and Venza.
+The girls were hooded and cloaked; a hooded man was with them. The
+fare-car quickly rolled away, and the hooded figures, suddenly
+becoming invisible within their magnetic cloaks, had vanished.
+
+"S'elp me, we couldn't do nothin'. You know we take no chances with
+the police by carryin' cylinders. So I paged you in a hurry."
+
+"Dud, that's damn nice of you. Where are you now? Tell me again."
+
+The Ardleys, knowing nothing of the events of this night, supposed
+that the girls were being abducted, and decided I should be informed.
+
+"Damn right, Dud. We'll come at once. You two wait for us?"
+
+"Sure. If you got instruments, maybe we can track 'em. It wasn't a
+quarter of a mile from here, over toward the river. Plenty of rotten
+dumps down there."
+
+"Wait for us, Dud. We'll come in a rush."
+
+I slammed shut the audiphone. Snap, beside me, had heard it all. He
+shoved the astonished orderly out of the way.
+
+"What's the nearest exit-route out of here?"
+
+"To the city roof, sir. Up this incline."
+
+We dashed up the spiral incline, through a low exit-port, and were in
+the starlight of the city roof.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Connect it, Gregg! You can't tell; her message might come over any
+minute."
+
+I tuned my coils to the seldom used oscillation frequency which Halsey
+had told us Anita's transmitter was sending.
+
+"Anything, Gregg?"
+
+"No. Dead channel."
+
+The air, in Anita's channel, was bafflingly silent.
+
+We had been challenged by a roof-guard when we appeared from the upper
+port of the Conclave Hall; the city roof was not open to public
+traffic. But with our identifications, he found us a single-seat
+hand-tram, and started us southward on the deserted route.
+
+It was a cloudless night, with stars like thickly-strewn diamonds on
+purple velvet. The city roof lay glistening in the starlight. In my
+great-grandfather's time there had been no roof here; the open city
+was exposed to all the inclement weather. But gradually the arcades
+and overhead viaducts, cross balconies and catwalks which spanned the
+canyon street between the giant buildings became a roof. It spread,
+now terraced and sloped to top the lofty buildings, like a great
+rumpled sheet propped by the knees of sleeping giants. Some of the
+roof was of opaque alumite, dark patches, alternating with the great
+glassite panes which in places admitted the daylight.
+
+Our little tram sped along southward, wending its way over the
+terraces. Save for the guards and lookouts in their occasional
+cubbies, and the air-traffic directors in their towers, we were alone
+up here. The roof was tangled with air-pipes, line-wire conduits,
+aerials, arterial systems of the ventilating and lighting devices. As
+far as one could see the ventilators stood fronting the night breeze
+like listening ears. There were water tanks, great cross-bulkheads and
+flumes to handle the rain and snow. A few traffic towers maintained
+order in the overhead air-lanes. Their beacons shot up into the sky
+when the passing lights marked the thinly-strewn trinight traffic.
+
+We were stopped at intervals, but in each case were passed promptly.
+
+"Nothing yet, Gregg?"
+
+"No."
+
+Anita's channel remained empty. It was, I suppose, no more than ten
+minutes during which we sped south along the grotesque maze of the
+roof; but to us it was an eternity. If only some message would come!
+
+"I'll pull up here."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I gathered up my little audiphone, thrust it under my dark flowing
+cloak. If only our cloaks were magnetic!
+
+We leaped from our car. "In a rush, Haljan?" asked a guard.
+
+"That's us. Orders from Mr. Brayley."
+
+We left him and plunged into a descending automatic lift. A drop of a
+thousand feet; we shot downward past all the deserted levels, past the
+ground-level, the undersurface transportation lanes, the sub-river
+tubes, the sub-cellar, down to the very bottom of the city.
+
+"Come on, Gregg. Two segments from here."
+
+We advanced at a run. At this hour of night, hardly a pedestrian was
+in evidence. It was an arched vaulted corridor, almost a tunnel, dimly
+blue-lit with short lengths of fluorescent tubes at intervals on the
+ceiling. For all the vaunted mechanisms of our time, the air here was
+heavy and fetid. Moisture dripped from the concrete roof. It lay on
+the metal pavement of the ground; the smell of it was dank, tomb-like.
+
+There were frequent cross-tunnels. We turned eastward into one of
+them. For a segment there were the lower entrances to the cellars of
+the giant buildings overhead. We passed a place where the
+tunnel-corridor widened into a great underground plaza. The sewerage
+and wire-pipes lay like tangled pythons on its floor. Half across it,
+by the glow of temporary lights strung on a cable, a group of
+repairmen were working. We passed them, headed in to where the tunnel
+narrowed again and there were now occasional cubby entrances to
+underground dwellings.
+
+It was a rabbit warren from here to the river, haunted by criminals
+and by miserable families, many of whom never saw the daylight for
+weeks at a time. The giant voices of the city hardly carried down
+here, so that an oppressive silence hung upon everything.
+
+"That next crossing, Gregg. They said they'd wait for us there."
+
+Occasional escalators led upward. In advance of us was a narrow
+intersection. There were a few lights in the bullseyes of the
+subterranean dwelling rooms, but most of them were dark.
+
+"Easy, Snap. Not so fast."
+
+I pulled Snap to a walk. We edged over against the tunnel side. We had
+passed a small lighted audiphone cubby, evidently the one from which
+Dud and Shac had paged us. They should have been here waiting; but
+there was nothing but the empty, gloomy tunnels.
+
+"Something is coming!" Snap clutched at me; we drew our cloaks around
+us and waited in a shadowed recess. Down a side incline, a segment
+behind us, a small automatic food truck came lurching. It pulled up at
+an arcade entrance. Its driver slid the portals, deposited his cases
+of food, locked the panel after him; and in a moment he and his truck
+were gone up the incline.
+
+We heard, in the ensuing silence, a low groan near at hand; then
+abruptly it stopped. We saw, within twenty feet of us, two dark
+figures lying on the pavement grid in a black patch of shadow where
+the mailtube came down in a curve and disappeared into the tunnel
+wall.
+
+We bent over the figures of two men. They lay together, one half upon
+the other, black-garbed figures with white, staring faces. One
+twitched a little and then lay still.
+
+They were Shac and Dud Ardley.
+
+"Murdered, Gregg! Good Lord!"
+
+Both were dead, but we could see no marks on either of them.
+
+I found my wits. "Snap, we can't stand like this wholly visible."
+
+I pulled Snap away. We darted a few feet. The light of the tunnel
+intersection was directly over us. "Not here, Snap! Run!"
+
+Under the curving vacuum tube a little further along, we found
+shelter. Snap murmured: "The girls went past here. But which way,
+Gregg?"
+
+As though I knew!
+
+I felt at that moment, under the shirt against my skin, the anode of
+my audiphone tingling. A receiving signal! In the gloom, I could see
+Snap's white face as he watched me bring it out.
+
+We heard a tiny microphonic voice, Anita's voice.
+
+"Colonel Halsey. Yes I have the location. Lafayette 4--East corridor,
+lowest level. A descending entrance. Don't you speak again; I've only
+a minute! Venza safe--but send help. Something we don't understand--a
+strange mechanism here."
+
+Then Halsey's interrupting voice. "Anita, escape! You and Venza!"
+
+"We can't. They've got us!"
+
+"I'm sending men. They'll be there in ten minutes."
+
+"Ten minutes will be too late. Molo is...."
+
+It seemed that we heard her scream; then the waves blurred and died.
+
+Lafayette 4--East corridor, lowest level. "Snap, that's here! A
+descending entrance."
+
+We stood back against the great curving side of the postal vacuum
+tube. Within it I heard the hiss and clank as a mail cylinder flashed
+past. Halsey's secret orders must be going out now. His men nearest
+this place would come in a rush. But Anita said that would be too
+late.
+
+Snap and I were frantically searching. Somewhere here was an entrance
+to Molo's lair. It seemed in the silence that Anita's scream was still
+ringing in my ears. Had it been entirely from the instrument, or were
+we so close that we had heard its distant echoes?
+
+"Gregg, help me." Snap was tugging at a horizontal door-slide, like a
+trap in the tunnel floor, partly under the vacuum tube. "Stuck!" he
+gasped.
+
+It yielded with our efforts. It slid aside. Steps led downward into
+blackness. We plunged in, caution gone from us. The steps went down
+some twenty feet; we were in another smaller corridor. It was vaguely
+lighted by a glow from somewhere, and as my pupils expanded, I could
+see this was a shabby alley, opening ahead into a winding passage with
+the slide-port above us like its back gate. A warren of cubbies was
+here, a little sequestered segment of disreputable dwellings.
+
+We stood peering, listening. "Shall I try the eavesdropper, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. No, wait!" I thought I heard distant sounds.
+
+"Voices, Snap. Listen."
+
+More than voices. A thud: footsteps running. A commotion, back in this
+warren, within a hundred feet of us.
+
+"This way," I murmured.
+
+We plunged into a black gash. There was a glow of light, a glassite
+pane in a house wall nearby. The commotion was louder, and under it
+now we heard a vague humming: something electrical. It was an
+indescribably weird sound, like nothing I had ever heard before.
+
+Snap clutched at me. "In here, but where is the accursed door?"
+
+There was a glassite pane, but we could find no door. In our hands we
+held small electronic bolt-cylinders, short-range weapons.
+
+The hum and hissing was louder. It seemed to throb within us, as
+though vibration were communicating to every fiber of our bodies.
+
+Light was streaming through the glassite pane, and we glimpsed the
+interior of the room. The light now came from a strange mechanism set
+in the center of the metal cubby. I caught only an instant's glimpse
+of it, a round thing of coils and wires. The metal floor of the room
+was cut away, exposing the gray rock of Manhattan Island. And against
+the rock, in a ten-foot circle, a series of discs were contacted, with
+wires leading from them to the central coils.
+
+The whole was glowing with opalescent light. It was dazzling,
+blinding. Within in it the goggled figure of Molo was moving,
+adjusting the contacts. He stooped. He straightened, drew back from
+the light.
+
+Only an instant's glimpse, but we saw the girls, crouching with black
+bandages on their eyes. Meka, goggled like her brother, was holding
+them. A tall shape carrying a round black box darted through the light
+and ran. Molo leaped for the girls; the hum had mounted to a wild
+electrical scream. Molo flung his sister back out of the light.
+
+They all vanished. There was nothing but the light, and the mounting
+dynamic scream.
+
+Beside me, Snap was pounding on the glassite panel. I joined him.
+Everything was dreamlike, blurring as though unconsciousness was upon
+me.
+
+Where was Snap? Gone? Then I saw him nearby. He had found a door, but
+it wouldn't yield. I saw his arm go up in a gesture to me.
+
+He ran; I found myself running after him, but I stumbled and fell.
+Then over me the scream burst into a great roar of sound. It seemed so
+intense, so gigantic a sound that it must ring around the world.
+
+And the light burst with an exploding puff. The black metal cubby
+walls seemed to melt like phantoms in a dream. A titan's blowtorch,
+the opalescent light shot upward, a circular ten-foot beam, eating its
+way through all the city levels as though they were paper, up through
+the city roof.
+
+Molo's cubby was gone. His mechanism was eaten by the light and
+destroyed. There was only this motionless, upstanding beam, contacted
+here with the Earth, streaming like an opalescent sword into the
+starry sky.
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+
+I must paint now upon a broader canvas to depict the utter chaos of
+this most memorable night in the history of the Earth, Venus and Mars.
+
+From that point in the bowels of Greater New York, near the southern
+tip of Manhattan Island, the mysterious light-beam shot up. It
+screamed with its weird electrical voice for an hour, so penetrating a
+sound that it was heard with the unaided ears as far away as
+Philadelphia. A titan voice it was, shrill as if with triumph. There
+were millions of people awakened by it this night; awakened and struck
+with a chill of fear at this nameless siren shrilling its note of
+danger. The sound gradually subsided; it seemed to reach its peak
+within a few minutes of the appearance of the light, and within an
+hour it had ceased.
+
+But the light beam remained. Those who inspected it closely have given
+a clear description of its aspect; but to this day its real nature has
+never been determined.
+
+It was a circular beam of about a ten-foot diameter. In color it was
+vaguely opalescent, rather more brilliant at night than in the day.
+With the coming of the sun it did not fade, but remained clearly
+visible, with a spectrum sheen when the sunlight hit it so that it had
+somewhat the appearance of a titanic, straightened rainbow.
+
+From that contact point with our Earth, the inexplicable beam stood
+vertically upward. It ate a vertical hole like a chimney up through
+all the city levels, through the roof and into the sky. It had a
+tremendous heat, communicable by contact so that it melted the city
+above it with a clean round hole. But the heat was non-radiant.
+
+I was found lying within fifty feet of the base of the beam. There had
+been an explosion, so that Molo's metal room was gone; but from where
+I lay there was only a warmth to be felt from the light.
+
+Halsey's men found me within half an hour. I was unconscious but not
+injured. I think now that the sound and not the light overcame me. I
+presently recovered consciousness; for another hour I was blind and
+deaf, but that quickly wore off. They rushed me through the chaos of
+the city to the Tappan Headquarters. Grantline was there, but not
+Snap. I sent them back when once I was fully conscious. They searched
+all the vicinity at the base of the light. Snap, alive or dead, was
+not to be found.
+
+Anita and Venza were gone. I had seen Molo and Meka plunge away with
+them as the light-beam burst forth. They were gone, and Snap was gone.
+
+There was, by now, a turmoil unprecedented throughout all the
+metropolitan area. The motionless light-beam itself had done little
+damage, but its appearance brought instant chaos. Within a radius of
+five miles of its base, the city was plunged into darkness. All power
+was cut off. Every vehicle, even the aeros passing overhead, and, the
+ventilating system stopped. Audiphones were wrecked; it subsided
+within an hour, though, and after that, lights and instruments brought
+into the area were not affected.
+
+But during that hour, south Manhattan was in panic. A multitude of
+terrified people awakened in the night to find blackness and that
+screaming sound. The streets and corridors and traffic levels were
+jammed with throngs trampling and killing one another in their efforts
+to escape.
+
+This was in the stricken area; but everywhere else the panic was
+spreading. Transportation systems were almost all out of commission.
+The panic spread until by dawn there was a wild exodus of refugees
+jamming the bridges and viaducts and tunnels, streaming from all the
+city exits.
+
+This was Greater New York. But from Venus and Mars came similar
+reports. In Grebhar and in Ferrok-Shahn, doubtless almost simultaneous
+with Greater New York, similar light-beams appeared.
+
+"But what can it be?" I demanded of Grantline. "Something Molo
+contacted there? He did it. That was what he was working for, and he
+accomplished his purpose. But what will the beam do to us?"
+
+"It's doing plenty," said Grantline grimly.
+
+"He didn't intend that. There was something else."
+
+But what? As yet, no one knew. I had already told the authorities what
+I had seen. I was the only eye-witness to Molo's activities; and
+heaven knows I had but a brief, confused glimpse.
+
+The beam remained; it streamed upward from the rock. They thought,
+this night, that Molo's strange current had set up a disintegration of
+the atoms, and that electronic particles from them were streaming into
+space.
+
+The light-beam seemed impervious to attack. Within a few hours the
+authorities were attacking its base with various vibratory weapons but
+without success.
+
+From where Grantline and I sat, we saw the dawn coming. But the
+radiance-beam remained unaffected. "Gregg, look there at Venus!"
+
+To the east of us there was a distant line of metal structures
+surmounting the mid-Westchester hills; above them, in the brightening
+sky of dawn, Venus was just rising. Mars had already set at our
+longitude. Venus, fairly close to the Earth now, was the "Morning
+Star."; it mounted now above that line of metal stages in the
+distance.
+
+And as Grantline gestured, I saw from Venus the same sword-like beam
+streaming off almost to cross our own.
+
+Grantline and I, with a mutual thought, ran around the balcony and
+gazed to where Mars had set. A narrow radiance was streaming up among
+the stars off there.
+
+Three swinging swords of light in the sky! With the rotation of the
+planets, they swept the firmament. The mysterious enemy had planted
+them--but why? What was coming next?
+
+And as though to answer us, from far to the south, over mid-Jersey,
+came a new manifestation. We saw a speck rising, a distant mounting
+speck of something dark, with streamers of tiny radiance flowing from
+it.
+
+"A spaceship, Gregg."
+
+It seemed so. It came slowly from above the maze of distant
+structures, gathered speed, and in a moment was gone.
+
+But others, better equipped, had observed it. It was a cylindrical
+projectile, with stream-fluorescence propelling it upward, an unusual
+form of spaceship. Telescopically it was seen until well after dawn.
+Speeding out in the direction of the Moon.
+
+Molo and his weird allies had escaped, I thought. With their work
+done here on Earth, they were off to rejoin the hovering enemy ship
+200,000 miles out.
+
+I stood gripping Grantline on that balcony, and gazed with sinking
+heart. Were Anita and Venza prisoners on that mounting ship? And Snap:
+I prayed he was there with the girls to lend them the protection I had
+failed to give.
+
+"Haljan and Grantline wanted below."
+
+The voice of a mechanic on the balcony behind us roused us from our
+thoughts. We went down through the busy building.
+
+The workshops of Tappan Interplanetary Headquarters had for hours been
+ringing with busy activity. The _Cometara_ rested upon her departure
+stage outside, with a score of workmen conditioning her.
+Newly-installed additional armament was aboard, ready to be assembled
+after the start. The men to handle it were embarked. My half dozen
+officers and the ten members of the crew I had already briefly met.
+They were waiting for me.
+
+"On we go, Gregg. Let's wish ourselves luck." From grim, silent
+abstraction, Grantline had now sprung into his familiar dynamic self.
+
+There was a solemn group of officers and a hundred or so workmen here;
+they stopped their fevered labors now to watch the _Cometara_ get
+away, first of Earth's ships speeding into space to confront this
+nameless enemy. Grantline and I went past them with silent handshakes
+and murmured good-bys. I saw the towering figure of Brayley. He raised
+an arm for a farewell gesture to us.
+
+We mounted the incline to the _Cometara_. She rested upon her stage, a
+great, sleek bronze ship, low and rakish, with pointed ends and a
+flattened, arched turtle-back dome of glassite covering the
+superstructure and the decks from bow to stern. She lay quiescent,
+gleaming in the glow of the departure beacons; but there was an aspect
+of latent power upon her.
+
+My ship! My first command! As we went through the opened port of the
+domeside and I touched foot upon the deck, I prayed that I might
+justify the faith reposed in me.
+
+Men crowded the narrow, covered deck. I saw the space-guns at the deck
+pressure-ports, partly assembled. My chief officer, a young fellow
+named Drac Davidson, who with his twin brother had been in the
+Interplanetary Freight Service, rushed up to me.
+
+"We're ready, sir."
+
+"Very good, Drac."
+
+He hurried me to the turret control room. Grantline instantly had
+plunged into details of assembling the weapons.
+
+"Her ports are all closed," said Drac. He spoke calmly, but his thin
+face was pale and his dark eyes glowed with excitement. "The interior
+pressure is set at fifteen pounds. You can ring us up at once."
+
+No formalities to this departure! With pounding heart I entered the
+small circular turret and mounted its tiny spiral stairs to the upper
+control room. But as I touched the levers, calmness came to me with
+these familiar tasks at which I was skilled.
+
+I slid a central-hull gravity-plate. It went smoothly, perfectly
+operated by the magnets. The vessel trembled, lifted; outside the
+enclosing dome I could see the dawn-light of the sky and paling
+floodlights of the stage. Figures of men out there, made silent
+gestures of farewell, dropping slowly beneath our hull as we lifted.
+
+The bow gravity-plates slid into the repulsive-force positions. The
+bow lifted. The _Cometara_ responded smoothly. We went up, poised at a
+forty-five degree angle. I saw the outer beacons on the stage swing
+upward with their warning to passing traffic in the lower lanes.
+
+"Light our bow-beacon, Drac."
+
+We lifted through the lower thousand and two thousand-foot lanes. The
+lights of Tappen were dwindling beneath us. The interior of the
+_Cometara_ was humming with the whirr of its circulators and
+air-receivers, mingled with the throb of air pressure pumps. At three
+thousand feet I started the air-rocket engines. They came on with a
+gentle purring. The fluorescence from them streamed along our hull and
+down past the stern, like twin rocket tails.
+
+With gathering speed we slid smoothly upward through the highest
+traffic lanes, out of the atmosphere, through the stratosphere and
+into space.
+
+Leaving the stratosphere, I cut off the air-rocket engines, slid the
+stern gravity-plates for the Earth's repulsion and the bow plates for
+the attraction of the Moon and Sun. The firmament swung, in a slow
+arc, and steadied with the Earth behind us and the Sun and Moon in
+advance of our bow. We were on our course, plunging through space with
+accelerating velocity toward the unknown enemy ship hovering two
+hundred thousand miles ahead of us. My orders were to find the ship
+and maneuver us close to it; and Grantline's orders were to assail it.
+
+I gazed down at the convex North Atlantic with the reddening coastline
+of North America spread like a map.
+
+What was the nature of this strange enemy whom we sought? That
+opalescent beam from Greater New York mounted with its radiance into
+the dome-like starfield; the one from Venus and the other from Mars
+seemed crossing overhead amid the stars.
+
+Three swords crossing the sky! What did they mean?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Will you swing east or west of the Moon?"
+
+"We haven't decided."
+
+Drac Davidson and I were alone in the _Cometara's_ control turret.
+
+We were some ten hours out from Earth. Over such short astronomical
+distances it was impossible to attain any great velocity. When once we
+were clear of the Earth's atmospheric envelope, the rocket-stream
+engines were useless. The _Cometara_ was equipped also with
+tail-streamers of electronic nature. They exerted a slight pressure,
+useful for sudden curving and turning; but they had only negligible
+influence upon the main velocity of the vehicle.
+
+I used the repulsion of the Earth upon our negatively charged stern
+gravity-plates; and with those of the bow electronified to the
+positive reaction, we were drawn forward by the Sun and the Moon.
+
+For three or four hours I held to this combination with steady
+acceleration; but then I had to retard. In close quarters such as
+this, the retarding velocity must be calculated with a nicety many
+hours in advance.
+
+We hung now, very nearly poised, within some forty thousand miles of
+the surface of the Moon. Bleak and cold, sharply black and white, it
+hung in a gigantic crescent in advance of our bow. The Sun, whose
+attraction I had ceased using some hours back, was visible sharply to
+one side now. Its great gas streams of giant flame licked up into the
+blackness of the firmament. The sunlight caught the lunar mountains
+with a white glare, and left the valleys black with shadow; moonlight
+and the mingled sunlight painted our bow. Behind our stem the great
+disk of Earth hung somber and glowing.
+
+And everywhere else was the great black enclosing firmament. The stars
+blazed with a new white glory never seen through the haze of an
+atmosphere. Like a little world in the vastness of this awesome void,
+we hung poised.
+
+Grantline came into the turret. "I've got everything ready, Gregg. By
+the gods, once you can lay telescope upon that accursed enemy ship,
+I'm ready to open fire on it."
+
+"Good," I said.
+
+But the thought of hurling our bolts at this enemy ship had struck
+terror into my heart for hours past. I was convinced that the three
+who in all the world were dearest to me--Anita, Venza, and Snap--were
+upon that enemy vessel.
+
+Grantline asked, "Are you going closer to the Moon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"The ship couldn't be between us and the Moon. Waters and I have been
+in the helio room for the past hour, searching with the 'scope there.
+Nothing doing, Gregg. Not a sign."
+
+"I know. Our instruments here show that."
+
+"There might be a way of sighting them," Drac put in.
+
+"I'll try the Zed-ray," I suggested. "Drac and I have it corrected.
+But I doubt if it would penetrate the sort of invisibility this enemy
+would use."
+
+Grantline nodded. "Or the Benson curve-light. You think the ship went
+behind the Moon? Or landed on the Moon?"
+
+"It could have done either. Has Waters still got contact with the
+Earth? Have they seen it?"
+
+"No."
+
+I made a sudden decision. It would take us two hours at least to make
+a careful scanning with the Zed-ray; and to take an elaborate series
+of spectro-heliographs of the Moon's surface, which might show the
+enemy vessel if it had landed there, was a laborious process.
+
+After brief thought, I discarded the idea. "We'll go to the helio
+room," I told Grantline. "I'm going to try the Benson curve-light."
+
+Grantline and I left the turret, heading along the catwalk under the
+glassite dome toward the helio cubby where the rotund, middle-aged
+Waters was in charge. It made my heart sink to think of the helio
+room. Snap should have been there.
+
+We crossed the transverse catwalk. The superstructure roof was under
+us. Farther down, the narrow decks showed with Grantline's men grouped
+at the firing ports, where his weapons were mounted and ready. As I
+saw those grouped men loitering on the deck, waiting for me to give
+them a sighting, I prayed I could do so; and yet there was the
+shuddering fear that the first blast would bring death to Anita.
+
+Waters met us at the door of his cubby. His face was red; he mopped
+the perspiration from his bald head. "I'm so glad you came! Will you
+want the Benson-light? I say, I've lost connection with the Earth. I
+had the Washington transmitter. Five minutes ago they sent me a flash
+of the Mars and Venus news. They both sent ships, out."
+
+He gasped for breath, then added in a rush: "Both the Mars and Venus
+ships were destroyed and the enemy escaped!"
+
+Grantline and I gasped with horror.
+
+"Destroyed?" I said. "How?"
+
+Waters did not know. The news came; then, immediately after, the
+Washington transmitter changed its wavelength and he lost connection.
+
+"But why, in heaven's name, man, didn't you ring and tell us?"
+Grantline demanded. "Destroyed--only that! Just destroyed."
+
+"I was afraid to leave my instruments," Waters said. "How could I
+tell? I might be able to renew connections with Washington any minute.
+Come on in. Do you want to try the Benson curve-light, Mr. Haljan?"
+
+"Yes," I said. "I do." We entered the dim helio cubby. "See here,
+Waters, what about the projectile that ascended from Earth last night?
+Did the Washington observatory report what happened to it?"
+
+"No, not a word. They lost it, evidently."
+
+Our 'scopes on the _Cometara_ had not been able to locate the
+projectile. The large instruments of Earth had lost it. Was that
+because, with tremendous velocity, it had sped directly for the new
+planet out beyond Mars?
+
+Or, with some form of invisibility, might it be close to us now, just
+as the lurking ship might be somewhere around here?
+
+From the little circular helio cubby, perched here under the dome like
+an eagle's nest, I could see down all the length of the ship, and out
+the side ports of the dome to the blazing firmament. The Sun, Moon and
+Earth and all the starfield were silently turning as Drac swung us
+upon our new course.
+
+Waters bent over the projector of the Benson curve-light, making
+connections. The cubby was silent and dim, with only a tiny spotlight
+where Waters was working, and a glow upon his table where his recent
+messages from Earth were filed. Grantline and I glanced at them.
+
+Panic in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn. The three
+strange beams which the enemy had planted on Earth, Venus and Mars
+still remained unchanged. I could see them now plainly from the helio
+cubby windows, great shafts of radiance sweeping the firmament.
+
+Waters straightened from his task. "That will do it, Mr. Haljan." He
+met me in the center of the cubby. "When you locate the enemy, do you
+think they'll destroy us as they did those other ships?"
+
+Grantline laughed grimly. "Maybe so, Waters. But let's hope not."
+
+Fat little Waters was anything but a coward, but being closed up here
+all these hours with a stream of dire messages from Earth had shaken
+him.
+
+"What I mean, Mr. Grantline, is that prudence is sometimes better than
+reckless valor. The _Cometara_ is no warship. If Earth had sent an
+international patrol vessel...."
+
+Grantline did not answer. He joined me at the Benson projector. "Can
+we operate it from here, Gregg, or will you mount it in the bow?"
+
+"From here. Drac's swinging. When he's on the course I gave him, I can
+throw the Benson-ray through the bow dome-port. Waters, you're all
+done in. Go below and sleep awhile."
+
+But he stood his ground. "No, sir; I don't want to sleep."
+
+"We've had ours," said Grantline. "We'll call you if anything shows
+up."
+
+We sent Waters away. "Ready, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. I've got the range."
+
+The coils hummed and heated with the current, and in a moment the
+Benson curve-beam leaped from the projector.
+
+The Benson curve-light was similar to an ordinary white searchlight
+beam, except that its path, instead of being straight could be bent at
+will into various curves--hyperbola, parabola, and for its extreme
+curve, the segment of an ellipse--gradually straightening as it left
+its source. It was effective for police work, with hand torches for
+seeing around opaque obstructions. It had also another advantage,
+especially when used at long range: the enemy, when gazing back at its
+source, would under normal circumstances conceive it to be a straight
+beam and thus be misled as to the location of its source. Or even
+realizing it to be curved, one had no means of judging the angle of
+the curve.
+
+A narrow white stream of light, it flung through our window-oval,
+forward under the dome and through the bow dome bullseye, into space.
+I saw the men on the deck spring into sudden alertness with the
+realization we were using it. The bow lookout on the forward
+observation bridge crouched at his 'scope-finder to help us search.
+
+From the control turret came an audiphone buzz, and Drac's voice: "Am
+I headed right? The swing is almost completed."
+
+"Finish the job and don't bother me now."
+
+I bent over the field-mirror of the projector. On its glowing ten-inch
+grid the shifting image of my range was visible, a curving, brilliant
+limb of the Moon, with the sunlight on the jagged mountain peaks;
+everywhere else was the black firmament and the blazing dots of stars.
+
+Grantline crouched beside me. "I'll work the amplifiers. Going to
+spread it much, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes. A full spread first. We're in no mood for a detailed narrow
+search."
+
+I gradually widened the light. Three feet here at its source, it
+spread in a great widening arc. With the naked eye we could see its
+white radiance, fan-shaped as an edge of it fell upon the Moon. And
+though optically it was not apparent, the elliptical curve of it was
+rounding the Moon, disclosing the hidden starfield to our
+instruments.
+
+"Nothing yet?" I murmured.
+
+"No."
+
+"I'll try a narrower spread and less curve."
+
+Grantline was searching the magnified images on the series of
+amplifier grids. There was nothing. For an hour we worked; then
+suddenly Grantline cried: "Gregg! Wait! Hold it!"
+
+I tensed, stricken. I held the angle and the spread of light steady.
+
+"Two seconds of arc, east; try that. The damned thing is shifting." He
+gripped me. "It's at the eastern edge of the field; it shifts off. It
+must be in rapid motion."
+
+Then I saw it, a mere moving dot of black; but suddenly it clarified.
+I saw a dot which I could imagine was a shape with discs along its
+edge, moving with high velocity. Grantline was shifting our field to
+hold it.
+
+"Got it, Gregg. By God, that's it! Now we'll see."
+
+Then presently we saw that from its bow a very faint radiant beam was
+streaming. Beside me I heard Grantline gasp, "Gregg, am I crazy or is
+that bow beacon like the light-beam planted in Greater New York?"
+
+There did seem to be a similarity, but thought of it abruptly was
+swept from my mind. Our cubby was alive with signals. Both the bow and
+the stern observers saw the enemy ship now with their 'scopes gazing
+directly along our Benson-light. And Drac was calling, "I've got the
+measurement of its velocity. Doubling every ten seconds. God, what
+acceleration!"
+
+I flung off the Benson-light. The enemy ship had come from behind the
+limb of the Moon; our straight-light telescopes showed it clearly. It
+was heading unmistakably in our direction.
+
+Drac was pleading, "We need velocity! Are you coming to the turret?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Grantline and I rushed out upon the catwalk. Waters was mounting the
+spiral ladder from the deck. "Into your cubby," I shouted. "Call
+Earth. Keep calling until you get them."
+
+Grantline rushed for the deck. I gained the control turret, Drac, with
+his thin face white and set, met me at the door. "We need velocity."
+
+I nodded. "We'll get it, Drac; have no fear of that."
+
+I set the gravity-plates for the greatest possible acceleration
+forward and added the stern rocket engines for narrow-angle
+maneuvering.
+
+With gathering speed we plunged directly for the oncoming enemy ship.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+
+"But there's something wrong, Drac."
+
+"We've got grade five acceleration."
+
+Grantline had joined us in the control turret. "How far would you say,
+at a rough guess, that ship is from us now?"
+
+"Thirty thousand miles; about that." Drac scanned his page of
+calculations. "Impossible to gauge with any exactness; they change
+their pace so often and I can't figure out how large the damn thing
+is."
+
+"Say they've got a forty thousand velocity; added to our ten, that's
+fifty."
+
+"And we're accelerating. In half an hour we'll be within range."
+
+"But there's something wrong," I persisted.
+
+For several minutes now I had been aware that the _Cometara_ was
+acting strangely. A sluggish response to the controls, I thought, but
+when I called engine chief Franklin, he had not noticed it. Yet I was
+certain.
+
+Grantline stared at me. "Something wrong?"
+
+"Yes. Drac, try orienting us. I did it ten minutes ago." I shoved him
+at my equations, giving the angles with the Sun, Earth and Moon which
+we should now have. "There's our flight course as it ought to be.
+Measure how we're heading, actual position. If it's what it ought to
+be, with the plate-combinations I'm using, then I'm crazy."
+
+"Oh, you're just naturally apprehensive," Grantline said.
+
+But we were not where we should be. The _Cometara_ was off her
+predetermined course. And then I realized the factor of error. There
+was a gravitational force here for which I was not allowing. The
+error was not within the _Cometara_; she was responding perfectly. But
+there was a force upon her, and not that of the Sun, Earth, Moon or
+the distant starfield. I had calculated all of these. It was something
+else. Some gravitational pull, so that we were not upon the course of
+flight we should have been on.
+
+"But what could be wrong?" Grantline demanded.
+
+It was Drac who guessed it. "That radiance from the enemy's bow?"
+
+It was that, we felt certain. Even at this thirty thousand mile
+distance, the bow-beacon seemed streaming upon us. We could not see
+that it illumined the _Cometara_, nor could our instruments measure
+any added illumination. Our flight-orbit, if held, would carry us with
+a swing some ten thousand miles above the South Pole of the Moon. It
+would cross diagonally in front of the trajectory that the enemy
+vessel was maintaining. But we were off our predetermined course, with
+a side-drift toward the enemy. That bow-beacon radiance was exerting a
+force upon us, a strange gravitational pull.
+
+Grantline gasped when Drac said it. "If it's that now, what will it be
+when we get closer?"
+
+The minutes were passing. The thirty thousand miles between us and the
+enemy was cut to ten thousand; to five. The ship was soon visible to
+the naked eye. Its visual movement, for all this time measurable only
+as a drift upon the amplified images of our instruments, now was
+obvious. We could see it plunging forward, could see that probably we
+would cross its bow. Within fifty miles? We hoped and guessed that
+would be the result, so that with this first passing we could use our
+weapons. Fifty miles of distance at combined speeds of some fifty
+thousand miles an hour: that would be something like three seconds
+from a collision. The danger of a collision, which both ships would do
+anything to avert, was negligible; in the immensity of space two
+objects so small could not strike each other, even with intention,
+once in a million times.
+
+We could not calculate the passing so closely, but suddenly it seemed
+that perhaps the enemy could. The bow-beacon radiance, so obviously a
+miniature of the weird light-beams streaming from Earth, Mars and
+Venus, now swung away from us and was extinguished. Whatever
+alteration of our course the enemy had made, they seemed to be
+satisfied. The passing would be to their liking. Would it be to ours?
+
+Grantline had left the turret. He was down on the deck, ready with his
+men. The weapons were ready.
+
+We had long since advanced beyond the possibility of mathematical
+calculations keeping pace with our changing position in relation to
+the enemy, but it seemed that the passing would be within fifty miles.
+Grantline's weapons would carry their bolt that far.
+
+It was barely two thousand miles away now. Two minutes of time before
+the passing. I stared at it, a long, low ship of dark metal, red where
+the moonlight struck upon it. I estimated its size to be about that of
+the _Cometara_, but it was much more nearly globular. Upon its top,
+seeming to project from the terraced dome, was an up-pointing funnel,
+like the smokestack of an old-fashioned surface steam vessel; or like
+a great black muzzle of an old-fashioned gun. And in a row along the
+bulging middle of the hull there was a series of little discs.
+
+The vessel was still a tiny blob, but every instant it was enlarging,
+doubling its visual size. Drac said tensely, "Fifteen hundred miles!
+We'll pass in a minute and a half."
+
+I turned the angle of the stern rocket-streams. The firmament slowly
+began swinging; the enemy ship seemed swaying up over us. I was
+turning our top to it, so that Grantline might fire directly upward
+from both sides almost simultaneously. It might be possible, if I
+could roll us over at just the proper seconds.
+
+But the enemy anticipated us. As they observed our roll, again the
+bow-beacon flashed on. It visibly struck us, bathed all our length in
+its spreading opalescent radiance.
+
+It seemed for an instant to do nothing. Our dome did not crack; there
+was no shock. But our side-roll slowed. The heavens stopped their
+swing, and then swung back! We were upon an even keel again, the enemy
+level with our bow. Against the force of my turning rocket-streams
+this radiation had righted us. It clung a few seconds more, and again
+vanished.
+
+Grantline's deck audiphone rang with his startled voice: "Gregg, roll
+us over! Quick! I can only fire from one side."
+
+"I can't."
+
+It was too late now. A few hundred miles of distance! Drac stood
+clutching me, staring through the port. And I stared, breathless,
+awaiting the results of these next few seconds.
+
+The ships passed like crossing, speeding meteors. A few seconds of
+final approach; I saw the enemy vessel as an elongated, flattened
+globe, with a triple-terraced dome and terraced decks beneath it. That
+queer stack on top! The round discs, like ten-foot eyes, gleamed along
+the equator of the bulging hull.
+
+One of Grantline's weapons fired a silent flash. Still out of range.
+The spit of our electrons leaped from our side. The enemy was
+untouched.
+
+The thought stabbed at me: _Anita! Not killed by that one._
+
+Another shot from Grantline.
+
+No result. It seemed that I saw the bolt strike. There was a
+reddening, a flash upon that bulging hull, but nothing more.
+
+I was aware again of the enemy bow-beam swinging upon us. The beam was
+pressing us over again so that in a moment we would be hull-bottom to
+the enemy and Grantline could not fire.
+
+He anticipated it. The ship was broadside to us. In the split second
+of that passing I saw that it was not fifty miles away, hardly ten.
+Grantline flung his remaining bolts. The enemy was a streaked blur
+going by; and all in that second it was past, reddening in the
+distance. Untouched by our bolts? It seemed so. The bow radiance
+darted ahead of it. The globular shape, unharmed, dwindled in the
+distance behind us.
+
+And it had done nothing to us!
+
+The control levers were in my hands. I would shift the gravity-plates,
+and make the quickest turn we could. We would go around the Moon,
+probably, and come back within an hour or two. Perhaps our adversary
+would also turn to encounter us again.
+
+At that second I had not seen the little discs, but I saw them now!
+They came sailing in a line, ten foot, flat, circular discs of a dark
+metal; they gleamed reddish where the sunlight painted them. They had
+been fastened outside the enemy vessel and in our passing they had
+been discharged. They sailed now like whirling plates. There seemed
+perhaps twenty of them, heading in a curve toward us.
+
+Grantline's voice came again from the deck audiphone. "Missed them,
+Gregg. That's what I thought but at least two of our bolts must have
+struck. But it didn't hurt them."
+
+"No," I replied. "It seemed not. They must have a defensive barrage."
+
+Drac was pulling at me. "Those things out there, those discs...."
+
+Grantline demanded, "Yes, what in hell are they?"
+
+We could not tell. It seemed that their curve would take them behind
+our stern. Grantline added: "Will you try going back after that ship?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+But I did not. To the naked eye the enemy ship had already
+disappeared; but with the 'scopes we saw that it seemed to be turning.
+
+I did not attempt to turn us, for we were afraid of those oncoming
+discs which took all our attention. They passed within five miles
+astern of us, but in a great curve they swung and now seemed heading
+across our bow. With what tremendous velocity they had been endowed by
+their firing mechanisms! Their elliptical curve swung them a mile or
+so ahead of us.
+
+They were circling us like tiny satellites in a narrowing spiral
+ellipse. Our attraction, the normal gravity of our close bulk, was
+drawing them to us.
+
+The men on the _Cometara's_ deck stood gazing, surprised but not yet
+alarmed. The lookout calls sounded with routine notification each time
+the discs passed across our bow and stern. In the helio cubby, Waters
+was still trying to raise an Earth station.
+
+Grantline came running to the control turret. "If those cursed things,
+should strike us, Gregg!"
+
+I had set the gravity-plates into new combinations, turning our course
+downward, trying to swing us under the plane of the discs' orbit. But
+they swung downward with us; they were no more than two thousand feet
+away now.
+
+Grantline said, "At the next broadside passing I'll fire at them."
+
+Drac looked up from his calculating instruments. "Look! A circular
+rotation: Horribly swift. But I've caught a picture. Look!"
+
+He had a still image of one of the discs. It had saw-teeth at its thin
+knife-like outer circumference. Whirling at tremendous speed, these
+saw-toothed metal discs might cut into our dome, or some other part of
+our ship.
+
+At the next round, Grantline fired. The discs reddened a little, but
+came on unharmed. From the other side, he fired again. Three of the
+discs seemed to have been caught full. His bolts, sustained for their
+fullest ten seconds of duration at this close, thousand-foot range,
+took effect. The three discs seemed to crumble with a puff of
+queerly-radiant vacuum spark-glows, then were gone.
+
+But the others came closing in.
+
+The _Cometara_ rang now with the excitement and alarm of the men.
+Grantline could not set his gauges fast enough to fire at every round.
+
+I had a sudden thought. With the rear rockets, I rolled us over. For a
+moment we were hull-down to the passing discs. From our hull
+gravity-plates I flung a full repulsion. Would it stave them off, bend
+their orbit outward? It did not. Their course was unaltered.
+
+Again Grantline was shouting at me, "Roll us back! I must fire!"
+
+It had been an error, that rolling; Grantline lost several shots
+because of it. I swung us level. The discs passed within a hundred
+feet; half a dozen of them were still closer. Gleaming, whirling
+circles, thin as knife-blades; they passed close under our stern, came
+broadside.
+
+These were tense, horrible seconds. The discs skimmed our bow; one
+seemed to miss our dome by inches. Grantline's volley annihilated four
+more, but there were still eight of them. They swung in at our stern.
+
+I was aware of confusion throughout the _Cometara_. The crew and
+stewards were running up to the bow quarter-deck. My second officer
+stood there, stricken. The stern lookout screamed his futile warning.
+
+Useless! I saw one of the discs strike our stern dome, then another.
+Still others. They were silent blows, but it seemed that I could feel
+them cutting into the dome-plates.
+
+The dome was cracking! Then, after that horrible instant, came the
+sound: crunch, a rumble; the grind of crushed and breaking metal;
+then the puff and surge of the outward explosion.
+
+I saw the whole tip of the stern dome cracking, bursting outward,
+forced by our interior air pressure. And over all the _Cometara_ the
+outgoing air was sucking and whining with a growing rush of wind.
+
+I shouted, "Drac! Close the stern bulkhead!"
+
+I set the word-buttons for the distress siren, and pulled the lever.
+Its voice screamed over the uproar. "_Keep forward! Take the
+space-suits! Prepare to abandon ship!_"
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+
+In the midst of the chaos I was aware that all the remaining discs
+struck us upon the port stern quarter. The broken dome of the stern
+showed a jagged hole, but the up-sliding cross-bulkhead partially shut
+it off. Two or three of the crew and the stern lookout were gone
+behind that closing bulkhead. Their bodies in a moment would be blown
+into space.
+
+"It may hold, Drac. Order Waters out of his cubby. Forward!"
+
+I was calling the engine-room. "Order your men up by the bow, not the
+stern." But I got no answer from the engine-chief.
+
+I raised Grantline. "Order your men forward: Clear amidships! I want
+to close the central bulkheads. If the stern one breaks with the
+pressure...."
+
+"Right, Gregg. Are we lost?"
+
+"God knows! We'll know in a minute or two. Get all your men into their
+space-suits. Keep in the bow. Prepare the exit-port there."
+
+"Right, Gregg. You coming down?"
+
+"Yes. When I finish." I cut him off. "Drac, get out of here! Did you
+order Waters forward?"
+
+"He won't leave."
+
+"Why the hell not?"
+
+"He thinks he may be able to get communication with Earth."
+
+"He can't stay where he is; there's no protection up here! When that
+stern bulkhead goes...."
+
+It was breaking. I could see it bending sternward under the pressure.
+And at best it was leaking air, so that the decks were a rush of wind.
+Already Drac and I were gasping with the lowered pressure.
+
+"Drac, get out of here. Go get Waters; bring him forward. The hell
+with his transmitter: this is life or death!"
+
+"But you?"
+
+"I'm coming down. From the forward deck, call the hull control rooms.
+Order everybody forward and to the deck."
+
+"What about the pressure pumps?"
+
+"I can keep them going from here."
+
+I set the circulating system to guide the fresh air forward, but it
+was futile against the sucking rush of wind toward the stern. As the
+pumps speeded up I saw, with the little added pressure, the great
+cross panel of the stern bulkhead straining harder. It would go in a
+moment.
+
+Drac was clinging to me. "Tell me what to do!"
+
+"I've told you what to do!" I shoved him to the catwalk. "Get out of
+here. Get Waters forward. Get the men out of the hull."
+
+His anguished eyes stared at me; then he turned and ran forward on the
+catwalk. I saw him forcibly dragging the bald-headed Waters from the
+helio cubby. It was the last time I ever saw either of them.
+
+A buzzer was ringing in the turret, and I plunged back for it. The
+exertion put a band of pain across my chest, a panting constriction
+from the lowering pressure.
+
+Fanning, assistant engineer, was still at the pressure pumps. His
+voice came up: "Pumps and renewers working. Will you use the gravity
+shifters?"
+
+"Hell, no! Get out of there, Fanning. We're smashed. Air going. It's a
+matter of minutes--abandoning ship. Get forward!"
+
+Suddenly the stern bulkhead cracked with a great diagonal rift. I
+waited a moment to give them all time to get forward; then I slid all
+the cross 'midship bulkheads.
+
+It was barely in time. The stern bulkhead went out with a gale of
+wind, but the barrier amidships stemmed it. Half of the vessel
+sternward was devoid of air, but here in the bow we could last a
+little longer. Beneath me I could see Grantline's men--some of them,
+not all--and a few of the stewards, crew and officers, crowding the
+deck, donning space-suits. The two side chambers were ready; half a
+dozen men crowded into each of them. The deck doors slid closed. The
+outer ports opened; helmeted, goggled, bloated figures were blown by
+the outgoing air from the chamber into space. Then the outer slides
+went closed. The pumps filled up the chambers; the deck doors opened
+again. Another batch of men....
+
+I saw Grantline, suited but with his helmet off, dashing from one side
+of the deck to the other, commanding the abandonment.
+
+The central bulkheads seemed momentarily holding. Then little red
+lights in the panel board before me showed where in the hull corridors
+the doors were leaking, cracking, giving away, breaking under the
+strain. The whole ribbed framework of the vessel was strained and
+slued. The bulkhead sides no longer set true in the casements. Air was
+whining everywhere and pulling sternward.
+
+It was the last stand; I was aware that the alarm siren had ceased.
+There was a sudden stillness, with only the shouts of the remaining
+men at the exit-ports mingling with the whine of the wind and the
+roaring in my head. I felt detached, far-away; my senses were reeling.
+
+I staggered to the gauges of the Erentz system, the system whereby an
+oscillating current, circling within the double-shelled walls of hull
+and dome, absorbed into negative energy much of the interior pressure.
+The main walls of the vessel were straining outward. The _Cometara_
+could collapse at any moment. I started for the catwalk door. The
+electro-telescope stood near it and I yielded to a vague desire to
+gaze into the eyepiece. The instrument was still operative. I swept it
+sternward.
+
+The enemy ship had not vanished. By what strange means, I cannot say,
+its velocity had been checked. A few thousand miles from us, it was
+making a narrow, close-angle turn. Coming back? I thought so.
+
+I suddenly realized my intention of having all the gravity-plates in
+neutral before abandoning the ship. I seized the controls now. An
+agony of fear was upon me that the shifting valves would fail. But
+they did not. The plates slid haltingly, reluctantly.
+
+I recall staggering to the catwalk. It seemed that the central
+bulkhead was breaking. There were fallen figures on the deck beneath
+me. I stumbled against the body of a man who had tangled himself in
+the stays of the ladder rail and was hanging there.
+
+I think I fell the last ten feet to the deck. The roaring in my ears,
+the bands tightening about my chest encompassed all the world.
+
+Then I was on my feet again, and I stumbled over another body. It was
+garbed in a space-suit, with the helmet beside it. I stripped it of
+the suit. I was panting, with all the world whirling in a daze,
+bursting spots of light before my eyes.
+
+Ten feet away down the deck was the opened door of the pressure
+chamber. A bloated figure came into my dreamlike vista, moving for the
+pressure door. It turned, saw me, came leaping and bent over me. I saw
+behind the vizor that it was Grantline. His bloated, gloved hands
+helped me don my suit.
+
+He helped me with my helmet. The metal tip on Grantline's gloved hand
+touched the contact-plate on my shoulder. His voice sounded from the
+tiny audiphone grid within my helmet. "Gregg! Thank God I found you!
+All right?"
+
+"Yes." My head was clearing.
+
+"I've got the chamber ready. We're the last, Gregg."
+
+I gripped his shoulder. "You're sure there's nobody else?"
+
+"No. I've been everywhere I could reach. The central bulkheads are
+almost gone."
+
+He pushed me into the pressure chamber. There was hardly need to close
+the door after us. I stood gripping him as he opened the small outer
+slides. The abyss was at our feet; the outgoing wind tore at us like a
+gale, so that we stood gripping the casements.
+
+"Thank God you've got a power-suit, Gregg. So have I. We must keep
+together."
+
+"Yes."
+
+I could feel the floor grid of the chamber shuddering beneath my feet.
+The _Cometara_ was cracking, bursting outward throughout her length;
+at any instant she might collapse.
+
+For a moment we stood poised. Beneath us, here at the brink were
+millions upon millions of miles of emptiness, the remote, unfathomable
+void. Blazing worlds down there in the black darkness.
+
+"Good-by, Gregg. It may be the end for us."
+
+"Good luck, Johnny."
+
+His bloated figure dropped away from me. I waited just an instant, and
+then I dove into space.
+
+For a moment there was a chaos of strangeness, the wrench to my sense
+of the transition. I had been the inhabitant of a little world, the
+_Cometara_, with a gravity beneath my feet. Now, in a breath, I had no
+world to inhabit. I was alone in space. No gravity; nothing solid to
+touch; emptiness.
+
+I was in a world to myself, and the abnormality of it brought a mental
+shock. But in a moment the adjustment came. I passed the transition,
+the sense of falling.
+
+The firmament steadied and my senses cleared. My dive from the
+_Cometara_ carried me in a slow arc some three hundred feet away.
+There had been a sense of falling, but no actual fall. My velocity was
+retarded, with the mass of the _Cometara_ pulling at me. I went like a
+toy boat in water shoved by a child, quickly slowing. In a few
+moments, the velocity was gone, and I hung poised. I saw Grantline's
+bloated form not over fifty feet from me. He waved an arm at me.
+
+Out here in the void I lay weightless, as though upon an infinitely
+soft feather bed. I could kick, flounder, but not endow myself with
+motion. I craned my neck, gazed around through the bulging vizor pane.
+
+The Earth and the Sun hung level with the white star-dots strewn
+everywhere. I could not see that unknown light-beam from Greater New
+York; it was shafting out now in the other direction, so that the
+Earth hid it from me. Venus was visible to one side of the Sun. The
+enemy light-stream from Grebhar was apparent; and as I turned my body
+and bent double to look behind me, I saw Mars and the sword-like ray
+from Ferrok-Shahn. The beams streamed off like the radiance of the
+Milky Way, faintly luminous but seemingly visible for an infinite
+distance.
+
+The _Cometara_ was obviously falling now toward the Moon, drawn
+irresistibly, and all of us with her, toward the lunar surface. It
+seemed so close, that black and white mountainous disc. We were, I
+suppose, some twenty thousand miles from it, gathering speed as it
+pulled at us. But that motion was not apparent now. Distance dwindled
+all these celestial motions, so that all the firmament seemed frozen
+into immobility.
+
+But there was some motion. Twenty or more bloated figures, the
+survivors from the wreck of the _Cometara_, were encircling it in
+varying orbits, revolving around it like tiny satellites. Some were
+closing in, drawn against it. I saw one plunge against the wrecked
+dome, and begin crawling like a fly. And I found that the forces of
+the firmament were molding my orbit also. My outward plunge was
+checked. I poised for an indeterminate instant, and then I took my
+orbit. I too, was a satellite of the _Cometara_.
+
+I gazed at the wreck of the _Cometara_. My ship! My first command! So
+smoothly, confidently rising from the Earth only a few hours ago; and
+she had come to this. She lay askew in the heavens. The dome was
+cracked throughout all its length and smashed like a shell at the
+sterntip.
+
+I could see the interior litter beneath the dome, the twisted and
+strained lines of the hull. A dead ship now, the mechanisms stilled;
+dead and silent inside, with all the warmth gone out of it. All the
+air dissipated, so that in every cubby, every dark corridor of that
+broken hull there was the coldness and silence of interplanetary
+space.
+
+I suppose these thoughts swept me within a few seconds. I saw myself
+starting to revolve in my orbit. Perhaps my motion would carry me
+around indefinitely; or I might be drawn down to the vessel as those
+other survivors had been drawn.
+
+Grantline, with one of the few power suits, was coming toward me now,
+with tiny fluorescent streams back along his body from his shoulder
+blades. I switched on my own mechanism. It moved me toward him, and
+our gravity attracted us. We shut off the power when twenty feet
+apart; drifted together; contacted; bounced apart like rubber balls as
+our inflated suits struck. Then in a moment we had drifted back and
+clung.
+
+I touched the metal plate of his shoulder. "Working all right?"
+
+"Yes. Thank God for this much, Gregg. I wonder how many are alive."
+
+In the chaos of the abandonment, many of the men's air mechanisms had
+failed to operate. It is always so in times of disaster. We could see,
+revolving around the wreck, and motionless against its dome, those
+horrible flabby, deflated suits where the delicate Erentz mechanism
+had failed. Within was only a corpse.
+
+"Too many," I said. "And not more than four or five of us with power.
+What shall we do first? Round them up? We must all get together."
+
+His answering voice was grim. "We can tow them from the wreck. Six or
+seven of us altogether have power. Do you suppose we can get away,
+Gregg? Get loose from the ship before she falls?"
+
+Only trying it could tell us that. The _Cometara_, and all of us with
+her, were plunging for the Moon. We would seek out the men who were
+alive and tow them in a string. If we could break the gravity pull of
+the ship, and then struggle upward from the Moon, we could maintain
+ourselves here in space until some rescue ship from Earth, Venus or
+Mars would come and pick us up.
+
+"You take one side, Gregg; I'll take the other. Don't go aboard; she
+might collapse."
+
+"I'll pick up the men without power and alive. The others with power
+suits will do the same. Then we'll meet out here, about where we are
+now?"
+
+"Yes. And hurry, Gregg! Every mile toward the Moon makes it that much
+harder. We're falling fast."
+
+"Good luck!" I shoved away from him. And within a minute, as he went
+in an arc toward the _Cometara_ bow and I toward her stern, I suddenly
+thought of that returning enemy vessel. My last look through the
+'scope had shown that she was returning; and then I had forgotten it.
+
+My gaze swept the firmament now. I had no 'scope instruments within
+the helmet. With the naked eye the enemy ship was not in sight. But I
+knew that meant little; within a moment she could come in view and be
+here if she were going at any great velocity.
+
+There were on the _Cometara_, at the time of the disaster, some
+sixty-odd men; perhaps forty had gotten away. And I could see very
+soon that not more than fifteen, or less, out here were alive. Two
+with power were ahead of me now, slowly floating past the wrecked dome
+of the stern. One had picked up two others, found them alive and was
+towing them out. They went past me, moving very slowly so that I could
+see that two were all that one of us could tow and attain any velocity
+at all.
+
+I contacted with the leader. He was one of Grantline's men.
+
+"Two or three hundred feet out," I directed. I gestured. "Grantline
+said to meet out there. I'll tow others."
+
+"Yes. Around the stern you'll find--God! Haljan, look!"
+
+A mile from us the enemy ship was in view. Passing--no! Stopping! With
+incredible retardation she had plunged into view, was here, and yet
+had no great forward velocity. She seemed no more rapid than a great
+air liner winging past, so close that her reddish-tinged bulging hull
+length showed clearly. The discs were gone. The funnel set on top of
+her was sloped diagonally toward us as she rolled on her side, so that
+momentarily I could see down into it. There was some mechanism down
+there. The bow radiance was a narrow opalescent beam in advance of the
+bow.
+
+"Slowing, Haljan!"
+
+"Yes, stopping. Don't try to meet Grantline. Tow your men away!"
+
+"Or should we board the _Cometara_ and hide?"
+
+"No. They've come back to bombard her."
+
+I kicked at him violently. With his two drifting figures clinging
+behind, he swung past me. I headed behind the stern. Upon its dangling
+framework several of our men were glued, lying there inert. I caught a
+glimpse of the interior of the stern, the littered deck; men lying
+there had been stricken before they had time to get into their suits.
+
+On the outside, forward, I saw Grantline come rounding the bow, towing
+a figure and heading for another. On the outside of the bow-peak a
+group of others were perched, gesticulating for help. I started that
+way; then I saw another, and nearer figure in a power suit heading for
+them. I swung back. There were two figures on the outside of the
+under-hull whom I could more quickly reach. Inverted flies. Their feet
+were on the keel. They stooped and waved toward me.
+
+I took a swoop. Passing close down the hull, my rocket-streams struck
+the hull plates and gave me sudden downward velocity. I shot down, out
+past the keel. And again I saw the enemy ship. She hung poised, no
+more than two miles away. And as I looped over, with all the black,
+star-strewn firmament in a dizzy whirl, the great Moon-disc, first
+above, and then below me, I saw the bow-beam of the enemy swinging. It
+came to the _Cometara_, and there it clung.
+
+I had gone perhaps fifty feet below the keel with my dive when I
+righted. I was mounting. I saw the opalescent ten-foot circle of the
+beam moving along the _Cometara_ hull. It seemed to do no damage; then
+suddenly it darted down and clung to me.
+
+I felt nothing save the impact of a gentle push, something shoving
+with a ponderable force against me.
+
+I saw the _Cometara_ receding, the heavens swinging as I turned over.
+The red disc of the distant Earth swooped. The Moon surface
+momentarily seemed rotating and lifting above me.
+
+I was helpless, rolling, then whirling end-over-end. Then again I
+steadied. The beam was gone from me.
+
+I saw the _Cometara_, a full mile away from me! The enemy ship was
+again in motion, moving toward me, and between the _Cometara_ and the
+Earth. And the beam was steady upon the _Cometara's_ mid-section.
+
+The _Cometara_ had a new velocity now. I could not miss it. She was
+dwindling rapidly in visual size; relative to me, she was receding,
+falling upon the Moon. More than that she was being pushed downward by
+the repulsive force of the strange enemy beam upon her. I stared, as
+with all the little dots which were our men around and upon her, she
+went down into the void.
+
+I found myself presently alone up here, with the enemy ship hovering
+nearby. Its maneuvering to thrust the wrecked _Cometara_ toward the
+Moon had brought it within a mile of me. The bow-beam was still on the
+_Cometara_; and then abruptly it vanished.
+
+The _Cometara_ had almost dwindled beyond the sight of my unaided
+vision. By chance, undoubtedly, the beam had fallen upon me and thrust
+me from the wreck. I was alone up here now with the enemy, but they
+may not have noticed me, or cared. I found my power mechanism intact.
+I turned it on; slowly, like a log in water, I began moving away.
+
+A minute. Five minutes. The _Cometara_ was lost. Grantline, all the
+men, were lost; with that added downward thrust they could never free
+themselves from the falling wreck.
+
+I was jerked out of my thoughts by the sight of an oncoming red blob.
+Something was coming from the enemy ship, red with the sunlight and
+earthlight, silvered by the Moon and the stars. It took form. It was a
+disc, another of those cursed whirling discs, sent to annihilate me!
+
+Then, when it was a quarter of a mile away, I saw that it was a disc
+which was turning slowly. Rocket radiances came from its rotating
+circumference; it came sailing directly at me, so swiftly that my own
+velocity was futile.
+
+Another minute and I was caught. I saw that the disc was some fifteen
+feet in diameter, and that it bulged, so that within its convex floor
+and ceiling was a space of several feet.
+
+I cut off my power and with pounding heart lay waiting. The space-suit
+had no weapons for equipment save a knife hung in the belt. I drew it
+out, held it in my gloved fingers.
+
+The disc sailed upon its level, vertical axis. Its rotation slowed; I
+saw little windows set around its convex middle. It came up and bumped
+me with its metal side. I kicked away, shoved off. Shapes were moving
+in a dim interior light behind the port-panes. Little hand-beams of
+radiance darted out. They seemed to seize me, draw me.
+
+I found myself glued helplessly to the convex outer surface of the
+disc. The rotation gathered speed again, but I looked presently only
+at the gleaming surface to which I was pinned. Had I been a metal bar
+upon the horns of an electro-magnet, I could not have been more
+helpless.
+
+An interval passed. With the contact plate of my fingers against this
+hull it seemed that I could hear voices within, strange,
+indistinguishable words. I twisted, but could not see into the port.
+
+Again the rotation was slowing. The near shape of the enemy vessel
+swung close and past; and again and again I saw that we were over it,
+dropping down into the wide black opening of the funnel-top. It yawned
+presently like a great black tunnel, into which we fell.
+
+The jar of landing knocked me loose, and no doubt the attraction
+radiance also released me. I fell another space, bounced up and sank
+back. I thought that something like a sliding port-door closed over
+me.
+
+And then, in the dimness, figures were gripping me. I lashed and
+struck, but the knife was wrenched away.
+
+I was a prisoner in a pressure-port of the enemy ship!
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+
+It seemed that the small room had a very faint radiance showing
+through my vizor pane. Narrow enclosing walls were visible. It was a
+triangular-shaped space, fifteen feet or so down one side, with a
+concave ceiling overhead. I was lying on the floor. The darkness at
+first had been impenetrable. The figures which had flung me down and
+seized my knife were gone; I had not seen them nor where they went.
+
+For a moment I lay cushioned by my bloated suit. When I struggled to
+my feet, I was almost weightless. The movement of getting upright
+flung me upward as though I were a tossed feather. My helmet struck
+the metal ceiling, so sharp a blow that I feared for an instant I had
+smashed the helmet.
+
+From the ceiling, with flailing arms and legs, I sank back to the
+grid-floor; and in a moment I was able to stand upright with so slight
+a feeling of weight that I could have been a bit of thistle ready to
+blow away in the least wind.
+
+There was, as I stood there balancing myself, a queer feeling of
+triumph within me. A triumphant hope; for coming down in the ship's
+capacious funnel--larger than it had seemed from a distance--I had
+seen what appeared to be a small projectile, resting in some strange
+landing gear. The disc bearing me had settled on a stage alongside it.
+Was that the projectile from Earth?
+
+A growing air pressure was around me; the tiny Erentz dials within my
+helmet had been immovable, but now they were showing outside pressure. I
+stood waiting. Whatever sounds were here I could not tell. Then
+presently the dials stopped. They registered seventeen pounds--whatever
+that might mean here. I loosed the helmet and took it off.
+
+With the first gasping breath my senses reeled. I sank to the floor,
+and though I tried to replace the helmet, it was too late. My thoughts
+were fading. A strange chemical odor was in my nostrils. It was like
+breathing a thin, perfumed water.
+
+The drifting away was pleasant.
+
+Tortured dreams came with my awakening. I found myself in the same dim
+room upon the floor. I could breathe better now, and in a few more
+hours the strangeness had almost gone. I found now that I was not
+injured, but I was ravenously hungry.
+
+Again, gingerly as before, I stood up and slid my space-suit from me;
+and now I was aware of movement and sound. The floor-grid vibrations
+were apparent. And there was a dim, distant, tiny throbbing; it was
+much like the interior of the _Cometara_ while in flight.
+
+And there were other sounds, indescribably faint, yet strangely clear.
+I thought they might be distant voices.
+
+I took a cautious step. I could see a dim blank wall nearby with what
+seemed a bowl-like article of furniture on the floor against the wall.
+For all my caution, I sailed upward; but this time I held my balance.
+And I found that with my negligible weight, I could almost swim in
+this strange air! I hit the wall and slid slowly down it to the floor
+again, like a man sinking to the bottom of a tank.
+
+It suddenly occurred to me to put my ear against the wall. At once the
+sounds all became incredibly louder. It was a confusion of sound: the
+mechanisms of the vessel, some of which I thought I could identify,
+and some not; the strange swish and thump of what might have been
+people moving; and there were voices.
+
+The voices seemed mingled babble coming from everywhere. The timber of
+the sound was very strange. It held no suggestion of how far away from
+me the voices might be. There were so many of them I could only think
+they were scattered about the ship; and yet they all seemed together.
+After a moment, the blend was less confusing. Again, very strangely my
+hearing seemed able to separate one from the other.
+
+I was to learn that the atmosphere handled sound vibrations
+differently from that of Earth. Voices had a muffled tone, as though
+they were smothered. There was undoubtedly a vibrational distortion;
+and a sound-wave speed slower than Earth's normal-pressure rate of
+1,050 feet a second, perhaps as slow as 700. Yet sounds remained
+audible over longer distances than on Earth.
+
+In this instance now, as I listened with my ear to the wall of the
+ship, I was hearing all its sounds picked up and carried by the metal.
+
+Now I heard a strange tongue: two types of voices, slow, measured,
+carefully-intoned phrases, and voices of a curiously sepulchral,
+hollow sound. My mind went back to the Red Spark restaurant room.
+
+And suddenly I realized that amid the babble I was hearing English. A
+man's voice, talking English. I caught, very clearly the phrase:
+
+"Master, yes. She means well. Can you not see it?"
+
+Molo's voice! Then the girls must be here also.
+
+Another voice: "I am not sure. Perhaps. The Great Intelligence will
+talk with her when we are arrived." It was the slow measured voice of
+one of the brains.
+
+"When will that be? Pretty soon now, won't it, Molo?"
+
+Venza! A great wave of thankfulness swept me. And then I heard Anita.
+"Your two captives, where are they? You're not going to kill them, are
+you?"
+
+"No," said Molo. "Perhaps not. No one has inspected the new one yet.
+The other is being cared for. The Great Intelligence will question him
+when we arrive."
+
+"We are arriving," said Venza. "That's your world, Wandl, down there,
+isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. We are dropping fast."
+
+The voice of the brain: "Come, Wyk. The instruments are showing events
+on our captured worlds. Take me to watch. I am tired of movement."
+
+"Yes. Master."
+
+It seemed that the brain was being carried away; Molo and the two
+girls were being left alone. I had thought at first that they were in
+the adjacent room to me, but they could have been far distant. They
+had mentioned two captives. One, obviously, was myself. Was the other
+Snap?
+
+"Come," Molo was saying, "stand here with me and we will watch this
+world. Not mine, Venza _chia_, as you just called it, But my adopted
+world. And it will be yours, until we rule the new Mars."
+
+I heard them moving to gaze through the window-port. Then came Anita's
+voice: "If it's anything like this ship, it will be very strange."
+
+"Strange indeed, little dove. I was there only once, a month ago, and
+for a few hours only. The Great Intelligence, as they call him, talked
+with me, absorbing my knowledge: they call it that. And he was much
+impressed by me, and made very wonderful promises in exchange for my
+fidelity. And for my sister, too."
+
+I learned further how Molo and Meka became identified with the
+Wandlites; it was as we had suspected.
+
+"You will rule Mars?" Venza was saying. "When this is over, you mean
+you will really be given Mars to rule?"
+
+"I would rather live on the Earth," said Anita. "There was a young man
+there."
+
+"He will not be there much longer." Molo laughed. "You are very lucky
+that I fancy you!"
+
+"Lucky indeed," Venza echoed. "No death for me. I'm too young."
+
+"But all those millions dead. It seems so terrible."
+
+"It is, for them!" Molo was in high good humor, pleased with himself
+and with these girls. "See down there; that blurring is the heavy air.
+We're almost down into it now."
+
+I heard the sound of someone joining them, and then the hollow voice
+again: "Molo! Bad tidings come from Mars. One of the Masters was
+captured there in Ferrok-Shahn. They tortured him as they did the one
+on Earth. But he did not die unyielding. He spoke and told our plans!"
+
+"Hah! Did I not advise you to keep those helpless things on Wandl?"
+
+"But it is done now. The worlds know our purpose. They are preparing
+spaceships. Already some are rising from Ferrok-Shahn, from Grebhar
+and from Greater New York."
+
+"We knew they were doing that."
+
+"But now they know our purpose. The Master Intelligence fears that
+they will come raiding Wandl. Our vessels are being made ready to go
+out and repel them."
+
+The hollow voice ceased.
+
+"Your purpose discovered?" asked Anita. "What does that mean? Won't
+you tell us now? Twin queens for your future Mars, and you treat us
+like children!"
+
+"That light-beam he so cleverly planted in Greater New York," Venza
+hinted.
+
+"Yes, I will tell you. Without me in New York and my men who went with
+these Wandlites to Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar, the vital gravity beams
+could never successfully have been planted. The apparatus was
+complicated; you saw it. You saw the labor I had making the contact?"
+
+"But what are the light-beams for?"
+
+I listened, breathless, as he told them. The electronic beams could
+not be destroyed; a disintegration of the rock atoms had been set up.
+With each rotation of the Earth it was sweeping the sky. From a great
+control station, Wandl was flinging attraction gravity upon that beam,
+using it as a monstrous lever upon the rotation of Earth. With every
+daily passage now the force was being exerted. The rotation was
+slowing. In a few days it would stop, with the end of the beam drawn
+to Wandl and held there.
+
+And the beams from Grebhar and Ferrok-Shahn were the same. Three giant
+chains! Then Wandl, traveling of its own gravitational volition, would
+withdraw from our solar system. The gravitational chains would pull
+the Earth, Venus and Mars after it!
+
+Titanic tow-ropes! The destruction, not of our worlds, but of all life
+upon them, for the cold of interstellar space would leave no living
+organism. Three dead worlds; Wandl would draw them to her own Sun and
+then free them, send them, with new orbits, around the distant blazing
+star. Three new worlds brought home triumphantly by Wandl to join the
+little family of inhabited planets revolving around this other Sun.
+Three fair and lovely worlds, warmed back by the other sunlight to be
+green mansions untenanted, ready to receive the new beings who would
+come and possess them.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+
+"You, Snap!"
+
+"Gregg! But how...?"
+
+"Hush! They might hear us."
+
+"They can do more than that. They can almost hear you think."
+
+"Anita and Venza are here."
+
+"I know it. I was with them for a time. This accursed gravity! I can't
+walk."
+
+"Careful," I whispered. "You can crack your head on something with the
+least false step. Are they taking us ashore?"
+
+"I guess so. How did you happen...?"
+
+"Tell you later."
+
+They had come for me in that dark pressure-port, taken me along a dim
+corridor of the ship, which evidently had landed a few moments before.
+Then Snap, with strange figures around him, had been flung at me.
+
+These weird beings! The brains were here, but not many; I saw half a
+dozen on the ship. They could move easily now. They bounced upon their
+small arms and legs, hitching with little leaps of a few feet. Close
+at hand they were gruesome; from a distance they had the aspect of
+thirty-inch ovoids, bouncing of their own volition. And I saw too that
+underneath, toward the back, was a shriveled body.
+
+The other figures were wholly different; they seemed at first to be
+ten-foot, upright insects. The two legs were like stilts, the body
+narrow but with bulging chest. The neck was thin, holding the small
+round head, about the size of my own.
+
+Words seem futile to picture this thing which was a man of Wandl.
+There was no skin, but instead what seemed to be a glossy, hard brown
+shell. It was laid in scales; and upon the legs was a brown fuzz of
+stiff hair. There were many joints, both of the legs and the torso.
+Clothing was worn; a single garment, hanging from a wide belt halfway
+down the legs seemed incongruous, fantastically aping humanity.
+
+This was the worker, equipped by nature for mechanical tasks. There
+were not two arms, but at least ten. From what could have been called
+the shoulders, they were tentacles, half the length of an elephant's
+trunk, with many-fingered hands at the ends. From the waist depended
+huge lobster-like pincers; and from the chest and back the arms were
+smaller, each with a different type finger-claw.
+
+The head and face were most of all a personal mocking of mankind.
+Wide, upstanding, listening ears were upon the sides of the head, one
+on the forehead and one on the back. The face was mobile, with tiny
+brown scales small as a fish. A nose orifice, with two protruding
+brown eyes above it was set outward on stems, and an upended slit of a
+mouth. There was an eye in the back of the head.
+
+Probably, over eons of upward development from what was perhaps an
+original single type, these two specialized forms had developed. The
+"Masters," as they were known upon Wandl, neglected the body for the
+brain, and the "Workers," the reverse. There was no separate
+individual for the female. As is the case with primitive organisms,
+they were all bi-sexual, the parent dying in the reproduction of
+offspring.
+
+Of necessity I have been forced into digression. But at the time, Snap
+and I clung together, whispering, as a group of workers pushed us down
+a descending incline. Snap, back there in Greater New York when Molo's
+contact light had burst into existence, had fallen, half unconscious.
+They picked him up. Molo was going to kill him, but the girls
+persuaded him to take Snap with them.
+
+"Anita and Venza pretended never to have seen me before," Snap
+whispered to me now. "You take the same line."
+
+"If we get with them."
+
+"We will."
+
+It was weird, this landing upon Wandl. We had left the vessel's
+side-port and were descending what seemed a narrow, hundred-foot
+landing incline. We were outdoors, and it was night. Shafts of colored
+radiance flashed around us. The ship was poised on a disc-like
+platform, with skeleton legs. It seemed a hundred feet or more down to
+the ground level from where the colored lights were darting up.
+Overhead was a cloudless, purple-red sky of blurred, reddish stars. No
+doubt the curious atmosphere of Wandl gave the sky and stars this
+abnormal look.
+
+Later, what a multiplicity of obscure wonders we were to glimpse upon
+Wandl! The slowing rotation of the Earth caused climatic changes
+there, volcanic and tidal disturbances, but Wandl rotated and stopped
+at will. Undoubtedly she was equipped to withstand the shock. Her
+internal fires could not break into eruption; she had very little
+fluid surface. And the nature of her atmosphere was such that it was
+not easily disturbed into storms. Only if there was laxity in the
+handling of the planet's motion would a storm come.
+
+But now, questions pounded at me. Earth, Venus and Mars were to be
+towed into interstellar space; all life on our worlds would perish in
+the cold of that stellar journey. Yet Wandl had made that journey. Was
+her atmosphere inherently such that it did not transmit rays of heat?
+
+Snap and I had been pushed down the incline with half a dozen figures
+in advance of us. Without difficulty we could have leapt down that
+hundred feet, unaided. Figures were leaping into mid-air from several
+pressure-ports of the ship. They did not fall, but floated, drifted
+down. I saw one of the insect-like workers drop with motionless
+outstretched arms. Others came mounting up, using their arms and legs
+with sweeping strokes, as though swimming. It was like being under
+water.
+
+It was a strange, weird scene, the vessel wavering above us; the
+flashing lights; waving beams of radiance. A fantastic structure
+nearby reared itself several hundred feet with lights on top and
+outlining its many lateral balconies one above the other. The air was
+full of the leaping, swimming insect-like figures. The brains, the
+masters, were not in evidence; then I saw one of them being carried,
+and others, floating down like distended falling balloons, to be
+caught by the workers in small nets and thus saved from jarring
+contact.
+
+Snap was suddenly whispering: "That fellow back of us is our guard. I
+can feel his ray. Some form of attraction; it's pulling at me."
+
+Snap was a little behind me. I turned and saw the faint radiance of a
+narrow light-beam upon him. It came from an instrument in an upper
+shoulder hand of the insect figure following us, no doubt the reverse
+form of the same ray which had been used to thrust the wrecked
+_Cometara_ toward the Moon.
+
+We reached the bottom. I saw now that the group of workers in advance
+of us were carrying metal cubes, seemingly of considerable weight;
+they also had to use the incline.
+
+We stood presently on a smooth ground surface. We had not seen Anita
+and Venza, nor Molo and his sister. The insect figure who was our
+guard came forward. "You stand here. Molo comes."
+
+"Where is he?" I demanded. "I want to see him." I stopped myself
+quickly; I had very nearly mentioned the girls. "And talk with him."
+
+"He comes soon."
+
+"I'm hungry." I gestured to my stomach. "Food. You know what that is?"
+
+The brown scaly face contorted for a smile, a ghastly grimace. "Yes.
+You shall have food and drink."
+
+It seemed that the hollow voice came not from the neck but from the
+shell-like, bulging chest. He stood aside, with the globular weapon of
+the ray in a pincer hand.
+
+We waited, standing gingerly together, wavering with our slight
+weight. A wind would have blown us away, but there was no wind.
+Instead, there was a heavy, sultry air, warm as a mid-summer Earth
+night, warmer even than the Neo-time of Venus.
+
+Snap and I were dressed much the same, wearing heavy boots, for which
+weight we were thankful, tight, puttee-like trousers, flaring at the
+top, and high-necked white blouses. Both of us were bare-headed.
+Doubtless we were as fantastic a sight to these Wandlites as they to
+us. Some of the workers crowded up, reaching out to pluck at us, but
+Snap waved them away and our guard dispersed them.
+
+One of the master brains came bouncing up. Upon his little upright
+body the great head wavered.
+
+"You will wait here." His eyes glowed up at us.
+
+"But listen," Snap began.
+
+"You will wait here for the Martian. He has his orders to take you to
+the Great Intelligence." The little arm from the side of the head had
+a hand with a finger pointing for a gesture. "There is a meeting place
+there. We decided now what to do to destroy the warships of your
+worlds. I do not like your thoughts; they are black. I will inform the
+Great Intelligence when he can spare the thought for you."
+
+He added something in the Wandl tongue. A worker came forward; lifted
+him carefully, held him in the hollow of an encircling tentacle. And
+with a bound, the worker sailed upward and was gone.
+
+Again we stood through an interval. I noticed now that the towering
+structure near us, with its storied balconies, was not perpendicular.
+Its front curved up and back. It was convex, somewhat in the fashion
+of an irregular globe, a three-hundred foot ball, with a flattened
+base set here on the ground. The balconies were segments of its front
+curve. At the top, the roof was as though the ball had been sliced
+off, like a giant apple with a slice gone for a base and another for
+the roof. At the bottom was a huge portal with a glow of light from
+within. And at the terraced balcony levels were lighted windows.
+
+"Is that the meeting place?" Snap whispered.
+
+"Probably. And look to the side of it, Snap."
+
+It was a city. There was a vista of distance to one side of the great
+globe structure. Now that our eyes were more accustomed to the
+queerness of this night upon Wandl, we could ignore the colored
+light-beams of the landing stage and the disembarking palisade upon
+which we were standing. Gazing into the distance, the curvature of the
+surface of this little world was immediately apparent. The reddish
+firmament of stars came down to meet the sharply-curving surface at a
+horizon line which seemed about a mile away.
+
+Spread upon this near distance were a variety of structures with
+little roads of open space winding between them. Most of the buildings
+seemed globular in shape. Some were small, little round mound-shaped
+individual dwellings. Others were larger. Some were tiered like half a
+dozen apples speared in a row upon a stick and set upright.
+
+I saw a ribbon of what might be a river in the distance, with the
+reddish starlight glinting upon it. To our left, half a mile away
+perhaps, was a row of buttes and rocks which stood like a miniature
+range of mountains. The city seemed entirely to encompass them; and
+every little rock-peak had upon its top a globelike dwelling.
+
+Lights were winking everywhere and figures bounded a hundred feet and
+more, and sailed in an arc, coming down to the ground to bound again.
+A row of workers went by overhead, not swimming or leaping but stiffly
+motionless. Tiny opalescent rays went from them to the ground, as
+though to give them power.
+
+Five minutes of Earth-time might have passed while Snap and I gazed at
+this busy night scene in this Wandl city upon the occasion of the
+landing of their ship so triumphantly returned from its mission to
+Earth. As I stood, certainly a helpless captive if ever there was one,
+nevertheless a strange sense of my own power was within me.
+
+This was so small a world; the people were so flimsy. With a poke of
+my fist I could kill any one of these master brains. The ten-foot
+workers seemed mere shells, light and fragile; even the buildings were
+light and flimsy. The little globe-houses on their sticks seemed to
+waver, almost like nodding flowers. If we ran amuck we could smash
+everything we saw here on Wandl.
+
+We became aware of Molo approaching. What a solid giant this
+seven-foot Martian seemed now in the midst of this buoyant, almost
+weightless city! He was still bare-headed and wearing his garments of
+ornamented leather, with his brawny legs bare. Upon his feet were
+strange-looking, wide-soled shoes. His hands and forearms were thrust
+into loops of small shields. These shields appeared to be constructed
+of a heart-shaped flexible framework, covered with an opaque membrane.
+They were about two feet long and half as wide. With a hand and
+forearm thrust into fabric loops, the shield appeared to serve as
+wings so that the arms had more thrust against the air. He came at us
+with a sort of swimming stroke. He landed somewhat awkwardly,
+half-stumbled and almost fell, but gathered himself up and confronted
+us.
+
+He gained his balance and waved our guard aside. His gaze went to me.
+
+"You are the new prisoner taken from that wrecked Earth-ship?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What is your name? You are an Earthman, evidently."
+
+"Yes." I hesitated. I had seen Molo and heard him talk, back there in
+Greater New York; but he had not seen me nor heard of me probably.
+
+"Gregg Haljan." I added, "I am a skilled navigator; perhaps it was
+fortunate you saved me."
+
+He flung me a look and there was a tinge of amusement in it. "You
+would save your own skin now?"
+
+"Why not? You're a Martian, and this is a war also against Mars."
+
+His look darkened, but then again sardonic amusement struck him.
+
+"We shall see what the Great Master says. There will be a few of our
+type humans, men and women, wanted when the worlds begin anew. The
+Great Master said so. He wants to study life on Earth as it was before
+the destruction."
+
+Molo's glance swept behind us. I turned to see three figures
+approaching. My heart pounded. They were Anita, Venza and Molo's
+sister, Meka. They came slowly, trying to walk, with balancing
+outstretched arms. With a dozen curious Wandl workers crowding them,
+they came and joined Molo before us. My heart was pounding, but I
+flung them a curious, impersonal stare.
+
+"You are here," said Molo. "Good. We go now." He bent over Snap and
+me. "I advise you make no effort to leap away, though it may look
+easy."
+
+"Not me," said Snap. "Where would I go alone in this damned world? I
+can't very well leap back to Earth, can I?"
+
+"True enough," said Molo. "You have sense, little fellow. But I just
+warn you: the guard who will watch you always is very sharp of eye.
+And the weapons here bring very swift death."
+
+I could feel Anita's gaze upon me, but I did not dare look her way.
+
+"Let's go," I said, "You will have no trouble with me."
+
+With Molo leading us, and the giant insect-like guard following close
+behind, we made our slow, awkward way across the esplanade portals of
+the huge globular building.
+
+And within, we traversed a cylinder-like, padded corridor and came
+presently upon the strangest interior scene I had ever beheld.
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+
+The room was so large that it seemed almost the entire interior of the
+building. It was a globular room, a hundred and fifty feet or more in
+diameter. The inner surface was crowded with people. It was a huge,
+hollow interior of a ball; and upon its concave surface a throng of
+the brown-shelled workers were gathered. They sat on low seats at the
+curved bottom of the room, where we entered, and up the sides and upon
+the slopes and the top, like flies in a globe, hanging head downward.
+There was no up or down here; the slight gravity made little
+difference.
+
+I gazed up amazed to where, a hundred and fifty feet above me, head
+downward, the crowd of figures were calmly seated. These were
+clinging, of course; the pound-weight of each of them would drop them
+down if they let loose. But it required only a slight effort.
+
+Between the tiers, there were narrow open aisles bearing glowlights at
+intervals. With Molo leading us, we stared up the curving incline of
+one of these aisles.
+
+"Gregg! Good Lord, it's weird!" Snap said. "Where are we going to sit?
+Don't speak to the girls yet."
+
+"Have you spoken to them?"
+
+"Yes. A little, on the ship. They're watching for an opportunity but
+we have to be cautious. Gregg, I've got so much to tell you, but no
+chance. The brains can just about hear your thoughts."
+
+We went only a short distance up the incline. There were vacant seats
+seemingly held ready for us. Our passage created a commotion among the
+figures. Some leaped up and over us to get a better look. I found that
+we were clinging to the mound-like convex surface of a small
+half-globe. It raised us some ten feet above the floor. There were low
+seats with arms against the side-pull of gravity. I found Anita close
+beside me. Her hand touched me, but she did not turn her head or
+speak.
+
+Molo was on my other side. I chanced to see his feet. They were
+planted firmly on the floor. He wore wide-soled shoes equipped with
+suction pads, no doubt, which would enable him, like the Wandlites,
+to walk and stand upon the upper inner surfaces of buildings.
+
+As during the moments when Snap and I stood on the landing esplanade,
+there was so much here that at first I could not encompass it. But now
+I began to grasp other details of the strange scene.
+
+Poised in mid-air, almost exactly in the center of the huge globular
+room, was a metal globe of some thirty feet in diameter. It was held,
+not by any solid girders, but by four narrow beams of light which
+mounted to it from widespread points of the convex room.
+
+Upon the entire surface of this thirty-foot globe, a group of masters
+were seated, in little, cup-like seats upon resilient stems. They
+swayed and nodded with movement. There seemed to be glowing wires and
+grids and thread-like beams of light carrying current. Light-threads
+shot from the mechanisms to the heads of the seated brains. All the
+devices were evidently in operation; and upon this poised central
+globe the attention of the audience was directed.
+
+Molo bent over me. "The Great Intelligence soon will see you."
+
+Snap, from the other side of Molo, whispered: "What are they doing up
+there?"
+
+The faint hiss and throb of the devices were audible. I stared, trying
+to understand. Images, and sounds, invisible and inaudible were being
+received from across the millions of miles of space, and they were
+being transmuted within the brains themselves. I saw that discs were
+fastened upon the bulging foreheads of the brains, upon which the tiny
+light-beams carrying the vibrations impinged.
+
+These brains, receiving "waves" of some unknown variety were, within
+the mechanism of the brain-cell, transmuting, translating the
+vibrations into things knowable. They were not seeing, not hearing,
+but _knowing_ what went on millions of miles across space!
+
+Again Molo bent over me. "They are about to show this audience what is
+happening on the three worlds."
+
+Upon the thirty-foot globe I saw now a dozen or so balls of about
+three-foot diameter. These had been dark and I had not noticed them.
+Now they began glowing, not from wires carrying the current, but from
+the little hands of the brains touching them.
+
+I stared at the brain nearest me. His flabby little arm was extended;
+his hand touched the image-ball; gave it light and color, like a
+fortune-teller of Earth with a crystal before her.
+
+Even though I was some sixty feet from it, I could see the moving
+images clearly, and recognized the scene. The Tappan Interplanetary
+Stage. Ships were rising; two of our spaceships mounting.
+
+And all in an instant the scene blurred, took form again. The
+red-green spires and minarets of Ferrok-Shahn. The Central Canal
+extended like a gash across the foreground; the "Mushroom Mountains"
+were in a line upon the horizon. Three Martian space-flyers slid up
+while we watched.
+
+And now Grebhar. The silver forest in all its shining beauty, where
+Venza was born. The sunlight sparkled on the river. A spaceship was
+rising in the distant sky over the shining forest.
+
+Beyond Anita, I heard Venza murmuring, "Home! If only we were there."
+
+I could feel Anita move to silence her.
+
+Molo was whispering: "They come. But we will be ready for them."
+
+Another image: mid-space. The allied ships gathering, waiting for
+others to arrive. A group here of about ten of our ships from the
+three worlds: poised, waiting.
+
+I was aware that upon the mound-like protuberance of the room-floor
+where we were sitting, a door was opening. It slid, or melted away. At
+our feet was an opening downward into the small interior of the mound.
+
+Molo whispered, "The great Master. Sit quiet! He will talk to us."
+
+Over us now a barrage came with a hiss, a circular curtain of
+insulation. The huge globular room faded. We were alone on the mound,
+Snap, Molo, myself, Anita, Venza and Meka upon the end of our bench.
+Behind us stood our single Wandlite guard, with a weapon in his
+shoulder hand.
+
+At our feet an opening yawned into the mound-interior. It was a tiny,
+lighted room. In a cup-like seat a brain was perched, just below the
+level of our feet: the great Master Brain of Wandl. He was alone here.
+Not attended by retinue; no pomp and ceremony to usher us into his
+presence; no underlings obsequiously bowing to mark him for a great
+ruler.
+
+We stared down, and the great brain stared up at us, seemingly equally
+curious. His head was a full four feet in diameter; the little body
+sat in the cup, with dangling legs. The clothes were ornamented: there
+was a glowing device on the chest.
+
+He spoke with a measured rumble, in Martian. "You are Molo, of
+Ferrok-Shahn."
+
+"Yes," said Molo.
+
+"You must say, 'Yes, Great Master.'"
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"I know about you. I know that we trust you."
+
+The huge round eyes next fastened upon me. Then to Snap, and back to
+me. The words were English this time. "Men of Earth, are you decided,
+like the Martian, to join with us?"
+
+I tried with sudden vehemence to still my thoughts, or to change them
+so that they lied. Fear surged upon me. Could this vast mechanism of
+human mind here at my feet interpret the vibrations of my thoughts?
+Could this Great Master of Wandl see into my mind?
+
+The brain said, "You are uncertain. You do not want to die?"
+
+"No Great Master," we both answered.
+
+"You shall not, unless you attempt to cause us trouble. Your thoughts
+are black." He addressed Molo. "Have they ever been read?"
+
+"No, Great Master."
+
+"When opportunity comes, have them read." He added to Snap and me: "I
+plan to take prisoners. My Supreme Rulers, rulers of a neighboring
+more powerful planet, which sent Wandl upon her mission of conquest,
+ordered it. When your worlds are vacant of life, those who command me
+will want some of you left alive to be studied. Your thoughts are very
+black, Earthman. I think when they are carefully read you will prove
+no great advantage to us."
+
+There was irony in the voice, and upon the monstrous bulging face came
+the horrible travesty of a grin.
+
+The grin on the brain's face faded. His interest went again to Molo.
+"That is your sister." The eyes swung to Meka and back.
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"She is caring for this Earth-girl and this girl from Venus?"
+
+"Yes, Great Master. I am fond of them. I have plans."
+
+"They are in your charge, Martian; I will not interfere with you. But
+guard them well. I trust you and your sister. These others...."
+
+"The Earth and the Venus girl can be of help to me, Great Master."
+
+"How?"
+
+"They knew young men who were in the Spaceship Service. They can tell
+me the armament of men and weapons on most of the spaceships which
+Earth will send against us."
+
+Did Molo really believe that? Probably not, but he wanted the girls
+with him. Again came that grotesque smile. "Let them not bother you,
+Martian. You have work to do. Listen carefully. There will be a
+battle. Earth, Mars, and Venus may perhaps have a hundred ships. I
+cannot bring destruction upon those three worlds in a day. We soon
+will make contact with the light-beam you placed on Earth. That I will
+show you. But the rotation cannot be stopped at once. It will take
+time.
+
+"The enemy ships might dare to come to Wandl, but I shall not wait for
+that. All my spaceships are very nearly ready. If there is to be a
+battle, it shall be far from here, in the neighborhood of the enemy
+worlds. We are at this time about sixty-two million of your miles from
+the Earth, a third less than that from Mars, and about a third more
+from Venus. I understand, Martian, that you are skilled in space
+warfare."
+
+The brain went on, "I have given you a vessel to command. You will be
+surprised to know its name: the _Star-Streak_."
+
+Meka gasped, "But you destroyed it, Great Master!"
+
+"Only wrecked it, Martian girl. It is repaired now. You, Molo--and
+your sister to help you--who could command it to more advantage? All
+your own weapons, and ours of Wandl have been added. You may select
+your crew. Is it to your liking?"
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"You will be housed in this city, Wor, in the dwelling-globe you
+occupied before. Keep your prisoners with you, if you like."
+
+"These two Earthmen...." began Molo, but he was interrupted.
+
+"Settle that later. I do not want the annoyance."
+
+I was dimly conscious of a great clanging, coming through the curtain
+of barrage which was over us.
+
+The brain added, "Keep Wyk with you, to guard the prisoners; he will
+also attend your needs. In the battle, Martian, I expect great things
+of you and your _Star-Streak_."
+
+"Great Master, you will not be disappointed."
+
+"And prisoners, but not too many. Bring me a few young specimens like
+these, representative of Venus, Mars and the Earth. I want both of the
+sexes, an equal number of each."
+
+"Yes, Great Master."
+
+"The warning signal is coming. You will now see our first contact."
+
+The light at our feet was fading. It clung last by the gruesome face
+of the huge brain; the goggling eyes shone green, and as the light in
+the little mound-room dimmed there was in a moment nothing left but
+those lurid green pools of the brain's eyes.
+
+Then I was aware that the aperture at our feet had closed. Over us,
+the barrage curtain was dissipating, sight and sound coming in to us.
+The huge ball-shaped conclave room again became visible, the audience
+crowding its entire inner surface.
+
+I suddenly felt Anita's fingers twitching at my sleeve.
+
+"Gregg, darling, can you hear me?"
+
+"Yes. Be careful."
+
+But Molo was gazing up over our heads. The crowd was shifting, bending
+so that they all seemed gazing at their feet. A dim white radiance,
+seeming to come from down here somewhere near us, lay in a splotch on
+a segment of the throng overhead. Molo was watching.
+
+I whispered, "All right, Anita. Quick, what is it?"
+
+"The great control station is not far from here. Venza and I have been
+trying to find out where it is exactly."
+
+She stopped, evidently fearful of Meka. Then she added:
+
+"Gregg, we haven't been guarded very closely; they're not suspicious
+of us."
+
+"Later, Anita. Can't talk now."
+
+"No. Watch our chance. Later."
+
+I turned toward Molo. "What's that up there?"
+
+"The transparent ray is opening the top of the globe."
+
+The clanging signal gong had stilled. The audience was hushed and
+expectant. The white patch of light overhead spread until it
+encompassed all the top of the globe. The whole area was glowing. The
+people were white, spectral shapes, transparent! And the top of the
+globe was transparent; I saw the night sky, with the gleaming reddish
+stars.
+
+It was, in a moment, as though we were staring up at a huge square
+window orifice cut in the top of the room. A broad vista of cloudless
+sky and stars was visible. Across it, like a shining sword, was a
+narrow, opalescent beam.
+
+"The Earth-beam which I planted," Molo whispered triumphantly. "Our
+control station will contact with it now. The first contact!"
+
+Earth was below our angle of vision, but the beam from Greater New
+York, sweeping the sky with the Earth's rotation, was passing now
+comparatively close to Wandl.
+
+There was an expectant moment. Then into the sky leaped another ray,
+narrow, luridly green. It swung up from Wandl and darted into space.
+The hissing, agonized electrical scream from it as it burst through
+the Wandl atmosphere was deafening. I saw it strike the Earth-beam,
+grip it with a blinding burst of radiance up there in the sky,
+clinging, pulling against the rotation of the Earth with a lever sixty
+million miles long.
+
+A moment of screaming sound in the atmosphere around us, and that
+conflict of light in the sky. Then the screaming suddenly stilled. The
+Wandl beam vanished.
+
+The Earth-beam still swept the heavens like a stiff, upstanding sword.
+But in that moment when Wandl gripped it, the axis of the Earth had
+been changed a little. The rotation was slowed. By a few minutes, the
+day and the night on Earth were lengthened.
+
+It was the beginning of Earth's desolation.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+
+"But when do we eat?" Snap demanded.
+
+"Soon," said Molo.
+
+"I hope so."
+
+We were leaving the great room as we had come. Walking? I can only
+call it that, though the word is futile to describe our progress as we
+made our way to the lighted esplanade, across its side and into what
+might have been called a street. Globular houses, single, or one set
+upon another, or half a dozen swaying on a stick, gardens of
+vegetables and flowers. I saw what seemed to be a round patch of
+hundred-foot tree-stalks, like a thick batch of bamboo. It was laced
+and latticed thick with vines.
+
+"A house," Snap murmured. "That's a house."
+
+Another type of dwelling. This patch of vegetable growth, so flimsy it
+was all stirring with the movement of the night breeze, was woven into
+circular thatched rooms, birds' nests of little dwellings. Staring up,
+I seemed to see a hundred of them. Rope-vine ladders; flimsy vine
+platforms; tiny lights winking up there in the trees.
+
+On a platform twenty feet above us a group of tiny infant brains sat
+in a gruesome row, goggling down on us.
+
+We passed the tree patch; again the city seemed all a thin, flexible
+metal. The ground was like a smooth rock surface, alternating with
+small patches of soil where things were growing.
+
+We walked in a slow, unsteady line. Molo led. Behind Snap and me came
+the girls, ignoring us; and at the rear, the brown-shelled giant guard
+stalked after us.
+
+Molo stopped at a large globe-dwelling. "We rest here. I will go see
+that our rooms are ready." He gestured to his sister. "Meka, you come
+with me. Wyk will guard them."
+
+We stood at an oval doorway. A worker came out, stared at us, then
+went back. On an upper balcony, a brain was gazing down at us.
+
+I caught Molo's brawny arm. "Won't you tell us what's going on?"
+
+"Rest here with Wyk."
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Snap.
+
+"I am going to select my men for battle."
+
+"When do you go?"
+
+"In a few hours, Earth-time."
+
+"And you're taking us on the ship, Molo? Where is your _Star-Streak_?"
+
+"That I must find out." He, gazed at us with a slow, faint smile. "Not
+far. Nothing is far on Wandl. I do not know if I will take you on my
+ship. You might be of help, or you might be troublesome. The Great
+Master wants prisoners, or I would have killed you long ago."
+
+He took his sister and left us. There was a brief moment when Wyk,
+standing aside incuriously, gave us opportunity for swift whispers.
+
+Again Anita clutched me. "Gregg, we'll be separated now. But with Molo
+gone, Venza and I can get away from Meka."
+
+Venza whirled on us. "Gregg, listen! Snap, be quiet! If we're ever
+going to escape, now is the time. You get away from Wyk. We'll handle
+Meka."
+
+"And do what?" Snap demanded.
+
+"The control station! We'll find it!"
+
+Anita whispered, "We've got to wreck it, Gregg. Stop those contacts.
+It'll mean the end of Earth if we don't."
+
+I protested. "Better try for Molo's vessel. We might be able to
+navigate it, escape from this world."
+
+"The control station first," Anita insisted. "Gregg, we know something
+about it. You and Snap, with your strength, can demolish it. And then,
+if we can locate the _Star-Streak_...."
+
+It was a desperate, mad plan, but there seemed nothing better. The
+girls insisted now that though they did not know where the control
+station was located, they knew the details of its interior; its
+physical layout; its human operators.
+
+"In an hour," whispered Snap. "Have you got a timer? Is it going?"
+
+The little timers we still had with us were undoubtedly operating
+differently from on Earth; but they were in agreement.
+
+"An hour by our timers," I whispered. "We'll make the break then, try
+to find you inside. Anita, if you get free of Meka, don't come out."
+
+"All right."
+
+We had only a moment to try and plan it. "Anita, in an hour, with Molo
+gone...."
+
+He came suddenly with a driving leap from the doorway and dropped
+among us. "All is ready. Come."
+
+We ignored the girls. Snap again protested that he was hungry, which
+indeed, for me at least, was certainly the truth. And I was parched
+with thirst. I felt that this vaunted strength of my Earth body would
+not last long without food and drink.
+
+We entered the globular interior. There were narrow corridors;
+triangular rooms; a slatted, ladder-like incline leading upward to a
+higher level.
+
+The girls followed Meka up the incline. Molo and Wyk herded us into a
+nearby room. "You will have your food and drink here. Cause Wyk no
+trouble and you will be quite safe."
+
+He turned, but Snap plucked at him. "When are you coming back?"
+
+"Not too long."
+
+I said, "We will cause you no trouble. Take us on the ship."
+
+"I will see."
+
+He murmured to Wyk in Martian, then left us.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The small triangular room had no windows and only the single door. Wyk
+touched a mechanism and it slid closed. The place was a queer
+apartment indeed. The floor was convex, curving upward to the walls.
+The light radiance dimly glowed, as though inherent to the metal
+ceiling. There was strange metal furniture: a table and chairs, high
+and large; bunks of a size evidently for the ten-foot workers.
+
+The door opened, and a worker brought us food and drink. Wyk sat apart
+and watched us while we consumed the meal. I noticed that he seldom
+let himself get close to us. He sat stiffly upright, with his jointed
+legs bent double under him, his many arms and pincers hanging inert,
+save the one short shoulder-arm with flexible fingers gripping his
+weapon. At his waist, and upon several hook-like protuberances of his
+chest, other weapons and devices were hanging.
+
+Snap gazed up from where, on the floor, we were ravenously eating and
+drinking. "Aren't you hungry?" he asked Wyk.
+
+"No."
+
+"You eat often?"
+
+"No."
+
+An incurious, taciturn creature, this insect-like being. Snap
+whispered, "Got to talk to him; make him let us get close. That
+weapon...."
+
+How the weapon operated, we did not know; but that a flash from it
+would bring instant death we well imagined.
+
+Half of that hour of waiting was past.
+
+I said to Wyk, "You would call this night on your world; the sun
+obviously is on the other hemisphere. When will it be day?"
+
+His gaze swung on me. His hollow voice, deep from the capacious shell
+of chest, echoed and blurred in the room.
+
+"I think Wandl has no rotation now. Or almost none."
+
+He was not as taciturn, as he had seemed, and presently we had him
+talking. We learned several things regarding the gravity-controls of
+Wandl, by which at will the planet could be rotated on its axis; and
+by which also it could navigate space. We learned that the great
+control station contained these gravitational mechanisms, as well as
+the mechanism by which the Earth had been attacked. But we could not
+discover where on Wandl that station was located.
+
+Then, with our meal finished, Snap rose to his feet. "Those arms of
+yours, seem very strange to us. But they must be mighty useful."
+
+Snap had taken a cautious, shoving step. It wafted him directly toward
+the guard.
+
+The weird, brown-scaled face of Wyk, with its popping eyes upon stems
+and its upended mouth, contorted with surprise.
+
+"Back! Don't come near me!"
+
+He flung himself back, but struck the wall of the room. All his arms
+were writhing. Alarm was in his voice. It was the first time either
+Snap or I had made an unexpected move, and it startled Wyk.
+
+"Wait! Let me go!" Snap cried.
+
+Wyk's longest arms were around Snap, like the tentacles of an octopus,
+and Snap was struggling, fighting. We had not intended this at this
+time, but the opportunity was here.
+
+I scrambled from the floor. Now, with the need for powerful action,
+the lack of gravity was a tremendous handicap. I went up with
+flailing arms into the air. Wyk fired his weapon, but it missed me, a
+soundless, dimly-white bolt. It hissed along the curving wall of the
+room. The smell of it was a stench in my nostrils.
+
+I hit the concave ceiling, shoved down, and like a swimmer in water
+struck against the struggling bodies of Snap and the guard. The waving
+little shoulder arm with the weapon came at me.
+
+Snap shouted, "Gregg, look out!"
+
+I seized the little arm; it felt like the shell of a huge crab. For a
+moment we were all three entangled, floundering, unable to find a
+foothold. Then suddenly I felt Snap pulling me loose.
+
+"We've got him!"
+
+The brown-shelled body of Wyk sank away from us, hit the floor and lay
+still. I felt the floor under me, and Snap clutching at me.
+
+In my hand I was clutching Wyk's little shoulder arm, with fingers
+still gripping the weapon. I had jerked it out of his shoulder socket.
+With a shudder I cast the noisome thing away. Whether Wyk was dead or
+not we did not know. He lay on his back; the hideous face stared
+upward.
+
+"I cracked the shell," Snap gasped. "We've got to get out of here.
+Better try and get the girls loose now."
+
+We wasted no further time on Wyk. Snap snatched several of his weapons
+and mechanical devices. We stowed them hastily in our pockets. One was
+like another to us; we could only guess at their uses.
+
+"His shoes, Gregg. I can't get the damn things off him."
+
+"Here are shoes."
+
+A small pile of shoes was in a corner of the room; wide, resilient
+suction soles, built like sandals. They were very large, but the
+things were so placed that it seemed we could fasten them to our
+boots.
+
+"But not now, Snap."
+
+We snatched up four pairs of the shoes.
+
+There seemed nothing else to do. Could we get the door open? Snap was
+already fumbling at it. "Accursed thing! It won't give."
+
+Then it slid open. The dim corridor was visible. No one, nothing, out
+there. "Come on, Gregg! In a rush!"
+
+We went like bouncing rubber figures up the incline ladder.
+
+"Snap, watch out!" He all but cracked his head with an upward leap.
+Every instant we expected to be set upon. There was a terraced upper
+hall, black with shadow; dark ovals of doorways led into rooms.
+
+No one here. As yet we were not discovered.
+
+We stood at the intersection of two corridors. One went almost
+vertically up, like a chimney extending into the dome peak of the
+globe. Its sides were latticed; we could go up it hand over hand, like
+monkeys. The other sloped at an angle downward.
+
+"Which way?" Snap whispered. "What do you think? Got to find them."
+
+It still lacked about five minutes of our designated time, but it
+would not do to burst in upon the girls, perhaps to find Molo and
+guards there.
+
+"Let's wait a minute, listen, see if we can't get some idea."
+
+We were backed against the corridor wall, almost in darkness. From the
+dark length of the descending corridor came a thump, the sound of a
+struggle, and then a muffled scream. Venza! And we heard her words:
+"Anita! Look out for her! She's got a knife!"
+
+As though diving into water, Snap and I plunged head first into the
+blackness of the corridor.
+
+
+
+
+12
+
+
+Later, we learned that Anita and Venza had tried much the same tactics
+on Meka that we had used on Wyk, but their task was more difficult.
+She was suspicious of them. Venza asked her where the control station
+was, but she wouldn't answer.
+
+"Your brother said it was just beyond the dark forest," Anita said.
+"What is the dark forest?"
+
+"A place with trees where no one lives."
+
+"Off that way." Venza gestured. "That's what Molo said. Will it be day
+soon, or will the night keep on?"
+
+"If they cause Wandl to rotate, it will soon be day." An ironic look
+crossed Meka's face. "I am in no mood for answering more of your silly
+questions. Save the breath."
+
+"Well, if that's they way you feel about it," replied Venza laughing,
+"we will. There's not much air in here." She shoved herself across the
+floor toward the closed window.
+
+"Get back!"
+
+"Oh, all right--all right!"
+
+Perhaps Meka herself felt there was not enough air. She stood
+waveringly upright, and pushed herself with a slow leap for the
+window. Her back for that moment was to Anita and Venza. They shoved
+from the floor, whirled through the air and were upon her.
+
+It was a brief struggle, and instantly they knew that they had lost.
+The huge Martian whirled and flung them off. Her upflung fist, with a
+blow like a man's, caught Anita's thigh and knocked her toward the
+ceiling. She sank in a heap on the floor, saw that Venza had shoved
+back, but was standing upright.
+
+Anita bent double, with her feet braced against a chair, tensed to
+shove forward again. At the still unopened window, Meka crouched.
+Anita heard Venza's warning outcry. "Anita, look out for her! She's
+got a knife!"
+
+Upon this scene, in a moment, Snap and I came with a rush. The closed
+door was not barred. We slid it down and catapulted through the
+opening. Meka sailed over us. I swam up at her; seized her. The knife
+ripped my blouse and slit the flesh of my upper arm with a glancing
+blow. Then Snap came and struck against us; we sank to the floor.
+
+Meka had fought silently, but now she was shouting. I twisted her
+wrist, seized the knife handle and flung the knife away. I was aware
+of Anita lunging to retrieve it. And over us Venza appeared, waving a
+metal chair as though it were a huge feather.
+
+Snap gasped, "Gregg get your hand over her mouth. Shut her up!"
+
+We had her subdued in a moment, but it seemed almost too late. Outside
+the opened door a distant shout sounded.
+
+I shoved Meka toward the door. "If you don't do what I say, I'll kill
+you," I whispered into her ear.
+
+"What shall I do?"
+
+There came another shout, closer, now. Someone was coming.
+
+"Call out in Martian. Say there's no trouble, nothing wrong. You were
+arguing with these girls."
+
+She did as I commanded. The voice down the corridor answered, and then
+subsided.
+
+Snap slid the door closed. "Hurry! We'll go by the window. I dropped
+those damn shoes."
+
+Anita and Venza tore their dark coats into strips. We bound and gagged
+Meka, laid her in a corner of the room. We had dropped the shoes as we
+came plunging through the door oval. We found that we could all fasten
+their things to our feet. I put Meka's knife in my belt.
+
+"Hurry, all of you!" Snap was saying. "Got to get out of here; jump by
+the window."
+
+"Say, look at these wing-shields!" From a recess in a corner of the
+room Venza appeared with an armful of the small shields. We thrust our
+hands and forearms into their loops. The shields extended from a few
+inches beyond our fingers to the elbow.
+
+Snap had slid the window blind. I bent over the prone form of Meka.
+"Don't try to move. Molo will release you when he comes back."
+
+We gathered on the starlit balcony. The city stretched around us.
+There was as yet no alarm. No swimming figures near here; but a
+distance away we saw the towering conclave globe, with its audience
+just beginning to emerge, like bees coming from a hive.
+
+"Let me go first." I held Anita and Venza at the rail. "It's like
+swimming. I suppose we'll get the way of it pretty quickly."
+
+I balanced on the rail, and then leaped off. With the others after me,
+we swam awkwardly upward into the reddish starlight.
+
+The city structures dropped away, showing in a dark blur with winking
+lights. Over us were the stars and the cloudless night sky. Behind,
+the flashing light beams of radiance at the landing stage, the
+figures fluttering, the great globe, all dropped swiftly beneath a
+sharply curving horizon.
+
+We had passed the city. A thousand feet below us, a dark forest
+stretched. It was beyond this that the control station was located.
+
+The swimming flight became less awkward, but it was an effort in this
+abnormal Wandl air. Snap and Venza were behind me. Anita was leading,
+a strange, bird-like little figure. White blouse; long parted dark
+skirt from which her gray-sheathed legs kicked out as she swam,
+sometimes half upon one side, or with a breast stroke. The braids of
+her dark hair fell forward over her shoulders.
+
+She was tiring: I could not miss it. How far had we gone? Ten miles,
+perhaps. There was only a small vista of this little world visible at
+once, it was so sharply convex. A line of distant mountains was to our
+left. We had crossed a river at the forest edge.
+
+I suppose we had been half an hour swimming those ten-miles. Was
+daylight coming? It seemed that the sideline of mountain-tops had a
+little light on them. The opalescent beam from Earth had swept this
+portion of the sky and was gone below the horizon.
+
+Apparently there was no pursuit from the city. Behind me, Venza
+panted, "Say, I'm about finished. Can't we rest?"
+
+With this altitude we could cease our efforts and drift down. It would
+take several minutes.
+
+We gathered together, falling with a slow drift toward the dark forest
+under us. The trees seemed huge and spindly, a porous growth something
+on the Martian style, with huge leaves and a tangle of matter vines.
+They came mounting up at us as we fell with slowly gathering speed.
+
+"Shall we go on?" I suggested.
+
+"Yes." But she was tired, and Anita as well.
+
+"Girls," I asked, "where is the _Star-Streak_?"
+
+They did not know.
+
+Anita said, "Perhaps we can land in the trees, and examine what
+devices we have here."
+
+The girls had carefully watched Molo upon several occasions. They
+thought we might find we had a hand-globe or a couple of the repulsive
+rays. With these we could attain rapid flight without effort.
+
+We sank, fluttering, into a dark and tangled mass of the forest
+tree-top growth. I had understood that Wandl was crowded with its
+human population, yet this dark and silent forest evidently was
+uninhabited. We clung, like awkward birds, to a swaying limb of a
+tree-top. The trees were close together.
+
+"Let's see what you've got," Venza demanded.
+
+We handed the girls the various devices we had taken from Wyk. Most of
+them were the size of my fist: globular metallic projectors like hand
+bombs; ray cylinders; a device with multiple barrels the size of one's
+finger, set in a small circumference of a circular grid of wires.
+
+Anita said, "I saw Molo with one of these. He killed an unwilling
+worker on the ship."
+
+"I'll take a look around," Snap said anxiously. "Suppose we're being
+followed? Give me that weapon."
+
+There was vegetation partly over us, so that the sky was half
+obscured. Snap took the weapon, and like a monkey swaying
+precariously, he ran and leaped among the upper branches, crashing his
+way until he could see back toward the horizon beyond which lay the
+city of Wor.
+
+We heard his voice. "All clear. Nothing in sight. You coming up?
+Better get started."
+
+I put the weapons in my pocket. Snap had one now in the branches over
+us. I was examining an electronic bolt, when suddenly there came
+Snap's call. "Gregg! Look out!"
+
+We heard the hiss and saw the flash of his bolt.
+
+Anita swung at me. "Gregg, see there!"
+
+I followed her gesture, and then I knew why this forest was shunned by
+humans!
+
+
+
+
+13
+
+
+The forest swarmed with living things. Here in the dark they had been
+crawling upon us. Every branch of this leafy tree-top angle had
+something staring at us; the darkness was suddenly glowing with a
+myriad little green torches which were their eyes. They all winked on
+in an instant, as though at a signal, or at the sound of Snap's shout
+and the hiss of his bolt.
+
+Insects? I suppose I should call them that. With a glance I saw that
+they were of many sizes and shapes; tiny little things with eyes like
+lanterns; things of many legs, finger-length, hand-length, and some as
+long as my forearm. Brown-shelled things, with eyes glowing on stems.
+There was one quite near us, a smooth, brown-shelled body; a round
+head on top, as big as my fist. And these things had heads like little
+distended brains.
+
+What horrible jest of nature this was, with miniatures of the Wandl
+workers, crawling here, unable to stand erect, groping with little
+pincers. And miniature brains with naked, shriveled bodies.
+
+It seemed that the eyes of that little brain were fixed on me with a
+baleful green glare in the darkness. Anita and Venza were floundering
+to their feet in horror. They all but slipped from the limb. The
+weapons and devices they had arranged there slid off and went down
+into the darkness unheeded. From above us came Snap's horrified shouts
+and the hiss of his bolts.
+
+"Here!" I gasped. "My hand--Anita, Venza, jump!"
+
+I shoved Anita upward. The little eyes suddenly were all in movement,
+advancing upon us. Anita floundered, fluttered, got into the air and
+mounted toward Snap. Again Venza slipped off the limb. I lunged and
+drew her up. Green eyes nearest us came swooping. I did not dare fire
+a bolt; it was too close to Venza. I flung the entire weapon at the
+green eyes, but I missed.
+
+The little thing bit Venza's arm. She screamed and her flailing hand
+hit the tiny distended head. Its hideous little scream mingled with
+hers. It floated downward, massed and purple-red with gushing blood.
+
+I struggled upward with the inert form of Venza under one arm. Anita
+was mounting, free. Snap came lunging down.
+
+"Fired every bolt in the damn weapon!" He saw the unconscious Venza.
+"Good God, Gregg!"
+
+Never have I heard such anguish in his tone. "Gregg, she isn't...."
+
+"One of them bit her. Help me."
+
+He floundered up with her, a hundred feet above the tree-tops of that
+horrible forest. The little lanterns of eyes down there had all winked
+out. The open starlight was over us.
+
+Anita came swimming, then Venza stirred. She murmured, "... all
+right."
+
+She had fainted. It seemed nothing more; but I found her upper arm
+swelling. She tried to bend her body and sit up; but it threw us all
+out of balance.
+
+"Lie straight," Snap murmured. "Venza, are you all right?"
+
+"Yes. Why not?" And then she laughed. It sent a shuddering chill over
+me. "What's the fuss about? Let's get away from here. Somebody will be
+coming."
+
+She was swimming now and we let her loose, but stayed close by her.
+The reddish firmament was like an inverted bowl. The curving Wandl
+surface gave us a narrow little vista, the forest rolling up from the
+horizon in front. Then we saw where the forest seemed to end. Water
+was beyond it: a ribbon like a broad river, and beyond that, frowning
+mountains, terraced and spired with jagged peaks.
+
+Snap and I suddenly recalled the gravity ray projectors. We tried
+them; found that they would fling little beams of two varieties.
+Pencil points of radiance, they seemed to have an effective range of
+no more than a few hundred feet.
+
+I let myself drift downward, experimenting. The tiny beam struck the
+forest-top. I felt the projector pulling violently downward in my
+hand. I clung to it. I was being drawn swiftly down by the attractive
+gravity force of the ray. The forest rose rapidly under me: I was all
+but flung upon it before I could find the other controls.
+
+Then the ray altered its nature; the projector in my hand pulled me
+steadily up. But after a few hundred feet, I felt I was mounting only
+of my own momentum, with gravity and air-friction retarding me.
+
+Snap had tried similar experiments. We rejoined the swimming girls. I
+stared into Venza's face; it was pale but she did not seem distressed.
+She winked at me.
+
+"How's your arm, Venza?"
+
+"It hurts, but I guess it's all right."
+
+I turned to Snap. "I guess we can work these things. Get Venza to
+cling to you."
+
+Our progress now was far less difficult. Venza clung to Snap's ankles
+and Anita to mine. With the repulsing rays directed downward, we had a
+strong upward and forward thrust. We went forward with great
+thousand-foot bounds. The forest rolled back under us. We came over
+the gleaming river. It seemed several miles broad. It appeared to have
+a swift current.
+
+I saw sunlight upon the mountain ahead. The darkness had been paling.
+Now day suddenly burst upon us. The sun, smaller than on Earth,
+mounted swiftly up. It was a flattened, distorted, dull-red disc,
+blurred by Wandl's strange atmosphere. We were in a dim red daylight.
+
+Anita twitched at my ankles. "Look back of us!"
+
+We were going up. Venza and Snap, behind us, were in a descending arc.
+Above them, far back in the direction from which they had come, two
+blobs were visible up against the reddish day sky.
+
+Pursuit? It seemed so. The blobs went down, but came up again,
+traveling with rays, like ourselves.
+
+I called to Snap, "Someone after us! Two figures back there!"
+
+He was shouting, "Gregg! Gregg, help!"
+
+My gaze had been on the distant figures. I saw now that at the bottom
+of his arc, and starting upward again, Snap had lost Venza. The
+impulse of his ray had twitched his ankle from her grasp. Or had she
+let loose? He was about a hundred feet above the river, and Venza,
+with acceleration downward unchecked, was falling into it.
+
+"Gregg, help! Venza, swim up!" His frenzied call reached me as I used
+the attractive ray and Anita and I whirled over and lunged downward.
+
+"Gregg, help! Venza use your arms! Swim!"
+
+She was lying inert, making no effort to keep from falling. Her body
+turned slowly, end-over-end. She struck the swiftly-flowing river
+surface but did not sink; instead, she half emerged, came up and lay
+in a crumpled heap; and with its rapid current, the river carried her
+away.
+
+It was several minutes before we could reach Venza. Snap was already
+there, floundering on the water, awkwardly maintaining his balance,
+bending over Venza. "Gregg, she's unconscious. Fainted again."
+
+The bite of that insect! The thought of it turned me cold.
+
+The river surface was like a very soft rubber mattress. The water
+clung to us, wet us. We could not kneel or stand erect; but in sitting
+down only a few inches of our bodies were submerged. We floated like
+corks, we were so light, and so little water did we displace.
+
+We struggled with Venza across the gluey river surface. She had fallen
+near the further shore. Rocks, crags and strewn boulders were passing
+as the current swept us along at a speed of about ten miles an hour.
+She lay in our arms, eyes closed, her face pallid but calm. She seemed
+to breathe rapidly; but that on Wandl was normal.
+
+We landed on the rocky shore. It was still daylight. The blurred sun
+was winging across the zenith so swiftly that its movement was
+visible. Wandl had been suddenly endowed with axial rotation. Even in
+these few minutes, the day was past its noon. On the distant mountain
+peaks looming above the nearby horizon; it seemed that the sheen of
+coming night was mingled with the red sunlight.
+
+Anita and Snap laid Venza on the rocks. I suddenly remembered the two
+blobs in the sky behind us, which had seemed to be following. I stood
+gazing across the river. The red sky there seemed empty.
+
+"Thank God, she's reviving!" Snap called at me and I joined them.
+Venza was stirring. Color was coming into her cheeks. Her lips were
+murmuring as though she were talking in her sleep.
+
+Then she opened her eyes. Her gaze fixed on us as we bent over her.
+"Why, what's the matter? Where are we? I thought we were in the
+tree-tops. Snap, don't look at me like that, dear. I'm all right--only
+confused."
+
+She could remember nothing since that gruesome thing bit into her arm,
+but the attack of its poison in her veins seemed definitely over. We
+sat with her, soothing her, explaining what had happened. And she was
+wholly rational. Her strength came back; her mind cleared.
+
+The brief red day came to its close. The sun plunged below the
+horizon; the stars winked into being. The red-purple Wandl night
+again was here. And now we saw that the whole firmament was swinging,
+the rotation made visible.
+
+The darkness leaped around us. Shadows filled the rock hollows. The
+caves and recesses of this rocky shore turned black with darkness. And
+in the sky now we saw another of those familiar opalescent beams. This
+was the one from Mars: we could identify the red disc of the planet.
+
+And then, from the mountains ahead of us but still below our horizon,
+the Wandl control station shot its attacking beam upward. Again there
+was that conflict in the sky. The axis of Mars was being altered, its
+rotation slowed.
+
+We could see now that we were much nearer than before to the control
+station. It seemed only about twenty miles ahead of us. The scream
+from it was deafening.
+
+The Wandl beam died presently. The electrical scream from the control
+station was stilled.
+
+The Earth's axis had been altered. Now Mars; and next would be Venus.
+A few more of these gravitational attacks and then the helpless
+planets, with rotation checked, would be towed away by Wandl, out into
+the deadly cold of interstellar space.
+
+Anita abruptly gave a startled outcry. The four of us, sitting in a
+group, had no time to rise. From behind a dark crag nearby, two
+figures appeared. The starlight showed them clearly.
+
+Molo and Wyk! They lunged forward at us.
+
+
+
+
+14
+
+
+We were unarmed. I had flung my weapon at the thing in the forest; and
+Snap had exhausted all his bolts firing at the multitude of green
+eyes. Molo and Wyk came with a dive through the air. Two tiny flashes
+leaped from them to the rocks behind them, and flung them forward.
+
+Snap and I seized Venza and Anita. It was a second of confusion; then
+I saw we would not be able to rise in time. The driving, oncoming
+figures were no more than twenty feet away.
+
+"Protect Venza, Snap! Get her behind you!"
+
+Snap shoved Venza behind him; I got myself in front of Anita. We had
+almost gained our feet. I tried to thrust Anita and myself violently
+upward. We rose, but only a few feet. And then we were struck by the
+oncoming body of Wyk, like a huge, light-shelled, three-pound insect
+lunging in mid-air against us. The two longest tentacle arms wrapped
+around us. Anita twisted and kicked. The gruesome, goggling face of
+Wyk thrust itself almost into mine. The hollow voice panted, "I have
+you fast."
+
+One of my arms was free and I struck with my fist at the gaping,
+upended mouth. There was a crack. My fist sank through the shell; a
+cold, sticky ooze spurted out.
+
+Wyk screamed. His encircling arms fell away. The grisly smashed face
+was white with ooze and pulp where my fist had gone in.
+
+We had sunk back to the rocks. I kicked the dead body of Wyk away.
+
+"Anita! Swim up!"
+
+"No!"
+
+Sinking beside us were the flailing bodies of Molo, Snap and Venza
+were drifting down. They seemed intermingled. Snap was shouting: "No
+you don't! Drop that!"
+
+I leaped for them. Something long and thin and glowing was dangling
+from Molo's hand. He broke loose from the struggling Snap and Venza;
+his feet struck the rocks and he shoved himself backward. My leap had
+carried me too high. I saw that in his hand was a six-foot length of
+glowing wire. He whirled it. The weight on its end described an arc,
+and then he flung the handle. The weighted wire struck Venza and Snap
+just as their repulsive ray shot down against the rocks and shoved
+them upward. The whirling wire wrapped itself around them, bound them
+together. Its glow vanished. Snap had been shouting, "Gregg, come up."
+But it died in his throat.
+
+All this while, in those few seconds, I was vaulting over Molo, trying
+to get back to the ground to leap again. I saw that Anita was crawling
+on the rocks. My gravity cylinder was at my belt. I had jammed it
+there to leave my hands free just as Wyk struck me.
+
+I saw that Snap and Venza, wrapped together by the wire, had dropped
+their gravity projector. Their entwined figures went up some fifty
+feet and stopped; then began drifting down.
+
+Molo was shouting, "You, Gregg Haljan! Now for you!"
+
+I struck the rocks and fell twenty feet beyond him. I jerked out my
+gravity projector, but I did not know what I wanted to do with it. And
+in that second I saw that the standing Molo was aiming at me. Directly
+over my head the inert bound bodies of Venza and Snap were falling.
+
+A flash leaped over the dark rocks from Molo. There was a split-second
+when I thought it was the end of me. But I was still alive. The bodies
+of Venza and Snap struck my head and shoulders; knocked me down. I
+felt Molo's ray upon me. Not death, but only his gravity ray, like a
+giant hand pulling me. Apparently he wanted us alive. I was scrambling
+on the rocks, entangled with Venza and Snap. Molo's radiance clung.
+All three of us went tumbling forward toward him. I flashed my own
+ray, but I was rolling end over end, and it went wild.
+
+I dropped it, saw Molo's beam vanish, saw his upright standing figure
+towering above me. Snap, Venza and I were in a heap at his feet. He
+leaned down and seized me. "Now, Gregg Haljan, I will teach you not to
+try escaping like this!"
+
+With the huge, muscular Martian gripping me, his fist striking for my
+face but missing and hitting my shoulder, this was a semblance of
+normality. I could understand fighting like this. I wrapped my legs
+around him; my fingers reached for his brawny throat as he kicked us
+into the air free of the entangling bodies of Snap and Venza.
+
+We rose a few feet and sank back, gripping each other, lunging and
+striking. He was very powerful, this Martian. I caught the round
+pillar of his throat with my hands. For an instant I shut off his
+wind, but I could not hold the grip. He struck me a glancing blow in
+the face, then the heel of his hand was under my chin. It forced back
+my head, broke my hold on his throat. With returning breath, he gasped
+an inhalation. And I heard his exulting words: "You are not strong
+enough!"
+
+We rolled and bumped over the rocks. I caught a blow from his fists
+full in my face. It was almost the end; I felt my strength going. He
+laughed as he struck away my answering swing. I was on my back against
+the rocks, with his body on top of me. Then beyond and behind his
+hulking shoulder, silhouetted against the sky, I saw Anita rise up.
+She was lifting a jagged gray mass of stone, full four feet in
+diameter. She poised it, then crashed it down on Molo's head. He sank
+away from me; his arms relaxed. The boulder rolled beside him.
+
+It was over now. Wyk was dead; his gruesome body with its smashed face
+lay near us. Molo was unconscious, breathing heavily, lying
+motionless, with a wound on the back of his head, the blood welling
+out, matting his hair.
+
+Anita and I were uninjured, victorious--but what a hollow victory. On
+the rocks here, bound together by that strange wire, Snap and Venza
+lay inert. We bent over them. The wire was cold to the touch now. It
+resisted our efforts to untwine it. We pulled frantically as we
+pleaded: "Snap, speak to us! Venza, can't you speak?"
+
+Their eyes were open. I was aware that there was no starlight above
+us, but instead, a lurid sky of flying clouds, shot with a greenish
+cast. The darkness here was green. The glow of it struck upon the
+wide-open staring eyes of Venza and Snap. It seemed that there was
+intelligence in those eyes.
+
+"Snap, can't you hear us?"
+
+His eyelids came down and up again, slowly, as though by a horrible
+effort. "Can you move, Snap?"
+
+His right eyelid moved. Was his answer, no?
+
+Anita and I had never felt so horrible a sense of aloneness as that
+which swept us in those succeeding minutes. A breeze was springing up
+in the lurid green night. It came from the mountains. It wafted across
+the nearby river, rippling the surface which was now green and sullen.
+We did not know where to go, what to do.
+
+We found at last that we could untwist the stiffly clinging wire. We
+laid Venza and Snap on the rocks side-by-side, about thirty feet back
+from the river. The glowing wire had burned their clothes only a
+little, as the current was absorbed by the contact with their bodies.
+
+"Snap, are you in pain?"
+
+His eyes seemed to be trying to talk to me. Anita rose from Venza:
+"Oh, Gregg, what shall we do? Can't we carry them?"
+
+But where? To what purpose? Wild thoughts thronged me: Wandl's control
+station, bringing chaos and death upon Earth. Mars and Venus. What was
+that now to me? I thought of Molo's ship.
+
+"Anita, if we can get to the _Star-Streak_, seize it and escape from
+this world...."
+
+"Carry Snap and Venza there now? But we don't know where it is. Can we
+make Molo lead us?"
+
+But Molo lay unconscious. I could not rouse him.
+
+Anita and I were so alone! We clung together.
+
+"Gregg, look at that sky!"
+
+The mounting wind was tugging at us. It whined through the dark
+mountain defiles, surged out over the river where the water now was
+beginning to toss with waves crossing the swift current. The sky was
+shot with green shafts of radiance. Over us, the lowering, leaden
+clouds were scudding, riding the wind.
+
+It burst now upon us; I found suddenly that Anita and I were bracing
+against it. A puff dislodged us, so that we were blown a dozen feet,
+bringing up against a crag, as though we were balloons.
+
+"Anita--this wind--we can't maintain ourselves here. We...."
+
+Horror checked me at the thought of Venza and Snap, lying there on the
+rocks. We saw the body of Wyk, like a great dried insect, lifted by
+the wind, whirled like a brown leaf over and over, and carried away.
+
+A little pebble came hurtling and struck me. Then a rain of pebbles,
+like hailstones was pelting at us.
+
+The storm was probably caused by the axial rotation of Wandl. The
+light-beam upon Earth had been attacked by the Wandl control station
+without axial rotation. But to attack the beam from Mars, a
+manipulation of Wandl was necessary. The planet's rotation was
+started; and suddenly checked. It remained night now, here in this
+hemisphere. Perhaps there were natural storm tendencies here; perhaps
+the operators of the control station were unduly eager, manipulating
+the rotation too suddenly.
+
+At all events, it was frightening. I shouted above its whine and the
+clatter of the pebbles: "Hold onto me! We'll get to Venza and Snap."
+
+We reached the two inert forms, where they had blown into a niche
+between two boulders. "Can't stay here, Anita."
+
+"No! If it begins again!"
+
+"Over there! A cave!"
+
+We got Venza and Snap into it, just as another gust came, with a rain
+of dirt and loose stones pelting past outside.
+
+Suddenly I thought of Molo. "Anita, stay here! Must get to Molo."
+
+"Gregg, no!"
+
+"I must. If we can bring him to consciousness, make him tell us where
+the _Star-Streak_ is...."
+
+I flung off her restraining hold. The wind had eased up. I leaped out
+into it, swimming. The rocks slid by close under me in a swift
+sidewise drift. In a moment I would be carried out over the river. It
+was a chaos of green, windswept darkness. But there was bursting light
+now overhead and rumbling claps, like thunder.
+
+I saw Molo's body where the wind held him pinned against the side of a
+flat, ten-foot rock butte, and dove for him, swimming down frantically
+until I struck against the rock with a blow that almost knocked the
+breath from me. Molo was still obviously unconscious.
+
+How long it took me to get back to Anita, floundering with Molo's
+body, I do not know. I managed to keep against the ground; was blown
+back, and struggled forward again. The wind came with strange puffs.
+In one of the lulls, I hauled Molo through the air and into the cave.
+
+"Gregg!" Anita held to me, her arms around me. "Gregg dear, you were
+gone so long!"
+
+I was battered and bruised and breathless. The cave's mouth was like a
+ten-foot tunnel leading downward into blackness.
+
+"Gregg, I put Venza and Snap here."
+
+They lay side by side, like two dead bodies, here in the greenish
+darkness. We placed Molo with them. Together Anita and I crouched
+beside them, clinging to each other, listening to the wild sweep of
+the wind outside. The storm had burst into full fury now. It would
+whirl us away like feathers, outside there now. The lightning and
+thunder hissed and crashed. Stones and boulders were being flung like
+hailstones.
+
+This flimsy, weightless world! It seemed as though the rocks here on
+which we were crouching would be shifted and carried away.
+
+"Gregg! Gregg, is this the end?"
+
+A mass of rocks fell at the opening, closing it, so that we were
+buried here in the darkness. "Anita, my darling, I will never stop
+loving you."
+
+Darkness, with her arms around me and a shuddering world outside. But
+here, only Anita and her soft arms.
+
+"Gregg!"
+
+Horror was in her voice. Then I saw what she was seeing. It was not
+just Anita and I buried here in the darkness with the bodies of Snap
+and Venza and Molo. Something else was here.
+
+From the blackness of the cave, two green, glowing eyes were staring.
+Their radiance showed me the outlines of a distended head. An insane
+thing? But it was not another of the forest insects. This seemed to be
+an animal. The glow of its distended head disclosed a lythe,
+horizontal body, seemingly solid and muscled. A chattering, insane
+animal, here in the dark with us! We heard mouthing, mumbling words,
+and an eerie, cackling laugh as it came padding toward us.
+
+The thing in the cave stared at us as we clung together in the
+darkness, transfixed for a moment by horror. The distended head,
+ghastly of face with its green glowing eyes, wobbled upon a long,
+spindly neck. The eyes seemed luminous of their own internal light.
+The radiance from them faintly lighted the black cave so we were able
+to see its tawny, hairy body. It was long sleek, the size of an Earth
+leopard. A muscled body, with ponderable weight, it was moving toward
+us, padding on the rocks.
+
+I recovered my wits and shoved Anita behind me. I crouched on one
+knee. There was no escape, nowhere to run. This tunnel was blocked by
+a fallen rock mass behind us, with the wild storm raging outside. The
+thing was some twenty feet away, where the tunnel broadened into a
+black cave of unknown size. Beside me Snap and Venza lay inert, the
+still-unconscious Molo with them.
+
+There was nothing to do but crouch here and protect Anita. I waved my
+arms, shouted above the outside surge of the storm; my voice
+reverberated with a muffled roar in this subterranean darkness.
+
+"Get back! Back! Back, away from me!"
+
+It stopped. Round ears stood up from the bloated head. Then it laughed
+again. I felt Anita shoving a rock at my hand, a chunk of rock the
+size of my head. "Its face, Gregg! Aim for its face!"
+
+The rock felt like a ball of cork. I flung it and hit the thing on the
+body. Its laughter checked abruptly; it crouched, as though gathering
+for a spring.
+
+And then I thought of my gravity projector. I flashed on the repulsive
+ray to its full intensity.
+
+The tawny body leaped. It came hurtling, but my beam met it in
+mid-air. For a second I thought that I had been too late. The thing
+was clawing the air; its momentum carried it against the push of my
+ray. For an instant it hung, snarling, and then laughed that wild
+laugh.
+
+The ray forced it back. It receded through the air, back across the
+blackness of the cave, gathering speed until, in a moment it brought
+up against the opposite wall some forty feet away. There it hung,
+pinned as I held the ray upon it. The body had struck the rocky wall
+but the head was uninjured. It was writhing and twisting: the cave was
+filled with the reverberations of its screams.
+
+Over the screams, I heard another voice: "Oh Gregg, where are you?"
+
+Snap! Behind me, Anita was moving sidewise toward where Snap and Venza
+were lying. The thing pinned in my light stopped its screaming, with
+curiosity perhaps at this new sound.
+
+"Snap! We're here, Snap!"
+
+Then Venza's voice: "It's letting me talk. We're better now."
+
+They were recovering, Anita was bending over them. "Gregg, they're all
+right. The shock is wearing off, thank God."
+
+But I did not dare move to them. My light on the snarling thing across
+the cave held it, but I did not dare to relax my attention.
+
+I called, "Stay with them, Anita." I moved slowly forward, holding the
+beam steady. The cave floor was littered with loose stones and
+boulders. Ten feet from the pinned animal I selected a great chunk of
+rock. It towered in my hand, but the weight of it was only a few
+pounds.
+
+The gravity held the animal as though I had pinned it by a pole. From
+the distance of a few feet I heaved the boulder. The palpitating head
+mashed against the wall. The body and the pulp of the head and the
+boulder sank to the floor when I removed the beam.
+
+"Snap, thank God you've recovered! And you, Venza!"
+
+Anita and I sat with them. They had been fully conscious all the
+while, but they were out of it now.
+
+An hour passed while we sat crouched, listening to the storm.
+
+"It's letting up," Venza said out of a silence.
+
+Anita was sitting over the prone form of Molo. He had stirred and
+mumbled several times.
+
+"Let's see if we can get out of here," Snap suggested.
+
+Rocks had fallen and blocked the only exit from the cave. But to our
+strength, even the hugest of the rocks was movable.
+
+"Shall we try it now, Gregg?"
+
+As though we were elephants, heaving and pushing, we struggled with
+the litter choking the passage. There was a danger that the whole
+thing would cave in on us; but we were careful of that. We tossed the
+small rocks aside like pebbles. There was one main mass. Together we
+pulled and tugged and shifted it. A small opening was disclosed, large
+enough for our bodies. The wind puffed in through it.
+
+The girls called us. Molo had regained consciousness. The blow from
+the rock had only stunned him. We bound his wrists with a portion of
+his belt which we cut into strips.
+
+"What is it you do with me? Is Wyk dead?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He lay silent and sullen. "Look here, Molo, we're going to get out of
+this, and you're going to help us. If you don't...." The knife which
+we had taken from him to cut his belt was in my hand. I drew its blade
+lightly across his throat. "Will you talk freely and truthfully?"
+
+"Yes, I will talk the truth."
+
+"Do you know where the control station is located?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Not far."
+
+"The hell with that!" Snap burst out. "Get it meshed in your mind,
+Molo, that we're in no mood for talk like that. How far is it?"
+
+"On Earth you would call it ten miles."
+
+"In these mountains?"
+
+"He told us it was," said Anita. "Underground."
+
+"Do you know where your ship is?" I persisted.
+
+He told us that it was some thirty miles in another direction, not in
+the mountains, but in the outskirts of a city like Wor. It was
+equipped and ready for flight, all but the assembling of its crew.
+
+And now we had weapons! Molo was carrying several of the gravity
+projectors; two small searchlight beams, little hand torches; and
+three electronic ray-guns of short-range size.
+
+Hope filled us. The storm was abating. We could creep upon the single
+small control room of the gravity station, where usually but two
+operators were stationed. The delicate mechanisms there could be
+wrecked.
+
+And then we would seize the _Star-Streak_. No one would be on the
+lookout for us. The fact that Molo's prisoners had escaped was as yet
+unknown; he and Wyk had not dared tell it. Meka was back there
+waiting. Our absence from the globe dwelling might have been
+discovered; but Meka would say that we were with Molo. She was waiting
+there, hoping that her brother and Wyk would recapture us. All this we
+dragged piecemeal from Molo.
+
+Snap and I shared the gravity projectors and the small electronic
+guns. "Let's get started, Gregg. The storm seems over."
+
+It was. We found the purple-red starry night again outside. The river
+was lashed white with waves, but they were spent. There was only a
+mild warm breeze remaining.
+
+Molo's legs were free, but his wrists were lashed behind him. I hooked
+an arm under his, holding him like a huge, but light, oblong bundle.
+Snap called, "Ready, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Snap flashed on his gravity ray and mounted, with the girls clinging
+to his ankles. Then I followed with Molo. By great arching swoops, we
+swung up into the frowning, tumbled mountains.
+
+
+
+
+15
+
+
+"This will be the place to land, Gregg Haljan."
+
+We were drifting down upon a barren region of naked crags, dark,
+frowning rock-masses, broken and tumbled, as though by some great
+cataclysm of nature. Mountains upon the Moon could not be more
+desolate of aspect.
+
+We landed on the rocks. The heights here had a purple-red sheen from
+the starlight. We had seen frequent evidence of the storm; and it
+showed here. Rocks were abnormally piled in drifts; smooth areas
+showed, where the pebbles, stones and boulders had been swept away by
+the wind.
+
+Snap and the girls landed beside us. We spoke softly. None of us, not
+even Molo, knew how far sound would carry in this air.
+
+"Where is the place from here?" Snap demanded.
+
+"Off there."
+
+Molo spoke with docile, guarded softness. He gestured with his head
+and shoulder. A quarter of a mile away, over these uplands, the broken
+land went down in a sharp depression.
+
+"It is there. I think from here we should go on the ground. There is
+no guard, and I think seldom is anyone on top."
+
+"If I help you now, if we should wreck the gravity controls, then
+Wandl will be helpless to navigate space, or to interfere with the
+rotation of Earth, Mars and Venus. The allied worlds might then defeat
+the Wandl ships in battle. If that happened, perhaps your governments,
+because of my help here, would forgive what my _Star-Streak_ has
+done."
+
+"Your piracy?" I said.
+
+"Yes. I am outlawed. I might be reinstated if you would speak the good
+words for me."
+
+"Maybe."
+
+"Maybe even they would reward me. You think so, Gregg Haljan?"
+
+He wanted to be on the winning side; this suited us. "Let's try it and
+see, Molo. I'll speak plenty of good words for you."
+
+Now, as we landed on the uplands, he said, "You will do best to free
+my hands."
+
+"Oh, no!" Snap declared.
+
+"But I am a good fighter. Something unexpected might come."
+
+"Too good a fighter," I said. "We trust you because we have to, Molo,
+but no more than is necessary."
+
+A small recess in the rocks was near us. We put Molo there, with his
+hands bound, and with Anita and Venza to guard him. Venza held the
+electronic gun; she knew how to fire it. The girls crouched in a
+depression about twenty feet away. They could see Molo plainly; if he
+moved, a flash of the gun would kill him. He knew that.
+
+The girls gazed at us as we were ready to start. "Good-by, Gregg.
+Good-by, Snap. Good luck!"
+
+"We won't be long. Sit where you are." Snap touched Venza's shoulder
+for his good-by. "Listen, Venza: Molo has already told us enough to
+enable us to find the ship. If he tries anything, kill him."
+
+"Right," she said.
+
+We left them. A minute or two, cautiously shoving ourselves along the
+rocks, and we were crouching there. The cauldron was about two hundred
+feet broad and fifty feet deep; an irregular circular bowl. The
+starlight gleamed on it, and there were dots of small artificial
+light. We saw a group of small metal buildings, very low and squat,
+like balls mashed down, flattened in a bulging disc-shape; between
+them were tiny skeleton towers.
+
+The towers, twice the height of a man, were spread at irregular
+intervals in a hundred-foot circle, with a group of three or four in
+the center. There seemed some twenty of them. Taut wires connected
+their tops, each tower with every other, so that the wires were a
+lacework above the small disc buildings. The bottoms of the towers
+were grounded with electrical contacts, and every tower had a ground
+connection with each other by means of cables.
+
+Far to one side, across the bowl from us, was a single globe-dwelling
+with lighted windows. From its ground doorway, a narrow metal catwalk
+extended like a sidewalk on the ground, winding and branching among
+the towers and discs.
+
+This was the exterior of the Wandl gravity station. It lay silent and
+dark, save for the starlight and the little lights on the towers. No
+sign of humans. Then we saw movement in the globe-dwelling. A man came
+to the doorway, gazed at the sky and went back.
+
+I whispered, "Which is the best entrance to the underground rooms?"
+
+We saw where, at several points, the winding catwalk terminated in
+low, dome-like kiosks, giving ingress downward. One was on our slope
+of the cauldron. "That's the one we'll try," Snap murmured.
+
+He stopped suddenly. The top of the distant globe-dwelling was
+glowing. A little round patch there was radiant, like a lighted
+window. A transparent ray was coming from inside. The operators within
+this globe were observing the sky, training instruments upon it, no
+doubt.
+
+And now we saw in the sky the third of those sword-like beams. It had
+probably been visible there for some time but we had not noticed it.
+"That's Venus," I murmured.
+
+It seemed so. A blurred star, red in this atmosphere, was close above
+the horizon. The light-beam stood out from it, sweeping up to the
+zenith.
+
+The gravity station here was about to make contact with the Venus
+beam. We heard a muffled siren, a signal echoing from the subterranean
+control rooms. The current went into all these wires and towers and
+twenty-foot ground discs. The hissing and throbbing hum of it was
+audible. The discs and towers were glowing; red at first, then violet.
+Then that milky, opalescent white. The overhead wire-aerials were
+snapping with a myriad of tiny jumping sparks.
+
+I saw now that the top of each tower was a grid of radiant wires, a
+six-foot circular projector with a mirror reflector close beneath it
+and a series of prisms and lenses just above. It all glowed opalescent
+in a moment, a dazzling glare.
+
+Then the tower tops were swinging. The lights from them had reached
+the intensity of an upflung beam, and the projectors were swinging to
+focus the beam inward. The focal point seemed about a thousand feet
+overhead. All the beams merged there; and guided by the towers
+directly underneath, a single shaft was standing into the sky.
+
+The entire cauldron depression was now a blinding mass of opalescent
+light. We could see nothing but the milk-white inferno of glare. It
+painted the rocks up here on the rim so that we shrank back, shaded
+our eyes and gazed into the sky. And from the cauldron, the hum and
+the hiss of the current, the snapping of sparks, were all lost in a
+wild electrical screaming turmoil.
+
+Overhead, we saw the Wandl beam from Venus.
+
+Apparently this control station had two functions: the control of the
+planet's movements, its axial rotation and its orbital flight, and its
+ability to apply gravitational force to other celestial bodies.
+
+Wandl was controlling her own movements by applying gravity force,
+attraction and repulsion, to all the celestial starfield; and
+doubtless also by applying the repulsive beam tangentially against the
+ether like rocket streams. In this respect, I realized, the planet was
+probably operated not unlike one of our familiar spaceships. In
+effect, it was itself a gigantic globular vehicle. Later I learned
+that it was thought that Wandl's atmosphere could be highly
+electronized at will, with a resulting aberration of the natural
+light-ray reflected from her into space. This could have caused the
+blurring of the image of Wandl when viewed telescopically from other
+worlds.
+
+Again, for a moment of the contact, there was that bursting light in
+the sky.
+
+The contact with the Venus beam lasted a minute or two. Snap and I, on
+the cauldron rim, were engulfed in the blaze of reflected light and
+the wild scream of sound. Then presently the turmoil subsided. The
+contact in the sky was broken. The tow-rope of Venus jerked itself
+away. But on the next Venus rotation it would be attacked again.
+
+Another few minutes passed. The little circular depression beneath us
+was dim and silent as we had first seen it. Figures were moving within
+the dwelling structure. From several of the underground entrances
+figures came up, the ten-foot insect-like shapes of workers. Three or
+four of the brains came bouncing up, moving along the ground catwalk
+with little leaps. All the figures entered the distant main dwelling
+house. The contact was over.
+
+"Probably hardly anyone left down below," Snap whispered. "Now's our
+chance."
+
+"If we can get into that opening without being seen," I said.
+
+"Shadows, down the rocks to the left. Damnation, Gregg, we can make it
+in one calculated leap."
+
+"I'll try it first. I'll get in and wait for you."
+
+"Right."
+
+We each had a gravity cylinder at our belt and a ray-gun in our hand.
+The slope of the depression was dim here, merely starlit; it was a
+steep, broken and fairly shadowed descent, fifty feet to the little
+dome-like kiosk which marked the nearest subterranean entrance. I went
+down it with a swoop, landed in a heap beside the kiosk and ducked
+into it. Instinct made me fear a guard, but reason told me none would
+be here; there was only the danger of encountering someone coming up.
+
+I was at the top of a winding, descending passage, a step-terraced
+floor; there were occasional lights in the ceiling. In a moment Snap
+joined me. "Got here! I wonder how far down it goes?"
+
+I gripped him. "Snap, no matter what happens, do it with a rush. Keep
+with me. And if I shout to get out...."
+
+"We go out with a rush!"
+
+"Yes. Back to the girls. Use your ray-gun and the gravity projector in
+getting back to them and get away without me, if I fall."
+
+"Same for you, Gregg."
+
+We went down the deserted passage. We had had experience in movement
+on Wandl now; we handled ourselves more deftly. We went down several
+hundred feet. The passage branched, but there always seemed a main
+tunnel.
+
+It was all deserted. There were distant, dimly-lighted, silent rooms.
+Were these factories of the strange forms of electronic gravity
+currents Wandl used? Some were in operation. A hum issued from them.
+Workers moved about.
+
+We stopped to consult. The girls, and Molo himself, had described what
+we would find: a main route leading to the control room where the
+delicate mechanisms which operated all this were centralized, the
+nerve center of Wandl. It seemed that we were following that main
+route.
+
+A worker came with a swimming leap past us. We dropped into a hollowed
+shadow at a tunnel intersection, and he went swooping by.
+
+"Lord, Snap," I muttered, "that was too close for comfort."
+
+Again we advanced. The tunnel turned sharply. Down a short slope, a
+glowing room was disclosed, with two or three workmen moving within
+it.
+
+The main control room! We could not doubt it. Molo, in his enthusiasm,
+had once described it clearly to the girls, its great skeins of little
+thread-like wires spread upon the walls, the myriad tiny opalescent
+discs contacted with the small gray rock surface under the tangled
+masses of thread-wire, the levers and dials banked on the circular
+tables: they were unmistakable features.
+
+"There it is, Snap," I whispered in his ear. "In that central rack.
+Those insulated rods, see them? Anita told us they used them to adjust
+the discs. Watch out for the current."
+
+"But it's off now, Gregg!"
+
+"There's still danger in it, and you'd short-circuit somewhere. Keep
+your hands off. Use the rods."
+
+"The operators...."
+
+He got no further. A figure lunged into us from behind, a giant
+worker! His largest pincer bit into my shoulder; his hollow shout
+resounded. The operators of the control room came with leaps at us.
+
+There was a moment of wild confusion. Light, seemingly almost
+weightless bodies flapped against us. Arms gripped us, but they were
+flimsy. The huge body-shells cracked gruesomely as we struck with our
+solid fists.
+
+A moment of turmoil passed. No bolts were fired. The shouts were brief
+down here in the narrow confines of the tunnel. Panting, bruised more
+by our collisions against the rocks than by our adversaries, we ceased
+our wild lunges. We did not look at the scattered, broken and crushed
+bodies drifting now to the floor.
+
+"Now, Snap! Hurry! Others may come."
+
+We lunged into the glowing control room, seized the long insulated
+poles from the central rack. They had a grateful feel of weight. I
+picked one up, jumped with a twenty foot leap to the wall.
+
+The wires came down like cobwebs under my sweeping blows; the little
+discs knocked off as though they were fungus growth. Sparks flew
+around us. Shafts of electronic radiance spat out. The wall was
+hissing over all its length as I ranged up and down it. The tangled
+broken threads of wire writhed like living things on the floor; then
+crumpled, fused and turned black.
+
+I swept that wall-segment with frantic haste, lunged around and
+started another way. Across the room I saw Snap doing the same. A
+turmoil of electrical sound was reverberating around us, deafening,
+and the glare was blinding. A belt-shaft shot from the wreckage under
+my rod. It seared my left arm. My sleeve burned off; the arm hung limp
+and tingling at my side. I stopped to rub it; in a moment strength
+came back to its muscles.
+
+Snap was raging like a great heavy bird gone amok. Through the green
+fumes of electrical gases which were filling the room I saw him
+lunging at the circular tables, overturning them. They cracked like
+thin polished stone as they struck the metal floor.
+
+I finished with the wall. There was a twenty-foot square piece of
+metal apparatus, ramified and intricate; I heaved it over upon its
+side. A thousand little mirrors and prisms, dislodged from it, came
+out in a splintering deluge.
+
+I was aware of Snap fighting with a brown-shelled figure. Then he was
+free of it. I saw it mashed and broken at his feet as I dove past,
+swimming in the smoke to lunge the length of a great fluorescent tube
+which was still dimly glowing. My pole pried it over; it crashed with
+a brief puff of light and the rush of an explosion as air went into
+its vacuum.
+
+I found Snap panting beside me, clinging to me in mid-air. The glare
+was dying around us; the din was lessening. We were choking in the
+chemical fumes of the released, half-burned gases. Turgid darkness was
+coming to the wrecked room, with little hissing flares spitting
+through it.
+
+"Enough, Gregg! Listen! Up overhead...."
+
+A great siren from up there was screaming into the night.
+
+Snap panted, "Got to get out of here. Can't breathe."
+
+Together we lunged for the tunnel by which we had entered. I stood a
+moment, gazing back upon the strewn and scattered room.
+
+The delicate nerve-center of Wandl. Heavy green-black gas fumes
+swirled in it; darkness and silence closed down.
+
+
+
+
+16
+
+
+Over us was turmoil, that screaming siren. Then suddenly it was
+checked and we heard the thump and swish of what on Earth would have
+been called running footsteps and shouts.
+
+Snap shoved me. "Don't stay there, you fool!"
+
+We lunged up the passage. Figures barred it but they scattered; a bolt
+hissed at us, but missed. At the kiosk a group of workers and several
+peering little brains leaped away in terror to let us pass.
+
+We gained the open air. With the small gravity rays darting down with
+repulsion upon the rocks we mounted like rockets out of the cauldron.
+The upper plateau lay silent in the starlight, but the cauldron behind
+us was ringing with alarm, and again the danger siren was blaring.
+
+I changed my way of direction, swung it to the plateau rocks ahead.
+The arc of my flight was sharply bent as I went hurtling down. Over
+me, I saw Snap use the same tactics. I tried to aim for where we had
+left the girls and Molo. I could not see them down there amid the
+starlit crags; and suddenly a wild apprehension filled me. How had we
+dared leave them to Molo's trickery?
+
+Then, ahead and below me, I saw the slight figure of one of the girls,
+standing on a rock with arms outstretched to signal us. I changed my
+ray to repulsion barely in time to avoid crashing. The landing flung
+me in a heap. Twenty feet away, Snap came whirling down. We picked
+ourselves up, saw Anita waving from the rock, and bounded to her.
+
+The girls were safe. Venza sat intent, with unwavering watchful gaze
+across the intervening space to where Molo had flattened himself
+against his rock, not daring to move.
+
+"Still got him," Venza exulted. "He wasn't willing to take any chances
+with us. You did it, Snap?"
+
+"I'm a motor-oiler if we didn't. Come on; got to get out of this.
+They're after us! We wrecked the whole damn place, Venza. Wandl's a
+normal planet now. No more of this accursed dislocation of Earth."
+
+We learned later that our hope and our assumption that we had
+irretrievably wrecked the entire gravity control system of Wandl was
+proven to be a fact. Wandl was, in effect, a normal celestial body
+now. The beams planted in Greater New York, Ferrok-Shahn and Grebhar
+still streamed across space. But there was no giant beam from Wandl to
+seize them, and Wandl now could not move through space of her own
+volition. Like Earth, and all other known planets, satellites, comets
+and asteroids, she was subject now to all the normal natural laws of
+celestial mechanics. We had done a thorough job of it.
+
+Now I shoved at Snap. "No time to talk. You tow the girls; I'll take
+Molo. Got to get to the _Star-Streak_."
+
+I lunged over and seized Molo. "We did it. Now for your vessel! It
+will be ill for you if she is not where you say she is."
+
+"She will be there, Gregg Haljan."
+
+He docilely put himself in position for me to hook my forearm under
+his crossed, bound wrists and carry him. Snap rose up past us, towing
+the girls. Over the nearby cauldron a figure mounted to gaze and see
+the nature of this strange attacking enemy, and then sank back.
+
+With Molo hanging to me, I mounted with my ray, following Snap and the
+girls into the starlight, with the turmoil of the cauldron receding
+until in a moment or so it was gone behind our horizon.
+
+We headed now, not toward Wor, whence we had come, but over at an
+angle to the side. Our great bounding arcs soon left the mountains
+behind. We crossed the river, another portion of the forest, and came
+over undulating lowlands.
+
+It was a flight of under half an hour. The pursuit, if indeed anyone
+followed us, remained below our little segment of curving horizon.
+Everywhere there was evidence of the storm; the forest trees were laid
+flat, strewn like driftwood over the area. The river had in several
+places lashed over its banks. The lowlands were dotted thick with
+globe-dwellings. Some were hanging awry on their stems; others were
+pulled from their place, cracked and piled into a litter.
+
+We kept well aloft. The surface scenes were only glimpses of wreckage,
+moving lights and people. And there were areas which the wind had
+seemingly spared.
+
+The confusion from the storm was mingled now with the spreading alarm
+from the gravity station; the sound of the danger siren there was
+still audible behind us. As we advanced into what now seemed the
+outskirts of a city like Wor, with a pile of solid-looking metal
+structures ranging the horizon ahead, I saw a distant spaceship rise
+up and wing away. Wandl was proceeding with the dispatching of her
+space navy to oppose the distantly gathering ships of Earth, Venus,
+and Mars. No doubt with the wrecking of the control station, the
+masters of Wandl immediately recognized the paramount importance of
+the coming battle.
+
+The huge, globular, disc-like ship sailed high over us, rotating with
+the impulse of its rocket-streams. In a moment it was lost in the
+stars. And then another rose and followed it.
+
+There were many human figures in the air around us now. I mounted
+higher, and Snap with the girls followed me. The figures, intent upon
+their own affairs, did not seem to heed us.
+
+Molo's vessel lay alone upon a low metal cradle. No other ship was
+near it; but half a mile away on both sides we could see others
+resting on their stages. Lights were moving around and upon them, but
+the _Star-Streak_ was dark and neglected.
+
+We poised a thousand feet over her, and to one side. I saw her as a
+long, low, pointed vessel, dead gray in color, longer than the
+_Cometara_, and seemingly narrower, but very similar in aspect.
+
+"Meka and I are supposed to be gathering our crew," said Molo. "No one
+bothers with my vessel. Will you take me to Wor now to get Meka?"
+
+"I will not."
+
+Snap was drifting down with the girls. They were near us. His arm
+waved at me with a gesture. And then came the muffled tone of his
+voice: "Shall we drop down, Gregg?"
+
+"Yes, but cautiously. Have your gun ready."
+
+Molo protested, "I would like to take Meka with us, and a few of my
+crew. You will have trouble handling the _Star-Streak_, just us three
+men."
+
+"We'll take our chances."
+
+We dropped swiftly down upon the dark and vacant platform. The gray
+hull of the _Star-Streak_ loomed beside us, her dome arched still
+higher. An inclined catwalk went up to her opened deck-port.
+
+"I'll go first," I said softly to Snap. "Come quickly after me. Watch
+out: there might be someone on board."
+
+Venza still clung to her weapon. Mine was in my hand as I lifted Molo.
+And, ignoring the incline, bounded the thirty feet for the deck-port.
+I landed safely, and stood Molo upon his feet. "Don't you move," I
+admonished him sternly.
+
+He stood docilely against the cabin wall of the superstructure. No one
+here. We had thought there might easily be one or two workers on
+board.
+
+Snap and the girls came sailing, one after the other, and landed on
+the deck beside me. We stood silent, alert. No one appeared from
+within the cabin or from the lengths of the deck. Venza was watching
+Molo with her weapon upon him. Snap and I had planned this boarding:
+Anita and Venza to stay here and guard Molo while we searched the
+ship, and inspected the controls. We started for the cabin door oval.
+
+"Gregg!"
+
+It was all the warning Snap could give. I was within the dim cabin,
+but he, behind me, was still on the deck. I whirled to see a dozen
+dark forms leaping from the roof of the cabin superstructure. Snap was
+all but buried by them. These were not men of Wandl, but Molo's pirate
+crew, Martians, Earthmen and Venusians. Snap's ray-gun spat as he went
+down; one of the men dropped away. I saw Venza turn with startled
+horror, as the huge figure of Meka leaped down upon her and Anita from
+the roof.
+
+For an instant, weapon in hand, I paused in the doorway. I could not
+fire into the turmoil of that struggling group, so instead plunged
+into it, striking with my fists.
+
+Molo was shouting, "Do not kill them! I was ordered not to kill them!"
+
+These men, so different from the insect-like workers and the brains of
+Wandl, were solid in my grip; but we were all so weightless! I felled
+one, but others gripped me, pounded me. A struggling mass of bodies,
+arms and legs, we surged up to the superstructure roof and dropped
+upon it. My weapon was gone. Half a dozen adversaries had me pinioned.
+
+Down on the deck I saw that Venza had lost her weapon; Molo and Meka
+were clutching her. Snap was fighting with several antagonists. Anita
+was loose. She dove for the group in which Snap was struggling, hit
+them, kicked and bounded upward, to be seized by two of my own
+captors.
+
+"Anita, don't fight! They'll kill you!"
+
+I tried to break loose, but four huge Martians were holding me.
+
+"Oh, Gregg!"
+
+There was horror in Anita's voice. Snap had broken away. At the open
+deck-port he stood, as though undecided what to do. The deck was
+almost black around him; he was silhouetted against the outside
+starlight. From almost at his side, in the darkness, a tiny bolt spat
+upward at his head. His arms went wildly out; he tumbled backward. At
+the top of the boarding incline his body seemed spasmodically to kick,
+and the thrust whirled it down into the darkness.
+
+The end of Snap! A pang went through me. Snap, my best friend!
+
+Molo cursed the unknown man of his crew who had fired the shot. But
+none would admit who did it.
+
+"Get to your posts," Molo roared in Martian. "Enough of you are here.
+Lash up the prisoners; we're launching away now." He thumped his
+brawny sister as she passed him. "Well played, Meka!"
+
+These wily Martians! Molo had planned that Meka was to gather the crew
+and wait here at the ship for him and Wyk. If they returned with us as
+captives, it would be here that they would come. But if by chance
+things went adversely, Molo reasoned we would act just as we did; and
+Meka and her men were lurking here in ambush, waiting for us.
+
+All the many various ports swung shut. Anita, Venza, and I, with arms
+and legs bound, were taken by Molo to the forward observation and
+control room.
+
+The ship was resounding with signals. The interior controls in the
+hull-base raised the gravity-pull within the vessel to a strength
+comparable to that of Earth. Within a few minutes the _Star-Streak_
+lifted from the stage. Strange, weird Wandl fell away from us. We
+slid upward through the atmosphere, following one of the globular
+Wandl vessels, and headed into space toward the point where, a few
+million miles distant, the ships of allied Earth, Venus, and Mars were
+gathering.
+
+
+
+
+17
+
+
+"They are visible." Molo turned from the eyepiece of his
+electro-telescope. "Do you want to see them, Gregg Haljan?"
+
+We were in the forward control and observation turret of the
+_Star-Streak_, Molo and his sister Meka, Venza, Anita and myself.
+Unobtrusively squatting on the floor was a small, gray, rat-faced
+fellow, put there, weapon in hand, to watch us. He was a ruffian from
+the underworld of Grebhar, a member of the _Star-Streak's_ pirate
+crew.
+
+We were some ten hours out from Wandl. A group of four of the globular
+Wandl ships were with us, strung in a line some ten thousand miles to
+our left. We had been heading diagonally toward Mars. Some fifteen
+other Wandl vessels were ahead and others following.
+
+We were no more than fifteen million miles from Mars when Molo sighted
+the allied ships. "Will you observe them, Gregg Haljan?"
+
+I moved to take his place at the 'scope-grid, with the gaze of Anita
+and Venza upon me. They sat huddled together on a low bench against
+the back curve of the circular turret.
+
+It was dim here, with little spots of instrument lights, and the
+radiance coming in the glassite plates of the encircling dome. The
+loss of Snap had put a grim look upon the girls. They were dispirited,
+docile with Meka. They had hardly had a word with me. I think that all
+of us had about given up hope during those hours. Molo had consulted
+me several times with his policies of navigation.
+
+But I saw no chance to trick him. He was indeed, far more experienced
+than I, and more skillful, in celestial mechanics. I worked with him.
+I learned the operation and the handling of the _Star-Streak_, which
+was not greatly different from the _Cometara_ or the _Planetara_.
+
+Poor Snap! He and I had planned to capture and navigate this
+_Star-Streak_. We could have handled her. There were, I gathered, some
+fifteen men aboard her now, but no more than two or three were engaged
+at the navigating mechanisms. Even they could be dispensed with at
+times, for the ship's controls were all automatic, handled directly
+from the forward turret.
+
+I learned too, something, though not much, of the _Star-Streak's_
+weapons. They were similar to those of the allied ships, since Molo in
+equipping his pirate craft had seized upon all the best he could find
+of the three worlds.
+
+The _Star-Streak_, during this flight toward Mars, was in close
+communication with the Wandl craft. There was a giant vessel, the Wor,
+off to our left now. It carried the brain master in command of the
+Wandl forces. Molo took his orders from the Wor, but since his
+equipment and his weapons were so wholly different, the _Star-Streak_
+was set apart.
+
+"I can do what I like," Molo told me. "With my own judgement I can
+act; you shall see."
+
+"You've had plenty of experience, Molo."
+
+"Have I not! The terror of the starways, your world called me." He
+chuckled vaingloriously. "I must justify it now."
+
+"Act, do not talk," Meka commented sourly. "Children with toys make
+speeches like that, and then the toys get broken."
+
+"Fear not, sister. Never again will the _Star-Streak_ come to grief."
+
+And now I gazed through the 'scope at the waiting allied ships. They
+were lying some eight million miles off Mars. I gazed and saw the
+poised little group. There were perhaps fifty of them. The majority
+were Martian, long, low and very sharp-ended, and dull red in color.
+The wider Earth and Venus ships were silvery and drab. I could
+distinguish the several different types of craft in this hastily
+assembled fleet: many converted commercials like my ill-starred
+_Cometara_; a few rakish police ships; and about a dozen of the long,
+narrow supermodern warships. It was their first voyage into battle.
+They had only been built these past few years, by peaceful governments
+that protested there never again would be another war!
+
+The little fleet was lying waiting for us. It was being augmented by
+occasional other ships from Mars. They saw us coming now. The radiance
+of a Benson curve-light enveloped them, with a shaft toward us. The
+image of them shifted over a million miles to one side.
+
+Molo laughed when he saw it. "Protecting themselves already! But we
+are not going to attack them there."
+
+The first tactics of the Wandl commanders surprised me. We swung away
+from the course to Mars and headed diagonally toward Earth and Venus.
+Earth was the nearer to us, with Venus some forty million miles beyond
+her. For hours we turned in that sweeping curve. Then with our Wandl
+convoy following, we headed for Earth. I could not help admiring the
+way the _Star-Streak_ was handled. She turned more sharply than the
+Wandl craft; and before our next meal, we were leading them all.
+
+Would the allied ships follow us? It was immediately apparent they
+were coming; but from their poised position, hours of attaining
+velocity would be needed. The other allied vessels approaching from
+Venus and Earth checked their flight and turned after us. We passed
+within five or six hundred thousand miles of several of them.
+
+I found now that some twenty other Wandl ships, leaving Wandl after
+us, had headed directly for Earth. We were all together presently, the
+_Star-Streak_ and nearly fifty Wandl ships, gathered close to one side
+of the Moon. The allies, about a hundred of them, were strung through
+space, scattered, with varying velocities and flight direction, but
+most of them endeavoring to get between the Moon and Earth.
+
+This was the day! I call it that: a routine of meals which Meka grimly
+served us in the turret, and a little sleep when she took the girls
+below and I lay on the turret floor. I wondered who was in command of
+this allied force, and did not learn until afterward that it was
+Grantline. The _Cometara_ had fallen upon the Moon Apennines, not very
+far from where my old _Planetara_ still lay, near the base of
+Archimedes. But Grantline and a few of his companions, with their
+powered suits, had struggled free from the gravity pull of the
+wreckage; and a few hours later, a ship out from Earth picked them
+up.
+
+Grantline, on one of the Earth police ships, commanded the fleet now,
+and he afterward told me in detail how he endeavored to conduct his
+forces in the battle, thus enabling me to describe it from both
+viewpoints. He had been cruising toward Mars when he saw us make the
+turn. He thought a landing upon Earth might be planned and hastened
+all his ships into the area between the Moon and Earth to cut us off.
+
+But that was what Wandl wanted. The Wandl ships, with the
+_Star-Streak_ among them, made a complete slow circuit of the Moon. It
+took another day. Molo said very little to me in explanation of the
+Wandl tactics, but I could see that the object was to lure Grantline
+into following. A few of the allied ships did follow us around, but
+not many. The rest stayed carefully guarding the line between the Moon
+and Earth.
+
+There had been no encounter yet between the hostile ships. The huge
+distances involved in the engagement must be kept in mind. The gravity
+rays from the Wandl ships were only a slight disturbing element at
+such a long distance; Grantline's Zed-rays and Benson curve-lights
+were defensive only. For offence, Grantline's electronic guns and
+other weapons were of varying range, but none for such distances as
+these.
+
+Wandl seemed unwilling to begin the battle, and Grantline was cautious
+as well. He did not know what weapons these strange globular vessels
+would use; his only experience had been our encounter with the
+whirling discs.
+
+Then, at the end of the second day, came the first clash. The
+_Star-Streak_, and all the Wandl ships, were again clustered on the
+Earth side of the Moon; they were hovering perhaps twenty thousand
+miles above its surface. Grantline's force was a hundred thousand
+miles off, toward Earth. One of the Wandl ships came tentatively
+forward, and Grantline sent one of the new-style warships to meet it.
+
+They encircled each other. Both were cautious, but there was a passing
+within fifty miles. The Earth ship fired her bolts. The insulated
+barrage of the Wandl ship withstood them. There was a shower of ether
+sparks close to the ship, and a reddening of the hull, but nothing
+more. It seemed that the electro-barrages of the Wandl and allied
+ships were very similar in nature, an aura of electro-magnetism,
+enclosing the ship like a curtain fifty feet away, absorbed the
+electronic stream of the enemy bolt. The Wandl ship flung no bolts;
+she loosed a score of the whirling discs during the passing. They were
+of varying sizes, but similar to those which cut and wrecked the
+_Cometara_; in this instance, the Grantline ship was able to destroy
+each of them as it came close.
+
+This was the first encounter. The Earth warship went back to its
+squadron and the Wandl vessel rejoined its fellows. It had fired no
+bolts. Grantline suspected now what afterward proved to be the fact:
+these Wandl vessels were not equipped with long-range electronic guns.
+The Wandl defensive tactics were necessary; they feared a widespread
+encounter. They were hovering in a compact group, covering a five
+hundred mile area, over the Moon surface. Their purpose was not yet
+apparent, but Grantline saw now that one of the Wandl ships was
+dropping down and landing on the Moon. It skimmed the Apennines and
+landed not far from Archimedes.
+
+What was that for? Grantline noticed that the lowering,
+closely-gathered Wandl fleet tried to mask the landing. And their
+gravity-rays, with repulsive force, darted out to impede the Grantline
+vessels should they try to advance.
+
+This Earthward hemisphere of the Moon was now largely in shadow, but
+Grantline's Zed-ray magnifiers showed the vessel on the Moon.
+Apparatus was being unloaded. It seemed, down there on the rocky Moon
+plain in the foothills of the Apennines, that some extensive,
+elaborate base was being prepared.
+
+It was for this the hovering Wandl fleet was waiting, holding off from
+conflict until this Moon base was ready. When Grantline reached that
+conclusion, he ordered all his vessels forward to a general attack.
+
+
+
+
+18
+
+
+During this time, on the _Star-Streak_, as we and the Wandl fleet made
+that preliminary circuit of the Moon, an incident occurred which
+changed everything for me. I had noticed several times as we gathered
+in the _Star-Streak's_ forward turret, that Venza and Anita were eying
+me. Their expressions were furtive, but I realized that they were
+trying to attract my attention.
+
+We had no opportunity to speak secretly. Molo or Meka, or that
+rat-faced guard, were always too near us; and Molo kept me busy with
+computations of our course.
+
+We rounded the Moon. We gathered with the Wandl fleet some twenty
+thousand miles above the lunar surface, and I watched that ship
+descend and land. Like Grantline, I wondered what for. Molo gave me no
+hint. I saw, through his 'scope, bloated figures in pressure suits
+unloading mechanisms. They seemed to be placing huge contact-discs in
+a circle on the lunar rocks. It was reminiscent of the Wandl gravity
+station, and the contact-beam which Molo had planted in Great-New
+York.
+
+Then at last the girls had an opportunity to whisper to me. A swift
+phrase came from Anita. "Gregg! Snap is alive. Hiding on board."
+
+I gasped. Snap alive?
+
+"Planning to rescue us. You and he can capture the _Star-Streak_!"
+
+"Anita! Tell me how."
+
+"No more now! Our room below--he's near it. He spoke to us."
+
+No more. She moved away from me. But it was enough. Snap alive! I
+recalled that when he fell beside the ship, no one had bothered to go
+down after the body, and at that time the hull-ports were open.
+
+After a time Meka took the girls below. I sat with Molo, gazing down
+at the dark and gloomy surface of the Moon. I had finished the
+mathematical work Molo had given me. My thoughts were with Anita and
+Venza, down in their cabin now with Meka. Perhaps even now Snap was
+joining them.
+
+I hardly heard Molo's low, muttered curses, as he set his lenses for a
+slight alteration of our slow circular course among the Wandl fleet.
+"That fellow at my gravity-shifts acts like a nitwit. He has them
+disarranged."
+
+It snapped me to sudden alertness. "Something wrong, Molo? Nonsense!"
+
+"These men of my crew answer my controls too slowly. They should jump
+when my signals come."
+
+The plates suddenly shifted normally, but there had been an interval
+of delay. Molo was puzzled and annoyed. My heart pounded as I wondered
+if he would investigate. But he did not.
+
+"You had better sleep, Haljan. Take advantage now; we shall have
+action presently. Did you figure our emerging curve?"
+
+I shoved my computations across the table to him. "There."
+
+"You are quick, Haljan."
+
+"We should emerge from the Moon's shadow in about two hours."
+
+"But I will not hold that course. We're staying close near here with
+the other vessels, but I want some velocity always. Take your sleep,
+Haljan."
+
+I stretched on the narrow floor mattress. The turret was silent.
+
+I was aroused from a doze by Molo's activities in the turret. The
+girls and Meka were still below. The ever-silent Venusian, squatting
+in the turret corner, still had his gun upon me.
+
+I saw that Grantline's ships, over a wide fan-shaped spread, were
+advancing.
+
+And presently we were engaged in the soundless turmoil of battle. I
+cannot relate more than fragments, things I saw and experienced,
+during six or more hours of bursting electronic light and puffs of
+darkness in that spread of battle area within the Moon-shadow. It was
+a silent battle of crossing lights, ships a thousand miles apart,
+gathering velocity with great tangential curves; passing each other in
+a second; sweeping a thousand miles apart again; turning and coming
+back. A hundred engagements.
+
+The _Star-Streak_ was very fast, very mobile, and, unlike all the
+other Wandl ships, had the allies' own weapons to use against them. I
+saw now why they called Molo the terror of the starways!
+
+We swept into the shadowed battle area. Over all its thousand-mile
+spread were the radiant Wandl gravity-beams, disturbing and impeding
+the course of Grantline's ships. There was the luminous gleam of
+projectile rockets, like little comets, soundless, launched by the
+Wandl craft, and the radiance of the rocket-streams which all the
+vessels were using now for close maneuvering; the glare of Grantline's
+searchlight bombs and his white search-beams to disclose the deadly
+whirling discs which the weapons of his vessel must seek out and
+destroy. A chaos of silent light, stabbed here and there with
+Grantline's darkness bombs, bombs of limited local range which
+exploded in space and which, for a few minutes duration, absorbed all
+light-rays, giving a temporary effect of darkness.
+
+And then wreckage! Broken, leprous Wandl vessels whose barrage at
+close range had been smashed by Grantline's guns; torn and littered
+allied ships, struck by the huge exploding comet-projectiles and the
+whirling discs; airless hulks, and scattered fragments which no longer
+resembled a ship at all but only a hull plate or a torn segment of
+dome. And little drifting blobs, the survivors in pressure suits who
+had leaped from the wreckage; little blobs ignored, whirled away or
+drawn forward as by chance the sweeping gravity-beams fell upon them;
+tiny derelicts, floating stormtossed until the Moon's attraction
+caught and pulled them down, or a whirling disc cut through them, or
+the distant aura of a bolt shocked them to a merciful death.
+
+It was a three-dimensional, thousand-mile spread of fantasy infernal.
+Out of it, after an hour or two, a steady sift of every manner of
+wreckage was drifting down upon the Moon. The scene began to blur. A
+haze like glowing star-dust, or the radiance from a comet's tail, was
+spreading a weirdly luminous mist, blurring, obscuring the scene. This
+was the released electrons and the dissipating gases of the space guns
+and exploding projectiles, forming dust which glowed in the mingled
+starlight and Earthlight.
+
+The _Star-Streak_ had plunged, during those six or eight hours,
+through the battle area. Our several encounters were all characterized
+by the _Star-Streak's_ extreme flexibility, her speed, mobility, and
+Molo's reckless skill. We came through unscathed. There is a certain
+advantage for the man who seems not to care for his own life. But
+there was an encounter, the last one as it chanced, just before we
+emerged downward out of the fog and found ourselves no more than a
+thousand miles above the Moon's surface, where our adversary was
+equally reckless and only Molo's skill saved us.
+
+We came upon a Venus police ship. We plunged, as though seeking a
+collision, and the Venus ship was willing. For a moment of chaos, both
+barrages held against the exchange of bolts. Then we rolled over and
+tilted down from the impulse of the stern rockets. The passing must
+have been within feet, not miles; and in that second, Molo timed a
+shot to strike at the enemy bottom. It went through their barrage.
+Behind us, a second later, there was only strewn wreckage of the ship,
+so finely powdered that it became a silvery radiance, like moonlight
+shining on a little patch of fog.
+
+"Not too bad?" Molo gazed around for appreciation. "Not bad, Gregg
+Haljan? Molo is not too unskillful?"
+
+We hung now close above the Moon's surface, with the battle area over
+us. Out of the fog up there came the drifting wreckage; and now the
+Wandl ships were coming down, one by one. Not so many of them now; no
+more than ten of them emerged.
+
+Grantline did not follow. His ships withdrew the other way. The fog
+gradually dispersed. Grantline could now take stock of the battle; he
+had been victorious. One might call it that, since his percentage of
+strength, numerically, was greater now than when the battle began. Ten
+remaining Wandl ships, and the allies had about twenty-five.
+
+Another hour passed. Grantline's twenty-five ships were gathered in a
+close group, ten thousand miles above the Moon's surface. Under them,
+the ten Wandl vessels and the _Star-Streak_ seemed ranging in a five
+hundred mile circle. Down through it, on the rocks of the Moon in the
+foothills of the Apennines, the mechanism established there abruptly
+sprang into action.
+
+It was a giant gravity-beam. Of infinitely greater power than any
+Wandl vessel could generate, it flung out its spreading, conical ray.
+
+So this had been the purpose of all the Wandl tactics, to manipulate
+Grantline into his present position. This gravity-beam, though far
+smaller, was comparable to the one used by the Wandl control station.
+A rock contact against a huge mass, Wandl, and here, the Moon were
+necessary to give the ray its power. No ship could generate such a
+ray, so the Wandlites chose this battleground where they could
+establish themselves upon our deserted Moon.
+
+The beam had about a hundred foot diameter at its base on the rocks;
+it passed upward through the circle of Wandl vessels and its spread
+bathed all of Grantline's ships at once. An attractive beam, so
+powerful that the ships were helpless; against all their efforts they
+were pinned and drawn downward. A slight velocity at first, but with a
+tremendous acceleration.
+
+Within an hour they were hurtling, coming together as they speeded
+down the narrowing cone of the beam. The ten thousand miles, their
+distance above the Moon, was cut to five thousand. The Wandl ships
+drew aside, keeping well out of range to let them pass; in another
+thirty minutes they would crash against the rocks.
+
+I gazed in horror from the _Star-Streak's_ turret. We were sidewise to
+the angle of the beam. Grantline's ships were pulled together now into
+almost a fifty-mile group. They hung all askew, helplessly pinned,
+some broadside, some upended. The movement of their fall was so rapid
+that even with the naked eye it was apparent.
+
+"Got them now," Molo chuckled. "This is the end for them, Gregg
+Haljan."
+
+There were only three of us in the turret: Molo and I, and my
+watchful, silent guard who sat cross-legged, with a ray-gun pointed at
+me.
+
+Meka and the two girls were below during all the engagement.
+
+It was over now.
+
+During this lull Molo had sent the men from the deck gun ports to
+their hull quarters. Our decks were empty now; the bridges and
+catwalks up here had momentarily no occupants. The _Star-Streak_ had
+little velocity, only a slow drift downward toward the Moon's surface,
+which now was only a few hundred miles beneath us.
+
+The lunar disc was a great dark spread of desolation, with only the
+sunlight topping the distant horizon limb. And from under us, to the
+side, was the source of the giant gravity-beam. Over us were the
+watch-Wandl vessels, and, still higher, the helpless knot of
+Grantline's ships hurtling down.
+
+"Got them now," Molo repeated. "In another...."
+
+He never finished. From the open doorway of the turret a figure rose
+up. Snap! His aspect, even more than his appearance, transfixed me.
+Snap, with his clothes torn; grimy and spattered with blood; his face
+pale and gaunt, with hollow, blazing eyes. And above it, the shock of
+rumpled red hair. In one hand he clutched a ray-gun, and in the other
+a blood-stained knife!
+
+My guard squatting on the floor, half-turned. Snap's bolt met him
+before he could raise his weapon. He tumbled dead almost at my feet.
+And mingled with the hiss of the bolt was Snap's shout at the unarmed
+Molo.
+
+"Into the corner, you! Back up, you damned traitor, else I'll kill you
+as I've killed everyone else on this ship!"
+
+
+
+
+19
+
+
+I had leaped and seized the gun which was still in the hand of the
+dead guard. "Snap, the girls!"
+
+"Down below. Free. They've got Meka bound and gagged, locked and
+sealed in a bunk-room. You bring them up! I'll hold this accursed
+traitor. No need to kill him. By the gods, I've killed enough!"
+
+He saw for the first time the vast silent drama in the firmament
+outside the dome windows. "Gregg, for the love of...."
+
+"No time now, Snap! I'll get the girls."
+
+"Watch out. I might have missed somebody down below."
+
+He had. Three men appeared on the forward deck near the foot of our
+turret ladder. My bolt spat down upon them; two of them fell. The
+other ran aft, toward where I saw Venza and Anita appearing from the
+lounge doorway of the cabin superstructure. I fired again, and the
+running man tumbled forward on his face. He was the last of the pirate
+crew.
+
+Molo was crouching, half-bending forward over his instrument table,
+with Snap's gun upon him. The girls burst upon us. We armed them. Meka
+was safely fastened down below. We backed Molo to the floor in the
+corner, with Venza and Anita watching him.
+
+Snap and I were in control of the ship. For temporary periods the
+automatics would handle the gravity-shifters. I could operate them
+here from the turret. We had a downward velocity toward the Moon. Five
+hundred miles below us, no more, was the base of that diabolical
+gravity-ray which was so swiftly pulling the twenty-five Grantline
+ships to their destruction.
+
+I gripped Snap and told him what we must do. "The forward gun on the
+starboard side is almost identical with our Earth guns, the Francine
+projectors. With a short range you can handle it and I'll give you a
+close mark!"
+
+He dashed for the deck. I set the levers. Gravity-plates with full bow
+attraction. Stern repulsion to the Earth and the stern rocket-streams
+at highest power.
+
+The _Star-Streak_ responded smoothly; with acceleration such as only
+Molo's famous terror of the starways could attain, we dove for the
+Moon.
+
+Breathless minutes! Those Wandl ships up in the firmament behind our
+stern would probably do nothing; they would not understand this sudden
+move of their friendly ship. The brain masters, the insect-like
+Wandlites down on the Moon rocks operating the mechanism of the
+gravity-ray, would not suspect until too late what the _Star-Streak_
+was doing.
+
+Uprushing rocks, the Apennines to one side; the dark yawning maw of
+Archimedes on the other. We were diving parallel with the gravity-ray
+now, hardly a mile from it, diving for the mechanisms of its source.
+Twenty thousand feet of altitude. I bent our rocket-streams up for the
+start of our turning. Bow-hull gravity-plates next. Ten thousand feet.
+Five thousand.
+
+How close we went I never knew. It was seconds now, not minutes. I
+shifted all the controls. Our bow lifted as we straightened. The whole
+spreading lunar surface tilted and dipped. Snap fired. I saw the bolt
+flash at the tilting landscape and a puff of light down there on the
+rocks. And an instant later there were vacant rocks where the little
+cluster of men and mechanisms had been. And the upflung gravity-beam
+was gone!
+
+The giant towering cliffs of the mountain of Archimedes seemed to rush
+at our upturning bow. The great dark crater-mouth slid under our hull.
+But we cleared it; the maw of blackness slid down and away; the whole
+lunar world tilted down and dwindled as we mounted again into the
+starlight.
+
+Minutes passed while we mounted. Above our upstanding bow was a new
+drama. The suddenly-released Grantline ships, almost level with the
+ten Wandl vessels when the ray vanished, turned sidewise. The poised
+Wandl craft, devoid of velocity, could not pick up the ray to
+escape now. Grantline, for those minutes, ignored the frantically
+flung discs; it was a desperate encounter, all at close quarters. We
+saw the spitting, puffing lights and the silent turmoil, hidden
+presently by the spreading clouds of luminous fog.
+
+Then out of it came drifting the wreckage. We plunged through an end
+of the glowing fog, encountered nothing but two triumphant Venus
+vessels. With them we mounted into the upper starlight.
+
+This was the end of the battle. The victorious Grantline ships one by
+one came lunging up: only twelve of them now. No Wandl vessels were
+left.
+
+The great spreading cloud drifted down like a shroud to hide the
+wreckage, drifted and settled to the lunar surface, a great, radiant
+area of fog, gleaming in the Earthlight.
+
+
+
+
+20
+
+
+There is very little more, pertinent to this narrative, that I need
+add of the events on Earth, Venus, and Mars during this momentous
+summer. The main facts are history now: the wild storms, the damage
+done by outraged nature and the panic among the people--all of it has
+been detailed as public news. The strange light-beams planted by Wandl
+in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn have not yet burned
+themselves away. But they are lessening and scientists say that they
+will soon be gone.
+
+The changed calendars call this the New Era. The axis of each of the
+three worlds was not appreciably altered; the climates are at last
+restoring to normal. But the axial rotations of all three planets were
+slowed by that attacking Wandl beam before we wrecked the gravity
+station. The Earth day has been lengthened, resulting in the new
+calendar, the New Era. Our year, formerly of approximately 365-1/4
+days, now contains, but 358.7 days.
+
+Molo and Meka have been returned to Ferrok-Shahn. They were tried
+there for piracy and treason and are imprisoned.
+
+And Wandl? With her gravity-controls wrecked, Wandl became subject to
+the balancing celestial forces. During those succeeding months of the
+summer and autumn no other spaceships appeared from her: nor did our
+world investigate. Her presence here, even a little world one-sixth
+the size of the Moon, was causing disturbance enough!
+
+Wandl moved with slow velocity, like a dallying, strangely sluggish
+comet about to round our Sun. What would her final orbit be? By
+fortunate chance she headed in, far from the Earth and Venus; missed
+Mercury by a wide margin; went close around the Sun: came out again.
+
+But the pull of the Sun, and Mercury dragged her back. Her velocity
+was not great enough.
+
+I recall that late autumn afternoon when, with Anita, Snap, and Venza,
+I sat in the observatory near Washington, gazing at Wandl through the
+dark glass of the solar-scope. Doomed invader! She showed now as a
+tiny dark dot over the Sun's giant, blazing surface. This was her
+final plunge. The dot was presently swallowed and gone. It seemed,
+amid those giant, licking streamers of blazing gas, that there was an
+extra puff of light.
+
+And some claim now that for a brief time our sunlight was a trifle
+warmer, a little pyre to mark the end of Wandl, the Invader.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+A CLASSIC NOVEL OF INTERPLANETARY WARFARE
+
+There were nine major planets in the Solar System and it was within
+their boundaries that man first set up interplanetary commerce and
+began trading with the ancient Martian civilization. And then they
+discovered a tenth planet--a maverick!
+
+This tenth world, if it had an orbit, had a strange one, for it was
+heading inwards from interstellar space, heading close to the
+Earth-Mars spaceways, upsetting astronautic calculations and raising
+turmoil on the two inhabited worlds.
+
+But even so none suspected then just how much trouble this new world
+would make. For it was WANDL THE INVADER and it was no barren
+planetoid. It was a manned world, manned by minds and monsters and
+traveling into our system with a purpose beyond that of astronomical
+accident!
+
+It's a terrific novel from the classic days of great science-fiction
+adventure--now first published in book form. When RAY CUMMINGS took
+leave of this planet early in 1957, the world of modern
+science-fiction lost one of its genuine founding fathers. For the
+imagination of this talented writer supplied a great many of the most
+basic themes upon which the present superstructure of science-fiction
+is based. Following the lead of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, Cummings
+successfully bridged the gap between the early dawning of
+science-fiction in the last decades of the Nineteenth Century and the
+full flowering of the field in these middle decades of the Twentieth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Born in 1887, Cummings acquired insight into the vast possibilities of
+future science by a personal association with Thomas Alva Edison.
+During the 1920's and 1930's, he thrilled millions of readers with his
+vivid tales of space and time. The infinite and the infinitesimal were
+all parts of his canvas, and past, present, and future, the
+interplanetary and the extra-dimensional, all made their initial
+impact on the reading public through his many stories and novels.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Here's a quick checklist of recent releases of
+
+ACE SCIENCE-FICTION BOOKS
+
+D-449  THE GENETIC GENERAL by Gordon R. Dickson
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+       and THE EARTH GODS ARE COMING
+       by Kenneth Bulmer
+
+D-455  THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE-FICTION
+       Fourth Series, edited by Anthony Boucher.
+
+D-457  VULCAN'S HAMMER by Philip K. Dick
+       and THE SKYNAPPERS by John Brunner
+
+D-461  THE TIME TRADERS by Andre Norton
+
+D-465  THE MARTIAN MISSILE by David Grinnell
+       and THE ATLANTIC ABOMINATION
+       by John Brunner
+
+D-468  SENTINELS OF SPACE by Eric Frank Russell
+
+D-471  SANCTUARY IN THE SKY by John Brunner
+       and THE SECRET MARTIANS by Jack Sharkey
+
+D-473  THE GREATEST ADVENTURE by John Taine
+
+D-479  TO THE TOMBAUGH STATION by Wilson Tucker
+       and EARTHMAN GO HOME by Poul Anderson
+
+D-482  THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER
+       by A. E. Van Vogt
+
+35c
+
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+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Wandl the Invader, by Raymond King Cummings
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