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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ultimate Weapon, by John Wood Campbell
+
+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: The Ultimate Weapon
+
+Author: John Wood Campbell
+
+Illustrator: Gerald McConnell
+
+Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23790]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ULTIMATE WEAPON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Cover Illustration:
+ JOHN W. CAMPBELL
+ THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
+
+ When star fights star,
+ is chaos the best defense?]
+
+
+
+
+RED SUN RISING
+
+
+The star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes it was blazing,
+brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly dim, cool, shedding little
+warmth on its many planets. Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was
+seeking a better star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That
+star had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system. And in
+his astronomical searching, he found Sol.
+
+With hundreds of ships, each larger than whole Terrestrial spaceports,
+and traveling faster than the speed of light, the Mirans set out to move
+in to Solar regions and take over.
+
+And on Earth there was nothing which would be capable of beating off
+this incredible armada--until Buck Kendall stumbled upon THE ULTIMATE
+WEAPON.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN W. CAMPBELL first started writing in 1930 when his first short
+story, _When the Atoms Failed_, was accepted by a science-fiction
+magazine. At that time he was twenty years old and still a student at
+college. As the title of the story indicates, he was even at that time
+occupied with the significance of atomic energy and nuclear physics.
+
+For the next seven years, Campbell, bolstered by a scientific background
+that ran from childhood experiments, to study at Duke University and the
+Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote and sold science-fiction,
+achieving for himself an enviable reputation in the field.
+
+In 1937 he became the editor of _Astounding Stories_ magazine and
+applied himself at once to the task of bettering the magazine and the
+field of s-f writing in general. His influence on science-fiction since
+then has been great. Today he still remains as the editor of that
+magazine's evolved and redesigned successor, _Analog_.
+
+
+
+
+            _THE
+          ULTIMATE
+           WEAPON_
+
+
+             by
+      JOHN W. CAMPBELL
+
+
+
+       ACE BOOKS, INC.
+ 1120 Avenue of the Americas
+    New York, N.Y. 10036
+
+
+
+
+THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
+
+Copyright, 1936, by John W. Campbell
+
+Originally published as a serial in _Amazing Stories_ under the title of
+_Uncertainty_.
+
+All Rights Reserved
+
+
+_Cover by Gerald McConnell_
+
+
+Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
+    typographical errors have been corrected without note. Subscript
+    characters are shown within {braces}. The mathematical symbol pi is
+    shown as [pi].
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I
+
+
+Patrol Cruiser "IP-T 247" circling out toward Pluto on leisurely
+inspection tour to visit the outpost miners there, was in no hurry at
+all as she loafed along. Her six-man crew was taking it very easy, and
+easy meant two-man watches, and low speed, to watch for the instrument
+panel and attend ship into the bargain.
+
+She was about thirty million miles off Pluto, just beginning to get in
+touch with some of the larger mining stations out there, when Buck
+Kendall's turn at the controls came along. Buck Kendall was one of
+life's little jokes. When Nature made him, she was absentminded. Buck
+stood six feet two in his stocking feet, with his usual slight stoop in
+operation. When he forgot, and stood up straight, he loomed about two
+inches higher. He had the body and muscles of a dock navvy, which Nature
+started out to make. Then she forgot and added something of the same
+stuff she put in Sir Francis Drake. Maybe that made Old Nature nervous,
+and she started adding different things. At any rate, Kendall, as
+finally turned out, had a brain that put him in the first rank of
+scientists--when he felt like it--the general constitution of an ostrich
+and a flair for gambling.
+
+The present position was due to such a gamble. An IP man, a friend of
+his, had made the mistake of betting him a thousand dollars he wouldn't
+get beyond a Captain's bars in the Patrol. Kendall had liked the idea
+anyway, and adding a bit of a bet to it made it irresistible. So, being
+a very particular kind of a fool, the glorious kind which old Nature
+turns out now and then, he left a five million dollar estate on Long
+Island, Terra, that same evening, and joined up in the Patrol. The Sir
+Francis Drake strain had immediately come forth--and Kendall was having
+the time of his life. In a six-man cruiser, his real work in the
+Interplanetary Patrol had started. He was still in it--but it was his
+command now, and a blue circle on his left sleeve gave his lieutenant's
+rank.
+
+Buck Kendall had immediately proceeded to enlist in his command the IP
+man who had made the mistaken bet, and Rad Cole was on duty with him
+now. Cole was the technician of the T-247. His rank as Technical
+Engineer was practically equivalent to Kendall's circle-rank, which made
+the two more comfortable together.
+
+Cole was listening carefully to the signals coming through from Pluto.
+"That," he decided, "sounds like Tad Nichols' fist. You can recognize
+that broken-down truck-horse trot of his on the key as far away as you
+can hear it."
+
+"Is that what it is?" sighed Buck. "I thought it was static mushing him
+at first. What's he like?"
+
+"Like all the other damn fools who come out two billion miles to scratch
+rock, as if there weren't enough already on the inner planets. He's got
+a rich platinum property. Sells ninety percent of his output to buy his
+power, and the other eleven percent for his clothes and food."
+
+"He must be an efficient miner," suggested Kendall, "to maintain 101%
+production like that."
+
+"No, but his bank account is. He's figured out that's the most economic
+level of production. If he produces less, he won't be able to pay for
+his heating power, and if he produces more, his operation power will
+burn up his bank account too fast."
+
+"Hmmm--sensible way to figure. A man after my own heart. How does he
+plan to restock his bank account?"
+
+"By mining on Mercury. He does it regularly--sort of a commuter. Out
+here his power bills eat it up. On Mercury he goes in for potassium, and
+sells the power he collects in cooling his dome, of course. He's a good
+miner, and the old fool can make money down there." Like any really
+skilled operator, Cole had been sending Morse messages while he talked.
+Now he sat quiet waiting for the reply, glancing at the chronometer.
+
+"I take it he's not after money--just after fun," suggested Buck.
+
+"Oh, no. He's after money," replied Cole gravely. "You ask him--he's
+going to make his eternal fortune yet by striking a real bed of jovium,
+and then he'll retire."
+
+"Oh, one of that kind."
+
+"They all are," Cole laughed. "Eternal hope, and the rest of it." He
+listened a moment and went on. "But old Nichols is a first-grade
+engineer. He wouldn't be able to remake that bankroll every time if he
+wasn't. You'll see his Dome out there on Pluto--it's always the best on
+the planet. Tip-top shape. And he's a bit of an experimenter too.
+Ah--he's with us."
+
+Nichols' ragged signals were coming through--or pounding through. They
+were worse than usual, and at first Kendall and Cole couldn't make them
+out. Then finally they got them in bursts. The man was excited, and his
+bad key-work made it worse. "--Randing stopped. They got him I think. He
+said--th--ship as big--a--nsport. Said it wa--eaded my--ay. Neutrons--on
+instruments--he's coming over the horizon--it's huge--war ship I
+think--register--instru--neutrons--." Abruptly the signals were blanked
+out completely.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cole and Kendall sat frozen and stiff. Each looked at the other abruptly,
+then Kendall moved. From the receiver, he ripped out the recording coil,
+and instantly jammed it into the analyzer. He started it through once,
+then again, then again, at different tone settings, till he found a very
+shrill whine that seemed to clear up most of Nichols' bad key-work.
+"T-247--T-247--Emergency. Emergency. Randing reports the--over his
+horizon. Huge--ip--reign manufacture. Almost spherical. Randing's stopped.
+They got him I think. He said the ship was as big as a transport. Said
+it was headed my way. Neutrons--ont--gister--instruments. I think--is
+h--he's coming over the horizon. It's huge, and a war ship I
+think--register--instruments--neutrons."
+
+Kendall's finger stabbed out at a button. Instantly the noise of the
+other men, wakened abruptly by the mild shocks, came from behind.
+Kendall swung to the controls, and Cole raced back to the engine room.
+The hundred-foot ship shot suddenly forward under the thrust of her tail
+ion-rockets. A blue-red cloud formed slowly behind her and expanded.
+Talbot appeared, and silently took her over from Kendall. "Stations,
+men," snapped Kendall. "Emergency call from a miner of Pluto reporting a
+large armed vessel which attacked them." Kendall swung back, and eased
+himself against the thrusting acceleration of the over-powered little
+ship, toward the engine room. Cole was bending over his apparatus,
+making careful check-ups, closing weapon-circuits. No window gave view
+of space here; on the left was the tiny tender's pocket, on the right,
+above and below the great water tanks that fed the ion-rockets, behind
+the rockets themselves. The tungsten metal walls were cold and gray
+under the ship lights; the hunched bulks of the apparatus crowded the
+tiny room. Gigantic racked accumulators huddled in the corners. Martin
+and Garnet swung into position in the fighting-tanks just ahead of the
+power rooms; Canning slid rapidly through the engine room, oozed through
+a tiny door, and took up his position in the stern-chamber, seated
+half-over the great ion-rocket sheath.
+
+"Ready in positions, Captain Kendall," called the war-pilot as the
+little green lights appeared on his board.
+
+"Test discharges on maximum," ordered Kendall. He turned to Cole. "You
+start the automatic key?"
+
+"Right, Captain."
+
+"All shipshape?"
+
+"Right as can be. Accumulators at thirty-seven per cent, thanks to the
+loaf out here. They ought to pick up our signal back on Jupiter, he's
+nearest now. The station on Europa will get it."
+
+"Talbot--we are only to investigate if the ship is as reported. Have you
+seen any signs of her?"
+
+"No sir, and the signals are blank."
+
+"I'll work from here." Kendall took his position at the commanding
+control. Cole made way for him, and moved to the power board. One by one
+he tested the automatic doors, the pressure bulkheads. Kendall watched
+the instruments as one after another of the weapons were tested on
+momentary full discharge--titanic flames of five million volt protons.
+Then the ship thudded to the chatter of the Garnell rifles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tensely the men watched the planet ahead, white, yet barely visible in
+the weak sunlight so far out. It was swimming slowly nearer as the tiny
+ship gathered speed.
+
+Kendall cast a glance over his detector-instruments. The radio network
+was undisturbed, the magnetic and electric fields recognized only the
+slight disturbances occasioned by the planet itself. There was nothing,
+noth--
+
+Five hundred miles away, a gigantic ship came into instantaneous being.
+Simultaneously, and instantaneously, the various detector systems howled
+their warnings. Kendall gasped as the thing appeared on his view screen,
+with the scale-lines below. The scale must be cock-eyed. They said the
+ship was fifteen hundred feet in diameter, and two thousand long!
+
+"Retreat," ordered Kendall, "at maximum acceleration."
+
+Talbot was already acting. The gyroscopes hummed in their castings, and
+the motors creaked. The T-247 spun on her axis, and abruptly the
+acceleration built up as the ion-rockets began to shudder. A faint smell
+of "heat" began to creep out of the converter. Immense "weight" built
+up, and pressed the men into their specially designed seats--
+
+The gigantic ship across the way turned slowly, and seemed to stare at
+the T-247. Then it darted toward them at incredible speed till the poor
+little T-247 seemed to be standing still, as sailors say. The stranger
+was so gigantic now, the screens could not show all of him.
+
+"God, Buck--he's going to take us!"
+
+Simultaneously, the T-247 rolled, and from her broke every possible
+stream of destruction. The ion-rocket flames swirled abruptly toward
+her, the proton-guns whined their song of death in their housings, and
+the heavy pounding shudder of the Garnell guns racked the ship.
+
+Strangely, Kendall suddenly noticed, there was a stillness in the ship.
+The guns and the rays were still going--but the little human sounds
+seemed abruptly gone.
+
+"Talbot--Garnet--" Only silence answered him. Cole looked across at him
+in sudden white-faced amazement.
+
+"They're gone--" gasped Cole.
+
+Kendall stood paralyzed for thirty seconds. Then suddenly he seemed to
+come to life. "Neutrons! Neutrons--and water tanks! Old Nichols was
+right--" He turned to his friend. "Cole--the tender--quick." He darted a
+glance at the screen. The giant ship still lay alongside. A wash of ions
+was curling around her, splitting, and passing on. The pinprick
+explosions of the Garnell shells dotted space around her--but never on
+her.
+
+Cole was already racing for the tender lock. In an instant Kendall piled
+in after him. The tiny ship, scarcely ten feet long, was powered for
+flights of only two hours acceleration, and had oxygen for but
+twenty-four hours for six men, seventy-two hours for two men--maybe. The
+heavy door was slammed shut behind them, as Cole seated himself at the
+panel. He depressed a lever, and a sudden smooth push shot them away
+from the T-247.
+
+"DON'T!" called Kendall sharply as Cole reached for the ion-rocket
+control. "Douse those lights!" The ship was dark in dark space. The
+lighted hull of the T-247 drifted away from the little tender--further
+and further till the giant ship on the far side became visible.
+
+"Not a light--not a sign of fields in operation." Kendall said,
+unconsciously speaking softly. "This thing is so tiny, that it may
+escape their observation in the fields of the T-247 and Pluto down
+there. It's our only hope."
+
+"What happened? How in the name of the planets did they kill those men
+without a sound, without a flash, and without even warning us, or
+injuring us?"
+
+"Neutrons--don't you see?"
+
+"Frankly, I don't. I'm no scientist--merely a technician. Neutrons
+aren't used in any process I've run across."
+
+"Well, remember they're uncharged, tiny things. Small as protons, but
+without electric field. The result is they pass right through an
+ordinary atom without being stopped unless they make a direct hit.
+Tungsten, while it has a beautifully high melting point, is mostly open
+space, and a neutron just sails right through it, or any heavy atom.
+Light atoms stop neutrons better--there's less open space in 'em.
+Hydrogen is best. Well--a man is made up mostly of light elements, and a
+man stops those neutrons--it isn't surprising it killed those other
+fellows invisibly, and without a sound."
+
+"You mean they bathed that ship in neutrons?"
+
+"Shot it full of 'em. Just like our proton guns, only sending neutrons."
+
+"Well, why weren't we killed too?"
+
+"'Water stops neutrons,' I said. Figure it out."
+
+"The rocket-water tanks--all around us! Great masses of water--" gasped
+Cole. "That saved us?"
+
+"Right. I wonder if they've spotted us."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The stranger ship was moving slowly in relation to the T-247. Suddenly
+the motion changed, the stranger spun--and a giant lock appeared in her
+side, opened. The T-247 began to move, floated more and more rapidly
+straight for the lock. Her various weapons had stopped operating now,
+the hoppers of the Garnell guns exhausted, the charge of the
+accumulators aboard the ship down so low the proton guns had died out.
+
+"Lord--they're taking the whole ship!"
+
+"Say--Cole, is that any ship you ever heard of before? _I don't think
+that's just a pirate!_"
+
+"Not a pirate--what then?"
+
+"How'd he get inside our detector screens so fast? Watch--he'll either
+leave, or come after us--" The T-247 had settled inside the lock now,
+and the great metal door closed after it. The whole patrol ship had been
+swallowed by a giant. Kendall was sketching swiftly on a notebook,
+watching the vast ship closely, putting down a record of its lines, and
+formation. He glanced up at it, and then down for a few more lines, and
+up at it--
+
+The stranger ship abruptly dwindled. It dwindled with incredible speed,
+rushing off along the line of sight at an impossible velocity, and
+abruptly clicking out of sight, like an image on a movie-film that has
+been cut, and repaired after the scene that showed the final
+disappearance.
+
+"Cole--Cole--did you get that? Did you see--do you understand what
+happened?" Kendall was excitedly shouting now.
+
+"He missed us," Cole sighed. "It's a wonder--hanging out here in space,
+with the protector of the T-247's fields gone."
+
+"No, no, you asteroid--that's not it. _He went off faster than light
+itself!_"
+
+"Eh--what? Faster than _light_? That can't be done--"
+
+"He did it, I know he did. That's how he got inside our screens. He came
+inside faster than the warning message could relay back the information.
+Didn't you see him accelerate to an impossible speed in an impossible
+time? Didn't you see how he just vanished as he exceeded the speed of
+light, and stopped reflecting it? _That ship was no ship of this solar
+system!_"
+
+"Where did he come from then?"
+
+"God only knows, but it's a long, long way off."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The IP-M-122 picked them up. The M-122 got out there two days later, in
+response to the calls the T-247 had sent out. As soon as she got within
+ten million miles of the little tender, she began getting Cole's
+signals, and within twelve hours had reached the tiny thing, located it,
+and picked it up.
+
+Captain Jim Warren was in command, one of the old school commanders of
+the IP. He listened to Kendall's report, listened to Cole's tale--and
+radioed back a report of his own. Space pirates in a large ship had
+attacked the T-247, he said, and carried it away. He advised a close
+watch. On Pluto, his investigations disclosed nothing more than the fact
+that three mines had been raided, all platinum supplies taken, and the
+records and machinery removed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The M-122 was a fifty-man patrol cruiser, and Warren felt sure he could
+handle the menace alone, and hung around for over two weeks looking for
+it. He saw nothing, and no further reports came of attack. Again and
+again, Kendall tried to convince him this ship he was hunting was no
+mere space pirate, and again and again Warren grunted, and went on his
+way. He would not send in any report Kendall made out, because to do so
+would add his endorsement to that report. He would not take Kendall
+back, though that was well within his authority.
+
+In fact, it was a full month before Kendall again set foot on any of the
+Minor Planets, and then it was Mars, the base of the M-122. Kendall and
+Cole took passage immediately on an IP supply ship, and landed in New
+York six days later. At once, Kendall headed for Commander McLaurin's
+office. Buck Kendall, lieutenant of the IP, found he would have to make
+regular application to see McLaurin through a dozen intermediate
+officers.
+
+By this time, Kendall was savagely determined to see McLaurin himself,
+and see him in the least possible time. Cole, too, was beginning to
+believe in Kendall's assertion of the stranger ship's extra-systemic
+origin. As yet neither could understand the strange actions of the
+machine, its attack on the Pluto mines, and the capture and theft of a
+patrol ship.
+
+"There is," said Kendall angrily, "just one way to see McLaurin and see
+him quick. And, by God, I'm going to. Will you resign with me, Cole?
+I'll see him within a week then, I'll bet."
+
+For a minute, Cole hesitated. Then he shook hands with his friends.
+"Today!" And that day it was. They resigned, together. Immediately, Buck
+Kendall got the machinery in motion for an interview, working now from
+the outside, pulling the strings with the weight of a hundred million
+dollar fortune. Even the IP officers had to pay a bit of attention when
+Bernard Kendall, multi-millionaire began talking and demanding things.
+Within a week, Kendall _did_ see McLaurin.
+
+At that time, McLaurin was fifty-three years old, his crisp hair still
+black as space, with scarcely a touch of the gray that appears in his
+more recent photographs. He stood six feet tall, a broad-shouldered,
+powerful man, his face grave with lines of intelligence and character.
+There was also a permanent narrowing of the eyes, from years under the
+blazing sun of space. But most of all, while those years in space had
+narrowed and set his eyes, they had not narrowed and set his mind. An
+infinitely finer character than old Jim Warren, his experience in space
+had taught him always to expect the unexpected, to understand the
+incomprehensible as being part of the unknown and incalculable
+properties of space and the worlds that swam in it. Besides the fine
+technical education he had started with, he had acquired a liberal
+education in mankind. When Buck Kendall, straight and powerful, came
+into his office with Cole, he recognized in him a character that would
+drive steadily and straight for its goal. Also, he recognized behind the
+millionaire that had succeeded in pulling wires enough to see him, the
+scientist who had had more than one paper published "in an amateur way."
+
+"Dr. Bernard Kendall?" he asked, rising.
+
+"Yes, sir. Late Buck Kendall, lieutenant of the IP. I quit and got Cole
+here to quit with me, so we could see you."
+
+"Unusual tactics. I've had several men join up to get an interview with
+me." McLaurin smiled.
+
+"Yes, I can imagine that, but we had to see you in a hurry. A hidebound
+old rapscallion by the name of Jim Warren picked us up out by Pluto,
+floating around in a six-man tender. We made some reports to him, but he
+wouldn't believe, and he wouldn't send them through--so we had to send
+ourselves through. Sir, this system is about to be attacked by some
+extra-systemic race. The IP-T-247 was so attacked, her crew killed off,
+and the ship itself carried away."
+
+"I got the report Captain Jim Warren sent through, stating it was a gang
+of space pirates. Now what makes you believe otherwise?"
+
+"That ship that attacked us, attacked with a neutron gun, a gun that
+shot neutrons through the hull of our ship as easily as protons pass
+through open space. Those neutrons killed off four of the crew, and
+spared us only because we happened to be behind the water tanks. Masses
+of hydrogen will stop neutrons, so we lived, and escaped in the tender.
+The little tender, lightless, escaped their observation, and we were
+picked up. Now, when the 247 had been picked up, and locked into their
+ship, that ship started accelerating. It accelerated so fast along my
+line of sight that it just dwindled, and--vanished. It didn't vanish in
+distance, it vanished _because it exceeded the speed of light_."
+
+"Isn't that impossible?"
+
+"Not at all. It can be done--if you can find some way of escaping from
+this space to do it. Now if you could cut across through a higher
+dimension, your _projection_ in this dimension might easily exceed the
+speed of light. For instance, if I could cut directly through the Earth,
+at a speed of one thousand miles an hour, my projection on the surface
+would go twelve thousand miles while I was going eight. Similar, if you
+could cut _through_ the four dimensional space instead of following its
+surface, you'd attain a speed greater than light."
+
+"Might it not still be a space pirate? That's a lot easier to believe,
+even allowing your statement that he exceeded the speed of light."
+
+"If you invented a neutron gun which could kill through tungsten walls
+without injuring anything within, a system of accelerating a ship that
+didn't affect the inhabitants of that ship, and a means of exceeding the
+speed of light, all within a few months of each other, would you become
+a pirate? I wouldn't, and I don't think any one else would. A pirate is
+a man who seeks adventure and relief from work. Given a means of
+exceeding the speed of light, I'd get all the adventure I wanted
+investigating other planets. If I didn't have a cent before, I'd have
+relief from work by selling it for a few hundred millions--and I'd sell
+it mighty easily too, for an invention like that is worth an
+incalculable sum. Tie to that the value of compensated acceleration, and
+no man's going to turn pirate. He can make more millions selling his
+inventions than he can make thousands turning pirate with them. So who'd
+turn pirate?"
+
+"Right." McLaurin nodded. "I see your point. Now before I'd accept your
+statements _in re_ the 'speed of light' thing, I'd want opinions from
+some IP physicists."
+
+"Then let's have a conference, because something's got to be done soon.
+I don't know why we haven't heard further from that fellow."
+
+"Privately--we have," McLaurin said in a slightly worried tone. "He was
+detected by the instruments of every IP observatory I suspect. We got
+the reports but didn't know what to make of them. They indicated so many
+funny things, they were sent in as accidental misreadings of the
+instruments. But since _all_ the observatories reported them, similar
+misreadings, at about the same times, that is with variations of only a
+few hours, we thought something must have been up. The only thing was
+the phenomena were reported progressively from Pluto to Neptune, clear
+across the solar system, in a definite progression, but at a velocity of
+crossing that didn't tie in with any conceivable force. They crossed
+faster than the velocity of light. That ship must have spent about half
+an hour off each planet before passing on to the next. And, accepting
+your faster-than-light explanation, we can understand it."
+
+"Then I think you have proof."
+
+"If we have, what would you do about it?"
+
+"Get to work on those 'misreadings' of the instruments for one thing,
+and for a second, and more important, line every IP ship with paraffin
+blocks six inches thick."
+
+"Paraffin--why?"
+
+"The easiest form of hydrogen to get. You can't use solid hydrogen,
+because that melts too easily. Water can be turned into steam too
+easily, and requires more work. Paraffin is a solid that's largely
+hydrogen. That's what they've always used on neutrons since they
+discovered them. Confine your paraffin between tungsten walls, and
+you'll stop the secondary protons as well as the neutrons."
+
+"Hmmm--I suppose so. How about seeing those physicists?"
+
+"I'd like to see them today, sir. The sooner you get started on this
+work, the better it will be for the IP."
+
+"Having seen me, will you join up in the IP again?" asked McLaurin.
+
+"No, sir, I don't think I will. I have another field you know, in which
+I may be more useful. Cole here's a better technician than fighter--and
+a darned good fighter, too--and I think that an inexperienced
+space-captain is a lot less useful than a second-rate physicist at work
+in a laboratory. If we hope to get anywhere, or for that matter, I
+suspect, stay anywhere, we'll have to do a lot of research pretty
+promptly."
+
+"What's your explanation of that ship?"
+
+"One of two things: an inventor of some other system trying out his
+latest toy, or an expedition sent out by a planetary government for
+exploration. I favor the latter for two reasons: that ship was _big_. No
+inventor would build a thing that size, requiring a crew of several
+hundred men to try out his invention. A government would build just
+about that if they wanted to send out an expedition. If it were an
+inventor, he'd be interested in meeting other people, to see what they
+had in the way of science, and probably he'd want to do it in a
+peaceable way. That fellow wasn't interested in peace, by any means. So
+I think it's a government ship, and an unfriendly government. They sent
+that ship out either for scientific research, for trade research and
+exploration, or for acquisitive exploration. If they were out for
+scientific research, they'd proceed as would the inventor, to establish
+friendly communication. If they were out for trade, the same would
+apply. If they were out for acquisitive exploration, they'd investigate
+the planets, the sun, the people, only to the extent of learning how
+best to overcome them. They'd want to get a sample of our people, and a
+sample of our weapons. They'd want samples of our machinery, our
+literature and our technology. That's exactly what that ship got.
+
+"Somebody, somewhere out there in space, either doesn't like their home,
+or wants more home. They've been out looking for one. I'll bet they sent
+out hundreds of expeditions to thousands of nearby stars, gradually
+going further and further, seeking a planetary system. This is probably
+the one and only one they found. It's a good one too. It has planets at
+all temperatures, of all sizes. It is a fairly compact one, it has a
+stable sun that will last far longer than any race can hope to."
+
+"Hmm--how can there be good and bad planetary systems?" asked McLaurin.
+"I'd never thought of that."
+
+Kendall laughed. "Mighty easy. How'd you like to live on a planet of a
+Cepheid Variable? Pleasant situation, with the radiation flaring up and
+down. How'd you like to live on a planet of Antares? That blasted sun
+is so big, to have a comfortable planet you'd have to be at least ten
+billion miles out. Then if you had an interplanetary commerce, you'd
+have to struggle with orbits tens of billions of miles across instead of
+mere millions. Further, you'd have a sun so blasted big, it would take
+an impossible amount of energy to lift the ship up from one planet to
+another. If your trip was, say, twenty billions of miles to the next
+planet, you'd be fighting a gravity as bad as the solar gravity at Earth
+here all the way--no decline with a little distance like that."
+
+"H-m-m-m--quite true. Then I should say that Mira would take the prize.
+It's a red giant, and it's an irregular variable. The sunlight there
+would be as unstable as the weather in New England. It's almost as big
+as Antares, and it won't hold still. Now that _would_ make a bad
+planetary system."
+
+"It would!" Kendall laughed. But as we know--he laughed too soon, and he
+shouldn't have used the conditional. He should have said, "It does!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Gresth Gkae, Commander of Expeditionary Force 93, of the Planet Sthor,
+was returning homeward with joyful mind. In the lock of his great ship,
+lay the T-247. In her cargo holds lay various items of machinery, mining
+supplies, foods, and records. And in her log books lay the records of
+many readings on the nine larger planets of a highly satisfactory
+planetary system.
+
+Gresth Gkae had spent no less than three ultra-wearing years going from
+one sun to another in a definitely mapped out section of space. He had
+investigated only eleven stars in that time, eleven stars, progressively
+further from the titanic red-flaming sun he knew as "the" sun. He knew
+it as "the" sun, and had several other appellations for it. Mira was
+so-named by Earthmen because it was indeed a "wonder" star, in Latin,
+mirare means "to wonder." Irregularly, and for no apparent reason it
+would change its rate of radiation. So far as those inhabitants of Sthor
+and her sister world Asthor knew, there was no reason. It just did it.
+Perhaps with malicious intent to be annoying. If so, it was
+exceptionally successful. Sthor and Asthor experienced, periodically, a
+young ice age. When Mira decided to take a rest, Sthor and Asthor froze
+up, from the poles most of the way to the equators. Then Mira would
+stretch herself a little, move about restlessly and Sthor and Asthor
+would become uninhabitably hot, anywhere within twenty degrees of the
+equator.
+
+Those Sthorian people had evolved in a way that made the conditions
+endurable for savage or uncivilized people, but when a scientific
+civilization with a well-ordered mode of existence tried to establish
+itself, Mira was all sorts of a nuisance.
+
+Gresth Gkae was a peculiar individual to human ways of thinking. He
+stood some seven feet tall, on his strange, double-kneed legs and his
+four toed feet. His body was covered with little, short feather-like
+things that moved now with a volition of their own. They were moving
+very slowly and regularly. The space-ship was heated to a comfortable
+temperature, and the little fans were helping to cool Gresth Gkae. Had
+it been cold, every little feather would have lain down close against
+its neighbors, forming an admirable, wind-proof and cold-proof blanket.
+
+Nature, on Sthor, had original ideas of arrangement too. Sthorians
+possessed two eyes--one directly above the other, in the center of their
+faces. The face was so long, and narrow, it resembled a blunt hatchet,
+with the two eyes on the edge. To counter-balance this vertical
+arrangement of the eyes, the nostrils had been separated some four
+inches, with one on each of the sloping cheeks. His ears were little
+pink-flesh cups on short, muscular stems. His mouth was narrow, and
+small, but armed with quite solid teeth adapted to his diet, a diet
+consisting of almost anything any creature had ever considered edible.
+Like most successful forms of intelligent life, Gresth Gkae was
+omnivorous. An intelligent form of life is necessarily adaptable, and
+adaptation meant being able to eat what was at hand.
+
+One of his eyes, the upper one, was fully twice the size of the lower
+one. This was his telescopic eye. The lower, or microscopic eye was
+adapted to work for which a human being would have required a low power
+microscope, the upper eye possessed a more normal power of vision,
+_plus_ considerable telescopic powers.
+
+Gresth Gkae was using it now to look ahead in the blank of space to
+where gigantic Mira appeared. On his screens now, Mira appeared deep
+violet, for he was approaching at a speed greater than that of light,
+and even this projected light of Mira was badly distorted.
+
+"The distance is half a light-year now, sir," reported the navigation
+officer.
+
+"Reduce the speed, then, to normal velocity for these ranges. What
+reserve of fuel have we?"
+
+"Less than one thousand pounds. We will barely be able to stop. We were
+too free in the use of our weapons, I fear," replied the Chief
+Technician.
+
+"Well, what would you? We needed those things in our reports. Besides,
+we could extract fuel from that ore we took on at Planet Nine of Phahlo.
+It is merely that I wish speed in the return."
+
+"As we all do. How soon do you believe the Council will proceed against
+the new system?"
+
+"It will be fully a year, I fear. They must gather the expeditions
+together, and re-equip the ships. It will be a long time before all will
+have come in."
+
+"Could they not send fast ships after them to recall them?"
+
+"Could they have traced us as we wove our way from Thart to Karst to
+Raloork to Phahlo? It would be impossible."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Steadily the great ship had been boring on her way. Mira had been a disc
+for nearly two days, gigantic, two-hundred-and-fifty-million-mile Mira
+took a great deal of dwarfing by distance to lose her disc. Even at the
+Twin Planets, eight thousand two hundred and fifty millions of miles
+out, Mira covered half the sky, it seemed, red and angry. Sometimes,
+though, to the disgust of the Sthorians it was just red-faced and lazy.
+Then Sthor froze.
+
+"Grih is in a descendant stage," said the navigation officer presently.
+"Sthor will be cold when we arrive."
+
+"It will warm quickly enough with our news!" Gresth laughed. "A
+system--a delightful system--discovered. A system of many close-grouped
+planets. Why think--from one side of that system to the other is less of
+a distance than from Ansthat, our first planet's orbit, to Insthor's
+orbit! That sun, as we know, is steady and warm. All will be well, when
+we have eliminated that rather peculiar race. Odd, that they should, in
+some ways, be so nearly like us! Nearly Sthorian in build. I would not
+have expected it. Though they did have some amazing peculiarities!
+Imagine--two eyes just alike, and in a horizontal row. And that flat
+face. They looked as though they had suffered some accident that smashed
+the front of the face in. And also the peculiar beak-like projection.
+Why should a race ever develop so amazing a projection in so peculiar
+and exposed a position? It sticks out inviting attack and injury. Right
+in the middle of the face. And to make it worse, there is the
+air-channel, and the only air channel. Why, one minor injury to the
+throat would be certain to damage that passage beyond repair, and bring
+death. Yet such relatively unimportant things as ears, and eyes are
+doubled. Surely you would expect that so important a member as the
+air-passage would be doubled for safety.
+
+"Those strange, awkward arms and legs were what puzzled me. I have been
+attempting to manipulate myself as they must be forced to, and I cannot
+see how delicate or accurate manual manipulation would be possible with
+those rigid, inflexible arms. In some ways I feel they must have had
+clever minds to overcome so great a handicap to constructive work. But I
+suppose single joints in the arms become as natural to them as our own
+more mobile two.
+
+"I wonder if life in any intelligent form wouldn't develop somewhat
+similar formations, though. Think, in all parts of Sthor, before men
+became civilized and developed communication, even so much as twenty
+thousand years ago, our records show that seats and chairs were much as
+they are today, and much as they are, in all places among all groups.
+Then too, the eye has developed in many different species, and always
+reached much the same structure. When a thing is intended and developed
+to serve a given purpose, no matter who develops it, or where or how, is
+it not apt to have similar shapes and parts? A chair must have legs, and
+a seat and arm-rests and a back. You may vary their nature and their
+shape, but not widely, and they must be there. An eye must, anywhere,
+have a sensitive retina, an adjustable lens, and an adjustable device
+for controlling the entrance of light. Similarly there are certain
+functions that the body of an intelligent creature must serve which
+naturally tend to make intelligent creatures similar. He must have a
+tool--the hand--"
+
+"Yes, yes--I see your point. It must be so, for surely these creatures
+out there are strange enough in other ways."
+
+"But tell me, have you calculated when we shall land?"
+
+"In twelve hours, thirty-three minutes, sir."
+
+Eleven hours later, the expedition ship had slowed to a normal
+space-speed. On her left hung the giant globe of Asthor, rotating
+slowly, moving slowly in her orbit. Directly ahead, Sthor loomed even
+greater. Tiny Teelan, the thousand-mile diameter moon of the Insthor
+system shone dull red in the reflected light of gigantic Mira. Mira
+herself was gigantic, red and menacing across eight and a quarter
+billions of miles of space.
+
+One hundred thousand miles apart, the twin worlds Sthor and Asthor
+rotated about their common center of gravity, eternally facing each
+other. Ten million miles from their common center of gravity, Teelan
+rotated in a vast orbit.
+
+Sthor and Asthor were capped at each pole now by gigantic white icecaps.
+Mira was sulking, and as a consequence the planets were freezing.
+
+The expedition ship sank slowly toward Sthor. A swarm of smaller craft
+had flown up at its approach to meet it. A gaily-colored small ship
+marked the official greeting-ship. Gresth had withheld his news
+purposely. Now suddenly he began broadcasting it from the powerful
+transmitter on his ship. As the words came through on a thousand sets,
+all the little ships began to whirl, dance and break out into glowing,
+sparkling lights. On Sthor and Asthor even commotions began to be
+visible. A new planetary system had been found-- They could move! Their
+overflowing populations could be spread out!
+
+The whole Insthor system went mad with delight as the great
+Expeditionary Ship settled downward.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+There was a glint of humor in Buck Kendall's eyes as he passed the sheet
+over to McLaurin. Commander McLaurin looked down the columns with
+twinkling eyes.
+
+"'Petition to establish the Lunar Mining Bank,'" he read. "What a bank!
+Officers: President, General James Logan, late of the IP;
+Vice-president, Colonel Warren Gerardhi, also late of the IP; Staff,
+consists of 90% ex-IP men, and a few scattered accountants. Designed by
+the well-known designer of IP stations, Colonel Richard Murray."
+Commander McLaurin looked up at Kendall with a broad grin. "And you
+actually got Interplanetary Life to give you a mortgage on the
+structure?"
+
+"Why not? It'll cut cost fifty-eight millions, with its twelve-foot
+tungsten-beryllium walls and the heavy defense weapons against those
+terrible pirates. You know we must defend our property."
+
+"With the thing you're setting up out there on Luna, you could more
+readily wipe out the IP than anything else I know of. Any new defense
+ideas?"
+
+"Plenty. Did you get any further appropriations from the IP
+Appropriations Board?"
+
+McLaurin looked sour. "No. The dear taxpayers might object, and those
+thickheaded, clogged rockets on the Board can't see your data on the
+Stranger. They gave me just ten millions, and that only because you
+demonstrated you could shoot every living thing out of the latest IP
+cruiser with that neutron gun of yours. By the way, they may kick when I
+don't install more than a few of those."
+
+"Let 'em. You can stall for a few months. You'll need that money more
+for other purposes. You've installed that paraffin lining?"
+
+"Yes--I got a report on that of 'finished' last week. How have you made
+out?"
+
+Buck Kendall's face fell. "Not so hot. Devin's been the biggest help--he
+did most of the work on that neutron gun really--"
+
+"After," McLaurin interrupted, "you told him how."
+
+"--but we're pretty well stuck now, it seems. You'll be off duty
+tomorrow evening, can't you drop around to the lab? We're going to try
+out a new system for releasing atomic energy."
+
+"Isn't that a pretty faint hope? We've been trying to get it for three
+centuries now, and haven't yet. What chance at it within a year or
+so?--which is the time you allow yourself before the Stranger returns."
+
+"It is, I'll admit that. But there's another factor, not to be
+forgotten. The data we got from correlating those 'misreadings' from the
+various IP posts mean a lot. We are working on an entirely different
+trail now. You come on out, and you can see our new apparatus. They are
+working on tremendous voltages, and hoping to smash the thing by a
+brutal bombardment of terrific voltage. We're trying, thanks to the
+results of those instruments, to get results with small, terrifically
+intense fields."
+
+"How do you know that's their general system?"
+
+"They left traces on the records of the post instruments. These records
+show such intensities as we never got. They have atomic energy,
+necessarily, and they might have had material energy, actual destruction
+of matter, but apparently, from the field readings it's the former. To
+be able to make those tremendous hops, light-years in length, they
+needed a real store of energy. They have accumulators, of course, but I
+don't think they could store enough power by the system they use to do
+it."
+
+"Well, how's your trick 'bank' out on Luna, despite its twelve-foot
+walls, going to stand an atomic explosion?"
+
+"More protective devices to come is our only hope. I'm working on three
+trails: atomic energy, some type of magnetic shield that will stop any
+moving material particle, and their faster-than-light thing. Also, that
+fortress--I mean, of course, bank--is going to have a lot of lead-lined
+rooms."
+
+"I wish I could use the remaining money the Board gave me to lead-line a
+lot of those IP ships," said McLaurin wistfully. "Can't you make a
+gamma-ray bomb of some sort?"
+
+"Not without their atomic energy release. With it, of course, it's easy
+to flood a region with rays. It'll be a million times worse than radium
+'C,' which is bad enough."
+
+"Well, I'll send through this petition for armaments. They'll pass it
+all right, I think. They may get some kicks from old Jacob Ezra Stubbs.
+Jacob Ezra doesn't believe in anything war-like. I wish they'd find some
+way to keep him off of the Arms Petition Board. He might just as well
+stay home and let 'em vote his ticket uniformly 'nay.'" Buck Kendall
+left with a laugh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Buck Kendall had his troubles though. When he had reached Earth again,
+he found that his properties totaled one hundred and three million
+dollars, roughly. One doesn't sell properties of that magnitude, one
+borrows against them. But to all intents and purposes, Buck Kendall
+owned two half-completed ship's hulls in the Baldwin Spaceship Yards, a
+great deal of massive metal work on its way to Luna, and contracts for
+some very extensive work on a "bank." Beyond that, about eleven million
+was left.
+
+A large portion of the money had been invested in a laboratory, the like
+of which the world had never seen. It was devoted exclusively to
+physics, and principally the physics of destruction. Dr. Paul Devin was
+the Director, Cole was in charge of the technical work, and Buck Kendall
+was free to do all the work he thought needed doing.
+
+Returned to his laboratory, he looked sourly at the bench on which seven
+mechanicians were working. The ninth successive experiment on the
+release of atomic energy had failed. The tenth was in process of
+construction. A heavy pure tungsten dome, three feet in diameter, three
+inches thick, was being lowered over a clear insulum dome, a foot
+smaller. Inside, the real apparatus was arranged around the little pool
+of mercury. From it, two massive tungsten-copper alloy conductors led
+through the insulum housing, and outside. These, so Kendall had hoped,
+would surge with the power of broken atoms, but he was beginning to
+believe rather bitterly, they would never do so.
+
+Buck went on to his offices, and the main calculator room. There were
+ten calculator tables here, two of them in operation now.
+
+"Hello, Devin. Getting on?"
+
+"No," said Devin bitterly, "I'm getting off. Look at these results." He
+brought over a sheaf of graphs, with explanatory tables attached.
+Rapidly Buck ran through them with him. Most of them were graphs of
+functions of light, considered as a wave in these experiments.
+
+"H-m-m-m--not very encouraging. Looks like you've got the field--but it
+just snaps shut on itself and won't work. The lack of volume makes it
+break down, if you establish it, and makes it impossible to establish in
+the first place without the energy of matter. Not so hot. That's
+certainly cock-eyed somewhere."
+
+"I'm not. The math may be."
+
+"Well"--Kendall grinned--"it amounts to the same thing. The point is,
+light doesn't. Let's run over that theory again. Light is not only
+magnetic; but electric. Somehow it transforms electric fields cyclically
+into magnetic fields and back again. Now what we want to do is to
+transform an electric into a magnetic field and have it stay there.
+That's the first step. The second thing, is to have the lines of
+magnetic force you develop, lie down like a sheath around the ship,
+instead of standing out like the hairs on an angry cat, the way they
+want to. That means turning them ninety degrees, and turning an electric
+into a magnetic field means turning the space-strain ninety degrees.
+Light evidently forms a magnetic field whose lines of force reach along
+its direction of motion, so that's your starting point."
+
+"Yes, and _that_," growled Devin, "seems to be the finishing point.
+Quite definitely and clearly, the graph looped down to zero. In other
+words, the field closed in on itself, and destroyed itself."
+
+"Light doesn't vanish."
+
+"I'll make you all the lights you want."
+
+"I simply mean there must be something that will stop it."
+
+"Certainly. Transform it back to electric field before it gets a chance
+to close in, then repeat the process--the way light does."
+
+"That wouldn't make such a good magnetic shield. Every time that field
+started pulsing out through the walls of the ship it would generate
+heat. We want a permanent field that will stay on the job out there. I
+wonder if you couldn't make a conductor device that would open that
+field out--some special type of oscillating field that would keep it
+open."
+
+"H-m-m-m--that's an angle I might try. Any suggestions?"
+
+Kendall had suggestions, and rapidly he outlined a development that
+appeared from some of the earlier mathematics on light, and might be
+what they wanted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kendall, however, had problems of his own to work on. The question of
+atomic energy he was leaving alone, till the present experiment either
+succeeded, or, as he rather suspected, failed as had its predecessors.
+His present problem was to develop more fully some interesting lines of
+research he had run across in investigating mathematically the trick of
+turning electric to magnetic fields and then turning them back again. It
+might be that along this line he would find the answer to the speed
+greater than that of light. At any rate, he was interested.
+
+He worked the rest of that day, and most of the next on that line--till
+he ran it into the ground with a pair of equations that ended with the
+expression: dx.dv=h/(4[pi]m). Then Kendall looked at them for a long
+moment, then he sighed gently and threw them into a file cabinet.
+Heisenberg's Uncertainty. He'd reduced the thing to a form that simply
+told him it was beyond the limits of certainty and he ran it into the
+normal, natural uncertainty inevitable in Nature.
+
+Anyway he had real work to do now. The machine was about ready for his
+attention. The mechanicians had finished putting it in shape for
+demonstration and trial. He himself would have to test it over the rest
+of the afternoon and arrange for power and so forth.
+
+By evening, when Commander McLaurin called around with some of the other
+investors in Kendall's "bank" on Luna, the thing was already started,
+warming up. The fields were being fed and the various scientists of the
+group were watching with interest. Power was flowing in already at a
+rate of nearly one hundred thousand horsepower per minute, thanks to a
+special line given them by New York Power (a Kendall property). At ten
+o'clock they were beginning to expect the reaction to start. By this
+time the fields weren't gaining in intensity very rapidly, a maximum
+intensity had been reached that should, they felt, break the atoms soon.
+
+At eleven-thirty, through the little view window, Buck Kendall saw
+something that made him cry out in amazement. The mercury metal in the
+receiver, behind its layers of screening was beginning to glow, with a
+dull reddish light, and little solidifications were appearing in it!
+Eagerly the men looked, as the solidifications spread slowly, like
+crystals growing in an evaporating solution.
+
+Twelve o'clock came and went, and one o'clock and two o'clock. Still the
+slow crystallization went on. Buck Kendall was casting furtive glances
+at the kilowatt-hour meter. It stood at a figure that represented
+twenty-seven thousand dollars' worth of power. Long since the power rate
+had been increased to the maximum available, as the power plant's normal
+load reduced as the morning hours came. Surely, this time something
+would start, but Buck had two worries. If all the enormous amount of
+energy they had poured in there decided to release itself at once--
+
+And at any rate, Buck saw they'd never dare to let a generator stop,
+once it was started!
+
+The men were a tense group around the machine at three-fifteen A.M.
+There remained only a tiny, dancing globule of silvery mercury
+skittering around on the sharp, needle-like crystals of the dull red
+metal that had resulted. Slowly that skittering drop was shrinking--
+
+Three twenty-two and a half A.M. saw the last fraction of it vanish.
+Tensely the men stared into the machine--backing off slowly--watching
+the meters on the board. At nearly eighty thousand volts the power had
+been fed into it.
+
+The power continued to flow, and a growing halo of intense violet light
+appeared suddenly on those red, needle-like crystals, a swiftly
+expanding halo--
+
+Without a sound, without the slightest disturbance, the halo vanished,
+and softly, gently, the needle-like crystals relapsed, melted away, and
+a dull pool of metallic mercury rested in the receiver.
+
+At eighty thousand volts, power was flowing in--
+
+And it didn't even sparkle.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The apparatus of the magnetic shield had been completed two days later,
+and set up in Buck's own laboratory. On the bench was the powerful, but
+small, little projector of the straight magnetic field, simply a
+specially designed accumulator, a super-condenser, and the peculiar
+apparatus Devin had designed to distort the electric field through
+ninety degrees to a magnetic field. Behind this was a curious,
+paraboloid projector made up of hundreds of tiny, carefully orientated
+coils. This was Buck's own contribution. They were ready for the tests.
+
+"I would invite McLaurin in to see this," said Kendall looking at them,
+and then across the room bitterly toward the alleged atomic power
+apparatus on the opposite bench. "I think it will work. But after
+_that_--" He stared, glaring, at the heavy tungsten dome with its heavy
+tungsten contacts, across which the flame of released atomic energy was
+supposed to have leapt. "That was probably the flattest flop any
+experiment ever flopped."
+
+"Well--it didn't blow up. That's one comfort," suggested Devin.
+
+"I wish it had. Then at least it would have shown some response. The
+only response shown, actually, was shown on the power meter. It damn
+near wore out the bearings turning so fast."
+
+"Personally, I prefer the lack of action." Devin laughed. "Have you got
+that circuit hooked up?"
+
+"Right," sighed Kendall, turning back to the work in hand. "Is Douglass
+in on this?"
+
+"Yes--in the next room. He'll let us know when he's ready. He's setting
+up those instruments."
+
+Douglass, a young junior physicist, late of the IP Physics Department,
+stuck his head in the door and announced his instruments were all set
+up.
+
+"Keep an eye on them. They'll move somehow, at any rate. This thing
+couldn't go as flat as that atom-buster of mine."
+
+Carefully Kendall made a few last-minute adjustments on the limiting
+relays, and took up his position at the power board. Devin took his
+place near the apparatus, with another series of instruments, similar to
+those Douglass was now watching in the next room, some thirty feet away,
+through the two-inch metal wall. "Ready," called Kendall.
+
+The switch shot home. Instantly Kendall, Devin, and all the men in the
+building jumped some six feet from their former positions. A monstrous
+roar of sound crashed out in that laboratory that thundered from one
+wall to the other, and bellowed in a Titan's fury. It thundered and
+growled, it bellowed and howled, the walls shook with the march and
+counter-march of crashing waves of sound.
+
+And a ten-foot wavering flame of blue-white, bellying electric fire
+shuddered up to the ceiling from the contact points of the alleged
+atomic generator. The heat, pouring out from the flashing, roaring arc
+sent prickles of aching burns over Kendall's skin. For ten seconds he
+stood in utter, paralyzed surprise as his flop of flops bellowed its
+anger at his disdain. Then he leapt to the power board and shut off the
+roaring thing, by cutting the switch that had started it.
+
+"Spirits of Space! Did _that_ come to life!"
+
+"_Atomic Energy!_" Devin cried.
+
+"Atomic energy, hell. That's my thirty thousand dollars' worth of power
+breaking loose again," chortled Kendall. "We missed the atomic energy,
+but, sweet boy, what an accumulator we stubbed our toes on! I wondered
+where in blazes all that power went to. That's the answer. I'll bet I
+can tell you right now what happened. We built that mercury up to a new
+level, and that transitional stage was the red, crystalline metal. When
+it reached the higher stage, it was temporarily stable--but that
+projector over there that we designed for the purpose of holding open
+electric and magnetic fields just opened the door and let all that power
+right out again."
+
+"But why isn't it atomic energy? How do you know that no more than your
+power that you put in is coming out?" demanded Devin.
+
+"The arc, man, the arc. That was a high-current, and low-voltage arc.
+Couldn't you tell by the sound that no great voltage--as atomic voltages
+go--was smashing across there? If we were getting atomic voltage--and
+power--there'd have been a different tone to it, high and shriller.
+
+"Now, did you take any readings?"
+
+"What do you think, man? I'm human. Do you think I got any readings with
+that thing bellowing and shrieking in my ears, and burning my skin with
+ultra-violet? It itches now."
+
+Kendall laughed. "You know what to do for an itch. Now, I'm going to
+make a bet. We had those points separated for a half-million volts
+discharge, but there was a dust-cover thrown over them just now. That,
+you notice, is missing. I'll bet that served as a starter lead for the
+main arc. Now I'm going to start that projector thing again, and move
+the points there through about six inches, and that thing probably won't
+start itself."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Most of the laboratory staff had collected at the doorway, looking in at
+the white-hot tungsten discharge points, and the now silent "atomic
+engine." Kendall turned to them and said: "The flop picked itself up.
+You go on back, we seem to be all in one piece yet. Douglass, you didn't
+get any readings, did you?"
+
+Sheepishly, Douglass grinned at him. "Eh--er--no--but I tore my pants.
+The magnetic field grabbed me and I jumped. They had some steel buttons,
+and a lot of steel keys--they're kinda' hard to keep on now."
+
+The laboratory staff broke into a roar of laughter, as Douglass, holding
+up his trousers with both hands was beheld.
+
+"I guess the field worked," he said.
+
+"I guess maybe it did," adjudged Kendall solemnly. "We have some rope
+here if you need it--"
+
+Douglass returned to his post.
+
+Swiftly, Kendall altered the atomic distortion storage apparatus, and
+returned to the power-board. "Ready?"
+
+"Check."
+
+Kendall shoved home the switch. The storage device was silent. Only a
+slight feeling of strain made itself felt, and the sudden noisy hum of a
+small transformer nearby. "She works, Buck!" Devin called. "The readings
+check almost exactly."
+
+"All good then. Now I want to get to that atomic thing. We can let that
+slide for a little bit--I'll answer it."
+
+The telephone had rung noisily. "Kendall Labs--Kendall speaking."
+
+"This is Superintendent Foster, of the New York Power, Mr. Kendall. We
+have some trouble just now that we think your operations may be
+responsible for. The sub-station at North Beaumont blew all the fuses,
+and threw the breakers at the main station. The men out there said the
+transformers began howling--"
+
+"Right you are--I'm afraid I did do that. I had no idea that it would
+reach so far. How far is that from my place here?"
+
+"It's about a thousand yards, according to the survey maps."
+
+"Thanks--and I'll be careful about it. Any damage, I am responsible for?
+All okay?"
+
+"Yes, sir, Mr. Kendall."
+
+Kendall hung up. "We stirred up a lot more dust
+than we expected, Devin. Now let's start seeing if we can keep track of
+it. Douglass, how did your readings show?"
+
+"I took them at the ten stations, and here they are. The stations are
+two feet apart."
+
+"H-m-m--.5--.55--.6--.7--20--198--5950--6010--6012--5920. Very, very
+nice--only the darned thing's got an arm as long as the law. Your
+readings were about .2, Devin?"
+
+"That's right."
+
+"Then these little readings are just leakage. What's our normal
+intensity here?"
+
+"About .19. Just a very small fraction less than the readings."
+
+"Perfect--we have what amounts to a hollow shell of magnetic force--we
+can move inside, and you can move outside--far enough. But you can't get
+a conductor or a magnetic field through it." He put the readings on the
+bench, and looked at the apparatus across the room. "Now I want to start
+right on that other. Douglass, you move that magnetostat apparatus out
+of the way, and leave just the 'can-opener' of ours--the projector. I'm
+pretty sure that's what does the deed. Devin, see if you can hunt up
+some electrostatic voltmeters with a range in the neighborhood of--I
+think it'll be about eighty thousand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rapidly, Douglass was dismounting the apparatus, as Devin started for
+the stock room. Kendall started making some new connections,
+reconnecting the apparatus they had intended using on the "atomic
+engine," largely high-capacity resistances. He seemed to perform this
+work mechanically, his mind definitely on something else. Suddenly he
+stopped, and looked carefully into the receiver of the machine. The
+metal in it was silvery, liquid, and here and there a floating crystal
+of the dull red metal. Slowly a smile spread across his face. He turned
+to Douglass.
+
+"Douglass--ah, you're through. Get on the trail of MacBride, and get him
+and his crew to work making half a dozen smaller things like this. Tell
+'em they can leave off the tungsten shield. I want different metals in
+the receiver of each. Use--hmmm--sodium--copper--magnesium--aluminium,
+iron and chromium. Got it?"
+
+"Yes, sir." He left, just as Devin returned with a large electrostatic
+voltmeter.
+
+"I'd like," said he, "to know how you know the voltage will range around
+eighty thousand."
+
+"K-ring excitation potential for mercury. I'm willing to bet that thing
+simply shoved the whole electron system of the mercury out a notch--that
+it simply _hasn't_ any K-ring of electrons now. I'm trying some other
+metals. Douglass is going to have MacBride make up half a dozen more
+machines. Machines--they need a name. This--ah--this is an 'atostor.'
+MacBride's going to make up half a dozen of 'em, and try half a dozen
+metals. I'm almost certain that's not mercury in there now, at all. It's
+probably element 99 or something like it."
+
+"It looks like mercury--"
+
+"Certainly. So would 99. Following the periodic table, 99 would probably
+have an even lower melting point than mercury, be silvery, dense and
+heavy--and perhaps slightly radioactive. The series under the B family
+of Group II is Magnesium, Zinc, Cadmium, Mercury--and 99. The melting
+point is going down all the way, and they're all silvery metals. I'm
+going to try copper, and I fully expect it to turn silvery--in fact, to
+become silver."
+
+"Then let's see." Swiftly they hooked up the apparatus, realigned the
+projector, and again Kendall took his place at the power-board. As he
+closed the switch, on no-load, the electrostatic voltmeter flopped over
+instantly, and steadied at just over 80,000 volts.
+
+"I hate to say 'I told you so,'" said Kendall. "But let's hook in a
+load. Try it on about 100 amps first."
+
+Devin began cutting in load. The resistors began heating up swiftly as
+more and more current flowed through them. By not so much as by a
+vibration of the voltmeter needle, did the apparatus betray any strain
+as the load mounted swiftly. 100--200--500--1000 amperes. Still, that
+needle held steady. Finally, with a drain of ten thousand amperes, all
+the equipment available could handle, the needle was steady as a rock,
+though the tremendous load of 800,000,000 watts was cut in and out.
+That, to atoms, atoms by the nonillions, was no appreciable load at all.
+There was _no_ internal resistance whatever. The perfect accumulator
+had certainly been discovered.
+
+"I'll have to call McLaurin--" Kendall hurried away with a broad, broad
+smile.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+"Hello, Tom?"
+
+The telephone rattled in a peeved sort of way. "Yes, it is. What now?
+And when am I going to see you in a social sort of way again?"
+
+"Not for a long, long time; I'm busy. I'm busy right now as a matter of
+fact. I'm calling up the vice-president of Faragaut Interplanetary
+Lines, and I want to place an order."
+
+"Why bother me? We have clerks, you know, for that sort of thing,"
+suggested Faragaut in a pained voice.
+
+"Tom, do you know how much I'm worth now?"
+
+"Not much," replied Faragaut promptly. "What of it? I hear, as a matter
+of fact that you're worth even less in a business way. They're talking
+quite a lot down this way about an alleged bank you're setting up on
+Luna. I hear it's got more protective devices, and armor than any IP
+station in the System, that you even had it designed by an IP designer,
+and have a gang of Colonels and Generals in charge. I also hear that
+you've succeeded in getting rid of money at about one million dollars a
+day--just slightly shy of that."
+
+"You overestimate me, my friend. Much of that is merely contracted for.
+Actually it'll take me nearly nine months to get rid of it. And by that
+time I'll have more. Anyway, I think I have something like ten million
+left. And remember that way back in the twentieth century some old
+fellow beat my record. Armour, I think it was, lost a million dollars a
+day for a couple of months running.
+
+"Anyway, what I called you up for was to say I'd like to order five
+hundred thousand tons of mercury, for delivery as soon as possible."
+
+"What! Oh, say, I thought you were going in for business." Faragaut gave
+a slight laugh of relief.
+
+"Tom, I am. I mean exactly what I say. I want
+five--hundred--thousand--_tons_ of metallic mercury, and just as soon as
+you can get it."
+
+"Man, there isn't that much in the system."
+
+"I know it. Get all there is on the market for me, and contract to take
+all the 'Jupiter Heavy-Metals' can turn out. You send those orders
+through, and clean out the market completely. Somebody's about to pay
+for the work I've been doing, and boy, they're going to pay through the
+nose. After you've got that order launched, and don't make a christening
+party of the launching either, why just drop out here, and I'll show you
+why the value of mercury is going so high you won't be able to follow it
+in a space ship."
+
+"The cost of that," said Faragaut, seriously now, "will be
+about--fifty-three million at the market price. You'd have to put up
+twenty-six cash, and I don't believe you've got it."
+
+Buck laughed. "Tom, loan me a dozen million, will you? You send that
+order through, and then come see what I've got. I've got a break, too!
+Mercury's the best metal for this use--and it'll stop gamma rays too!"
+
+"So it will--but for the love of the system, what of it?"
+
+"Come and see--tonight. Will you send that order through?"
+
+"I will, Buck. I hope you're right. Cash is tight now, and I'll probably
+have to put up nearer twenty million, when all that buying goes through.
+How long will it be tied up in that deal, do you think?"
+
+"Not over three weeks. And I'll guarantee you three hundred percent--if
+you'll stay in with me after you start. Otherwise--I don't think making
+this money would be fair just now."
+
+"I'll be out to see you in about two hours, Buck. Where are you? At the
+estate?" asked Faragaut seriously.
+
+"In my lab out there. Thanks, Tom."
+
+McLaurin was there when Tom Faragaut arrived. And General Logan, and
+Colonel Gerardhi. There was a restrained air of gratefulness about all
+of them that Tom Faragaut couldn't quite understand. He had been looking
+up Buck Kendall's famous bank, and more and more he had begun to wonder
+just what was up. The list of stockholders had read like a list of IP
+heroes and executives. The staff had been a list of IP men with a
+slender sprinkling of accountants. And the sixty-million dollar
+structure was to be a bank without advertising of any sort! Usually such
+a venture is planned and published months in advance. This had sprung up
+suddenly, with a strange quietness.
+
+Almost silently, Buck Kendall led the way to the laboratory. A small
+metal tank was supported in a peculiar piece of apparatus, and from it
+led a small platinum pipe to a domed apparatus made largely of insulum.
+A little pool of mercury, with small red crystals floating in it rested
+in a shallow hollow surrounded by heavy conductors.
+
+"That's it, Tom. I wanted to show you first what we have, and why I
+wanted all that mercury. Within three weeks, every man, woman and child
+in the system will be clamoring for mercury metal. That's the perfect
+accumulator." Quickly he demonstrated the machine, charging it, and then
+discharging it. It was better than 99.95% efficient on the charge, and
+was 100% efficient on the discharge.
+
+"Physically, any metal will do. Technically, mercury is best for a
+number of reasons. It's a liquid. I can, and do it in this, charge a
+certain quantity, and then move it up to the storage tank. Charge
+another pool, and move it up. In discharge, I can let a stream flow in
+continuously if I required a steady, terrific drain of power without
+interruption. If I wanted it for more normal service, I'd discharge a
+pool, drain it, refill the receiver, and discharge a second pool. Thus,
+mercury is the metal to use.
+
+"Do you see why I wanted all that metal?"
+
+"I do, Buck--Lord, I do," gasped Faragaut. "That is the perfect power
+supply."
+
+"No, confound it, it isn't. It's a secondary source. It isn't primary.
+We're just as limited in the _supply_ of power as ever--only we have
+increased our distribution of power. Lord knows, we're going to need a
+power _supply_ badly enough before long--" Buck relapsed into moody
+silence.
+
+"What," asked Faragaut, looking around him, "does that mean?"
+
+It was McLaurin who told him of the stranger ship, and Kendall's
+interpretation of its meaning. Slowly Faragaut grasped the meaning
+behind Buck's strange actions of the past months.
+
+"The Lunar Bank," he said slowly, half to himself. "Staffed by trained
+IP men, experts in expert destruction. Buck, you said something about
+the profits of this venture. What did you mean?"
+
+Buck smiled. "We're going to stick up IP to the extent necessary to pay
+for that fort--er--bank--on Luna. We'll also boost the price so that
+we'll make enough to pay for those ships I'm having made. The public
+will pay for that."
+
+"I see. And we aren't to stick the price too high, and just make money?"
+
+"That's the general idea."
+
+"The IP Appropriations Board won't give you what you need, Commander,
+for real improvements on the IP ships?"
+
+"They won't believe Kendall. Therefore they won't."
+
+"What did you mean about gamma rays, Buck?"
+
+"Mercury will stop them and the Commander here intends to have the
+refitted ships built so that the engine room and control room are one,
+and completely surrounded by the mercury tanks. The men will be
+protected against the gamma rays."
+
+"Won't the rays affect the power stored in the mercury--perhaps release
+it?"
+
+"We tried it out, of course, and while we can't get the intensities we
+expect, and can't really make any measurements of the gamma-ray energy
+impinging on the mercury--it seems to absorb, and store that energy!"
+
+"What's next on the program, Buck?"
+
+"Finish those ships I have building. And I want to do some more
+development work. The Stranger will return within six months now, I
+believe. It will take all that time, and more for real refitting of the
+IP ships."
+
+"How about more forts--or banks, whichever you want to call them. Mars
+isn't protected."
+
+"Mars is abandoned," replied General Logan seriously. "We haven't any
+too much to protect old Earth, and she must come first. Mars will, of
+course, be protected as best the IP ships can. But--we're expecting
+defeat. This isn't a case of glorious victory. It will be a case of hard
+won survival. We don't know anything about the enemy--except that they
+are capable of interstellar flights, and have atomic energy. They are
+evidently far ahead of us. Our battle is to survive till we learn how to
+conquer. For a time, at least, the Strangers will have possession of
+most of the planets of the system. We do not think they will be able to
+reach Earth, because Commander McLaurin here will withdraw his ships to
+Earth to protect the planet--and the great 'Lunar Bank' will display its
+true character."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Faragaut looked unsympathetically at Buck Kendall, as he stood glaring
+perplexedly at the apparatus he had been working on.
+
+"What's the matter, Buck, won't she perk?"
+
+"No, damn it, and it should."
+
+"That," pointed out Faragaut, "is just what you think. Nature thinks
+otherwise. We generally have to abide by her opinions. What is it--or
+what is it meant to be?"
+
+"Perfect reflector."
+
+"Make a nice mirror. What else, and how come?"
+
+"A mirror is just what I want. I want something that will reflect _all_
+the radiation that falls on it. No metal will, even in its range of
+maximum reflectivity. Aluminum goes pretty high, silver, on some ranges,
+a bit higher. But none of them reaches 99%. I want a perfect reflector
+that I can put behind a source of wild, radiant energy so I can focus
+it, and put it where it will do the most good."
+
+"Ninety-nine percent. Sounds pretty good. That's better efficiency than
+most anything else we have, isn't it?"
+
+"No, it isn't. The accumulator is 100% efficient on the discharge, and a
+good transformer, even before that, ran as high as 99.8 sometimes. They
+had to. If you have a transformer handling 1,000,000 horsepower, and
+it's even 1% inefficient, you have a heat loss of nearly 10,000
+horsepower to handle. I want to use this as a destructive weapon, and if
+I hand the other fellow energy in distressing amounts, it's even worse
+at my end, because no matter how perfect a beam I work out, there will
+still be some spread. I can make it mighty tight though, if I make my
+surface a perfect parabola. But if I send a million horse, I have to
+handle it, and a ship can't stand several hundred thousand horsepower
+roaming around loose as heat, let alone the weapon itself. The thing
+will be worse to me than to him.
+
+"I figured there was something worth investigating in those fields we
+developed on our magnetic shield work. They had to do, you know, with
+light, and radiant energy. There must be some reason why a metal
+reflects. Further, though we can't get down to the basic root of matter,
+the atom, yet, we can play around just about as we please with molecules
+and molecular forces. But it is molecular force that determines whether
+light and radiant energy of that caliber shall be reflected or
+transmitted. Take aluminum as an example. In the metallic molecule
+state, the metal will reflect pretty well. But volatilize it, and it
+becomes transparent. All gases are transparent, all metals reflective.
+Then the secret of perfect reflection lies at a molecular level in the
+organization of matter, and is within our reach. Well--this thing was
+supposed to make that piece of silver reflective. I missed it that
+time." He sighed. "I suppose I'll have to try again."
+
+"I should think you'd use tungsten for that. If you do have a slight
+leak, that would handle the heat."
+
+"No, it would hold it. Silver is a better conductor of heat. But the
+darned thing won't work."
+
+"Your other scheme has." Faragaut laughed. "I came out principally for
+some signatures. IP wants one hundred thousand tons of mercury. I've
+sold most of mine already in the open market. You want to sell?"
+
+"Certainly. And I told you my price."
+
+"I know," sighed Faragaut. "It seems a shame though. Those IP board men
+would pay higher. And they're so damn tight it seems a crime not to make
+'em pay up when they have to."
+
+"The IP will need the money worse elsewhere. Where do I--oh, here?"
+
+"Right. I'll be out again this evening. The regular group will be here?"
+
+Kendall nodded as he signed in triplicate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening, Buck had found the trouble in his apparatus, for as he
+well knew, the theory was right, only the practical apparatus needed
+changing. Before the group composed of Faragaut, McLaurin and the
+members of Kendall's "bank," he demonstrated it.
+
+It was merely a small, model apparatus, with a mirror of space-strained
+silver that was an absolutely perfect reflector. The mirror had been
+ground out of a block of silver one foot deep, by four inches square,
+carefully annealed, and the work had all been done in a cooling bath.
+The result was a mirror that was so nearly a perfect paraboloid that the
+beam held sharp and absolutely tight for the half-mile range they tested
+it on. At the projector it was three and one-half inches in diameter. At
+the target, it was three and fifty-two one hundredths inches in
+diameter.
+
+"Well, you've got the mirror, what are you going to reflect with it
+now?" asked McLaurin. "The greatest problem is getting a radiant source,
+isn't it? You can't get a temperature above about ten thousand degrees,
+and maintain it very long, can you?"
+
+"Why not?" Kendall smiled.
+
+"It'll volatilize and leave the scene of action, won't it?"
+
+"What if it's a gaseous source already?"
+
+"What? Just a gas-flame? That won't give you the point source you need.
+You're using just a spotlight here, with a Moregan Point-light. That
+won't give you energy, and if you use a gas-flame, the spread will be so
+great, that no matter how perfectly you figure your mirror, it won't
+beam."
+
+"The answer is easy. Not an ordinary gas-flame--a very extra-special
+kind of gas-flame. Know anything about Renwright's ionization-work?"
+
+"Renwright--he's an IP man isn't he?"
+
+"Right. He's developed a system, which, thanks to the power we can get
+in that atostor, will sextuply ionize oxygen gas. Now: what does that
+mean?"
+
+"Spirits of space! Concentrated essence of energy!"
+
+"Right. And in preparation, Cole here had one made up for me. That--and
+something else. We'll just hook it up--"
+
+With Devin's aid, Kendall attached the second apparatus, a larger device
+into which the silver block with its mirror surface fitted. With the
+uttermost care, the two physicists lined it up. Two projectors pointed
+toward each other at an angle, the base angles of a triangle, whose apex
+was the center of the mirror. On very low power, a soft, glowing violet
+light filtered out through the opening of the one, and a slight green
+light came from the other. But where the two streams met, an intense,
+violet glare built up. The center of action was not at the focus, and
+slowly this was lined up, till a sharp, violet beam of light reached out
+across the open yard to the target set up.
+
+Buck Kendall cut off the power, and slowly got into position. "Now. Keep
+out from in front of that thing. Put on these glasses--and watch out."
+Heavy, thick-lensed orange-brown goggles were passed out, and Kendall
+took his place. Before him, a thick window of the same glass had been
+arranged, so that he might see uninterruptedly the controls at hand, and
+yet watch unblinded, the action of the beam.
+
+Dully the mirror-force relay clicked. A hazy glow ran over the silver
+block, and died. Then--simultaneously the power was thrown from two
+small, compact atostors into the twin projectors. Instantly--a titanic
+eruption of light almost invisibly violet, spurted out in a solid,
+compact stream. With a roar and crash, it battered its way through the
+thick air, and crashed into the heavy target plate. A stream of flame
+and scintillating sparks erupted from the armor plate--and died as
+Kendall cut the beam. A white-hot area a foot across leaked down the
+face of the metal.
+
+"That," said Faragaut gently, removing his goggles. "That's not a
+spotlight, and it's not exactly a gas-flame. But I still don't know what
+that blue-hot needle of destruction is. Just what do you call that tame
+stellar furnace of yours?"
+
+"Not so far off, Tom," said Kendall happily, "except that even S Doradus
+is cold compared to that. That sends almost pure ultra-violet
+light--which, by the way, it is almost impossible to reflect
+successfully, and represents a temperature to be expressed not in
+thousands of degrees, nor yet in tens of thousands. I calculated the
+temperature would be about 750,000 degrees. What is happening is that a
+stream of low-voltage electrons--cathode rays--in great quantity are
+meeting great quantities of sextuply ionized oxygen. That means that a
+nucleus used to having two electrons in the K-ring, and six in the next,
+has had that outer six knocked off, and then has been hurled violently
+into free air.
+
+"All by themselves, those sextuply ionized oxygen atoms would have a
+good bit to say, but they don't really begin to talk till they start
+roaring for those electrons I'm feeding them. At the meeting point, they
+grab up all they can get--probably about five--before the competition
+and the fierce release of energy drives them out, part-satisfied. I lose
+a little energy there, but not a real fraction. It's the howl they put
+up for the first four that counts. The electron-feed is necessary,
+because otherwise they'd smash on and ruin that mirror. They work
+practically in a perfect vacuum. That beam smashes the air out of the
+way. Of course, in space it would work better."
+
+"How could it?" asked Faragaut, faintly.
+
+"Kendall," asked McLaurin, "can we install that in the IP ships?"
+
+"You can start." Kendall shrugged. "There isn't a lot of apparatus. I'm
+going to install them in my ships, and in the--bank. I suspect--we
+haven't a lot of time left."
+
+"How near ready are those ships?"
+
+"About. That's all I can say. They've been torn up a bit for
+installation of the atostor apparatus. Now they'll have to be changed
+again."
+
+"Anything more coming?"
+
+Buck smiled slowly. He turned directly to McLaurin and replied:
+"Yes--the Strangers. As to developments--I can't tell, naturally. But if
+they do, it will be something entirely unexpected now. You see, given
+one new discovery, a half-dozen will follow immediately from it. When we
+announced that atostor, look what happened. Renwright must have thought
+it was God's gift to suffering physicists. He stuck some oxygen in the
+thing, added some of his own stuff--and behold. The magnetic apparatus
+gave us directly the shield, and indirectly this mirror. Now, I seem to
+have reached the end for the time. I'm still trying to get that
+space-release for high speed--speed greater than light, that is. So
+far," he added bitterly, "all I've gotten as an answer is a single
+expression that simply means practical zero--Heisenberg's Uncertainty
+Expression."
+
+"I'm uncertain as to your meaning"--McLaurin smiled--"but I take it
+that's nothing new."
+
+"No. Nearly four centuries old--twentieth century physics. I'll have to
+try some other line of attack, I guess, but that did seem so darned
+right. It just sounded right. Something ought to happen--and it just
+keeps saying 'nothing more except the natural uncertainty of nature.'"
+
+"Try it out, your math might be wrong somewhere."
+
+Kendall laughed. "If it was--I'd hate to try it out. If it wasn't I'd
+have no reason to. And there's plenty of other work to do. For one
+thing, getting that apparatus in production. The IP board won't like
+me." Kendall smiled.
+
+"They don't," replied McLaurin. "They're getting more and more and more
+worried--but they've got to keep the IP fleet in such condition that it
+can at least catch an up-to-date freighter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gresth Gkae looked back at Sthor rapidly dropping behind, and across at
+her sister world, Asthor, circling a bare 100,000 miles away. Behind his
+great interstellar cruiser came a long line of similar ships. Each was
+loaded now not with instruments and pure scientists, but with weapons,
+fuel and warriors. Colonists too, came in the last ships. One hundred
+and fifty giant ships. All the wealth of Sthor and Asthor had been
+concentrated in producing those great machines. Every one represented
+nearly the equivalent of thirty million Earth-dollars. Four and a half
+billions of dollars for mere materials.
+
+Gresth Gkae had the honor of lead position, for he had discovered the
+planets and their stable, though tiny, sun. Still, Gresth Gkae knew his
+own giant Mira was a super-giant sun--and a curse and a menace to any
+rational society. Our yellow-white sun (to his eyes, an almost invisible
+color, similar to our blue) was small, but stable, and warm enough.
+
+In half an hour, all the ships were in space, and at a given signal, at
+ten-second intervals, they sprang into the superspeed, faster than
+light. For an instant, giant Mira ran and seemed distorted, as though
+seen through a porthole covered with running water, then steadied,
+curiously distorted. Faster than light they raced across the galaxy.
+
+Even in their super-fast ships, nearly three and a half weeks passed
+before the sun they sought, singled itself from the star-field as an
+extra bright point. Two days more, and the sun was within planetary
+distance. They came at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic, but they
+leveled down to it now, and slanted toward giant Jupiter and Jovian
+worlds. Ten worlds, in one sweep, it was--four habitable worlds. The
+nine satellites would be converted into forts at once, nine
+space-sweeping forts guarding the approaches to the planet. Gresth Gkae
+had made a fairly good search of the worlds, and knew that Earth was the
+main home of civilization in this system. Mars was second, and Venus
+third. But Jupiter offered the greatest possibilities for quick
+settlement, a base from which they could more easily operate, a base for
+fuels, for the heavy elements they would need--
+
+Fifteen million miles from Jupiter they slowed below the speed of
+light--and the IP stations observed them. Instantly, according to
+instructions issued by Commander McLaurin, a fleet of ten of the
+tiniest, fastest scouts darted out. As soon as possible, a group of
+three heavy cruisers, armed with all the inventions that had been
+discovered, the atostor power system, perfectly conducting power leads,
+the terrible UV ray, started out.
+
+The scouts got there first. Cameras were grinding steadily, with long
+range telescopic lenses, delicate instruments probed and felt and caught
+their fingers in the fields of the giant fleet.
+
+At ten-second intervals, giant ships popped into being, and glided
+smoothly toward Jupiter.
+
+Then the cruisers arrived. They halted at a respectful distance, and
+waited. The Miran ships plowed on undisturbed. Simultaneously, from the
+three leaders, terrific neutron rays shot out. The paraffin block walls
+stopped those--and the cruisers started to explain their feelings on the
+subject. They were the IP-J-37, 39, and 42. The 37 turned up the full
+power of the UV ray. The terrific beam of ultra-violet energy struck the
+second Miran ship, and the spot it touched exploded into incandescence,
+burned white-hot--and puffed out abruptly as the air pressure within
+blew the molten metal away.
+
+The Mirans were startled. This was not the type of thing Gresth Gkae had
+warned them of. Gresth Gkae himself frowned as the sudden roar of the
+machines of his ship rose in the metal walls. A stream of ten-inch
+atomic bombs shrieked out of their tubes, fully glowing green things
+floated out more slowly, and immediately waxed brilliant. Gamma ray
+bombs--but they could be guarded against--
+
+The three Solarian cruisers were washed in such frightful flame as they
+had never imagined. Streams of atomic bombs were exploding soundlessly,
+ineffectively in space, not thirty feet from them as they felt the
+sudden resistance of the magnetic shields. Hopefully, the 39 probed with
+her neutron gun. Nothing happened save that several gamma ray bombs went
+off explosively, and all the atomic bombs in its path exploded at once.
+
+Gresth Gkae knew what that meant. Neutron beam guns. Then this race was
+more intelligent than he had believed. They had not had them before. Had
+he perhaps given them too much warning and information?
+
+There was a sudden, deeper note in the thrumming roar of the great
+ship. Eagerly Gresth Gkae watched--and sighed in relief. The nearer of
+the three enemy ships was crumbling to dust. Now the other two were
+beginning to become blurred of outline. They were fleeing--but oh, so
+slowly. Easily the greater ship chased them down, till only floating
+dust, and a few small pieces of--
+
+Gresth Gkae shrieked in pain, and horror. The destroyed ships had fought
+in dying. All space seemed to blossom out with a terrible light, a light
+that wrapped around them, and burned into him, and through him. His eyes
+were dark and burning lumps in his head, his flesh seemed crawling,
+stinging--he was being flayed alive--in shrieking agony he crumpled to
+the floor.
+
+Hospital attach�s came to him, and injected drugs. Slowly torturing
+consciousness left him. The doctors began working over his horribly
+burned body, shuddering inwardly as the protective, feather-like
+covering of his skin loosened, and dropped from his body. Tenderly they
+lowered him into a bath of chemicals--
+
+"The terrible light which caused so much damage to our men," reported a
+physicist, "was analyzed, and found to have some extraordinary lines. It
+was largely mercury-vapor spectrum, but the spectrum of mercury-atoms in
+an impossibly strained condition. I would suggest that great care be
+used hereafter, and all men be equipped with protective masks when
+observations are needed. This sun is very rich in the infra-X-rays and
+ultra-visible light. The explosion of light, we witnessed, was dangerous
+in its consisting almost wholly of very short and hard infra-X-rays."
+
+The physicist had a special term for what we know as ultra-violet light.
+To him, blue was ultra-violet, and exceedingly dangerous to
+red-sensitive eyes. To him, our ultra-violet was a long X-ray, and was
+designated by a special term. And to him--the explosion of the atostor
+reservoirs was a terrible and mystifying calamity.
+
+To the men in the five tiny scout-ships, it was also a surprise, and a
+painful one. Even space-hardened humans were burned by the terrifically
+hard ultra-violet from the explosion. But they got some hint of what it
+had meant to the Mirans from the confusion that resulted in the fleet.
+Several of the nearer ships spun, twisted, and went erratically off
+their courses. All seemed uncontrolled momentarily.
+
+The five scouts, following orders, darted instantly toward the Lunar
+Bank. Why, they did not know. But those were orders. They were to land
+there.
+
+The reason was that, faster than any Solarian ship, radio signals had
+reached McLaurin, and he, and most of the staff of the IP service had
+been moved to the Lunar Bank. Buck Kendall had extended an invitation in
+this "unexpected emergency." It so happened that Buck Kendall's
+invitation got there before any description of the Strangers, or their
+actions had arrived. The staff was somewhat puzzled as to how this
+happened--
+
+And now for the satellites of great Jupiter.
+
+One hundred and fifty giant interstellar cruisers advanced on Callisto.
+They didn't pause to investigate the mines and scattered farms of the
+satellite, but ten great ships settled, and a horde of warriors began
+pouring out.
+
+One hundred and forty ships reached Ganymede. One hundred and thirty
+sailed on. One hundred and thirty ships reached Europa--and they sailed
+on hurriedly, one hundred and twenty-nine of them. Gresth Gkae did not
+know it then, but the fleet had lost its first ship. The IP station on
+Europa had spoken back.
+
+They sailed in, a mighty armada, and the first dropped through Europa's
+thin, frozen atmosphere. They spotted the dome of the station, and a
+neutron ray lashed out at it. On the other, undefended worlds, this had
+been effective. Here--it was answered by ten five-foot UV rays. Further,
+these men had learned something from the destruction of the cruisers,
+and ten torpedoes had been unloaded, reloaded with atostor mercury, and
+sent out bravely.
+
+Easily the Mirans wiped out the first torpedo--
+
+Shrieking, the Miran pilots clawed their way from the controls as the
+fearful flood of ultra-violet light struck their unaccustomed skins.
+Others too felt that burning flood.
+
+The second torpedo they caught and deflected on a beam of
+alternating-current magnetism that repelled it. It did not come nearer
+than half a mile to the ship. The third they turned their deflecting
+beam on--and something went strangely wrong with the beam. It pulled
+that torpedo toward the ship with a sickening acceleration--and the
+torpedo exploded in that frightful violet flame.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Five-foot diameter UV beams are nothing to play with. The Mirans were
+dodging these now as they loosed atomic bombs, only to see them exploded
+harmlessly by neutron guns, or caught in the magnetic screen. Gamma ray
+bombs were as useless. Again the beam of disintegrating force was turned
+on--
+
+The present opponent was not a ship. It was an IP defense station,
+equipped with everything Solarian science knew, and the dome was an
+eight-foot wall of tungsten-beryllium. The eight feet of solid,
+ultra-resistant alloy drank up that crumbling beam, and liked it. The
+wall did not fail. The men inside the fort jerked and quivered as the
+strange beam, a small, small fraction of it, penetrated the eight feet
+of outer wall, the six feet or so of intervening walls, and the mercury
+atostor reserves.
+
+"Concentrate all those UV beams on one spot, and see if you can blast a
+hole in him before he shakes it loose," ordered the ray technician.
+"He'll wiggle if you start off with the beam. Train your sights on the
+nose of that first ship--when you're ready, call out."
+
+"Ready--ready--" Ten men replied. "Fire!" roared the technician. Ten
+titanic swords of pure ultra-violet energy, energy that practically no
+unconditioned metal will reflect to more than fifty per cent, emerged.
+There was a single spot of intense incandescence for a single hundredth
+of a second--and then the energy was burning its way through the inner,
+thinner skins with such rapidity that they sputtered and flickered like
+a broken televisor.
+
+One hundred and twenty-nine ships retreated hastily for conference,
+leaving a gutted, wrecked hull, broken by its fall, on Europa.
+Triumphantly, the Europa IP station hurled out its radio message of the
+first encounter between a fort and the Miran forces.
+
+Most important of all, it sent a great deal of badly wanted information
+regarding the Miran weapons. Particularly interesting was the fact that
+it had withstood the impact of that disintegrating ray.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Grimly Buck Kendall looked at the reports. McLaurin stood beside him,
+Devin sat across the table from him. "What do you make of it, Buck?"
+asked the Commander.
+
+"That we have just one island of resistance left on the Jovian worlds.
+And that will, I fear, vanish. They haven't finished with their arsenal
+by any means."
+
+"But what was it, man, what was it that ruined those ships?"
+
+"Vibration. Somehow--Lord only knows how it's done--they can project
+electric fields. These projected fields are oscillated, and they are
+tuned in with some parts of the ship. I suspect they are crystals of the
+metals. If they can start a vibration in the crystals of the
+metal--that's fatigue, metal fatigue enormously speeded. You know how a
+quartz crystal oscillator in a radio-control apparatus will break, if
+you work it on a very heavy load at the peak? They simply smash the
+crystals of metal in the same way. Only they project their field."
+
+"Then our toughest metals are useless? Can't something tough, rather
+than hard, like copper or even silver for instance, stand it?"
+
+"Calcium metal's the toughest going--and even that would break under the
+beating those ships give it. The only way to withstand it is to have
+such a mass of metal that the oscillations are damped out. But--"
+
+The set tuned in on the IP station on Europa was speaking again. "The
+ships are returning. There are one hundred and twenty-nine by accurate
+count. Jorgsen reports that telescopic observation of the dead on the
+fallen cruiser show them to be a _completely un-human race_! They are
+of mottled coloring, predominately grayish brown. The ships are
+returning. They have divided into ten groups, nine groups of two each,
+and a main body of the rest of the fleet. The group of eighteen is
+descending within range, and we are focusing our beams on them--"
+
+Out by Europa, ten great UV beams were stabbing angrily toward ten great
+interstellar ships. The metal of the hulls glowed brilliant, and
+distorted slowly as the thick walls softened under the heat, and the air
+behind pressed against it. Grimly the ten ships came on. Torpedoes were
+being launched, and exploded, and now they had no effect, for the Mirans
+within were protected.
+
+The eighteen grouped ships separated, and arranged themselves in a
+circle around the fort. Suddenly one staggered as a great puff of gas
+shot out through the thin atmosphere of Europa to flare brilliantly in
+the lash of the stabbing UV beam. Instantly the ship righted itself, and
+labored upward. Another dropped to take its place--
+
+And the great walls of the IP fort suddenly groaned and started in their
+welded joints. The faint, whispering rustle of the crumbling beam was
+murmuring through the station. Engineers shouted suddenly as meters
+leapt the length of their scales, and the needles clicked softly on the
+stop pins. A thin rustle came from the atostors grouped in the great
+power room. "Spirits of Space--a revolving magnetic field!" roared the
+Chief Technician. "They're making this whole blasted station a squirrel
+cage!"
+
+The mighty walls of eight-foot metal shuddered and trembled. The UV
+beams lashed out from the fort in quivering arcs now, they did not hold
+their aim steady, and the magnetic shield that protected them from
+atomic bombs was working and straining wildly. Eighteen great ships
+quivered and tugged outside there now, straining with all their power to
+remain in the same spot, as they passed on from one to another the
+magnetic impulses that were now creating a titanic magnetic vortex about
+the fort.
+
+"The atostors will be exhausted in another fifteen minutes," the Chief
+Technician roared into his transmitter. "Can the signals get through
+those fields, Commander?"
+
+"No, Mac. They've been stopped, Sparks tells me. We're here--and let's
+hope we stay. What's happening?"
+
+"They've got a revolving magnetic field out there that would spin a
+minor planet. The whole blasted fort is acting like the squirrel cage in
+an induction motor! They've made us the armature in a five hundred
+million horsepower electric motor."
+
+"They can't tear this place loose, can they?"
+
+"I don't know--it was never--" The Chief stopped. Outside a terrific
+roar and crash had built up. White darts of flame leapt a thousand feet
+into the air, hurling terrific masses of shattered rock and soil.
+
+"I was going to say," the Chief went on, "this place wasn't designed for
+that sort of a strain. Our own magnetic field is supporting us now,
+preventing their magnetic field from getting its teeth on metal. When
+the strain comes--well, they're cutting loose our foundation with atomic
+bombs!"
+
+Five UV beams were combined on one interstellar ship. Instantly the
+great machine retreated, and another dropped in to take its place while
+the magnetic field spun on, uninterruptedly.
+
+"Can they keep that up long?"
+
+"God knows--but they have a hundred and more ships to send in when the
+power of one gives out, remember."
+
+"What's our reserve now?"
+
+The Chief paused a moment to look at the meters. "Half what it was ten
+minutes ago!"
+
+Commander Wallace sent some other orders. Every torpedo tube of the
+station suddenly belched forth deadly, fifteen-foot torpedoes, most of
+them mud-torpedoes, torpedoes loaded with high explosive in the nose, a
+delayed fuse, and a load of soft clinging mud in the rear. The mud would
+flow down over the nose and offer a resistance foot-hold for the
+explosive which empty space would not. Four hundred and three torpedoes,
+equipped with anti-magnetic apparatus darted out. One hundred and four
+passed the struggling fields. One found lodgement on a Miran ship, and
+crushed in a metal wall, to be stopped by a bulkhead.
+
+The Chief engineer watched his power declining. All ten UV beams were
+united in one now, driving a terrible sword of energy that made the
+attacked ship skip for safety instantly, yet the beams were all but
+useless. For the Miran reserves filled the gap, and the magnetic tornado
+continued.
+
+For seventeen long minutes the station resisted the attack. Then the
+last of the strained mercury flowed into the receivers, and the vast
+power of the atostors was exhausted. Slowly the magnetic fields
+declined. The great walls of the station felt the clutching lines of
+force--they began to heat and to strain. A low, harsh grinding became
+audible over the roar of the atomic bombs. The whole structure trembled,
+and jumped slightly. The roar of bombs ceased suddenly, as the station
+jerked again, more violently. Then it turned a bit, rolled clumsily.
+Abruptly it began to spin violently, more and more rapidly. It started
+rolling clumsily across the plateau--
+
+A rain of atomic bombs struck the unprotected metal, and the eighth
+breached the walls. The twentieth was the last. There was no longer an
+IP station on Europa.
+
+"The difference," said Buck Kendall slowly, when the reports came in
+from scout-ships in space that had witnessed the last struggle, "between
+an atomic generator and an atomic power-store, or accumulator, is
+clearly shown. We haven't an adequate _source_ of power."
+
+McLaurin sighed slowly, and rose to his feet. "What can we do?"
+
+"Thank our lucky stars that Faragaut here, and I, bought up all the
+mercury in the system, and had it brought to Earth. We at least have a
+supply of materials for the atostors."
+
+"They don't seem to do much good."
+
+"They're the best we've got. All the photocells on Earth and Venus and
+Mercury are at present busy storing the sun's power in atostors. I have
+two thousand tons of charged mercury in our tanks here in the 'Lunar
+Bank.'"
+
+"Much good that will do--they can just pull and pull and pull till it's
+all gone. A starfish isn't strong, but he can open the strongest oyster
+just because he can pull from now on. You may have a lot of power--but."
+
+"But--we also have those new fifteen-foot UV beams. And one fifteen-foot
+UV beam is worth, theoretically, nine five-foot beams, and practically,
+a dozen. We have a dozen of them. Remember, this place was designed not
+only to protect itself, but Earth, too."
+
+"They can still pull, can't they?"
+
+"They'll stop pulling when they get their fingers burned. In the
+meantime, why not use some of those IP ships to bring in a few more
+cargoes of charged mercury?"
+
+"They aren't good for much else, are they? I wonder if those fellows
+have anything more we don't know?"
+
+"Oh, probably. I'm going to work on that crumbler thing. That's the
+first consideration now."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So we can move a ship. As it is, even those two we built aren't any
+good."
+
+"Would they be anyway?"
+
+"Well--I think I might disturb those gentlemen slightly. Remember, they
+each have a nose-beam eighteen feet across. Exceedingly unpleasant
+customers."
+
+"Score: Strangers; magnetic field, atomic bombs, atomic power, crumbler
+ray. Home team; UV beams."
+
+Kendall grinned. "I'd heard you were a pessimistic cuss when battle
+started--"
+
+"Pessimistic, hell, I'm merely counting things up."
+
+"McClellan had all the odds on Lee back in the Civil War of the
+States--but Lee sent him home faster than he came."
+
+"But Lee lost in the end."
+
+"Why bring that up? I've got work to do." Still smiling, Kendall went to
+the laboratory he had built up in the "Lunar Bank." Devin was already
+there, calculating. He looked unhappy.
+
+"We can't do anything, as far as I can see. They're using an electric
+field all right, and projecting it. I can't see how we can do that."
+
+"Neither can I," agreed Kendall, "so we can't use that weapon. I really
+didn't want to anyway. Like the neutron gun which I told Commander
+McLaurin would be useless as a weapon, they'd be prepared for it, you
+can be sure. All I want to do is fight it, and make their projection
+useless."
+
+"Well, we have to know how they project it before we can break up the
+projection, don't we?"
+
+"Not at all. They're using an electric field of very high frequency, but
+variable frequency. As far as I can see, all we need is a similar
+variable electric field of a slightly different frequency to heterodyne
+theirs into something quite harmless."
+
+"Oh," said Devin. "We could, couldn't we? But how are you going to do
+that?"
+
+"We'll have to learn, that's all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Buck Kendall started trying to learn. In the meantime, the Mirans were
+taking over Jupiter. There were three IP stations on the planet itself,
+but they were vastly hindered by the thick, almost ultra-violet-proof
+atmosphere of Jupiter. Their rays were weak. And the magnetic fields of
+the Mirans were unaffected. Only their atomic bombs were hindered by the
+heavier gravity that pulled the rocks back in place faster than the
+bombs could throw them out. Still--a few hours of work, and the IP
+stations on Jupiter had rolled wildly across the flat plains of the
+planet like dented cans, to end in utter destruction.
+
+The Mirans had paid no attention to the fleeing passenger and freighter
+ships that left the planet, loaded to the utmost with human cargo, and
+absolutely no freight. The IP fleet had to go to their rescue with
+oxygen tanks to take care of the extra humans, but nearly three-quarters
+of the population of Jupiter, a newly established population, and hence
+a readily mobile one, was saved. The others, the Mirans did not bother
+with particularly except when they happened to be near where the Mirans
+wanted to work. Then they were instantly destroyed by atomic bombing, or
+gamma rays.
+
+The Mirans settled almost at once, and began their work of finding on
+Jupiter the badly needed atomic fuels. Machines were set up, and work
+begun, Mirans laboring under the gravity of the heavy planet. Then,
+fifty ships swam up again, reloaded with fuel, and with crews consisting
+solely of uninjured warriors, and started for Mars.
+
+Mars was half way between her near conjunction and her maximum
+elongation with respect to Jupiter at that time. The Mirans knew their
+business though, for they started in on the IP station on Phobos. They
+were practiced by this time, and this IP station had only seven
+five-foot beams. In half an hour that station fell, and its sister
+station on Deimos followed. Three wounded ships returned to Jupiter, and
+ten new ships came out. The attack on Mars itself was started.
+
+Mars was a different proposition. There were thirty-two IP stations
+here, one of them nearly as powerful as the Lunar Bank station. It was
+equipped with four of the huge fifteen-foot beams. And it had fifteen
+tons of mercury, more than seven-eighths charged. The Mars Center
+Station was located a short ten miles from the Mars Center City, and
+under the immediate orders of the IP heads, Mars Center City had been
+vacated.
+
+For two days the Mirans hung off Mars, solidifying their positions on
+Phobos and Deimos. Then, with sixty-two ships, they attacked. They had
+made some very astute observations, and they started on the smaller
+stations just beyond the range of the Mars Center Station. Naturally,
+near so powerful a center, these stations had never been strong. They
+fell rapidly. But they had been counted on by Mars Center as auxiliary
+supports. McLaurin had sent very definite orders to Mars Center
+forbidding any action on their part, save gathering of power-supplies.
+
+At last the direct attack on Mars Center was launched. For the first
+time, the Mirans saw one of the fifteen-foot beams. Mars' atmosphere is
+thin, and there is little ozone. The ultra-violet beams were nearly as
+effective as in empty space. When the Mirans dropped their ships, a full
+thirty of them, into the circle formation, Mars Center answered at once.
+All four beams started.
+
+Those fifteen-foot beams, connected directly to huge atostor release
+apparatus, delivered a maximum power of two and three-quarter billion
+horsepower, each. The first Miran ship struck, sparkled magnificently,
+and a terrific cascade of white-hot metal rolled down from its nose. The
+great ship nosed down and to the left abruptly, accelerated swiftly--and
+crashed with tremendous energy on the plain outside of Mars Center City.
+White, unwavering flames licked up suddenly, and made a column five
+hundred feet high against the dark sky. Then the wreck exploded with a
+violence that left a crater half a mile across.
+
+Three other ships had been struck, and were rapidly retreating. Another
+try was made for the ring formation, and four more ships were wounded,
+and replaced. The ring did not retreat, but the great magnetic field
+started. Atomic and gamma ray bombs started now, flashing sometimes
+dangerously close to the station as its magnetic field battled the
+rotating field of the ships. The four greater beams, and many smaller
+ones were in swift and angry action. Not more than a ten-second exposure
+could be endured by any one ship, before it must retreat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For five minutes the Mirans hung doggedly at their task. Then, wisely,
+they retreated. Of the fleet, not more than seven ships remained
+untouched. Mars Center Station had held--at what cost only they knew.
+Five hundred tons of their mercury had been exhausted in that brief five
+minutes. One hundred tons a minute had flowed into and out of the
+atostor apparatus. Mars Center radioed for help, when the fleet lifted.
+
+There was one other station on Mars that stood a good chance of
+survival, Deenmor Station, with three of the big beams installed, and
+apparatus for their fourth was in the station, and being rapidly worked
+over. McLaurin did a wise and courageous thing, at which every man on
+Mars cursed. He ordered that all IP stations save these two be deserted,
+and all mercury fuel reserves be moved to Deenmor and Mars Center.
+
+The Mirans could not land on the North Western section of Mars, nor in
+the South Central region. Therefore Mars was not exactly habitable to
+Miran ships, because the great beams had been so perfectly figured that
+they were effective at a range of nearly twelve hundred miles.
+
+Deenmor station was attacked--but it was a half-hearted attack, for
+Mirans were becoming distinctly skittish about fifteen-foot UV beams.
+Two badly blistered ships--and the Mirans retreated to Jupiter. But Mira
+held Phobos and Deimos. In two weeks, they had set up cannon there, and
+proved themselves accurate long-range gunners. Against the feeble
+attraction of Deimos, and with Mars' gravity to help them, they began
+bombarding the two stations, and anything that attempted to approach
+them, with gamma and atomic explosive bombs. Meanwhile they amused
+themselves occasionally by planting a gamma-ray bomb in each of Mars'
+major cities. They made Mars uninhabitable for Solarians as well as for
+Mirans, at least until the deadly slow-action atomic explosives wore
+off, or were removed.
+
+Then the Mirans, after a lapse of three weeks while they dug in their
+toes on Jupiter, prepared to leap. Earth was the next goal. Miran
+scout-ships had been sent out before this--and severely handled by the
+concentrated fleets of the IP that hung grimly off Earth and Luna now.
+But the scouts had learned one thing. Mirans could never hope to attain
+a firm grasp on Earth while terribly armed Luna hung like a Sword of
+Damocles over their heads. Further, attack on Earth directly would be
+next to impossible, for, thanks to Faragaut's Interplanetary Company,
+nearly all the mercury metal in the system was safely lodged on Earth,
+and saturated with power. Every major city had been equipped with great
+UV apparatus. And neutron guns in plenty waited on small ships just
+outside the atmosphere to explode harmlessly any atomic or gamma bombs
+Miran ships might attempt to deposit.
+
+An attack on Luna was the first step. But that terrible, gigantic fort
+on Luna worried them. Yet while that fort existed, Earth ships were free
+to come and go, for Mirans could not afford to stand near. At a distance
+of twenty thousand miles, small Miran ships had felt the touch of those
+great UV beams.
+
+Finally, a brief test-attack was made, with an entire fleet of one
+hundred ships. They drew almost into position, faster than light, faster
+than the signaling warnings could send their messages. In position, all
+those great ships strained and heaved at the mighty magnetic vortex that
+twisted at the field of the fort. Instantly, twelve of the fifteen-foot
+UV beams replied. And--two great UV beams of a size the Mirans had never
+seen before, beams from the two ships, "S Doradus" and "Cepheid."
+
+The test-attack dissolved as suddenly as it had come. The Mirans
+returned to Jupiter, and to the outer planets where they had further
+established themselves. Most of the Solar system was theirs. But the
+Solarians still held the choicest planets--and kept the Mirans from
+using the mild-temperatured Mars.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+"They can't take this, at least," sighed McLaurin as they retreated from
+Luna.
+
+"I didn't think they could--right away. I'm wondering though if they
+haven't something we haven't seen yet. Besides which--give them time,
+give them time."
+
+"Well, give us time, too," snapped McLaurin. "How are you coming?"
+
+Buck smiled. "I'm sure I don't know. I have a machine but I haven't the
+slightest idea of whether or not it's any good."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I can destroy--I hope--but I can't build up their ray. I can't test the
+machine because I haven't their ray to test it against."
+
+"What can we do to test it?"
+
+"The only thing I can see is to call for volunteers--and send out a
+six-man cruiser. If the ship's too small, they may not destroy it with
+the big crumbler rays. If it's too large--and the machine didn't
+work--we'd lose too much."
+
+Twelve hours later, the IP men at the Lunar Bank fort were lined up.
+McLaurin stepped up on the platform, and addressed the men briefly, told
+them what was needed. Six volunteers were selected by a process of
+elimination, those who were married, had dependents, officers, and
+others were refused. Finally, six men of the IP were chosen, neither
+rookies nor veterans, six average men. And one average six-man cruiser,
+one hundred and eleven feet long, twenty-two in diameter. It was the
+T-208, a sister ship of the T-247, the first ship to be destroyed.
+
+The T-208 started out from Luna, and with full acceleration, sped out
+toward Phobos. Slowly she circled the satellite, while distant scouts
+kept her under view. Lazily, the Miran patrol on Phobos watched the
+T-208, indifferent to her. The T-208 dove suddenly, after five fruitless
+circles of the tiny world, and with her four-foot UV beam flaming,
+stabbed angrily at a flight of Miran scouts berthed in the very shadow
+of a great battle cruiser, one of the interstellar ships stationed here
+on Phobos.
+
+Four of the little ships slumped in incandescence. Angrily the terrific
+sword of energy slashed at the frail little scouts.
+
+Angrily the Miran interstellar ship shot herself abruptly into action
+against this insolent cruiser. The cruiser launched a flight of the
+mercury-torpedoes. Flashing, burning, ultra-violet energy flooded the
+great ship, harmlessly, for the men were, as usual, protected. The Miran
+answered with the neutron beam, atomic and gamma bombs--and the crumbler
+ray.
+
+Gently, softly a halo of shimmering-violet luminescence built up about
+the T-208. The UV beam continued to flare, wavering slightly in its
+aim--then fell way off to one side. The T-208 staggered suddenly,
+wandered from her course--whole, but uncontrolled. For the men within
+the ship were dead.
+
+Majestically the Miran swung along beside the dead ship, a great
+magnetic tow-cable shot out toward it, to shy off at first, then slowly
+to be adjusted, and take hold in the magnetic shield of the T-208. The
+pilots of the watching scout-ships turned away. They knew what would
+happen.
+
+It did. Five--ten--twenty seconds passed. Then the "dead-man" took over
+the ship--and the stored power in the atostor tanks blasted in a
+terrible flame that shattered the metal hull to molecular fragments. The
+interstellar cruiser shuddered, and rolled half over at the blasting
+pressure. Leaking seams appeared in her plates.
+
+The scouts raced back to Luna as the Miran settled heavily, and a trifle
+clumsily to Phobos. Miran radio-beams were forcing their way out toward
+the Miran station on Europa, to be relayed to the headquarters on
+Jupiter, just as Solarian radio beams were thrusting through space
+toward Luna. Said the Miran messages: "Their ships no longer crumble."
+Said the Solarian messages: "The ships no longer crumble--but the men
+die."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His deep eyes burning tensely, Buck Kendall heard the messages coming
+in, and rose slowly from his seat to pace the floor. "I think I know
+why," he said at last. "I should have thought. For that too can be
+prevented."
+
+"Why--what in the name of the Planets?" asked McLaurin. "It didn't kill
+the men in the forts--why does it kill the men in the ships, when the
+ships are protected?"
+
+"The protection kills them."
+
+"But--but they had the protective oscillations on all the way out!"
+protested the Commander.
+
+"Think how it works though. Think, man. The enemy's field is an
+electric-field oscillation. We combat it by setting up a similar
+oscillating field in the metal of the hull ourselves. Because the metal
+conducts the strains, they meet, and oppose. It is not a shield--a
+shield is impossible, as I have said, because of energy concentration
+factors. If their beam carried a hundred thousand horsepower in a
+ten-foot square beam, in every ten square feet of our shield, we'd have
+to have one hundred thousand horsepower. In other words, hundreds of
+times as much energy would be needed in the shield, as they used in
+their beam. We can't afford that. We had to let the beams oppose our
+oscillations in the metal, where, because the metal conducts, they meet
+on an equal basis. But--when two oscillations of slightly different
+frequency meet, what is the result?"
+
+"In this case, a heterodyne frequency of a lower, and harmless
+frequency."
+
+"So I thought. I was partly right. It does _not_ harm the metal. But it
+kills the men. It is super-sonic. The terrible, shrill sounds destroy
+the cells of the men's bodies. Then, when their dead hands release the
+controls, the automatic switches blow up the ship."
+
+"God! We stop one menace--and it is like the Hydra. For every head we
+lop off, two spring up."
+
+"Ah--but they are lesser heads. Look, what is the fundamental difference
+between sound and light?"
+
+"One is a vibration of matter and the--ah--eliminate the material
+contact!"
+
+"Exactly! All we need to do is to let the ships operate airless, the men
+in space suits. Then the air cannot carry the sounds to them. And by
+putting special damping materials in their suits, we can stop the
+vibrations that would reach them through their feet and hands. Another
+six-man ship must go out--but this ship will come back!"
+
+And with the order for another experimental ship, went the orders for
+commercial supplies of this new apparatus. Every IP ship must be
+equipped to resist it.
+
+Buck Kendall sailed on the six-man scout that went out this time. Again
+they swooped once at Phobos, again Miran scout-ships crumbled under the
+attack of the vicious UV beams. The Mirans were not waiting
+contemptuously this time. In an instant the great interstellar ship rose
+from its berth, its weapons working angrily. The crumbler ray snapped
+out at the T-253.
+
+Kendall stared into the periscope visor intently. Clumsily his padded
+hands worked at the specially adapted controls. The soft hiss of the
+oxygen release into his suit disturbed him slightly. The radio-phones in
+his helmet carried all the conversations in the ship to him with equal
+clarity. He watched as the great ship angled angrily up--
+
+His vision was momentarily obscured by a violet glow that built up and
+reached out gently from every point of metal in the ship. The instant
+Kendall saw that, the T-253 was fleeing under his hands. The test had
+been made. Now all he desired was safety again. The ion-rockets flared
+recklessly as, crushed under an acceleration of four Earth-gravities, he
+sank heavily into his seat. Grimly the Miran ship was pursuing them,
+easily keeping up with the fleeing midget. The crumbler became more
+intense, the violet glow more vivid.
+
+The UV beam was reaching out directly behind now. The--
+
+With a cry of agony, Kendall ripped the radio-phone connection out of
+his suit. A soft hiss of leaking air warned him of too great violence
+only minutes later. For his ears had been deafened by the sudden shriek
+of a tremendous signal from outside!
+
+Instantly Kendall knew what that meant. And he could not communicate
+with his men! There was no metal in these special suits, even the oxygen
+tanks were made of synthetic plastics of tremendous strength. No scrap
+of vibrating metal was permissible. The padded gloves and boots
+protected him--but there was a new and different type of crackle and
+haze from the metal points now. It was almost invisible in the
+practically airless ship, but Kendall saw it.
+
+Presently he felt it, as he desperately increased his acceleration. Slow
+creeping heat was attacking him. The heat was increasing rapidly now.
+Desperately he was working at the crumbler-protection controls--but
+immediately set them back as they were. He had to have the crumbler
+protection as well--!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Grimly the great Miran ship hung right beside them. Angrily the two
+four-foot UV beams flashed back--seeking some weak spot. There were
+none. At her absolute maximum of acceleration the little ship plunged
+on. Gamma and atomic bombs were washing her in flame. The heavy blocks
+of paraffin between her walls were long since melted, retained only by
+the presence of the metal walls. Smoke was beginning to filter out now,
+and Kendall recognized a new, and deadlier menace! Heat--quantities of
+heat were being poured into the little ship, and the neutron guns were
+doing their best to add to it. The paraffin was confined in there--and
+like any substance, it could be volatilized, and as a vapor, develop
+pressure--explosive pressure!
+
+The Miran seemed satisfied in his tactics so far--and changed them.
+Forty-seven million miles from Earth, the Miran simply accelerated a bit
+more, and crowded the Solarian ship a bit. White-faced, Buck Kendall was
+forced to turn a bit aside. The Miran turned also. Kendall turned a bit
+more--
+
+Flashing across his range of vision at an incredible speed, a tiny
+thing, no more than twenty feet long and five in diameter, a scout-ship
+appeared. Its tiny nose ultra-violet beam was blasting a solid cylinder
+of violet incandescence a foot across in the hull of the Miran--and, to
+the Miran, angling swiftly across his range of vision. Its magnetic
+field clashed for a thousandth of a second with the T-253, instantly
+meeting, and absorbing the fringing edges. Then--it swept through the
+Miran's magnetic shield as easily. The delicate instruments of the scout
+instantaneously adjusted its own magnetic field as much as possible.
+There was resistance, enormous resistance--the ship crumpled in on
+itself, the tail vanished in dust as a sweeping crumbler beam caught it
+at last--and the remaining portion of the ship plowed into the nose of
+the Miran.
+
+The Miran's force-control-room was wrecked. For perhaps a minute and a
+half, the ship was without control, then the control was
+re-established--and in vain the telescopes and instruments searched for
+the T-253. Lightless, her rockets out now, her fields damped down to
+extinction, the T-253 was lost in the pulsing, gyrating fields of half a
+dozen scout-ships.
+
+Kendall looked grimly at the crushed spot on the nose of the Miran. His
+ship was drifting slowly away from the greater ship. Presently, however,
+the Miran put on speed in the direction of Earth, and the T-253 fell far
+behind. The Miran was not seriously injured. But that scout pilot, in
+sacrificing life, had thrown dust in their eyes for just those few
+moments Kendall had needed to lose a lightless ship in lightless
+space--lightless--for the Mirans at any rate. The IP ships had been
+covered with a black paint, and in no time at all, Kendall had gotten
+his ship into a position where the energy radiations of the sun made him
+undetectable from the Miran's position, since the radiation of his own
+ship, even in the heat range, was mingled with the direct radiation of
+the sun. The sun was in the Miran's "eyes," both actual and
+instrumental.
+
+An hour later the Miran returned, passed the still-lightless ship at a
+distance of five million miles, and settled to Phobos for the slight
+repairs needed.
+
+Twelve hours later, the T-253 settled to Luna, for the many
+rearrangements she would need.
+
+"I rather knew it was coming," Kendall admitted sadly, "but danged if I
+didn't forget all about it. And--cost the life of one of the finest men
+in the system. Jehnson's family get a permanent pension just twice his
+salary, McLaurin. In the meantime--"
+
+"What was it? Pure heat, but how?"
+
+"Pure radio. Nothing but short-wave radio directed at us. They probably
+had the apparatus, knew how to make it, but that's not a good type of
+heat ray, because a radio tube is generally less than eighty percent
+efficient, which is a whale of a loss when you're working in a battle,
+and a whale of an inconvenience. We were heated only four times as much
+as the Miran. He had to pump that heat into a heat-reservoir--a water
+tank probably--to protect himself. Highly inefficient and ineffective
+against a large ship. Also, he had to hold his beam on us nearly ten
+minutes before it would have become unbearable. He was again, trying to
+kill the men, and not the ship. The men are the weakest point,
+obviously."
+
+"Can you overcome that?"
+
+"Obviously, no. The thing works on pure energy. I'd have to match his
+energy to neutralize it. You knew it's an old proposition, that if you
+could take a beam of pure, monochromatic light and divide it exactly in
+half, and then recombine it in perfect interference, you'd have
+annihilation of energy. Cancellation to extinction. The trouble is, you
+never do get that. You can't get monochromatic light, because light
+can't be monochromatic. That's due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty--my pet
+bug-bear. The atom that radiates the light, must be moving. If it isn't,
+the emission of the light itself gives it a kick that moves it. Now, no
+matter what the quantum _might_ have been, it loses energy in kicking
+the atom. That changes the situation instantly, and incidentally the
+'color' of the light. Then, since all the radiating atoms won't be
+moving alike, etc., the mass of light can't be monochromatic. Therefore
+perfect interference is impossible.
+
+"The way that relates to the problem in hand, is that we can't possibly
+destroy his energy. We can, as we do in the crumbler stunt, change it.
+He can't, I suspect, put too much power behind his crumbler, or he'd
+have crumbling going on at home. We get a slight heating from it,
+anyway. Into the bargain, his radio was after us, and his neutrons
+naturally carried energy. Now, no matter what we do, we've got that to
+handle. When we fight his crumbler, we actually add heat-energy to it,
+ourselves, and make the heating effect just twice as bad. If we try to
+heterodyne his radio--presto--it has twice the heat energy anyway,
+though we might reduce it to a frequency that penetrated the ship
+instead of all staying in it. But by the proposition, we have to use as
+much energy, and in fact, remember the 80% rule. We've got to take it
+and like it."
+
+"But," objected McLaurin, "we _don't_ like it."
+
+"Then build ships as big as his, and he'll quit trying to roast you.
+Particularly if the inner walls are synthetic plastics. Did you know I
+used them in the 'S Doradus' and 'Cepheid'?"
+
+"Yes. Were you thinking of that?"
+
+"No--just luck--and the fact that they're light, strong as steel almost,
+and can be manufactured in forms much more quickly. Only the outer hull
+is tungsten-beryllium. The advantage in this will be that nearly all the
+energy will be absorbed outside, and we'll radiate pretty fast,
+particularly as that tungsten-beryllium has a high radiation-factor in
+the long heat range."
+
+"What does that mean?"
+
+"Well, ordinary polished silver is a mighty poor radiator. Homely
+example: Try waiting for your coffee to cool if it's in a polished
+silver pot. Then try it in a tungsten-beryllium pot. No matter how you
+polish that tungsten-beryllium, the stuff WILL radiate heat. That's why
+an IP ship is always so blamed cold. You know the passenger ships use
+polished aluminum outer walls. The big help is, that the
+tungsten-beryllium will throw off the energy pretty fast, and in a big
+ship, with a whale of a lot of matter to heat, the Strangers will simply
+give up the idea."
+
+"Yes, but only two ships in the system compare with them in size."
+
+"Sorry--but I didn't build the IP fleet, and there are lots of tungsten
+and beryllium on Earth. Enough anyway."
+
+"Will they use that beam on the fort? And can't we use the thing on
+them?"
+
+"They won't and we won't--though we could. A bank of those new million
+watt tubes--perhaps a hundred of them--and we'd have a pretty effective
+heater--but an awful waste of power. I've got something better."
+
+"New?"
+
+"Somewhat. I've found out how to make the mirror field in a plate of
+metal, instead of a block. Come on to the lab, and I'll show you."
+
+"What's the advantage? Oh--weight saved, and silver metal saved."
+
+"A lot more than that, Mac. Watch."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the laboratory, the new apparatus looked immensely lighter and
+simpler than the old. The atostor, the ionizer, and the twin
+ion-projectors were as before, great, rigid, metal structures that would
+maintain the meeting point of the ions with inflexible exactitude under
+any acceleration strains. But now, instead of the heavy silver block in
+which a mirror was figured, the mirror consisted of a polished silver
+plate, parabolic to be sure, but little more than a half-inch in
+thickness. It was mounted in a framework of complex, stout metal braces.
+
+Kendall started the ion-flame at low intensity, so the UV beam was
+little more than a spotlight.
+
+"You missed the point, Mac. Now--watch that tungsten-beryllium plate.
+I'll hold the power steady. It's an eighteen-inch beam--and now the
+energy is just sufficient to heat that tungsten plate to bright red.
+But--"
+
+Kendall turned over a small rheostat control--and abruptly the
+eighteen-inch diameter spot on the tungsten-beryllium plate began
+contracting; it contracted till it was a blazing, sparkling spot of
+molten incandescence less than an inch across!
+
+"That's the advantage of focus. At this distance of a few hundred feet
+with a small beam I can do that. With a twenty-foot beam, I can get a
+two-foot spot at a distance of nearly ten miles! That means that the
+receiving end will have the pleasure of handling _one hundred times the
+energy concentration_. That would punch a hole through most anything.
+All you have to do is focus it. The trouble being, if it's out of focus
+the advantage is more than lost. So if there's any question about
+getting the focus, we'll get along without it."
+
+"A real help, if you do. That would punch a hole before the Stranger
+ship could turn away as they do now."
+
+Kendall nodded. "That's what I was after. It is mainly for the forts,
+though. We'll have to signal the dope to the Mars Center and Deenmor
+stations. They can fix it up, themselves. In the meantime--all we can do
+is hold on and hunt, and let's hope better than the Strangers do."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Sadly the convalescent Gresth Gkae listened to the reports of his
+lieutenants. More and more disgraced he felt as he realized how badly he
+had blundered in reporting the people of this system unable to cope with
+the attackers' weapons. Gresth Gkae looked up at his old friend and
+physician, Merth Skahl. He shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid, Merth
+Skahl. I am afraid. We have, perhaps, made a mistake. The better and the
+stronger alone should rule. Aye, but is the _stronger_ always the
+_better_? I am afraid we have mistaken the Truth in assuming this. If we
+have--then may Jarth, Lord of Truth and Wisdom punish us. Mighty Jarth,
+if I have mistaken in following my judgments, it is not from
+disobedience, it is lack of Thy knowledge. The strongest--they are not
+always the better, are they?"
+
+Merth Skahl bent sharply over his friend. "Quiet thyself, Gresth Gkae.
+You know, and I know, you have done only your best, and surely Jarth
+himself can ask no better of any one. You must rest, for only by rest
+can those terrible burns be healed. All your _stheen_ over half the
+body-area was burned off. You have been delirious for many days."
+
+"But Merth Skahl, think--have we disobeyed Jarth's will? It is, we know,
+his will that only the best and the strongest shall rule--but are the
+best always the strongest? An imbecile adult could destroy the life of a
+genius-grade child. The strongest wins, but not the best. Such would not
+be the will of Jarth. If we be the stronger, _and_ the best, then it is
+right and just that these strange creatures should be destroyed that we
+may have a stable world of stable light and heat. But look and see, with
+what terrible swiftness these strange creatures have learned! May it not
+be they are the better race--that it is _we_ who are the weaker and the
+poorer? Can it be that Jarth has brought us together that these people
+might learn--and destroy us? If they be the stronger, and the
+better--then may Jarth's will be done. But we must test our strength to
+the utmost. I must rise, and go to my laboratory soon. They have set it
+up?"
+
+"Aye, they have, Gresth Gkae. But remember, the weak and the sick make
+faults the strong and the well do not. Better that you rest yourself.
+There is little you can do while your body seeks to recover from these
+terrible burns."
+
+"You are wrong, my friend, wrong. Don't you see that my mind is
+clear--that it is the mind which must fight in these battles, for surely
+the man is weak against such things as this infra-X-radiation? Why, I am
+better able to fight now than are you, for I am a trained fighter of the
+mind, while you are a trained healer of the body. These strange beings
+with their stiff arms and legs, their tender skins, and--and their swift
+minds have fought us all too well. If we must test, let it be a test. I
+have heard how they so quickly solved the riddle of the crumbling field.
+That took us longer, and we designed it. The Counsel of Worlds put me in
+command, let me up, Skahl, I must work."
+
+Concerned, the physician looked down at him. Finally he spoke again.
+"No, I will not permit you to leave the hospital-ship. You must stay
+here, but if, as you have said, the mind is what must fight, then surely
+you can fight well from here, for your mind is here."
+
+"No, I cannot, and you well know it. I may shorten my life, but what
+matter. 'Death is the end toward which the chemical reaction, Life,
+tends,'" quoted the scientist. "You know I have left my children--my
+immortality is assured through them. I can afford to die in peace, if it
+assures their welfare. Time is precious, and while my mind might work
+from here, it must have data on which to work. For that, I must go to
+the laboratories. Help me, Merth Skahl."
+
+Reluctantly the physician granted the request, but begged of Gresth Gkae
+a promise of at least six hours rest in every fifteen, and a good sleep
+of at least twenty-seven hours every "night." Gresth Gkae agreed, and
+from a wheelchair, conducted his work, began a new line of
+experimentation he hoped would yield them the weapon they needed. Under
+him, the staff of scientists worked, aiding and advising and suggesting.
+The apparatus was built, tested, and found wanting. Time and again as
+the days passed, they watched Gresth Gkae, gaining strength very, very
+slowly, taken away despondent at the end of his forty hours of work.
+
+A dozen expeditions were sent to Jupiter's poles to watch and measure
+and study the tremendous auroral displays there, where Jupiter's vast
+magnetic field sucked in countless quintillions of the flying electrons
+from the sun, and brought them circling in, in a vast, magnificent
+display of auroral ionization.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Expeditions went to the great Southern Plateau, the Plateau of Storms,
+where the titanic air currents resulted in an everlasting display of
+terrific lightnings, great burning balls of electric force floating
+dangerous and deadly across the frozen, ultra-cold plain.
+
+And the expeditions brought back data. Yet still Gresth Gkae could not
+sleep, his thoughts intruding constantly. Hours Merth Skahl spent with
+him, calming him to sleep.
+
+"But what is this constant search? It is little enough I know of
+science, but why do you send our men to these spots of wonderfully
+beautiful, but useless natural forces. Can we somehow, do you think,
+turn them against the people of these worlds?"
+
+Softly the old Miran smiled. "Yes, you might say so. For look, it is the
+strange balls of electric force I want to know about. Sthor had few, but
+occasionally we saw them. Never were they properly investigated. I want
+to know their secret, for I am sure they are balls of electric forces
+not vastly dissimilar from the nucleus of the atom. Always we have known
+that no system of purely electrical forces could remain stable. Yet
+these strange balls of energy do. How is it? I am sure it will be of
+vast importance. But the direct secret I hope to learn is in this: What
+can be done with electric fields can nearly always be duplicated, or
+paralleled in magnetic fields. If I can learn how to make these
+electric balls of energy, can I not hope to make similar magnetic balls
+of energy?"
+
+"Yes, I see--that would seem true. But what benefit would you derive
+from that? You have magnetic beams now, and yet they are useless because
+you can get nowhere near the forts. How then would these benefit you?"
+
+"We can do nothing to those forts, because of that magnetic shield.
+Could we once break it down, then the fort is helpless, and one or two
+small atomic bombs destroy it. But--we cannot stay near, for the
+terrible infra-X-rays of theirs burn holes in our ships, and--in our
+men.
+
+"But look you, I can drop many atomic bombs from a distance where their
+beams are ineffective. Suppose I _do_ make a magnetic ball of energy, a
+magnetic bomb. Then--I can drop it from a distance! We have learned that
+the power supply of these forts is very great--but not endless, as is
+ours now, thanks to the vast supplies of power metal on this heavy
+planet. Then all we need do is stay at a distance where they cannot
+reach us--and drop magnetic bombs. Ah, they will be stopped, and their
+energy absorbed. But we can keep it up, day after day, and slowly drain
+out their power. Then--then our atomic bombs can destroy those forts,
+and we can move on!" But suddenly the animation and strength left his
+voice. He turned a sad, downcast face to his friend. "But Merth Skahl,
+we can't do it," he complained.
+
+"Ah--now I can see why you so want to continue this wearing and worrying
+work. You need time, Gresth Gkae, only time for success. Tomorrow it may
+be that you will see the first hint that will lead you to success."
+
+"Ah--I only hope it, Merth Skahl, I only hope it."
+
+But it was the next day that they saw the first glimpse of the secret,
+and saw the path that might lead to hope and success. In a week they
+were sending electric bombs across the laboratory. And in three days
+more, a magnetic bomb streaked dully across the laboratory to a magnetic
+shield they had set up, and buried itself in it, to explode in brilliant
+light and heat.
+
+From that day Gresth Gkae began to mend. In the three weeks that were
+needed to build the apparatus into ships, he regained strength so that
+when the first flight of five interstellar ships rose from Jupiter, he
+was on the flagship.
+
+To Phobos they went first, to the little inner satellite of Mars,
+scarcely eight miles in diameter, a tiny bit of broken metal and rock,
+utterly airless, but scarcely more than 3700 miles from the surface of
+Mars below. The Mars Center and Deenmor forts were wasting no power
+raying a ship at that distance. They could, of course, have damaged it,
+but not severely enough to make up for the loss of their strictly
+limited power. The photocells had been working overtime, every minute of
+available light had been used, and still scarcely 2100 tons of charged
+mercury remained in the tanks of Mars Center and 1950 in the tanks at
+Deenmor.
+
+The flight of five ships settled comfortably upon Phobos, while the
+three relieved of duty started back to Jupiter. Immediately work was
+begun on the attack. The ships were first landed on the near side, while
+the apparatus of the projectors was unloaded, then the great ships moved
+around to the far side. Phobos of course rotated with one face fixed
+irrevocably toward Mars itself, the other always to the cold of space.
+Great power leads trailed beneath the ships, and to the dark side. Then
+there were huge water lines for cooling. On this almost weightless
+world, where the great ships weighing hundreds of thousands of tons on a
+planet, weighed so little they were frequently moved about by a single
+man, the laying of five miles of water conduit was no impossibility.
+
+Then they were ready. Mars Center came first. Automatic devices kept the
+aim exact, as the first of the magnetic bombs started down. At
+five-second intervals they were projected outward, invisible globes of
+concentrated magnetic energy, undetectable in space. Seven seconds
+passed before the first became dimly visible in the thin air of Mars. It
+floated down, it would miss the fort it seemed--so far to one side--
+Abruptly it turned, and darted with tremendously accelerating speed for
+the great magnetic field of the fort. With a vast blast of light, it
+exploded. Five seconds later a second exploded. And a third.
+
+Mars Center signaled scoffingly that the bombs were all being stopped
+dead in the magnetic atmosphere, after the bombardment had been
+witnessed from Earth and Luna. An hour later they gave a report that
+they were concentrated magnetic fields of energy that would be rather
+dangerous--if it weren't that they couldn't even stand into the magnetic
+atmosphere. Three hours later Mars Center reported that they contained
+considerably more energy than had at first been thought. Further, which
+they had not carefully considered at first, they were taking energy with
+them! They were taking away about an equal amount of energy as each blew
+up.
+
+It was only a half-hour after that that the men at Mars Center realized
+perfectly what it meant. Their power was being drained just a little bit
+better than twice as fast as they generated during the day--and since
+Phobos spun so swiftly across the sky.
+
+Deenmor got the attack just about the time Mars Center was released.
+Deenmor immediately began seeking for the source of it. Somewhere on
+Phobos--but where?
+
+The Mirans were experts at camouflage. Deenmor Station, realizing the
+menace, immediately rayed the "projector." They tore up a great deal of
+harmless rock with their huge UV rays. But the bomb device continued to
+throw one bomb each five seconds.
+
+When Deenmor operated from Phobos' position, Mars Center was exposed to
+the deadly, constant drain. A day or two later, the bombs were coming
+one each second and a half, for more ships had joined in the work on
+Phobos.
+
+Gresth Gkae saw the work was going nicely. He knew that now it was only
+a question of time before those magnetic shields would fail--and then
+the whole fort would be powerless. Maybe--it might be a good idea, when
+the forts were powerless to investigate instead of blowing them up.
+There might be many interesting and worthwhile pieces of
+apparatus--particularly the UV beam's apparatus.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+Buck Kendall entered the Communications room rather furtively. He hated
+the place. Cole was there, and McLaurin. Mac was looking tired and
+drawn, Cole not so tired, but equally drawn. The signals were coming
+through fairly well, because most of the disturbance was rising where
+the signals rose, and all the disturbance, practically, was magnetic
+rather than electric.
+
+"Deenmor is sending, Buck," McLaurin said as he entered. "They're down
+to the last fifty-five tons. They'll have more time now--a rest while
+Phobos sinks. Mars Center has another 250 tons, but--it's just a
+question of time. Have you any hope to offer?"
+
+"No," said Kendall in a strained voice. "But, Mac, I don't think men
+like those are afraid to die. It's dying uselessly they fear. Tell
+'em--tell 'em they've defended not alone Mars, but all the system, in
+holding up the Strangers on Mars. We here on Luna have been safer
+because of them. And tell--Mac, tell them that in the meantime, while
+they defended us, and gave us time to work, we have begun to see the
+trail that will lead to victory."
+
+"_You have!_" gasped McLaurin.
+
+"No--but they will never know!" Kendall left hastily. He went and stood
+moodily looking at the calculator machines--the calculator machines that
+refused to give the answers he sought. No matter how he might modify
+that original idea of his, no matter what different line of attack he
+might try in solving the problems of Space and Matter, while he used the
+system he _knew_ was right--the answer came down to that deadly,
+hope-blasting expression that meant only "uncertain."
+
+Even Buck was beginning to feel uncertain under that constant crushing
+of hope. Uncertainty--uncertainty was eating into him, and destroying--
+
+From the Communications room came the hum and drive of the great sender
+flashing its message across seventy-two millions of miles of nothing.
+"B-u-c-k K-e-n-d-a-l-l s-a-y-s h-e h-a-s l-e-a-r-n-e-d s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g
+t-h-a-t w-i-l-l l-e-a-d t-o v-i-c-t-o-r-y w-h-i-l-e y-o-u h-e-l-d
+b-a-c-k t-h-e--"
+
+Kendall switched on a noisy, humming fan viciously. The too-intelligible
+signals were drowned in its sound.
+
+"And--tell them to--destroy the apparatus before the last of the power
+is gone," McLaurin ordered softly.
+
+The men in Deenmor station did slightly better than that. Gradually they
+cut down their magnetic shield, and some of the magnetic bombs tore and
+twisted viciously at the heavy metal walls. The thin atmosphere of Mars
+leaked in. Grimly the men waited. Atomic bombs--or ships to investigate?
+It did not matter much to them personally--
+
+Gresth Gkae smiled with his old vigor as he ordered one of the great
+interstellar ships to land beside the powerless station, approaching
+from such an angle that the still-active Mars Center station could not
+attack. One of the fleet of Phobos rose, and circled about the planet,
+and settled gracefully beside the station. For half an hour it lay there
+quietly, waiting and watching. Then a crew of two dozen Mirans started
+across the dry, crumbly powder of Mars' sands, toward the fort.
+Simultaneously almost, three things happened. A three-foot UV beam wiped
+out the advancing party. A pair of fifteen-foot beams cut a great gaping
+hole in the wall of the interstellar ship, as it darted up, like a
+startled quail, its weapons roaring defiance, only to fall back,
+severely wounded.
+
+And the radio messages pounded out to Earth the first description of the
+Miran people. Methodically the men in Deenmor station used all but one
+ton of their power to completely and forever wreck and destroy the
+interstellar cripple that floundered for a few moments on the sands a
+bare mile away. Presently, before Deenmor was through with it, the
+atomic bombs stopped coming, and the atomic shells. The magnetic shield
+that had been re-established for the few minutes of this last, dying
+sting, fell.
+
+Deenmor station vanished in a sudden, colossal tongue of blue-green
+light as the ton of atomically distorted mercury was exploded by a
+projector beam turned on the tank.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was long gone, when the first atomic bombs and magnetic bombs dropped
+from Phobos reached the spot, and only hot rock and broken metal
+remained.
+
+Mars Center failed in fact the next time Phobos rode high over it. The
+apparatus here had been carefully destroyed by technicians with a view
+of making it indecipherable, but the Mirans made it even more certain,
+for no ship settled here to investigate, but a stream of atomic bombs
+that lasted for over an hour, and churned the rock to dust, and the dust
+to molten lava, in which pools of fused tungsten-beryllium alloy bubbled
+slowly and sank.
+
+"Ah, Jarth--they are a brave race, whatever we may say of their queer
+shape," sighed Gresth Gkae as the last of Mars Center sank in bubbling
+lava. "They stung as they died." For some minutes he was silent.
+
+"We must move on," he said at length. "I have been thinking, and it
+seems best that a few ships land here, and establish a fort, while some
+twenty move on to the satellite of the third planet and destroy the fort
+there. We cannot operate against the planet while that hangs above us."
+
+Seven ships settled to Mars, while the fleet came up from Jupiter to
+join with Gresth Gkae's flight of ships on its way to Luna.
+
+An automatically controlled ship was sent ahead, and began the
+bombardment. It approached slowly, and was not destroyed by the UV beams
+till it had come to within 40,000 miles of the fort. At 60,000 Gresth
+Gkae stationed his fleet--and returned to 150,000 immediately as the
+titanic UV beams of the Lunar Fort stretched out to their maximum range.
+The focus made a difference. One ship started limping back to Jupiter,
+in tow of a second, while the rest began the slow, methodical work of
+wearing down the defenses of the Lunar Fort.
+
+Kendall looked out at the magnificent display of clashing, warring
+energies, the great, whirling spheres and discs of opalescent flame, and
+turned away sadly. "The men at Deenmor must have watched that for days.
+And at Mars Center."
+
+"How long can we hold out?" asked McLaurin.
+
+"Three weeks or so, at the present rate. That's a long time, really. And
+we can escape if we want to. The UV beams here have a greater range than
+any weapon the Strangers have, and with Earth so near--oh, we could
+escape. Little good."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I," said Buck Kendall, suddenly savage, "am going to consign all the
+math machines in the universe to eternal damnation--and go ahead and
+build a machine anyway. I _know_ that thing ought to be right. The
+math's wrong."
+
+"There is no other thing to try?"
+
+"A billion others. I don't know how many others. We ought to get atomic
+energy somehow. But that thing infuriates me. A hundred things that math
+has predicted, that I have checked by experiment, simple little things.
+But--when I carry it through to the point where I can get something
+useful--it wriggles off into--uncertainty."
+
+Kendall stalked off to the laboratory. Devin was there working over the
+calculus machines, and Kendall called him angrily. Then more apologetic,
+he explained it was anger at himself. "Devin, I'm going to make that
+thing, if it blows up and kills me. I'm going to make that thing if this
+whole fort blows up and kills me. That math has blown up in my face for
+four solid months, and half killed me, so I'm going to kill it. Come on,
+we'll make that damned junk."
+
+Angrily, furiously, Kendall drove his helpers to the task. He had worked
+out the apparatus in plan a dozen times, and now he had the plans turned
+into patterns, the patterns into metal.
+
+Saucily, the "S Doradus" made the trip to and from Earth with patterns,
+and with metal, with supplies and with apparatus. But she had to dodge
+and fight every inch of the way as the Miran ships swooped down angrily
+at her. A fighting craft could get through when the Miran fleet was
+withdrawn to some distance, but the Mirans were careful that no
+heavy-loaded freighter bearing power supply should get through.
+
+And Gresth Gkae waited off Luna in his great ship, and watched the
+steady streams of magnetic bombs exploding on the magnetic shield of the
+Lunar Fort. Presently more ships came up, and added their power to the
+attack, for here, the photo-cell banks could gather tremendous energy,
+and Gresth Gkae knew he would need to overcome this, and drain the
+accumulated power.
+
+Gresth Gkae felt certain if he could once crack this nut, break down
+Earth, he would have the system. This was the home planet. If this fell,
+then the two others would follow easily, despite the fact that the few
+forts on the innermost planet, Mercury, could gather energy from the sun
+at a rate greater than their ships could generate.
+
+It took Kendall two weeks and three days to set up his preliminary
+apparatus. They had power for perhaps four days more, thanks to the fact
+that the long Lunar day had begun shortly after Gresth Gkae's impatient
+attack had started. Also, the "S Doradus" had brought in several hundred
+tons of charged mercury on each trip, though this was no great quantity
+individually, it had mounted up in the ten trips she had made. The
+"Cepheid," her sister ship, had gone along on seven of the trips, and
+added to the total.
+
+But at length the apparatus was set up. It was peculiar looking, and it
+employed a great deal of power, nearly as much as a UV beam in fact.
+McLaurin looked at it sceptically toward the last, and asked Buck: "What
+do you expect it to do?"
+
+"I am," said Kendall sourly, "uncertain. The result will be uncertainty
+itself."
+
+Which, considering things, was a surprisingly accurate statement.
+Kendall gave the exact answer. He meant to give an ironic comment. For
+the mathematics had been perfectly correct, only Buck Kendall
+misinterpreted the answer.
+
+"I've followed the math with mechanism all the way through," he
+explained, "and I'm putting power into it. That's all I know. Somewhere,
+by the laws of cause and effect, this power _must_ show itself
+again--despite what the damn math says."
+
+And in that, of course, Kendall was wrong. Because the laws of cause and
+effect didn't hold in what he was doing now.
+
+"Do you want to watch?" he asked at length. "I'm all set to try it."
+
+"I suppose I may as well." McLaurin smiled. "In our close-knit little
+community the fate of one is of interest to all. If it's going to blow
+up, I might as well be here, and if it isn't, I want to be."
+
+Kendall smiled appreciatively and replied: "Let it be on thy own head.
+Here she goes."
+
+He walked over to the power board, and took command. Devin, and a squad
+of other scientists were seated about the room with every conceivable
+type and combination of apparatus. Kendall wanted to see what this was
+doing. "Tubes," he called. "Circuits A and D. Tie-ins." He stopped, the
+preliminary switches in. "Main circuit coming." With a jerk he threw
+over the last contact. A heavy relay thudded solidly. The hum of a
+straining atostor. Then--
+
+An electric motor, humming smoothly stopped with a jerk. "This," it
+remarked in a deep throaty voice, "is probably the last stand of
+humanity."
+
+The galvanometer before which Devin was seated apparently agreed. In a
+rather high pitched voice it pointed out that: "If the Lunar Fort falls,
+the Earth--" It stopped abruptly, and an electroscope beside Douglass
+took up the thread in a high, shrill voice, rather slurred, "--will be
+directly attacked."
+
+"This," resumed the motor in a hoarse voice, "will certainly mean the
+end of humanity." The motor gave up the discourse and hummed violently
+into action--in reverse!
+
+"My God!" Kendall pulled the switch open with a sagging jaw and staring
+eyes.
+
+The men in the room burst into sudden startled exclamations.
+
+Kendall didn't give them time. His jaw snapped shut, and a blazing light
+of wondrous joy shone in his eyes. He instantly threw the switch in
+again. Again the humming atostor, the strain--
+
+Slowly Devin lifted from his seat. With thrashing arms and startled,
+staring eyes, he drifted gently across the room. Abruptly he fell to the
+floor, unhurt by the light Lunar gravity.
+
+"I advise," said the motor in its grumbling voice, "an immediate
+exodus." It stopped speaking, and practiced what it preached. It was a
+fifty-horse motor-generator, on a five-ton tungsten-beryllium base, but
+it rose abruptly, spun rapidly about an axis at right angles to the axis
+of its armature, and stopped as suddenly. In mid air it continued its
+interrupted lecture. "Mercury therefore is the destination I would
+advise. There power is sufficient for--all machines." Gently it inverted
+itself and settled to the middle of the floor. Kendall instantly cut the
+switch. The relay did not chunk open. It refused to obey. Settled in the
+middle of the floor now, torn loose from its power leads, the
+motor-generator began turning. It turned faster and faster. It was
+shrilling in a thin scream of terrific speed, a speed that should have
+torn its windings to fragments under the lash of centrifugal force.
+Contentedly it said throatily. "Settled."
+
+The galvanometer spoke again in its peculiar harsh voice. "Therefore,
+move." Abruptly, without apparent reason, the stubborn relay clicked
+open. The shrilly screaming motor stopped dead instantly, as though it
+had had no real momentum, or had been inertialess.
+
+Startled, white-faced men looked at Kendall. Buck's eyes were shining
+with an unholy glee.
+
+"_Uncertainty!_" he shouted. "Uncertainty--uncertainty--uncertainty,
+you fools! Don't you see it? All the math--it said uncertainty--man,
+man--_we've got just that--uncertainty_!"
+
+"You're crazy," gasped McLaurin. "I'm crazy, everything's gone crazy."
+
+Kendall roared with sudden, joyous laughter. "Absolutely. Everything
+goes crazy--_the laws of nature break down_! Heisenberg's principle
+showed that the law of cause and effect weren't absolute. We've made
+them absolutely uncertain!"
+
+"But--but motors _talking_, instruments giving lectures--"
+
+"Certainly--or rather uncertainly--anything, absolutely anything. The
+destruction of the laws of gravity, freedom from inertia--why, merely
+picking up a radio lecture is nothing!"
+
+Suddenly, abruptly, a thousand questions poured in on him. Jubilantly he
+answered what he could, told what he thought--and then brought order.
+"The battle's still on, men--we've still got to find out how to use
+this, now we've got it. I have an idea--that there's a lot more. I know
+what I'll get this time. Now help me remake this apparatus so we don't
+broadcast the thing."
+
+At once, ten times the former pace, work was done. On the radio, news
+was sent out that Kendall was on the right track after all. In two hours
+the apparatus had been vastly altered, it was in the final stage, and an
+entirely different sort of field set up. Again they watched as Buck
+applied the power.
+
+The atostor hummed--but no strange tricks of matter happened this time.
+The more concentrated, altered field was, as Buck was to find out later,
+"Uncertainty of the Second Degree." It was molecular uncertainty. In a
+field a foot and a half in diameter, Buck saw the thing created--and
+suddenly a brilliant green-blue flame shot up, and a great dark cloud of
+terrible, red-brown deadly vapor. Then an instant later, Kendall had
+opened the relay. Gasping, the men ran from the laboratory, shutting the
+deadly fumes in. "N{2}O{4}" gasped Morton, the chemist, as they reached
+safety. "It's exothermic--but it formed there!"
+
+In that instant, Kendall grasped the meaning the choking fumes carried.
+"Molecular uncertainty!" he decided. "We're going back--we're getting
+there--"
+
+He altered the apparatus again, added another atostor in series, reduced
+the size of his sphere of forces--of strange chaos of uncertainty.
+Within--little was certain. Without--the laws of nature applied as ever.
+
+Again the apparatus was started, cautiously this time. Only a strange
+jumbled ionization appeared this time, then a slow, rising blue flame
+began to creep up, and burn hot and blue. Buck looked at it for a
+moment, then his face grew tense and thoughtful. "Devin--give me a
+half-dollar." Blankly, Devin reached in his pocket, and handed over the
+metal disc. Cautiously Buck Kendall tossed it toward the sphere of
+force. Instantly there was a flash of flame, soundless and soft-colored.
+Then the silver disc was outlined in light, and swiftly, inevitably
+crumbling into dust so fine only a blue haze appeared. In less than two
+seconds, the metal was gone. Only the dense blue fog remained. Then this
+began to go, and the leaping blue flame grew taller, and stronger.
+
+"We're on the track--I'm going to stop here, and calculate. Bring the
+data--"
+
+Kendall shut off the machine, and went to the calculation room. Swiftly
+he selected already prepared graphs, graphs of the math he had worked
+on. Devin came soon, and others. They assembled the data and with tables
+and arithmetical machines turned it into graphs.
+
+Then all these graphs were fed into the machine. There were curves, and
+sine-curves, abrupt breaking lines--but the answer that came when all
+were compounded was a perfect diagram of a flight of four steps,
+descending in unequal treads to zero.
+
+Kendall looked at it for long minutes. "That," he said at length, "is
+what I expected. There are four degrees of uncertainty, we generated
+'Uncertainty of the First Degree,' 'Mass Uncertainty,' when we started.
+That, as here shown, takes little energy concentration. Then we
+increased the energy concentration and got 'Uncertainty of the Second
+Degree,' 'Molecular Uncertainty.' Then I added more power, and reduced
+the field, and got 'Uncertainty of the Third Degree'--'Atomic
+Uncertainty.' There is 'Uncertainty of the Fourth Degree.' It is barely
+attainable with our atostors. It is--utter uncertainty.
+
+"In the First Degree, the laws of mass action fail, the great
+broad-reaching laws. In the Second Degree, the laws of the molecules, a
+finer organization, break down, and anything can happen in chemistry. In
+the Third Degree, the laws of atomic physics break down slowly. The atom
+is tough. It is very compact, and we just barely attained the
+concentration needed with that apparatus. But--in the Third Degree, when
+the Atomic Laws break down into utter uncertainty, the atoms break, and
+only hydrogen can exist. That was the blue flame.
+
+"But the Fourth Degree--_there is no law whatsoever_, nothing in all the
+Universe can exist. It means--_the utter destruction and release of the
+energy of matter_!" Kendall paused for a moment. "We have won, with
+this. We need only make up this apparatus--and maybe make it into a
+weapon. You know, in the Fourth Degree, nothing in all the Universe
+could resist, deflect, or control it, if launched freely, and
+self-maintaining. I think that might be done. You see, no law affects
+it, for it breaks down the law. Magnetism cannot attract or repel it
+because magnetic fields cannot exist; there is no law of magnetic force,
+where this field is.
+
+"And you know, Devin, how I have analyzed and duplicated their magnetic
+ball-fields. This should be capable of formation into a ball-field.
+
+"We need only make it up now. We will install it in the 'S Doradus' and
+the 'Cepheid' as a weapon. We need only install it as an energy source
+here. Let us start."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Buck Kendall with a slow smile, looked out of the port in the thick
+metal wall. The magnetic shield of the Lunar Fort was washed constantly
+with the fires of exploding magnetic bombs. The smile spread broader.
+"My friends," he said softly, "you can pull from now till doomsday as
+far as I'm concerned, and you won't even disturb us now." He looked back
+over his shoulder into the power room. A hunched bulk, beautifully
+designed and carefully finished, the apparatus that created 'Uncertainty
+of the Fourth Degree' was destroying matter, and creating by its
+destruction terrific electric fields. These fields were feeding the
+magnetic shield now. Under the present drain, the machine was not
+noticeably working. In fact, Kendall was a bit annoyed. He had tested
+out the energy generating properties of this machine, trying to find a
+limit. He had found there was no limit. The great copper conductors,
+charged with the same atostor force that was used in the mercury fuel,
+were perfect conductors, they had not heated. But the eleven thousand
+tons of discharged mercury metal had been completely charged in just a
+bit better than eleven minutes. The pumps wouldn't force it through the
+charging apparatus any faster than that.
+
+Two weeks more had passed, while the "S Doradus" and the "Cepheid" were
+fitted out with the new apparatus Buck had designed. They were almost
+ready to start now.
+
+McLaurin came down the corridor, and stopped near Kendall. He too smiled
+at the Miran's attempts. "They've got a long way to go, Buck."
+
+"They're going a long way. Clear back home--and we'll be right along. I
+don't think they can outdistance us."
+
+"I still don't see why you couldn't use one of those Uncertainty
+conditions--the First Degree perhaps, and annihilate our inertia."
+
+"You can't control Uncertainty. By its essential character it's beyond
+control."
+
+"What's that Fourth Degree machine of yours--the material energy--if it
+isn't controlled and utilized Uncertainty?"
+
+"It's utter and utterly uncontrolled Uncertainty. The matter within that
+field breaks down to absolutely nothing. Within, no law whatsoever
+applies, but fortunately, outside the old laws of physics apply--and we
+can gather and use the energy which is released outside, though nothing
+can be done inside. Why, think, man, if I could control that
+Uncertainty, I could do anything at all, absolutely anything. It would
+be a world as unreasonable as a bad dream. Think how unreasonable those
+manifestations we first got were!"
+
+"But can't you get any control at all?"
+
+"Very little. Anyway, if I could get inertialess conditions at will, I'd
+be afraid of them. They'd make chemical reactions impossible in all
+probability--and life is chemical. Two atoms must come into more or less
+violent contact before a union takes place, and cannot if they have
+neither momentum nor inertia.
+
+"Anyway--why worry. I can't do it, because I can't control this thing.
+And we have the extra-space drive."
+
+"How does that darned thing work? Can't you drop the math and tell me
+about it?"
+
+Kendall smiled. "Not too readily. Remember first, as to the driving
+system, that it works on the fabric of space. Space is, in the physical
+sense, a fabric woven of the threads of lines of force from every body
+in the universe, made up of fields and forces. It is elastic, and can
+transmit strains. But anything that can transmit strains, can be
+strained against. With the tremendous field intensities available by the
+material engines, I can get such fields as will 'dig their toes' into
+space and push.
+
+"That's the drive itself. It is accelerationless, because it enfolds us,
+and acts equally on every atom of us. By maintaining in addition a
+slight artificial gravity--thanks also to the intensity of those
+material engine fields--we can be comfortable, while we accelerate at
+tremendous rates.
+
+"That is, I think, at least allied to the Stranger's system. For the
+high-speed drive, I do in fact use the Uncertainty. I can control it in
+a certain sense by determining its powers, and the limits of
+uncertainty, whether First, Second, Third or Fourth Degree. It advances
+in jumps--but on a finer plotting of the curve, you can see that each
+jump represents a vast series of smaller jumps. That is, there is Class
+A, B, C, D, and so forth Uncertainty of the First Degree. Now Class A
+First Degree Uncertainty involves only the deepest, broadest principles.
+Only they break down. One of these is the law of the speed of light.
+
+"I'm sure that isn't the system the Strangers use, but I'm also sure
+there's no limit to the speed we can get."
+
+"Doesn't that wreck your drive system?"
+
+"No, because gravity and the fields I use in driving are First Degree
+Uncertainties of the higher classes.
+
+"But at any rate, it will work. And--I suspect you came to say you were
+ready to go."
+
+"I did." McLaurin nodded.
+
+"Still stick to your original plan?"
+
+McLaurin nodded. "I think it's best. You follow those fellows back to
+their system in the 'S Doradus' and I'll stay here in the 'Cepheid' to
+protect the system. They may need some time to get out of the place
+here. And remember, we ought to be as decent as they were. They didn't
+bother the transports leaving Jupiter when they came in, only attacked
+the warships. We're bound to do the same, but we'll have to keep a watch
+on them, nonetheless. So you go on ahead."
+
+They started down the corridor, and came presently to the huge locks
+where the "S Doradus" and the "Cepheid" were berthed. The super-ships
+lay cold and gray now, men swarming in and out with last-minute
+supplies. Air, water, spare parts, bedding and personal equipment.
+Douglass, Cole, and most of the laboratory staff would go with Kendall
+when he followed the Strangers home. Devin and a few of the most
+advanced physicists would stay with McLaurin in case of need.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later the "S Doradus" rose gently, soundlessly from her berth,
+and floated out of the open lock-door. The "Cepheid" followed her in
+five seconds. Still under the great screen of the fort, the lashing,
+coruscating colors of the magnetic bombs and the magnetic screen flashed
+and was iridescent. The "S Doradus" poked her great nose gently through
+the screen, and an instant later her titanically powerful,
+material-engine effortlessly discharged a great magnetic bomb, sent with
+the combined power of five atomic-powered interstellar ships. The two
+ships separated now, the "Cepheid" under McLaurin flashing ahead with
+sudden, terrific acceleration toward Mars, whispering through space at a
+speed that made it undetectable, faster than light. The "S Doradus"
+journeyed out leisurely toward the fleet of forty-seven Miran ships.
+
+Gresth Gkae saw the "S Doradus" and as he watched the steady progress,
+felt sudden fear at his heart. The ship seemed so certain--
+
+At a distance of thirty thousand miles, Kendall stopped. Magnetic bombs
+were washing his screen continuously now, seeking to exhaust the ship as
+all the great ships beyond poured their energy against it. A slow smile
+spread over Kendall's mouth as he heard the gentle hum of the barely
+working material-engine. Carefully he aligned the nose UV beam of the "S
+Doradus" on the nearest of the Miran ships. Then he depressed a switch.
+
+There was no ion-release before the force-mirror now. Just a jet of gas
+whirling into a half-inch field of "Uncertainty of the Fourth Degree."
+The matter vanished instantly in released energy so stupendous that the
+greatest previous UV beams had been harmless things by comparison.
+Material energy maintained the mirror forces. Material energy gave the
+power that was released. And only material energy could have stood up
+before it. Thirty thousand miles away, a Miran ship flamed
+instantaneously into inconceivable incandescence, vanishing almost in
+blue-violet light of terrific intensity. The ship reeled away, a
+half-molten wreck.
+
+The beam spotted two more ships before it winked out. Then Kendall began
+sending bombs. He moved up to within 2000 miles that his aim might be
+accurate. They were bombs of "Uncertainty of the Third Degree," the
+Uncertainty of atomic law in bomb form. One hit the nose of the nearest
+ship, and a sphere five feet in diameter glowed mistily blue for a
+moment. Then very easily, the matter that formed the wall of the cruiser
+began to run and change, and presently there was only a hole, and an
+expanding cloud of gas. Three more flowed toward it--and the hole
+enlarged, and another hole appeared in a bulkhead behind.
+
+Kendall made a change. For the first time there came the staccato bark
+of the material engine under strain, as it fashioned the terrific fields
+of "Uncertainty of the Ultimate Degree." Abruptly they leapt out,
+invisible till they entered a magnetic screen, then run over with
+opalescent light as the energy of the field was sucked into them and
+released.
+
+It struck the nose of a ship--a field no larger than an apple--
+
+A titanic gout of energy burst out that was soundless in space. The ship
+suddenly opened back, opened like the peel of a banana, till a little
+nub remained at the further end, and the metal flaps dropped back across
+and behind it dejectedly. A second ship was struck, and it was struck on
+one side, so that it was shattered like a spent firecracker.
+
+Then the Miran fleet vanished in speed.
+
+Kendall followed them. "I think," he said with a grin, "they tried to
+use their radio beam, but it spread too much to do anything at that
+distance. And they used their rotating magnetic field, which we couldn't
+feel. And their crumbler ray too, of course. I wonder--are they headed
+only for Jupiter? No--no, they've passed it!"
+
+Faster than light, faster than energy could follow through space, or
+Uncertainty Bombs pursue, the Mirans were fleeing for home. They knew
+now that only in speed lay safety. Already they knew that a similar ship
+had appeared off Jupiter, and, after wiping out the Phobos and Mars
+stations with one bomb each, had cleared the Jovian Satellites with
+equal terrible efficiency.
+
+In one of the fleeing ships was a broken, tired old man, and his staff.
+Gresth Gkae looked back at the blank, distorted space behind them, at
+the swiftly dwindling sun, and spoke. "I was at fault, my friends. Jarth
+has spoken. _They_ are the stronger and the wiser race. Farth Skalt has
+shown you--they use space fields of intensity 100. That means the energy
+of the ultimate destruction. Jarth used us as his instrument of testing,
+only to drive and stimulate that race. I do not--nay. There is no doubt
+now, for look."
+
+Plainly visible, rapidly overtaking them, the "S Doradus" appeared
+sharp, and luminous on the jet of distorted space.
+
+"We cannot escape, my friends. Shall we return to Sthor or remain in
+space, lost?"
+
+"Let us deflect our course--at least he may not know our destination."
+The interstellar ship turned very slightly in her course. Plainly they
+saw the "S Doradus" flash on, in a straight line, headed for distant,
+red-glowing Mira. Gresth Gkae watched, and shrugged. Silently he put the
+ship back on its course, at its utmost speed. Parallel with them, near
+to them, the "S Doradus" flashed on. Day after day, the two hurled
+through space faster than light. Gradually Mira brightened, and at last
+became a disc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gresth Gkae slowed his ships, and Kendall, watching, slowed to match his
+speed. Five billion miles from Sthor, they had reached normal space
+speeds. Viciously the Miran fleet attacked the lone ship from Earth.
+Their rays, their bombs, their every weapon was flaming. Great
+interstellar ships flashed suddenly into speeds greater than that of
+light, seeking to ram and destroy the smaller ship. The "S Doradus"
+flashed into equal or greater speed, and eluded them.
+
+Kendall had determined now, which was the leader's ship.
+
+Gresth Gkae watched dully as his ships attempted to destroy the single,
+small ship. He sighed in resignation, and turned to walk back to the
+chapel aboard the ship. One last prayer to Jarth--
+
+Gresth Gkae stopped abruptly. The great ship was lurching strangely. Men
+shouted sudden, frightened cries. The clanking and thud of relays
+sounded, the shrill of alarms. Then the alarms stopped, and suddenly the
+whole great ship vibrated to an infinitely deep voice speaking in
+perfect Sthorian. The voice remarked solemnly, in great, vibrant tones,
+that they would certainly receive news presently from the Expeditions.
+It went on for some seconds to discuss the conditions as reported in the
+new system. Then it stopped abruptly. An electric motor just above
+Gresth Gkae's head suddenly hummed into action without reason or power
+connection. Almost simultaneously he heard the shouts of startled men as
+the great lock doors began to open into space of their own accord,
+bulkhead doors slipped shut as the roar of escaping air echoed in the
+ship.
+
+Then it was all over. Gresth Gkae ran to the control room. The Mirans
+there looked up at him with drawn faces.
+
+"The instruments--Gresth Gkae--the instruments. The instruments read
+impossible things, the motors worked without reason, the fields
+fluctuated--the atomic engines stopped and the magnetic shield broke
+down and gripped part of the ship instead!" reported the bewildered
+pilot.
+
+"I do not know--some strange weapon of--" began the old scientist.
+Something luminous and huge twisted suddenly through space toward them,
+a bomb of "Uncertainty of the First Degree." It wrapped the ship
+silently--and again strange things happened. Abruptly the ship started
+whirling violently, yet without centrifugal force. The heavens wheeled
+crazily, and turned about three axes simultaneously. There was no
+gyroscopic effect to hold them!
+
+Gradually the thing died out. Then a great field seemed to catch the
+ship, and hurl it away from its companions. Abruptly the pilot applied
+all his power to pull free. In vain.
+
+Gresth Gkae shook his head slowly, and raised the pilot's hands from the
+board. "Let them do as they will. I think they mean us no real harm,
+Thart Kralt. They can, we know, destroy us in an instant. Perhaps he
+wants us to go somewhere with him"--Gresth Gkae smiled sadly--"and
+anyway, we can do nothing."
+
+For nearly a billion miles the great ship was hurled through space at
+tremendous normal-space velocity. Then abruptly it was halted, without a
+sign of strain or hurt. The great twenty-foot UV beam on the nose of the
+"S Doradus" broke into glowing gentle red light. It flashed twice. There
+was a pause. Then it flashed four times. A long wait. Then three times,
+a pause and nine times. A wait. Four times, a pause, sixteen times. Then
+it stopped.
+
+A slow smile of ineffable joy spread over Gresth Gkae's face. "Jarth Be
+Praised. He can destroy, but does not wish to. Ah, Thart Kralt, turn
+your spotlight toward him, and flash it twenty-five times, for he is
+trying to start communications with us. Jarth is wise beyond all
+understanding. They were the weaker race, and they are the stronger. But
+also they are the better, for they could destroy, and they do not, but
+seek only to communicate."
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE
+
+
+The interstellar liner "Mirasol" settled gently to Sthor, having circled
+wide of Asthor, and from her hold a cargo of the heavy Jovian elements
+was discharged, while a mixed stream of Solarians and Mirans came from
+her passenger quarters.
+
+A delegation of Mirans met the new Ambassador from Sol, Commander
+McLaurin, and conducted him joyfully to the Central Government Group.
+Beside the great buildings, a battered, scarred interstellar ship lay,
+her rear section a mass of great patches, rudely applied, and rudely
+made, mere cast metal plates.
+
+Gresth Gkae welcomed Commander McLaurin to the Government Hall. "Your
+arrival today, Commander McLaurin, was most fortunate," he said in the
+interstellar language that had been developed, "for but yesterday Gresth
+Talak, my brother, arrived in his ship. Before we made that
+fortunate-unfortunate expedition against your system, we waited for him,
+and he did not come, so we knew his ship had, like others, been lost.
+
+"He arrived only yesterday, some seventy hours ago, and explained how it
+had come about. He too found a solar system. But he was less fortunate
+than I, and while exploring this uninhabited system, far out still from
+the central sun, where there should have been no masses of matter, one
+of those rare things, a giant stony meteor that even a magnetic shield
+will not stop careened into the rear of his ship. Damaged badly, barely
+able to move, they settled to a planet. The atmosphere was breathable,
+the temperature mild. But while they could navigate planetary
+distances, they could not return, so for nearly four and a half of your
+years they remained there, working, working to repair their ship.
+
+"They have done it at last. And they have returned. And best of all,
+after a four-year stay there, they know all they need know about that
+system of eleven planets. It is compact as yours, with an ultra-light
+sun such as yours, and four of the planets are habitable. Together we
+can colonize that system! It is a system of stable heat and stable
+light. And it is small, yet large enough. And with the devices such as
+your new energy has permitted, we need never fear the stony meteors
+again." Gresth Gkae smiled happily. "Still better--it is inhabited only
+by the lowest forms of life. It is too costly to both races when Jarth
+sees fit to stimulate them by throwing one against the other, despite
+the good things that may come later."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Ultimate Weapon, by John Wood Campbell
+
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ultimate Weapon, by John W. Campbell
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ultimate Weapon, by John Wood Campbell
+
+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: The Ultimate Weapon
+
+Author: John Wood Campbell
+
+Illustrator: Gerald McConnell
+
+Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23790]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ULTIMATE WEAPON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 308px;">
+<img src="images/001.jpg" width="308" height="500" alt="When star fights star, is chaos the best defense?" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>RED SUN RISING</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes
+it was blazing, brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly
+dim, cool, shedding little warmth on its many planets.
+Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was seeking a better
+star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That star
+had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system.
+And in his astronomical searching, he found Sol.</p>
+
+<p>With hundreds of ships, each larger than whole
+Terrestrial spaceports, and traveling faster than the speed
+of light, the Mirans set out to move in to Solar regions
+and take over.</p>
+
+<p>And on Earth there was nothing which would be capable
+of beating off this incredible armada&mdash;until Buck
+Kendall stumbled upon THE ULTIMATE WEAPON.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="blockquot"><p><b>JOHN W. CAMPBELL</b> first started writing in 1930 when
+his first short story, <i>When the Atoms Failed</i>, was accepted
+by a science-fiction magazine. At that time he
+was twenty years old and still a student at college. As the
+title of the story indicates, he was even at that time
+occupied with the significance of atomic energy and
+nuclear physics.</p>
+
+<p>For the next seven years, Campbell, bolstered by a
+scientific background that ran from childhood experiments,
+to study at Duke University and the Massachusetts
+Institute of Technology, wrote and sold science-fiction,
+achieving for himself an enviable reputation in the field.</p>
+
+<p>In 1937 he became the editor of <i>Astounding Stories</i>
+magazine and applied himself at once to the task of
+bettering the magazine and the field of s-f writing
+in general. His influence on science-fiction since then
+has been great. Today he still remains as the editor of
+that magazine's evolved and redesigned successor,
+<i>Analog</i>.</p></div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<h1><big>THE<br />
+ULTIMATE<br />
+WEAPON</big></h1>
+
+<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">by<br />
+JOHN W. CAMPBELL</h2>
+
+
+<p class="pub1">ACE BOOKS, INC.<br />
+1120 Avenue of the Americas<br />
+New York, N.Y. 10036</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p class="pub2"><small>THE ULTIMATE WEAPON</small><br />
+Copyright, 1936, by John W. Campbell<br />
+Originally published as a serial in <i>Amazing Stories</i> under
+the title of <i>Uncertainty</i>.<br />
+All Rights Reserved</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>Cover by Gerald McConnell</i></p>
+
+
+<p class="pub1">Printed in U.S.A.</p>
+
+<div class="trans1"><p class="trnhd">Transcriber's Note</p>
+<p>Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
+on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors
+have been corrected without note.</p>
+
+<p>A table of contents, though not present in the original publication,
+has been provided below:</p>
+
+<ul><li><a href="#I">I</a></li>
+<li><a href="#II">II</a></li>
+<li><a href="#III">III</a></li>
+<li><a href="#IV">IV</a></li>
+<li><a href="#V">V</a></li>
+<li><a href="#VI">VI</a></li>
+<li><a href="#VII">VII</a></li>
+<li><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></li>
+<li><a href="#IX">IX</a></li>
+<li><a href="#X">X</a></li>
+<li><a href="#XI">XI</a></li>
+<li><a href="#XII">XII</a></li>
+<li><a href="#EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a></li></ul>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/002.png" width="600" height="289" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+
+<p class="cap"><span class="smcap">Patrol Cruiser</span> "IP-T 247" circling out toward
+Pluto on leisurely inspection tour to visit the outpost
+miners there, was in no hurry at all as she loafed along. Her
+six-man crew was taking it very easy, and easy meant two-man
+watches, and low speed, to watch for the instrument
+panel and attend ship into the bargain.</p>
+
+<p>She was about thirty million miles off Pluto, just beginning
+to get in touch with some of the larger mining stations out
+there, when Buck Kendall's turn at the controls came along.
+Buck Kendall was one of life's little jokes. When Nature
+made him, she was absentminded. Buck stood six feet two
+in his stocking feet, with his usual slight stoop in operation.
+When he forgot, and stood up straight, he loomed about
+two inches higher. He had the body and muscles of a dock
+navvy, which Nature started out to make. Then she forgot
+and added something of the same stuff she put in Sir
+Francis Drake. Maybe that made Old Nature nervous, and
+she started adding different things. At any rate, Kendall,
+as finally turned out, had a brain that put him in the first
+rank of scientists&mdash;when he felt like it&mdash;the general constitution
+of an ostrich and a flair for gambling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The present position was due to such a gamble. An IP
+man, a friend of his, had made the mistake of betting him a
+thousand dollars he wouldn't get beyond a Captain's bars
+in the Patrol. Kendall had liked the idea anyway, and adding
+a bit of a bet to it made it irresistible. So, being a very
+particular kind of a fool, the glorious kind which old Nature
+turns out now and then, he left a five million dollar estate on
+Long Island, Terra, that same evening, and joined up in the
+Patrol. The Sir Francis Drake strain had immediately come
+forth&mdash;and Kendall was having the time of his life. In a six-man
+cruiser, his real work in the Interplanetary Patrol had
+started. He was still in it&mdash;but it was his command now,
+and a blue circle on his left sleeve gave his lieutenant's rank.</p>
+
+<p>Buck Kendall had immediately proceeded to enlist in his
+command the IP man who had made the mistaken bet, and
+Rad Cole was on duty with him now. Cole was the technician
+of the T-247. His rank as Technical Engineer was practically
+equivalent to Kendall's circle-rank, which made the two
+more comfortable together.</p>
+
+<p>Cole was listening carefully to the signals coming through
+from Pluto. "That," he decided, "sounds like Tad Nichols'
+fist. You can recognize that broken-down truck-horse trot
+of his on the key as far away as you can hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what it is?" sighed Buck. "I thought it was
+static mushing him at first. What's he like?"</p>
+
+<p>"Like all the other damn fools who come out two billion
+miles to scratch rock, as if there weren't enough already
+on the inner planets. He's got a rich platinum property.
+Sells ninety percent of his output to buy his power,
+and the other eleven percent for his clothes and food."</p>
+
+<p>"He must be an efficient miner," suggested Kendall, "to
+maintain 101% production like that."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but his bank account is. He's figured out that's the
+most economic level of production. If he produces less, he
+won't be able to pay for his heating power, and if he produces
+more, his operation power will burn up his bank account
+too fast."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmmm&mdash;sensible way to figure. A man after my own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+heart. How does he plan to restock his bank account?"</p>
+
+<p>"By mining on Mercury. He does it regularly&mdash;sort of a
+commuter. Out here his power bills eat it up. On Mercury
+he goes in for potassium, and sells the power he collects
+in cooling his dome, of course. He's a good miner, and the
+old fool can make money down there." Like any really skilled
+operator, Cole had been sending Morse messages while he
+talked. Now he sat quiet waiting for the reply, glancing at
+the chronometer.</p>
+
+<p>"I take it he's not after money&mdash;just after fun," suggested
+Buck.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. He's after money," replied Cole gravely. "You
+ask him&mdash;he's going to make his eternal fortune yet by
+striking a real bed of jovium, and then he'll retire."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, one of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"They all are," Cole laughed. "Eternal hope, and the rest
+of it." He listened a moment and went on. "But old Nichols is
+a first-grade engineer. He wouldn't be able to remake that
+bankroll every time if he wasn't. You'll see his Dome out
+there on Pluto&mdash;it's always the best on the planet. Tip-top
+shape. And he's a bit of an experimenter too. Ah&mdash;he's with
+us."</p>
+
+<p>Nichols' ragged signals were coming through&mdash;or pounding
+through. They were worse than usual, and at first Kendall
+and Cole couldn't make them out. Then finally they got them
+in bursts. The man was excited, and his bad key-work
+made it worse. "&mdash;Randing stopped. They got him I think.
+He said&mdash;th&mdash;ship as big&mdash;a&mdash;nsport. Said it wa&mdash;eaded my&mdash;ay.
+Neutrons&mdash;on instruments&mdash;he's coming over the horizon&mdash;it's
+huge&mdash;war ship I think&mdash;register&mdash;instru&mdash;neutrons&mdash;."
+Abruptly the signals were blanked out completely.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Cole and Kendall sat frozen and stiff. Each looked at the
+other abruptly, then Kendall moved. From the receiver, he
+ripped out the recording coil, and instantly jammed it into
+the analyzer. He started it through once, then again, then
+again, at different tone settings, till he found a very shrill<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+whine that seemed to clear up most of Nichols' bad key-work.
+"T-247&mdash;T-247&mdash;Emergency. Emergency. Randing reports
+the&mdash;over his horizon. Huge&mdash;ip&mdash;reign manufacture.
+Almost spherical. Randing's stopped. They got him I think.
+He said the ship was as big as a transport. Said it was
+headed my way. Neutrons&mdash;ont&mdash;gister&mdash;instruments. I think&mdash;is
+h&mdash;he's coming over the horizon. It's huge, and a war
+ship I think&mdash;register&mdash;instruments&mdash;neutrons."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall's finger stabbed out at a button. Instantly the
+noise of the other men, wakened abruptly by the mild
+shocks, came from behind. Kendall swung to the controls,
+and Cole raced back to the engine room. The hundred-foot
+ship shot suddenly forward under the thrust of her
+tail ion-rockets. A blue-red cloud formed slowly behind her
+and expanded. Talbot appeared, and silently took her over
+from Kendall. "Stations, men," snapped Kendall. "Emergency
+call from a miner of Pluto reporting a large armed vessel
+which attacked them." Kendall swung back, and eased himself
+against the thrusting acceleration of the over-powered
+little ship, toward the engine room. Cole was bending over
+his apparatus, making careful check-ups, closing weapon-circuits.
+No window gave view of space here; on the left
+was the tiny tender's pocket, on the right, above and below
+the great water tanks that fed the ion-rockets, behind the
+rockets themselves. The tungsten metal walls were cold and
+gray under the ship lights; the hunched bulks of the apparatus
+crowded the tiny room. Gigantic racked accumulators
+huddled in the corners. Martin and Garnet swung into position
+in the fighting-tanks just ahead of the power rooms;
+Canning slid rapidly through the engine room, oozed through
+a tiny door, and took up his position in the stern-chamber,
+seated half-over the great ion-rocket sheath.</p>
+
+<p>"Ready in positions, Captain Kendall," called the war-pilot
+as the little green lights appeared on his board.</p>
+
+<p>"Test discharges on maximum," ordered Kendall. He turned
+to Cole. "You start the automatic key?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right, Captain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"All shipshape?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right as can be. Accumulators at thirty-seven per cent,
+thanks to the loaf out here. They ought to pick up our
+signal back on Jupiter, he's nearest now. The station on
+Europa will get it."</p>
+
+<p>"Talbot&mdash;we are only to investigate if the ship is as reported.
+Have you seen any signs of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir, and the signals are blank."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll work from here." Kendall took his position at the
+commanding control. Cole made way for him, and moved
+to the power board. One by one he tested the automatic
+doors, the pressure bulkheads. Kendall watched the instruments
+as one after another of the weapons were tested on
+momentary full discharge&mdash;titanic flames of five million volt
+protons. Then the ship thudded to the chatter of the Garnell
+rifles.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Tensely the men watched the planet ahead, white, yet
+barely visible in the weak sunlight so far out. It was swimming
+slowly nearer as the tiny ship gathered speed.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall cast a glance over his detector-instruments. The
+radio network was undisturbed, the magnetic and electric
+fields recognized only the slight disturbances occasioned by
+the planet itself. There was nothing, noth&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Five hundred miles away, a gigantic ship came into instantaneous
+being. Simultaneously, and instantaneously, the
+various detector systems howled their warnings. Kendall
+gasped as the thing appeared on his view screen, with the
+scale-lines below. The scale must be cock-eyed. They said
+the ship was fifteen hundred feet in diameter, and two
+thousand long!</p>
+
+<p>"Retreat," ordered Kendall, "at maximum acceleration."</p>
+
+<p>Talbot was already acting. The gyroscopes hummed in
+their castings, and the motors creaked. The T-247 spun on
+her axis, and abruptly the acceleration built up as the ion-rockets
+began to shudder. A faint smell of "heat" began to
+creep out of the converter. Immense "weight" built up,
+and pressed the men into their specially designed seats<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The gigantic ship across the way turned slowly, and
+seemed to stare at the T-247. Then it darted toward them
+at incredible speed till the poor little T-247 seemed to be
+standing still, as sailors say. The stranger was so gigantic
+now, the screens could not show all of him.</p>
+
+<p>"God, Buck&mdash;he's going to take us!"</p>
+
+<p>Simultaneously, the T-247 rolled, and from her broke every
+possible stream of destruction. The ion-rocket flames swirled
+abruptly toward her, the proton-guns whined their song of
+death in their housings, and the heavy pounding shudder of
+the Garnell guns racked the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely, Kendall suddenly noticed, there was a stillness
+in the ship. The guns and the rays were still going&mdash;but
+the little human sounds seemed abruptly gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Talbot&mdash;Garnet&mdash;" Only silence answered him. Cole
+looked across at him in sudden white-faced amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"They're gone&mdash;" gasped Cole.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall stood paralyzed for thirty seconds. Then suddenly
+he seemed to come to life. "Neutrons! Neutrons&mdash;and
+water tanks! Old Nichols was right&mdash;" He turned to his
+friend. "Cole&mdash;the tender&mdash;quick." He darted a glance at
+the screen. The giant ship still lay alongside. A wash of
+ions was curling around her, splitting, and passing on. The
+pinprick explosions of the Garnell shells dotted space around
+her&mdash;but never on her.</p>
+
+<p>Cole was already racing for the tender lock. In an instant
+Kendall piled in after him. The tiny ship, scarcely ten feet
+long, was powered for flights of only two hours acceleration,
+and had oxygen for but twenty-four hours for six
+men, seventy-two hours for two men&mdash;maybe. The heavy
+door was slammed shut behind them, as Cole seated himself
+at the panel. He depressed a lever, and a sudden smooth
+push shot them away from the T-247.</p>
+
+<p>"DON'T!" called Kendall sharply as Cole reached for the
+ion-rocket control. "Douse those lights!" The ship was dark
+in dark space. The lighted hull of the T-247 drifted away
+from the little tender&mdash;further and further till the giant ship
+on the far side became visible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not a light&mdash;not a sign of fields in operation." Kendall
+said, unconsciously speaking softly. "This thing is so tiny, that
+it may escape their observation in the fields of the T-247 and
+Pluto down there. It's our only hope."</p>
+
+<p>"What happened? How in the name of the planets did
+they kill those men without a sound, without a flash, and
+without even warning us, or injuring us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Neutrons&mdash;don't you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Frankly, I don't. I'm no scientist&mdash;merely a technician.
+Neutrons aren't used in any process I've run across."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, remember they're uncharged, tiny things. Small
+as protons, but without electric field. The result is they
+pass right through an ordinary atom without being stopped
+unless they make a direct hit. Tungsten, while it has a beautifully
+high melting point, is mostly open space, and a neutron
+just sails right through it, or any heavy atom. Light atoms stop
+neutrons better&mdash;there's less open space in 'em. Hydrogen
+is best. Well&mdash;a man is made up mostly of light elements,
+and a man stops those neutrons&mdash;it isn't surprising it killed
+those other fellows invisibly, and without a sound."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean they bathed that ship in neutrons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shot it full of 'em. Just like our proton guns, only sending
+neutrons."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, why weren't we killed too?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Water stops neutrons,' I said. Figure it out."</p>
+
+<p>"The rocket-water tanks&mdash;all around us! Great masses of
+water&mdash;" gasped Cole. "That saved us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right. I wonder if they've spotted us."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>The stranger ship was moving slowly in relation to the T-247.
+Suddenly the motion changed, the stranger spun&mdash;and a
+giant lock appeared in her side, opened. The T-247 began
+to move, floated more and more rapidly straight for the
+lock. Her various weapons had stopped operating now, the
+hoppers of the Garnell guns exhausted, the charge of the accumulators
+aboard the ship down so low the proton guns
+had died out.</p>
+
+<p>"Lord&mdash;they're taking the whole ship!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Say&mdash;Cole, is that any ship you ever heard of before?
+<i>I don't think that's just a pirate!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a pirate&mdash;what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"How'd he get inside our detector screens so fast? Watch&mdash;he'll
+either leave, or come after us&mdash;" The T-247 had
+settled inside the lock now, and the great metal door closed
+after it. The whole patrol ship had been swallowed by a
+giant. Kendall was sketching swiftly on a notebook, watching
+the vast ship closely, putting down a record of its lines, and
+formation. He glanced up at it, and then down for a few
+more lines, and up at it&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger ship abruptly dwindled. It dwindled with
+incredible speed, rushing off along the line of sight at an
+impossible velocity, and abruptly clicking out of sight, like
+an image on a movie-film that has been cut, and repaired
+after the scene that showed the final disappearance.</p>
+
+<p>"Cole&mdash;Cole&mdash;did you get that? Did you see&mdash;do you understand
+what happened?" Kendall was excitedly shouting
+now.</p>
+
+<p>"He missed us," Cole sighed. "It's a wonder&mdash;hanging out
+here in space, with the protector of the T-247's fields gone."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, you asteroid&mdash;that's not it. <i>He went off faster than
+light itself!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh&mdash;what? Faster than <i>light</i>? That can't be done&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He did it, I know he did. That's how he got inside our
+screens. He came inside faster than the warning message
+could relay back the information. Didn't you see him accelerate
+to an impossible speed in an impossible time? Didn't
+you see how he just vanished as he exceeded the speed
+of light, and stopped reflecting it? <i>That ship was no ship
+of this solar system!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"Where did he come from then?"</p>
+
+<p>"God only knows, but it's a long, long way off."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> IP-M-122 picked them up. The M-122 got out there
+two days later, in response to the calls the T-247 had sent
+out. As soon as she got within ten million miles of the little
+tender, she began getting Cole's signals, and within twelve
+hours had reached the tiny thing, located it, and picked it
+up.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Jim Warren was in command, one of the old
+school commanders of the IP. He listened to Kendall's report,
+listened to Cole's tale&mdash;and radioed back a report of
+his own. Space pirates in a large ship had attacked the
+T-247, he said, and carried it away. He advised a close
+watch. On Pluto, his investigations disclosed nothing more
+than the fact that three mines had been raided, all platinum
+supplies taken, and the records and machinery removed.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>The M-122 was a fifty-man patrol cruiser, and Warren
+felt sure he could handle the menace alone, and hung around
+for over two weeks looking for it. He saw nothing, and no
+further reports came of attack. Again and again, Kendall tried
+to convince him this ship he was hunting was no mere space
+pirate, and again and again Warren grunted, and went
+on his way. He would not send in any report Kendall made
+out, because to do so would add his endorsement to that
+report. He would not take Kendall back, though that was
+well within his authority.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, it was a full month before Kendall again set
+foot on any of the Minor Planets, and then it was Mars,
+the base of the M-122. Kendall and Cole took passage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+immediately on an IP supply ship, and landed in New York
+six days later. At once, Kendall headed for Commander
+McLaurin's office. Buck Kendall, lieutenant of the IP, found
+he would have to make regular application to see McLaurin
+through a dozen intermediate officers.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, Kendall was savagely determined to see
+McLaurin himself, and see him in the least possible time.
+Cole, too, was beginning to believe in Kendall's assertion
+of the stranger ship's extra-systemic origin. As yet neither
+could understand the strange actions of the machine, its
+attack on the Pluto mines, and the capture and theft of a
+patrol ship.</p>
+
+<p>"There is," said Kendall angrily, "just one way to see McLaurin
+and see him quick. And, by God, I'm going to. Will
+you resign with me, Cole? I'll see him within a week then,
+I'll bet."</p>
+
+<p>For a minute, Cole hesitated. Then he shook hands with
+his friends. "Today!" And that day it was. They resigned, together.
+Immediately, Buck Kendall got the machinery in motion
+for an interview, working now from the outside, pulling
+the strings with the weight of a hundred million dollar fortune.
+Even the IP officers had to pay a bit of attention when
+Bernard Kendall, multi-millionaire began talking and demanding
+things. Within a week, Kendall <i>did</i> see McLaurin.</p>
+
+<p>At that time, McLaurin was fifty-three years old, his crisp
+hair still black as space, with scarcely a touch of the gray
+that appears in his more recent photographs. He stood six
+feet tall, a broad-shouldered, powerful man, his face grave
+with lines of intelligence and character. There was also a
+permanent narrowing of the eyes, from years under the blazing
+sun of space. But most of all, while those years in space
+had narrowed and set his eyes, they had not narrowed and
+set his mind. An infinitely finer character than old Jim
+Warren, his experience in space had taught him always to
+expect the unexpected, to understand the incomprehensible
+as being part of the unknown and incalculable properties of
+space and the worlds that swam in it. Besides the fine technical
+education he had started with, he had acquired a liberal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+education in mankind. When Buck Kendall, straight and
+powerful, came into his office with Cole, he recognized in him
+a character that would drive steadily and straight for its
+goal. Also, he recognized behind the millionaire that had
+succeeded in pulling wires enough to see him, the scientist
+who had had more than one paper published "in an amateur
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Bernard Kendall?" he asked, rising.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. Late Buck Kendall, lieutenant of the IP. I quit
+and got Cole here to quit with me, so we could see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Unusual tactics. I've had several men join up to get an
+interview with me." McLaurin smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I can imagine that, but we had to see you in a
+hurry. A hidebound old rapscallion by the name of Jim
+Warren picked us up out by Pluto, floating around in a six-man
+tender. We made some reports to him, but he wouldn't
+believe, and he wouldn't send them through&mdash;so we had to
+send ourselves through. Sir, this system is about to be attacked
+by some extra-systemic race. The IP-T-247 was so
+attacked, her crew killed off, and the ship itself carried away."</p>
+
+<p>"I got the report Captain Jim Warren sent through, stating
+it was a gang of space pirates. Now what makes you believe
+otherwise?"</p>
+
+<p>"That ship that attacked us, attacked with a neutron
+gun, a gun that shot neutrons through the hull of our ship
+as easily as protons pass through open space. Those neutrons
+killed off four of the crew, and spared us only because
+we happened to be behind the water tanks. Masses of
+hydrogen will stop neutrons, so we lived, and escaped in
+the tender. The little tender, lightless, escaped their observation,
+and we were picked up. Now, when the 247 had
+been picked up, and locked into their ship, that ship started
+accelerating. It accelerated so fast along my line of sight
+that it just dwindled, and&mdash;vanished. It didn't vanish in
+distance, it vanished <i>because it exceeded the speed of light</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that impossible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. It can be done&mdash;if you can find some way of
+escaping from this space to do it. Now if you could cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+across through a higher dimension, your <i>projection</i> in this
+dimension might easily exceed the speed of light. For instance,
+if I could cut directly through the Earth, at a speed
+of one thousand miles an hour, my projection on the surface
+would go twelve thousand miles while I was going eight.
+Similar, if you could cut <i>through</i> the four dimensional space
+instead of following its surface, you'd attain a speed greater
+than light."</p>
+
+<p>"Might it not still be a space pirate? That's a lot easier
+to believe, even allowing your statement that he exceeded
+the speed of light."</p>
+
+<p>"If you invented a neutron gun which could kill through
+tungsten walls without injuring anything within, a system
+of accelerating a ship that didn't affect the inhabitants of that
+ship, and a means of exceeding the speed of light, all within
+a few months of each other, would you become a pirate?
+I wouldn't, and I don't think any one else would. A pirate
+is a man who seeks adventure and relief from work. Given
+a means of exceeding the speed of light, I'd get all the adventure
+I wanted investigating other planets. If I didn't
+have a cent before, I'd have relief from work by selling it for
+a few hundred millions&mdash;and I'd sell it mighty easily too,
+for an invention like that is worth an incalculable sum. Tie
+to that the value of compensated acceleration, and no
+man's going to turn pirate. He can make more millions selling
+his inventions than he can make thousands turning
+pirate with them. So who'd turn pirate?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right." McLaurin nodded. "I see your point. Now before
+I'd accept your statements <i>in re</i> the 'speed of light'
+thing, I'd want opinions from some IP physicists."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's have a conference, because something's got to
+be done soon. I don't know why we haven't heard further
+from that fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Privately&mdash;we have," McLaurin said in a slightly worried
+tone. "He was detected by the instruments of every
+IP observatory I suspect. We got the reports but didn't
+know what to make of them. They indicated so many funny
+things, they were sent in as accidental misreadings of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+instruments. But since <i>all</i> the observatories reported them,
+similar misreadings, at about the same times, that is with
+variations of only a few hours, we thought something must
+have been up. The only thing was the phenomena were
+reported progressively from Pluto to Neptune, clear across the
+solar system, in a definite progression, but at a velocity of
+crossing that didn't tie in with any conceivable force. They
+crossed faster than the velocity of light. That ship must have
+spent about half an hour off each planet before passing on
+to the next. And, accepting your faster-than-light explanation,
+we can understand it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think you have proof."</p>
+
+<p>"If we have, what would you do about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Get to work on those 'misreadings' of the instruments
+for one thing, and for a second, and more important, line
+every IP ship with paraffin blocks six inches thick."</p>
+
+<p>"Paraffin&mdash;why?"</p>
+
+<p>"The easiest form of hydrogen to get. You can't use solid
+hydrogen, because that melts too easily. Water can be turned
+into steam too easily, and requires more work. Paraffin
+is a solid that's largely hydrogen. That's what they've
+always used on neutrons since they discovered them. Confine
+your paraffin between tungsten walls, and you'll stop
+the secondary protons as well as the neutrons."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmmm&mdash;I suppose so. How about seeing those physicists?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to see them today, sir. The sooner you get
+started on this work, the better it will be for the IP."</p>
+
+<p>"Having seen me, will you join up in the IP again?"
+asked McLaurin.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, I don't think I will. I have another field you
+know, in which I may be more useful. Cole here's a better
+technician than fighter&mdash;and a darned good fighter, too&mdash;and
+I think that an inexperienced space-captain is a lot
+less useful than a second-rate physicist at work in a laboratory.
+If we hope to get anywhere, or for that matter, I
+suspect, stay anywhere, we'll have to do a lot of research
+pretty promptly."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What's your explanation of that ship?"</p>
+
+<p>"One of two things: an inventor of some other system
+trying out his latest toy, or an expedition sent out by a
+planetary government for exploration. I favor the latter for
+two reasons: that ship was <i>big</i>. No inventor would build a
+thing that size, requiring a crew of several hundred men to
+try out his invention. A government would build just about
+that if they wanted to send out an expedition. If it were an
+inventor, he'd be interested in meeting other people, to see
+what they had in the way of science, and probably he'd
+want to do it in a peaceable way. That fellow wasn't interested
+in peace, by any means. So I think it's a government
+ship, and an unfriendly government. They sent that ship
+out either for scientific research, for trade research and
+exploration, or for acquisitive exploration. If they were out
+for scientific research, they'd proceed as would the inventor,
+to establish friendly communication. If they were out
+for trade, the same would apply. If they were out for acquisitive
+exploration, they'd investigate the planets, the sun,
+the people, only to the extent of learning how best to
+overcome them. They'd want to get a sample of our people,
+and a sample of our weapons. They'd want samples of our
+machinery, our literature and our technology. That's exactly
+what that ship got.</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody, somewhere out there in space, either doesn't
+like their home, or wants more home. They've been out
+looking for one. I'll bet they sent out hundreds of expeditions
+to thousands of nearby stars, gradually going further
+and further, seeking a planetary system. This is probably
+the one and only one they found. It's a good one too.
+It has planets at all temperatures, of all sizes. It is a fairly
+compact one, it has a stable sun that will last far longer than
+any race can hope to."</p>
+
+<p>"Hmm&mdash;how can there be good and bad planetary systems?"
+asked McLaurin. "I'd never thought of that."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall laughed. "Mighty easy. How'd you like to live
+on a planet of a Cepheid Variable? Pleasant situation, with
+the radiation flaring up and down. How'd you like to live on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+a planet of Antares? That blasted sun is so big, to have a
+comfortable planet you'd have to be at least ten billion miles
+out. Then if you had an interplanetary commerce, you'd
+have to struggle with orbits tens of billions of miles across
+instead of mere millions. Further, you'd have a sun so blasted
+big, it would take an impossible amount of energy to lift
+the ship up from one planet to another. If your trip was,
+say, twenty billions of miles to the next planet, you'd be
+fighting a gravity as bad as the solar gravity at Earth
+here all the way&mdash;no decline with a little distance like
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"H-m-m-m&mdash;quite true. Then I should say that Mira
+would take the prize. It's a red giant, and it's an irregular
+variable. The sunlight there would be as unstable as the
+weather in New England. It's almost as big as Antares, and
+it won't hold still. Now that <i>would</i> make a bad planetary
+system."</p>
+
+<p>"It would!" Kendall laughed. But as we know&mdash;he laughed
+too soon, and he shouldn't have used the conditional. He
+should have said, "It does!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Gresth Gkae</span>, Commander of Expeditionary Force 93, of
+the Planet Sthor, was returning homeward with joyful mind.
+In the lock of his great ship, lay the T-247. In her cargo
+holds lay various items of machinery, mining supplies, foods,
+and records. And in her log books lay the records of many
+readings on the nine larger planets of a highly satisfactory
+planetary system.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae had spent no less than three ultra-wearing
+years going from one sun to another in a definitely mapped
+out section of space. He had investigated only eleven stars in
+that time, eleven stars, progressively further from the titanic
+red-flaming sun he knew as "the" sun. He knew it as
+"the" sun, and had several other appellations for it. Mira
+was so-named by Earthmen because it was indeed a "wonder"
+star, in Latin, mirare means "to wonder." Irregularly, and
+for no apparent reason it would change its rate of radiation.
+So far as those inhabitants of Sthor and her sister world Asthor
+knew, there was no reason. It just did it. Perhaps with
+malicious intent to be annoying. If so, it was exceptionally
+successful. Sthor and Asthor experienced, periodically, a
+young ice age. When Mira decided to take a rest, Sthor
+and Asthor froze up, from the poles most of the way to the
+equators. Then Mira would stretch herself a little, move
+about restlessly and Sthor and Asthor would become uninhabitably
+hot, anywhere within twenty degrees of the
+equator.</p>
+
+<p>Those Sthorian people had evolved in a way that made
+the conditions endurable for savage or uncivilized people,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+but when a scientific civilization with a well-ordered mode of
+existence tried to establish itself, Mira was all sorts of a
+nuisance.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae was a peculiar individual to human ways of
+thinking. He stood some seven feet tall, on his strange, double-kneed
+legs and his four toed feet. His body was covered
+with little, short feather-like things that moved now with a
+volition of their own. They were moving very slowly and
+regularly. The space-ship was heated to a comfortable
+temperature, and the little fans were helping to cool Gresth
+Gkae. Had it been cold, every little feather would have
+lain down close against its neighbors, forming an admirable,
+wind-proof and cold-proof blanket.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, on Sthor, had original ideas of arrangement too.
+Sthorians possessed two eyes&mdash;one directly above the other,
+in the center of their faces. The face was so long, and narrow,
+it resembled a blunt hatchet, with the two eyes on the
+edge. To counter-balance this vertical arrangement of the
+eyes, the nostrils had been separated some four inches, with
+one on each of the sloping cheeks. His ears were little pink-flesh
+cups on short, muscular stems. His mouth was narrow,
+and small, but armed with quite solid teeth adapted to
+his diet, a diet consisting of almost anything any creature
+had ever considered edible. Like most successful forms of
+intelligent life, Gresth Gkae was omnivorous. An intelligent
+form of life is necessarily adaptable, and adaptation meant
+being able to eat what was at hand.</p>
+
+<p>One of his eyes, the upper one, was fully twice the size
+of the lower one. This was his telescopic eye. The lower, or
+microscopic eye was adapted to work for which a human
+being would have required a low power microscope, the
+upper eye possessed a more normal power of vision, <i>plus</i>
+considerable telescopic powers.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae was using it now to look ahead in the blank
+of space to where gigantic Mira appeared. On his screens
+now, Mira appeared deep violet, for he was approaching
+at a speed greater than that of light, and even this projected
+light of Mira was badly distorted.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The distance is half a light-year now, sir," reported the
+navigation officer.</p>
+
+<p>"Reduce the speed, then, to normal velocity for these
+ranges. What reserve of fuel have we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Less than one thousand pounds. We will barely be able
+to stop. We were too free in the use of our weapons,
+I fear," replied the Chief Technician.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what would you? We needed those things in our
+reports. Besides, we could extract fuel from that ore we took
+on at Planet Nine of Phahlo. It is merely that I wish speed
+in the return."</p>
+
+<p>"As we all do. How soon do you believe the Council will
+proceed against the new system?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will be fully a year, I fear. They must gather the
+expeditions together, and re-equip the ships. It will be a
+long time before all will have come in."</p>
+
+<p>"Could they not send fast ships after them to recall
+them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Could they have traced us as we wove our way from
+Thart to Karst to Raloork to Phahlo? It would be impossible."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Steadily the great ship had been boring on her way. Mira
+had been a disc for nearly two days, gigantic, two-hundred-and-fifty-million-mile
+Mira took a great deal of dwarfing by
+distance to lose her disc. Even at the Twin Planets, eight
+thousand two hundred and fifty millions of miles out, Mira
+covered half the sky, it seemed, red and angry. Sometimes,
+though, to the disgust of the Sthorians it was just red-faced
+and lazy. Then Sthor froze.</p>
+
+<p>"Grih is in a descendant stage," said the navigation officer
+presently. "Sthor will be cold when we arrive."</p>
+
+<p>"It will warm quickly enough with our news!" Gresth
+laughed. "A system&mdash;a delightful system&mdash;discovered. A
+system of many close-grouped planets. Why think&mdash;from one
+side of that system to the other is less of a distance than
+from Ansthat, our first planet's orbit, to Insthor's orbit! That
+sun, as we know, is steady and warm. All will be well, when
+we have eliminated that rather peculiar race. Odd, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+they should, in some ways, be so nearly like us! Nearly Sthorian
+in build. I would not have expected it. Though they
+did have some amazing peculiarities! Imagine&mdash;two eyes
+just alike, and in a horizontal row. And that flat face.
+They looked as though they had suffered some accident
+that smashed the front of the face in. And also the peculiar
+beak-like projection. Why should a race ever develop so
+amazing a projection in so peculiar and exposed a position?
+It sticks out inviting attack and injury. Right in the middle
+of the face. And to make it worse, there is the air-channel,
+and the only air channel. Why, one minor injury to the throat
+would be certain to damage that passage beyond repair, and
+bring death. Yet such relatively unimportant things as ears,
+and eyes are doubled. Surely you would expect that so important
+a member as the air-passage would be doubled
+for safety.</p>
+
+<p>"Those strange, awkward arms and legs were what
+puzzled me. I have been attempting to manipulate myself
+as they must be forced to, and I cannot see how delicate or
+accurate manual manipulation would be possible with those
+rigid, inflexible arms. In some ways I feel they must have
+had clever minds to overcome so great a handicap to constructive
+work. But I suppose single joints in the arms become
+as natural to them as our own more mobile two.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if life in any intelligent form wouldn't develop
+somewhat similar formations, though. Think, in all parts of
+Sthor, before men became civilized and developed communication,
+even so much as twenty thousand years ago, our
+records show that seats and chairs were much as they are
+today, and much as they are, in all places among all groups.
+Then too, the eye has developed in many different species,
+and always reached much the same structure. When a thing
+is intended and developed to serve a given purpose, no matter
+who develops it, or where or how, is it not apt to have
+similar shapes and parts? A chair must have legs, and a
+seat and arm-rests and a back. You may vary their nature
+and their shape, but not widely, and they must be there.
+An eye must, anywhere, have a sensitive retina, an adjustable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+lens, and an adjustable device for controlling the entrance
+of light. Similarly there are certain functions that
+the body of an intelligent creature must serve which naturally
+tend to make intelligent creatures similar. He must have a
+tool&mdash;the hand&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes&mdash;I see your point. It must be so, for surely these
+creatures out there are strange enough in other ways."</p>
+
+<p>"But tell me, have you calculated when we shall land?"</p>
+
+<p>"In twelve hours, thirty-three minutes, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Eleven hours later, the expedition ship had slowed to
+a normal space-speed. On her left hung the giant globe of
+Asthor, rotating slowly, moving slowly in her orbit. Directly
+ahead, Sthor loomed even greater. Tiny Teelan, the thousand-mile
+diameter moon of the Insthor system shone dull red
+in the reflected light of gigantic Mira. Mira herself was gigantic,
+red and menacing across eight and a quarter billions
+of miles of space.</p>
+
+<p>One hundred thousand miles apart, the twin worlds Sthor
+and Asthor rotated about their common center of gravity,
+eternally facing each other. Ten million miles from their common
+center of gravity, Teelan rotated in a vast orbit.</p>
+
+<p>Sthor and Asthor were capped at each pole now by gigantic
+white icecaps. Mira was sulking, and as a consequence
+the planets were freezing.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition ship sank slowly toward Sthor. A swarm
+of smaller craft had flown up at its approach to meet it.
+A gaily-colored small ship marked the official greeting-ship.
+Gresth had withheld his news purposely. Now suddenly he
+began broadcasting it from the powerful transmitter on his
+ship. As the words came through on a thousand sets, all
+the little ships began to whirl, dance and break out into
+glowing, sparkling lights. On Sthor and Asthor even commotions
+began to be visible. A new planetary system had
+been found&mdash; They could move! Their overflowing populations
+could be spread out!</p>
+
+<p>The whole Insthor system went mad with delight as the
+great Expeditionary Ship settled downward.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was a glint of humor in Buck Kendall's eyes as he
+passed the sheet over to McLaurin. Commander McLaurin
+looked down the columns with twinkling eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"'Petition to establish the Lunar Mining Bank,'" he read.
+"What a bank! Officers: President, General James Logan, late
+of the IP; Vice-president, Colonel Warren Gerardhi, also late
+of the IP; Staff, consists of 90% ex-IP men, and a few scattered
+accountants. Designed by the well-known designer
+of IP stations, Colonel Richard Murray." Commander McLaurin
+looked up at Kendall with a broad grin. "And you
+actually got Interplanetary Life to give you a mortgage on the
+structure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? It'll cut cost fifty-eight millions, with its twelve-foot
+tungsten-beryllium walls and the heavy defense weapons
+against those terrible pirates. You know we must defend our
+property."</p>
+
+<p>"With the thing you're setting up out there on Luna, you
+could more readily wipe out the IP than anything else I
+know of. Any new defense ideas?"</p>
+
+<p>"Plenty. Did you get any further appropriations from the
+IP Appropriations Board?"</p>
+
+<p>McLaurin looked sour. "No. The dear taxpayers might object,
+and those thickheaded, clogged rockets on the Board
+can't see your data on the Stranger. They gave me just
+ten millions, and that only because you demonstrated you
+could shoot every living thing out of the latest IP cruiser
+with that neutron gun of yours. By the way, they may
+kick when I don't install more than a few of those."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Let 'em. You can stall for a few months. You'll need that
+money more for other purposes. You've installed that paraffin
+lining?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;I got a report on that of 'finished' last week. How
+have you made out?"</p>
+
+<p>Buck Kendall's face fell. "Not so hot. Devin's been the
+biggest help&mdash;he did most of the work on that neutron gun
+really&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"After," McLaurin interrupted, "you told him how."</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;but we're pretty well stuck now, it seems. You'll be
+off duty tomorrow evening, can't you drop around to the
+lab? We're going to try out a new system for releasing atomic
+energy."</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that a pretty faint hope? We've been trying to get
+it for three centuries now, and haven't yet. What chance
+at it within a year or so?&mdash;which is the time you allow
+yourself before the Stranger returns."</p>
+
+<p>"It is, I'll admit that. But there's another factor, not to
+be forgotten. The data we got from correlating those 'misreadings'
+from the various IP posts mean a lot. We are working
+on an entirely different trail now. You come on out, and
+you can see our new apparatus. They are working on tremendous
+voltages, and hoping to smash the thing by a brutal
+bombardment of terrific voltage. We're trying, thanks to the
+results of those instruments, to get results with small,
+terrifically intense fields."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know that's their general system?"</p>
+
+<p>"They left traces on the records of the post instruments.
+These records show such intensities as we never got. They
+have atomic energy, necessarily, and they might have had
+material energy, actual destruction of matter, but apparently,
+from the field readings it's the former. To be able to make
+those tremendous hops, light-years in length, they needed
+a real store of energy. They have accumulators, of course, but
+I don't think they could store enough power by the system
+they use to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how's your trick 'bank' out on Luna, despite its
+twelve-foot walls, going to stand an atomic explosion?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"More protective devices to come is our only hope. I'm
+working on three trails: atomic energy, some type of magnetic
+shield that will stop any moving material particle, and
+their faster-than-light thing. Also, that fortress&mdash;I mean, of
+course, bank&mdash;is going to have a lot of lead-lined rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could use the remaining money the Board gave
+me to lead-line a lot of those IP ships," said McLaurin
+wistfully. "Can't you make a gamma-ray bomb of some sort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not without their atomic energy release. With it, of
+course, it's easy to flood a region with rays. It'll be a million
+times worse than radium 'C,' which is bad enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll send through this petition for armaments. They'll
+pass it all right, I think. They may get some kicks from old
+Jacob Ezra Stubbs. Jacob Ezra doesn't believe in anything
+war-like. I wish they'd find some way to keep him off of the
+Arms Petition Board. He might just as well stay home
+and let 'em vote his ticket uniformly 'nay.'" Buck Kendall
+left with a laugh.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Buck Kendall had his troubles though. When he had
+reached Earth again, he found that his properties totaled
+one hundred and three million dollars, roughly. One doesn't
+sell properties of that magnitude, one borrows against them.
+But to all intents and purposes, Buck Kendall owned two
+half-completed ship's hulls in the Baldwin Spaceship Yards,
+a great deal of massive metal work on its way to Luna, and
+contracts for some very extensive work on a "bank." Beyond
+that, about eleven million was left.</p>
+
+<p>A large portion of the money had been invested in a
+laboratory, the like of which the world had never seen. It
+was devoted exclusively to physics, and principally the physics
+of destruction. Dr. Paul Devin was the Director, Cole
+was in charge of the technical work, and Buck Kendall
+was free to do all the work he thought needed doing.</p>
+
+<p>Returned to his laboratory, he looked sourly at the bench
+on which seven mechanicians were working. The ninth successive
+experiment on the release of atomic energy had
+failed. The tenth was in process of construction. A heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+pure tungsten dome, three feet in diameter, three inches
+thick, was being lowered over a clear insulum dome, a foot
+smaller. Inside, the real apparatus was arranged around the
+little pool of mercury. From it, two massive tungsten-copper
+alloy conductors led through the insulum housing, and
+outside. These, so Kendall had hoped, would surge with the
+power of broken atoms, but he was beginning to believe
+rather bitterly, they would never do so.</p>
+
+<p>Buck went on to his offices, and the main calculator room.
+There were ten calculator tables here, two of them in operation
+now.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Devin. Getting on?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Devin bitterly, "I'm getting off. Look at these
+results." He brought over a sheaf of graphs, with explanatory
+tables attached. Rapidly Buck ran through them with him.
+Most of them were graphs of functions of light, considered
+as a wave in these experiments.</p>
+
+<p>"H-m-m-m&mdash;not very encouraging. Looks like you've got
+the field&mdash;but it just snaps shut on itself and won't work.
+The lack of volume makes it break down, if you establish it,
+and makes it impossible to establish in the first place without
+the energy of matter. Not so hot. That's certainly cock-eyed
+somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not. The math may be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well"&mdash;Kendall grinned&mdash;"it amounts to the same thing.
+The point is, light doesn't. Let's run over that theory again.
+Light is not only magnetic; but electric. Somehow it transforms
+electric fields cyclically into magnetic fields and back
+again. Now what we want to do is to transform an electric
+into a magnetic field and have it stay there. That's the first
+step. The second thing, is to have the lines of magnetic force
+you develop, lie down like a sheath around the ship, instead
+of standing out like the hairs on an angry cat, the
+way they want to. That means turning them ninety degrees,
+and turning an electric into a magnetic field means turning
+the space-strain ninety degrees. Light evidently forms
+a magnetic field whose lines of force reach along its direction
+of motion, so that's your starting point."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and <i>that</i>," growled Devin, "seems to be the finishing
+point. Quite definitely and clearly, the graph looped down
+to zero. In other words, the field closed in on itself, and
+destroyed itself."</p>
+
+<p>"Light doesn't vanish."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll make you all the lights you want."</p>
+
+<p>"I simply mean there must be something that will stop it."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. Transform it back to electric field before it
+gets a chance to close in, then repeat the process&mdash;the
+way light does."</p>
+
+<p>"That wouldn't make such a good magnetic shield.
+Every time that field started pulsing out through the walls
+of the ship it would generate heat. We want a permanent
+field that will stay on the job out there. I wonder if you
+couldn't make a conductor device that would open that
+field out&mdash;some special type of oscillating field that would
+keep it open."</p>
+
+<p>"H-m-m-m&mdash;that's an angle I might try. Any suggestions?"</p>
+
+<p>Kendall had suggestions, and rapidly he outlined a development
+that appeared from some of the earlier mathematics
+on light, and might be what they wanted.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Kendall, however, had problems of his own to work on.
+The question of atomic energy he was leaving alone, till
+the present experiment either succeeded, or, as he rather
+suspected, failed as had its predecessors. His present problem
+was to develop more fully some interesting lines of research
+he had run across in investigating mathematically the trick
+of turning electric to magnetic fields and then turning
+them back again. It might be that along this line he would
+find the answer to the speed greater than that of light.
+At any rate, he was interested.</p>
+
+<p>He worked the rest of that day, and most of the next on
+that line&mdash;till he ran it into the ground with a pair of equations
+that ended with the expression: dx.dv=h/(4&#960;m). Then Kendall
+looked at them for a long moment, then he sighed gently
+and threw them into a file cabinet. Heisenberg's Uncertainty.
+He'd reduced the thing to a form that simply told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+him it was beyond the limits of certainty and he ran it into
+the normal, natural uncertainty inevitable in Nature.</p>
+
+<p>Anyway he had real work to do now. The machine was
+about ready for his attention. The mechanicians had finished
+putting it in shape for demonstration and trial. He himself
+would have to test it over the rest of the afternoon and
+arrange for power and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>By evening, when Commander McLaurin called around
+with some of the other investors in Kendall's "bank" on Luna,
+the thing was already started, warming up. The fields were
+being fed and the various scientists of the group were watching
+with interest. Power was flowing in already at a rate of
+nearly one hundred thousand horsepower per minute, thanks
+to a special line given them by New York Power (a Kendall
+property). At ten o'clock they were beginning to expect the
+reaction to start. By this time the fields weren't gaining in intensity
+very rapidly, a maximum intensity had been reached
+that should, they felt, break the atoms soon.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven-thirty, through the little view window, Buck Kendall
+saw something that made him cry out in amazement.
+The mercury metal in the receiver, behind its layers
+of screening was beginning to glow, with a dull reddish
+light, and little solidifications were appearing in it! Eagerly
+the men looked, as the solidifications spread slowly, like
+crystals growing in an evaporating solution.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve o'clock came and went, and one o'clock and two
+o'clock. Still the slow crystallization went on. Buck Kendall
+was casting furtive glances at the kilowatt-hour meter. It
+stood at a figure that represented twenty-seven thousand
+dollars' worth of power. Long since the power rate had
+been increased to the maximum available, as the power plant's
+normal load reduced as the morning hours came. Surely,
+this time something would start, but Buck had two worries.
+If all the enormous amount of energy they had poured
+in there decided to release itself at once&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And at any rate, Buck saw they'd never dare to let a
+generator stop, once it was started!</p>
+
+<p>The men were a tense group around the machine at three-fifteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+<span class="smcapl">A.M.</span> There remained only a tiny, dancing globule
+of silvery mercury skittering around on the sharp, needle-like
+crystals of the dull red metal that had resulted. Slowly that
+skittering drop was shrinking&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Three twenty-two and a half <span class="smcapl">A.M.</span> saw the last fraction
+of it vanish. Tensely the men stared into the machine&mdash;backing
+off slowly&mdash;watching the meters on the board. At
+nearly eighty thousand volts the power had been fed into
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The power continued to flow, and a growing halo of intense
+violet light appeared suddenly on those red, needle-like
+crystals, a swiftly expanding halo&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Without a sound, without the slightest disturbance, the
+halo vanished, and softly, gently, the needle-like crystals relapsed,
+melted away, and a dull pool of metallic mercury
+rested in the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>At eighty thousand volts, power was flowing in&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And it didn't even sparkle.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> apparatus of the magnetic shield had been completed
+two days later, and set up in Buck's own laboratory. On the
+bench was the powerful, but small, little projector of the
+straight magnetic field, simply a specially designed accumulator,
+a super-condenser, and the peculiar apparatus Devin
+had designed to distort the electric field through ninety
+degrees to a magnetic field. Behind this was a curious, paraboloid
+projector made up of hundreds of tiny, carefully
+orientated coils. This was Buck's own contribution. They were
+ready for the tests.</p>
+
+<p>"I would invite McLaurin in to see this," said Kendall looking
+at them, and then across the room bitterly toward the
+alleged atomic power apparatus on the opposite bench. "I
+think it will work. But after <i>that</i>&mdash;" He stared, glaring, at the
+heavy tungsten dome with its heavy tungsten contacts, across
+which the flame of released atomic energy was supposed to
+have leapt. "That was probably the flattest flop any experiment
+ever flopped."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;it didn't blow up. That's one comfort," suggested
+Devin.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish it had. Then at least it would have shown some
+response. The only response shown, actually, was shown on
+the power meter. It damn near wore out the bearings turning
+so fast."</p>
+
+<p>"Personally, I prefer the lack of action." Devin laughed.
+"Have you got that circuit hooked up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right," sighed Kendall, turning back to the work in hand.
+"Is Douglass in on this?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;in the next room. He'll let us know when he's
+ready. He's setting up those instruments."</p>
+
+<p>Douglass, a young junior physicist, late of the IP Physics
+Department, stuck his head in the door and announced his
+instruments were all set up.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep an eye on them. They'll move somehow, at any
+rate. This thing couldn't go as flat as that atom-buster
+of mine."</p>
+
+<p>Carefully Kendall made a few last-minute adjustments on
+the limiting relays, and took up his position at the power
+board. Devin took his place near the apparatus, with another
+series of instruments, similar to those Douglass was now
+watching in the next room, some thirty feet away, through
+the two-inch metal wall. "Ready," called Kendall.</p>
+
+<p>The switch shot home. Instantly Kendall, Devin, and all
+the men in the building jumped some six feet from their
+former positions. A monstrous roar of sound crashed out in
+that laboratory that thundered from one wall to the other,
+and bellowed in a Titan's fury. It thundered and growled,
+it bellowed and howled, the walls shook with the march
+and counter-march of crashing waves of sound.</p>
+
+<p>And a ten-foot wavering flame of blue-white, bellying
+electric fire shuddered up to the ceiling from the contact
+points of the alleged atomic generator. The heat, pouring
+out from the flashing, roaring arc sent prickles of aching
+burns over Kendall's skin. For ten seconds he stood in
+utter, paralyzed surprise as his flop of flops bellowed its
+anger at his disdain. Then he leapt to the power board and
+shut off the roaring thing, by cutting the switch that had
+started it.</p>
+
+<p>"Spirits of Space! Did <i>that</i> come to life!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Atomic Energy!</i>" Devin cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Atomic energy, hell. That's my thirty thousand dollars'
+worth of power breaking loose again," chortled Kendall. "We
+missed the atomic energy, but, sweet boy, what an accumulator
+we stubbed our toes on! I wondered where in blazes
+all that power went to. That's the answer. I'll bet I can
+tell you right now what happened. We built that mercury<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+up to a new level, and that transitional stage was the red,
+crystalline metal. When it reached the higher stage, it was
+temporarily stable&mdash;but that projector over there that we
+designed for the purpose of holding open electric and magnetic
+fields just opened the door and let all that power right
+out again."</p>
+
+<p>"But why isn't it atomic energy? How do you know that
+no more than your power that you put in is coming out?"
+demanded Devin.</p>
+
+<p>"The arc, man, the arc. That was a high-current, and
+low-voltage arc. Couldn't you tell by the sound that no
+great voltage&mdash;as atomic voltages go&mdash;was smashing across
+there? If we were getting atomic voltage&mdash;and power&mdash;there'd
+have been a different tone to it, high and shriller.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, did you take any readings?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think, man? I'm human. Do you think I
+got any readings with that thing bellowing and shrieking in
+my ears, and burning my skin with ultra-violet? It itches
+now."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall laughed. "You know what to do for an itch. Now,
+I'm going to make a bet. We had those points separated for
+a half-million volts discharge, but there was a dust-cover
+thrown over them just now. That, you notice, is missing. I'll
+bet that served as a starter lead for the main arc. Now
+I'm going to start that projector thing again, and move the
+points there through about six inches, and that thing probably
+won't start itself."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Most of the laboratory staff had collected at the doorway,
+looking in at the white-hot tungsten discharge points,
+and the now silent "atomic engine." Kendall turned to them
+and said: "The flop picked itself up. You go on back,
+we seem to be all in one piece yet. Douglass, you didn't
+get any readings, did you?"</p>
+
+<p>Sheepishly, Douglass grinned at him. "Eh&mdash;er&mdash;no&mdash;but I
+tore my pants. The magnetic field grabbed me and I jumped.
+They had some steel buttons, and a lot of steel keys&mdash;they're
+kinda' hard to keep on now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The laboratory staff broke into a roar of laughter, as
+Douglass, holding up his trousers with both hands was beheld.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess the field worked," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess maybe it did," adjudged Kendall solemnly. "We
+have some rope here if you need it&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Douglass returned to his post.</p>
+
+<p>Swiftly, Kendall altered the atomic distortion storage apparatus,
+and returned to the power-board. "Ready?"</p>
+
+<p>"Check."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall shoved home the switch. The storage device was
+silent. Only a slight feeling of strain made itself felt, and
+the sudden noisy hum of a small transformer nearby. "She
+works, Buck!" Devin called. "The readings check almost exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"All good then. Now I want to get to that atomic
+thing. We can let that slide for a little bit&mdash;I'll answer it."</p>
+
+<p>The telephone had rung noisily. "Kendall Labs&mdash;Kendall
+speaking."</p>
+
+<p>"This is Superintendent Foster, of the New York Power,
+Mr. Kendall. We have some trouble just now that we think
+your operations may be responsible for. The sub-station at
+North Beaumont blew all the fuses, and threw the breakers
+at the main station. The men out there said the transformers
+began howling&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are&mdash;I'm afraid I did do that. I had no idea
+that it would reach so far. How far is that from my place
+here?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's about a thousand yards, according to the survey
+maps."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks&mdash;and I'll be careful about it. Any damage, I am
+responsible for? All okay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, Mr. Kendall."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall hung up. "We stirred
+up a lot more dust than we expected, Devin. Now let's
+start seeing if we can keep track of it. Douglass, how did your
+readings show?"</p>
+
+<p>"I took them at the ten stations, and here they are. The
+stations are two feet apart."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"H-m-m&mdash;.5&mdash;.55&mdash;.6&mdash;.7&mdash;20&mdash;198&mdash;5950&mdash;6010&mdash;6012&mdash;5920.
+Very, very nice&mdash;only the darned thing's got an arm as
+long as the law. Your readings were about .2, Devin?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's right."</p>
+
+<p>"Then these little readings are just leakage. What's our
+normal intensity here?"</p>
+
+<p>"About .19. Just a very small fraction less than the readings."</p>
+
+<p>"Perfect&mdash;we have what amounts to a hollow shell of magnetic
+force&mdash;we can move inside, and you can move outside&mdash;far
+enough. But you can't get a conductor or a magnetic
+field through it." He put the readings on the bench,
+and looked at the apparatus across the room. "Now I want
+to start right on that other. Douglass, you move that magnetostat
+apparatus out of the way, and leave just the 'can-opener'
+of ours&mdash;the projector. I'm pretty sure that's what does
+the deed. Devin, see if you can hunt up some electrostatic
+voltmeters with a range in the neighborhood of&mdash;I think
+it'll be about eighty thousand."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Rapidly, Douglass was dismounting the apparatus, as Devin
+started for the stock room. Kendall started making some
+new connections, reconnecting the apparatus they had intended
+using on the "atomic engine," largely high-capacity
+resistances. He seemed to perform this work mechanically,
+his mind definitely on something else. Suddenly he stopped,
+and looked carefully into the receiver of the machine. The
+metal in it was silvery, liquid, and here and there a floating
+crystal of the dull red metal. Slowly a smile spread across
+his face. He turned to Douglass.</p>
+
+<p>"Douglass&mdash;ah, you're through. Get on the trail of MacBride,
+and get him and his crew to work making half a
+dozen smaller things like this. Tell 'em they can leave off the
+tungsten shield. I want different metals in the receiver of
+each. Use&mdash;hmmm&mdash;sodium&mdash;copper&mdash;magnesium&mdash;aluminium,
+iron and chromium. Got it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir." He left, just as Devin returned with a large
+electrostatic voltmeter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'd like," said he, "to know how you know the voltage
+will range around eighty thousand."</p>
+
+<p>"K-ring excitation potential for mercury. I'm willing to
+bet that thing simply shoved the whole electron system of
+the mercury out a notch&mdash;that it simply <i>hasn't</i> any K-ring
+of electrons now. I'm trying some other metals. Douglass
+is going to have MacBride make up half a dozen more
+machines. Machines&mdash;they need a name. This&mdash;ah&mdash;this is
+an 'atostor.' MacBride's going to make up half a dozen of
+'em, and try half a dozen metals. I'm almost certain that's
+not mercury in there now, at all. It's probably element 99 or
+something like it."</p>
+
+<p>"It looks like mercury&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. So would 99. Following the periodic table,
+99 would probably have an even lower melting point than
+mercury, be silvery, dense and heavy&mdash;and perhaps slightly
+radioactive. The series under the B family of Group II is
+Magnesium, Zinc, Cadmium, Mercury&mdash;and 99. The melting
+point is going down all the way, and they're all silvery metals.
+I'm going to try copper, and I fully expect it to turn
+silvery&mdash;in fact, to become silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let's see." Swiftly they hooked up the apparatus,
+realigned the projector, and again Kendall took his place
+at the power-board. As he closed the switch, on no-load,
+the electrostatic voltmeter flopped over instantly, and steadied
+at just over 80,000 volts.</p>
+
+<p>"I hate to say 'I told you so,'" said Kendall. "But let's hook
+in a load. Try it on about 100 amps first."</p>
+
+<p>Devin began cutting in load. The resistors began heating
+up swiftly as more and more current flowed through them.
+By not so much as by a vibration of the voltmeter needle,
+did the apparatus betray any strain as the load mounted
+swiftly. 100&mdash;200&mdash;500&mdash;1000 amperes. Still, that needle held
+steady. Finally, with a drain of ten thousand amperes, all
+the equipment available could handle, the needle was steady
+as a rock, though the tremendous load of 800,000,000 watts
+was cut in and out. That, to atoms, atoms by the nonillions,
+was no appreciable load at all. There was <i>no</i> internal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+resistance whatever. The perfect accumulator had certainly
+been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll have to call McLaurin&mdash;" Kendall hurried away with
+a broad, broad smile.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">"Hello, Tom?"</span></p>
+
+<p>The telephone rattled in a peeved sort of way. "Yes, it
+is. What now? And when am I going to see you in a social
+sort of way again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for a long, long time; I'm busy. I'm busy right now
+as a matter of fact. I'm calling up the vice-president of
+Faragaut Interplanetary Lines, and I want to place an order."</p>
+
+<p>"Why bother me? We have clerks, you know, for that
+sort of thing," suggested Faragaut in a pained voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom, do you know how much I'm worth now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not much," replied Faragaut promptly. "What of it? I
+hear, as a matter of fact that you're worth even less in a
+business way. They're talking quite a lot down this way about
+an alleged bank you're setting up on Luna. I hear it's
+got more protective devices, and armor than any IP station
+in the System, that you even had it designed by an
+IP designer, and have a gang of Colonels and Generals in
+charge. I also hear that you've succeeded in getting rid of
+money at about one million dollars a day&mdash;just slightly shy
+of that."</p>
+
+<p>"You overestimate me, my friend. Much of that is merely
+contracted for. Actually it'll take me nearly nine months to
+get rid of it. And by that time I'll have more. Anyway, I
+think I have something like ten million left. And remember
+that way back in the twentieth century some old fellow
+beat my record. Armour, I think it was, lost a million dollars
+a day for a couple of months running.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Anyway, what I called you up for was to say I'd like
+to order five hundred thousand tons of mercury, for delivery
+as soon as possible."</p>
+
+<p>"What! Oh, say, I thought you were going in for business."
+Faragaut gave a slight laugh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom, I am. I mean exactly what I say. I want five&mdash;hundred&mdash;thousand&mdash;<i>tons</i>
+of metallic mercury, and just as
+soon as you can get it."</p>
+
+<p>"Man, there isn't that much in the system."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it. Get all there is on the market for me, and contract
+to take all the 'Jupiter Heavy-Metals' can turn out. You
+send those orders through, and clean out the market completely.
+Somebody's about to pay for the work I've been doing,
+and boy, they're going to pay through the nose. After
+you've got that order launched, and don't make a christening
+party of the launching either, why just drop out here, and I'll
+show you why the value of mercury is going so high you
+won't be able to follow it in a space ship."</p>
+
+<p>"The cost of that," said Faragaut, seriously now, "will be
+about&mdash;fifty-three million at the market price. You'd have
+to put up twenty-six cash, and I don't believe you've got it."</p>
+
+<p>Buck laughed. "Tom, loan me a dozen million, will you?
+You send that order through, and then come see what I've
+got. I've got a break, too! Mercury's the best metal for this
+use&mdash;and it'll stop gamma rays too!"</p>
+
+<p>"So it will&mdash;but for the love of the system, what of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come and see&mdash;tonight. Will you send that order through?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will, Buck. I hope you're right. Cash is tight now,
+and I'll probably have to put up nearer twenty million,
+when all that buying goes through. How long will it be tied
+up in that deal, do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not over three weeks. And I'll guarantee you three
+hundred percent&mdash;if you'll stay in with me after you start.
+Otherwise&mdash;I don't think making this money would be fair
+just now."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be out to see you in about two hours, Buck. Where
+are you? At the estate?" asked Faragaut seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"In my lab out there. Thanks, Tom."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>McLaurin was there when Tom Faragaut arrived. And
+General Logan, and Colonel Gerardhi. There was a restrained
+air of gratefulness about all of them that Tom Faragaut
+couldn't quite understand. He had been looking up Buck
+Kendall's famous bank, and more and more he had begun
+to wonder just what was up. The list of stockholders had
+read like a list of IP heroes and executives. The staff had
+been a list of IP men with a slender sprinkling of accountants.
+And the sixty-million dollar structure was to be a bank without
+advertising of any sort! Usually such a venture is planned
+and published months in advance. This had sprung up suddenly,
+with a strange quietness.</p>
+
+<p>Almost silently, Buck Kendall led the way to the laboratory.
+A small metal tank was supported in a peculiar piece
+of apparatus, and from it led a small platinum pipe to a
+domed apparatus made largely of insulum. A little pool of
+mercury, with small red crystals floating in it rested in a
+shallow hollow surrounded by heavy conductors.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, Tom. I wanted to show you first what we have,
+and why I wanted all that mercury. Within three weeks,
+every man, woman and child in the system will be clamoring
+for mercury metal. That's the perfect accumulator." Quickly
+he demonstrated the machine, charging it, and then discharging
+it. It was better than 99.95% efficient on the charge,
+and was 100% efficient on the discharge.</p>
+
+<p>"Physically, any metal will do. Technically, mercury is
+best for a number of reasons. It's a liquid. I can, and do it in
+this, charge a certain quantity, and then move it up to the
+storage tank. Charge another pool, and move it up. In discharge,
+I can let a stream flow in continuously if I required
+a steady, terrific drain of power without interruption. If I
+wanted it for more normal service, I'd discharge a pool,
+drain it, refill the receiver, and discharge a second pool.
+Thus, mercury is the metal to use.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see why I wanted all that metal?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do, Buck&mdash;Lord, I do," gasped Faragaut. "That is the
+perfect power supply."</p>
+
+<p>"No, confound it, it isn't. It's a secondary source. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+isn't primary. We're just as limited in the <i>supply</i> of power
+as ever&mdash;only we have increased our distribution of power.
+Lord knows, we're going to need a power <i>supply</i> badly
+enough before long&mdash;" Buck relapsed into moody silence.</p>
+
+<p>"What," asked Faragaut, looking around him, "does that
+mean?"</p>
+
+<p>It was McLaurin who told him of the stranger ship, and
+Kendall's interpretation of its meaning. Slowly Faragaut
+grasped the meaning behind Buck's strange actions of the
+past months.</p>
+
+<p>"The Lunar Bank," he said slowly, half to himself. "Staffed
+by trained IP men, experts in expert destruction. Buck, you
+said something about the profits of this venture. What did
+you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Buck smiled. "We're going to stick up IP to the extent
+necessary to pay for that fort&mdash;er&mdash;bank&mdash;on Luna. We'll
+also boost the price so that we'll make enough to pay for
+those ships I'm having made. The public will pay for that."</p>
+
+<p>"I see. And we aren't to stick the price too high, and just
+make money?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's the general idea."</p>
+
+<p>"The IP Appropriations Board won't give you what you
+need, Commander, for real improvements on the IP ships?"</p>
+
+<p>"They won't believe Kendall. Therefore they won't."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you mean about gamma rays, Buck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mercury will stop them and the Commander here intends
+to have the refitted ships built so that the engine room
+and control room are one, and completely surrounded by
+the mercury tanks. The men will be protected against the
+gamma rays."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't the rays affect the power stored in the mercury&mdash;perhaps
+release it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We tried it out, of course, and while we can't get the
+intensities we expect, and can't really make any measurements
+of the gamma-ray energy impinging on the mercury&mdash;it
+seems to absorb, and store that energy!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's next on the program, Buck?"</p>
+
+<p>"Finish those ships I have building. And I want to do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+some more development work. The Stranger will return
+within six months now, I believe. It will take all that time,
+and more for real refitting of the IP ships."</p>
+
+<p>"How about more forts&mdash;or banks, whichever you want
+to call them. Mars isn't protected."</p>
+
+<p>"Mars is abandoned," replied General Logan seriously.
+"We haven't any too much to protect old Earth, and she
+must come first. Mars will, of course, be protected as best
+the IP ships can. But&mdash;we're expecting defeat. This isn't a
+case of glorious victory. It will be a case of hard won survival.
+We don't know anything about the enemy&mdash;except that
+they are capable of interstellar flights, and have atomic
+energy. They are evidently far ahead of us. Our battle is to
+survive till we learn how to conquer. For a time, at
+least, the Strangers will have possession of most of the planets
+of the system. We do not think they will be able to reach
+Earth, because Commander McLaurin here will withdraw
+his ships to Earth to protect the planet&mdash;and the great 'Lunar
+Bank' will display its true character."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Faragaut</span> looked unsympathetically at Buck Kendall, as he
+stood glaring perplexedly at the apparatus he had been
+working on.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Buck, won't she perk?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, damn it, and it should."</p>
+
+<p>"That," pointed out Faragaut, "is just what you think.
+Nature thinks otherwise. We generally have to abide by her
+opinions. What is it&mdash;or what is it meant to be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfect reflector."</p>
+
+<p>"Make a nice mirror. What else, and how come?"</p>
+
+<p>"A mirror is just what I want. I want something that will
+reflect <i>all</i> the radiation that falls on it. No metal will, even
+in its range of maximum reflectivity. Aluminum goes pretty
+high, silver, on some ranges, a bit higher. But none of
+them reaches 99%. I want a perfect reflector that I can
+put behind a source of wild, radiant energy so I can focus
+it, and put it where it will do the most good."</p>
+
+<p>"Ninety-nine percent. Sounds pretty good. That's better
+efficiency than most anything else we have, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it isn't. The accumulator is 100% efficient on the
+discharge, and a good transformer, even before that, ran
+as high as 99.8 sometimes. They had to. If you have a
+transformer handling 1,000,000 horsepower, and it's even
+1% inefficient, you have a heat loss of nearly 10,000 horsepower
+to handle. I want to use this as a destructive weapon,
+and if I hand the other fellow energy in distressing amounts,
+it's even worse at my end, because no matter how perfect
+a beam I work out, there will still be some spread. I can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+make it mighty tight though, if I make my surface a perfect
+parabola. But if I send a million horse, I have to handle
+it, and a ship can't stand several hundred thousand horsepower
+roaming around loose as heat, let alone the weapon
+itself. The thing will be worse to me than to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I figured there was something worth investigating in
+those fields we developed on our magnetic shield work. They
+had to do, you know, with light, and radiant energy. There
+must be some reason why a metal reflects. Further, though
+we can't get down to the basic root of matter, the atom,
+yet, we can play around just about as we please with molecules
+and molecular forces. But it is molecular force that determines
+whether light and radiant energy of that caliber
+shall be reflected or transmitted. Take aluminum as an example.
+In the metallic molecule state, the metal will reflect
+pretty well. But volatilize it, and it becomes transparent. All
+gases are transparent, all metals reflective. Then the secret
+of perfect reflection lies at a molecular level in the organization
+of matter, and is within our reach. Well&mdash;this thing
+was supposed to make that piece of silver reflective. I missed
+it that time." He sighed. "I suppose I'll have to try
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you'd use tungsten for that. If you do
+have a slight leak, that would handle the heat."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it would hold it. Silver is a better conductor of heat.
+But the darned thing won't work."</p>
+
+<p>"Your other scheme has." Faragaut laughed. "I came out
+principally for some signatures. IP wants one hundred thousand
+tons of mercury. I've sold most of mine already in the
+open market. You want to sell?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. And I told you my price."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," sighed Faragaut. "It seems a shame though.
+Those IP board men would pay higher. And they're so damn
+tight it seems a crime not to make 'em pay up when they
+have to."</p>
+
+<p>"The IP will need the money worse elsewhere. Where do
+I&mdash;oh, here?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Right. I'll be out again this evening. The regular group
+will be here?"</p>
+
+<p>Kendall nodded as he signed in triplicate.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>That evening, Buck had found the trouble in his apparatus,
+for as he well knew, the theory was right, only the
+practical apparatus needed changing. Before the group
+composed of Faragaut, McLaurin and the members of Kendall's
+"bank," he demonstrated it.</p>
+
+<p>It was merely a small, model apparatus, with a mirror of
+space-strained silver that was an absolutely perfect reflector.
+The mirror had been ground out of a block of silver one
+foot deep, by four inches square, carefully annealed, and
+the work had all been done in a cooling bath. The result
+was a mirror that was so nearly a perfect paraboloid that the
+beam held sharp and absolutely tight for the half-mile range
+they tested it on. At the projector it was three and one-half
+inches in diameter. At the target, it was three and fifty-two
+one hundredths inches in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you've got the mirror, what are you going to reflect
+with it now?" asked McLaurin. "The greatest problem
+is getting a radiant source, isn't it? You can't get a temperature
+above about ten thousand degrees, and maintain it very
+long, can you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" Kendall smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"It'll volatilize and leave the scene of action, won't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What if it's a gaseous source already?"</p>
+
+<p>"What? Just a gas-flame? That won't give you the point
+source you need. You're using just a spotlight here, with a
+Moregan Point-light. That won't give you energy, and if
+you use a gas-flame, the spread will be so great, that no
+matter how perfectly you figure your mirror, it won't beam."</p>
+
+<p>"The answer is easy. Not an ordinary gas-flame&mdash;a very
+extra-special kind of gas-flame. Know anything about Renwright's
+ionization-work?"</p>
+
+<p>"Renwright&mdash;he's an IP man isn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Right. He's developed a system, which, thanks to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+power we can get in that atostor, will sextuply ionize oxygen
+gas. Now: what does that mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Spirits of space! Concentrated essence of energy!"</p>
+
+<p>"Right. And in preparation, Cole here had one made up
+for me. That&mdash;and something else. We'll just hook it up&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>With Devin's aid, Kendall attached the second apparatus,
+a larger device into which the silver block with its mirror
+surface fitted. With the uttermost care, the two physicists lined
+it up. Two projectors pointed toward each other at an angle,
+the base angles of a triangle, whose apex was the center
+of the mirror. On very low power, a soft, glowing violet light
+filtered out through the opening of the one, and a slight green
+light came from the other. But where the two streams met,
+an intense, violet glare built up. The center of action was
+not at the focus, and slowly this was lined up, till a sharp,
+violet beam of light reached out across the open yard to the
+target set up.</p>
+
+<p>Buck Kendall cut off the power, and slowly got into position.
+"Now. Keep out from in front of that thing. Put on
+these glasses&mdash;and watch out." Heavy, thick-lensed orange-brown
+goggles were passed out, and Kendall took his place.
+Before him, a thick window of the same glass had been arranged,
+so that he might see uninterruptedly the controls
+at hand, and yet watch unblinded, the action of the beam.</p>
+
+<p>Dully the mirror-force relay clicked. A hazy glow ran
+over the silver block, and died. Then&mdash;simultaneously the
+power was thrown from two small, compact atostors into
+the twin projectors. Instantly&mdash;a titanic eruption of light
+almost invisibly violet, spurted out in a solid, compact stream.
+With a roar and crash, it battered its way through the thick
+air, and crashed into the heavy target plate. A stream of
+flame and scintillating sparks erupted from the armor plate&mdash;and
+died as Kendall cut the beam. A white-hot area a
+foot across leaked down the face of the metal.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Faragaut gently, removing his goggles. "That's
+not a spotlight, and it's not exactly a gas-flame. But I still
+don't know what that blue-hot needle of destruction is.
+Just what do you call that tame stellar furnace of yours?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Not so far off, Tom," said Kendall happily, "except that
+even S Doradus is cold compared to that. That sends almost
+pure ultra-violet light&mdash;which, by the way, it is almost
+impossible to reflect successfully, and represents a temperature
+to be expressed not in thousands of degrees, nor
+yet in tens of thousands. I calculated the temperature would
+be about 750,000 degrees. What is happening is that a
+stream of low-voltage electrons&mdash;cathode rays&mdash;in great quantity
+are meeting great quantities of sextuply ionized oxygen.
+That means that a nucleus used to having two electrons in the
+K-ring, and six in the next, has had that outer six knocked
+off, and then has been hurled violently into free air.</p>
+
+<p>"All by themselves, those sextuply ionized oxygen atoms
+would have a good bit to say, but they don't really begin
+to talk till they start roaring for those electrons I'm feeding
+them. At the meeting point, they grab up all they can get&mdash;probably
+about five&mdash;before the competition and the fierce
+release of energy drives them out, part-satisfied. I lose a little
+energy there, but not a real fraction. It's the howl they put
+up for the first four that counts. The electron-feed is necessary,
+because otherwise they'd smash on and ruin that mirror.
+They work practically in a perfect vacuum. That beam
+smashes the air out of the way. Of course, in space it would
+work better."</p>
+
+<p>"How could it?" asked Faragaut, faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"Kendall," asked McLaurin, "can we install that in the IP
+ships?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can start." Kendall shrugged. "There isn't a lot of
+apparatus. I'm going to install them in my ships, and in the&mdash;bank.
+I suspect&mdash;we haven't a lot of time left."</p>
+
+<p>"How near ready are those ships?"</p>
+
+<p>"About. That's all I can say. They've been torn up a bit
+for installation of the atostor apparatus. Now they'll have
+to be changed again."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything more coming?"</p>
+
+<p>Buck smiled slowly. He turned directly to McLaurin and
+replied: "Yes&mdash;the Strangers. As to developments&mdash;I can't
+tell, naturally. But if they do, it will be something entirely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+unexpected now. You see, given one new discovery, a half-dozen
+will follow immediately from it. When we announced
+that atostor, look what happened. Renwright must have
+thought it was God's gift to suffering physicists. He stuck
+some oxygen in the thing, added some of his own stuff&mdash;and
+behold. The magnetic apparatus gave us directly the
+shield, and indirectly this mirror. Now, I seem to have reached
+the end for the time. I'm still trying to get that space-release
+for high speed&mdash;speed greater than light, that is. So
+far," he added bitterly, "all I've gotten as an answer is a
+single expression that simply means practical zero&mdash;Heisenberg's
+Uncertainty Expression."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm uncertain as to your meaning"&mdash;McLaurin smiled&mdash;"but
+I take it that's nothing new."</p>
+
+<p>"No. Nearly four centuries old&mdash;twentieth century physics.
+I'll have to try some other line of attack, I guess, but
+that did seem so darned right. It just sounded right. Something
+ought to happen&mdash;and it just keeps saying 'nothing
+more except the natural uncertainty of nature.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Try it out, your math might be wrong somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall laughed. "If it was&mdash;I'd hate to try it out. If it
+wasn't I'd have no reason to. And there's plenty of other
+work to do. For one thing, getting that apparatus in production.
+The IP board won't like me." Kendall smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"They don't," replied McLaurin. "They're getting more
+and more and more worried&mdash;but they've got to keep the
+IP fleet in such condition that it can at least catch an up-to-date
+freighter."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae looked back at Sthor rapidly dropping behind,
+and across at her sister world, Asthor, circling a bare
+100,000 miles away. Behind his great interstellar cruiser
+came a long line of similar ships. Each was loaded now
+not with instruments and pure scientists, but with weapons,
+fuel and warriors. Colonists too, came in the last ships. One
+hundred and fifty giant ships. All the wealth of Sthor and
+Asthor had been concentrated in producing those great
+machines. Every one represented nearly the equivalent of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+thirty million Earth-dollars. Four and a half billions of dollars
+for mere materials.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae had the honor of lead position, for he had
+discovered the planets and their stable, though tiny, sun.
+Still, Gresth Gkae knew his own giant Mira was a super-giant
+sun&mdash;and a curse and a menace to any rational society.
+Our yellow-white sun (to his eyes, an almost invisible
+color, similar to our blue) was small, but stable, and warm
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour, all the ships were in space, and at a
+given signal, at ten-second intervals, they sprang into the
+superspeed, faster than light. For an instant, giant Mira ran
+and seemed distorted, as though seen through a porthole
+covered with running water, then steadied, curiously distorted.
+Faster than light they raced across the galaxy.</p>
+
+<p>Even in their super-fast ships, nearly three and a half
+weeks passed before the sun they sought, singled itself from
+the star-field as an extra bright point. Two days more, and
+the sun was within planetary distance. They came at an
+angle to the plane of the ecliptic, but they leveled down to
+it now, and slanted toward giant Jupiter and Jovian worlds.
+Ten worlds, in one sweep, it was&mdash;four habitable worlds.
+The nine satellites would be converted into forts at once,
+nine space-sweeping forts guarding the approaches to the
+planet. Gresth Gkae had made a fairly good search of the
+worlds, and knew that Earth was the main home of civilization
+in this system. Mars was second, and Venus third. But
+Jupiter offered the greatest possibilities for quick settlement,
+a base from which they could more easily operate, a
+base for fuels, for the heavy elements they would need&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen million miles from Jupiter they slowed below the
+speed of light&mdash;and the IP stations observed them. Instantly,
+according to instructions issued by Commander McLaurin,
+a fleet of ten of the tiniest, fastest scouts darted out. As
+soon as possible, a group of three heavy cruisers, armed
+with all the inventions that had been discovered, the atostor
+power system, perfectly conducting power leads, the
+terrible UV ray, started out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The scouts got there first. Cameras were grinding steadily,
+with long range telescopic lenses, delicate instruments
+probed and felt and caught their fingers in the fields of
+the giant fleet.</p>
+
+<p>At ten-second intervals, giant ships popped into being, and
+glided smoothly toward Jupiter.</p>
+
+<p>Then the cruisers arrived. They halted at a respectful distance,
+and waited. The Miran ships plowed on undisturbed.
+Simultaneously, from the three leaders, terrific neutron rays
+shot out. The paraffin block walls stopped those&mdash;and the
+cruisers started to explain their feelings on the subject. They
+were the IP-J-37, 39, and 42. The 37 turned up the full
+power of the UV ray. The terrific beam of ultra-violet energy
+struck the second Miran ship, and the spot it touched
+exploded into incandescence, burned white-hot&mdash;and puffed
+out abruptly as the air pressure within blew the molten
+metal away.</p>
+
+<p>The Mirans were startled. This was not the type of thing
+Gresth Gkae had warned them of. Gresth Gkae himself
+frowned as the sudden roar of the machines of his ship
+rose in the metal walls. A stream of ten-inch atomic bombs
+shrieked out of their tubes, fully glowing green things floated
+out more slowly, and immediately waxed brilliant. Gamma
+ray bombs&mdash;but they could be guarded against&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The three Solarian cruisers were washed in such frightful
+flame as they had never imagined. Streams of atomic bombs
+were exploding soundlessly, ineffectively in space, not thirty
+feet from them as they felt the sudden resistance of the
+magnetic shields. Hopefully, the 39 probed with her neutron
+gun. Nothing happened save that several gamma ray
+bombs went off explosively, and all the atomic bombs in its
+path exploded at once.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae knew what that meant. Neutron beam guns.
+Then this race was more intelligent than he had believed.
+They had not had them before. Had he perhaps given them
+too much warning and information?</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden, deeper note in the thrumming roar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+of the great ship. Eagerly Gresth Gkae watched&mdash;and sighed
+in relief. The nearer of the three enemy ships was crumbling
+to dust. Now the other two were beginning to become blurred
+of outline. They were fleeing&mdash;but oh, so slowly. Easily the
+greater ship chased them down, till only floating dust, and a
+few small pieces of&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae shrieked in pain, and horror. The destroyed
+ships had fought in dying. All space seemed to blossom out
+with a terrible light, a light that wrapped around them,
+and burned into him, and through him. His eyes were dark
+and burning lumps in his head, his flesh seemed crawling,
+stinging&mdash;he was being flayed alive&mdash;in shrieking agony he
+crumpled to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Hospital attach&eacute;s came to him, and injected drugs. Slowly
+torturing consciousness left him. The doctors began working
+over his horribly burned body, shuddering inwardly as
+the protective, feather-like covering of his skin loosened, and
+dropped from his body. Tenderly they lowered him into
+a bath of chemicals&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The terrible light which caused so much damage to our
+men," reported a physicist, "was analyzed, and found to
+have some extraordinary lines. It was largely mercury-vapor
+spectrum, but the spectrum of mercury-atoms in an
+impossibly strained condition. I would suggest that great
+care be used hereafter, and all men be equipped with protective
+masks when observations are needed. This sun is
+very rich in the infra-X-rays and ultra-visible light. The
+explosion of light, we witnessed, was dangerous in its consisting
+almost wholly of very short and hard infra-X-rays."</p>
+
+<p>The physicist had a special term for what we know as
+ultra-violet light. To him, blue was ultra-violet, and exceedingly
+dangerous to red-sensitive eyes. To him, our ultra-violet
+was a long X-ray, and was designated by a special
+term. And to him&mdash;the explosion of the atostor reservoirs
+was a terrible and mystifying calamity.</p>
+
+<p>To the men in the five tiny scout-ships, it was also a
+surprise, and a painful one. Even space-hardened humans
+were burned by the terrifically hard ultra-violet from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+explosion. But they got some hint of what it had meant
+to the Mirans from the confusion that resulted in the fleet.
+Several of the nearer ships spun, twisted, and went erratically
+off their courses. All seemed uncontrolled momentarily.</p>
+
+<p>The five scouts, following orders, darted instantly toward
+the Lunar Bank. Why, they did not know. But those were
+orders. They were to land there.</p>
+
+<p>The reason was that, faster than any Solarian ship, radio
+signals had reached McLaurin, and he, and most of the
+staff of the IP service had been moved to the Lunar Bank.
+Buck Kendall had extended an invitation in this "unexpected
+emergency." It so happened that Buck Kendall's invitation
+got there before any description of the Strangers, or their actions
+had arrived. The staff was somewhat puzzled as to how
+this happened&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And now for the satellites of great Jupiter.</p>
+
+<p>One hundred and fifty giant interstellar cruisers advanced
+on Callisto. They didn't pause to investigate the mines and
+scattered farms of the satellite, but ten great ships settled,
+and a horde of warriors began pouring out.</p>
+
+<p>One hundred and forty ships reached Ganymede. One
+hundred and thirty sailed on. One hundred and thirty
+ships reached Europa&mdash;and they sailed on hurriedly, one
+hundred and twenty-nine of them. Gresth Gkae did not know
+it then, but the fleet had lost its first ship. The IP station on
+Europa had spoken back.</p>
+
+<p>They sailed in, a mighty armada, and the first dropped
+through Europa's thin, frozen atmosphere. They spotted the
+dome of the station, and a neutron ray lashed out at it.
+On the other, undefended worlds, this had been effective.
+Here&mdash;it was answered by ten five-foot UV rays. Further,
+these men had learned something from the destruction of
+the cruisers, and ten torpedoes had been unloaded, reloaded
+with atostor mercury, and sent out bravely.</p>
+
+<p>Easily the Mirans wiped out the first torpedo&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Shrieking, the Miran pilots clawed their way from the controls
+as the fearful flood of ultra-violet light struck their unaccustomed
+skins. Others too felt that burning flood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The second torpedo they caught and deflected on a
+beam of alternating-current magnetism that repelled it. It
+did not come nearer than half a mile to the ship. The third
+they turned their deflecting beam on&mdash;and something went
+strangely wrong with the beam. It pulled that torpedo toward
+the ship with a sickening acceleration&mdash;and the torpedo
+exploded in that frightful violet flame.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Five-foot diameter UV beams are nothing to play with.
+The Mirans were dodging these now as they loosed atomic
+bombs, only to see them exploded harmlessly by neutron
+guns, or caught in the magnetic screen. Gamma ray bombs
+were as useless. Again the beam of disintegrating force
+was turned on&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The present opponent was not a ship. It was an IP defense
+station, equipped with everything Solarian science
+knew, and the dome was an eight-foot wall of tungsten-beryllium.
+The eight feet of solid, ultra-resistant alloy drank
+up that crumbling beam, and liked it. The wall did not fail.
+The men inside the fort jerked and quivered as the strange
+beam, a small, small fraction of it, penetrated the eight feet
+of outer wall, the six feet or so of intervening walls, and
+the mercury atostor reserves.</p>
+
+<p>"Concentrate all those UV beams on one spot, and see
+if you can blast a hole in him before he shakes it loose,"
+ordered the ray technician. "He'll wiggle if you start off
+with the beam. Train your sights on the nose of that first
+ship&mdash;when you're ready, call out."</p>
+
+<p>"Ready&mdash;ready&mdash;" Ten men replied. "Fire!" roared the
+technician. Ten titanic swords of pure ultra-violet energy,
+energy that practically no unconditioned metal will reflect to
+more than fifty per cent, emerged. There was a single spot of
+intense incandescence for a single hundredth of a second&mdash;and
+then the energy was burning its way through the inner,
+thinner skins with such rapidity that they sputtered and
+flickered like a broken televisor.</p>
+
+<p>One hundred and twenty-nine ships retreated hastily
+for conference, leaving a gutted, wrecked hull, broken by its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+fall, on Europa. Triumphantly, the Europa IP station hurled
+out its radio message of the first encounter between a fort
+and the Miran forces.</p>
+
+<p>Most important of all, it sent a great deal of badly wanted
+information regarding the Miran weapons. Particularly interesting
+was the fact that it had withstood the impact of
+that disintegrating ray.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Grimly</span> Buck Kendall looked at the reports. McLaurin stood
+beside him, Devin sat across the table from him. "What do
+you make of it, Buck?" asked the Commander.</p>
+
+<p>"That we have just one island of resistance left on the
+Jovian worlds. And that will, I fear, vanish. They haven't
+finished with their arsenal by any means."</p>
+
+<p>"But what was it, man, what was it that ruined those ships?"</p>
+
+<p>"Vibration. Somehow&mdash;Lord only knows how it's done&mdash;they
+can project electric fields. These projected fields are oscillated,
+and they are tuned in with some parts of the ship.
+I suspect they are crystals of the metals. If they can start
+a vibration in the crystals of the metal&mdash;that's fatigue, metal
+fatigue enormously speeded. You know how a quartz crystal
+oscillator in a radio-control apparatus will break, if you
+work it on a very heavy load at the peak? They simply smash
+the crystals of metal in the same way. Only they project
+their field."</p>
+
+<p>"Then our toughest metals are useless? Can't something
+tough, rather than hard, like copper or even silver for instance,
+stand it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Calcium metal's the toughest going&mdash;and even that
+would break under the beating those ships give it. The only
+way to withstand it is to have such a mass of metal that the
+oscillations are damped out. But&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The set tuned in on the IP station on Europa was
+speaking again. "The ships are returning. There are one
+hundred and twenty-nine by accurate count. Jorgsen reports
+that telescopic observation of the dead on the fallen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+cruiser show them to be a <i>completely un-human race</i>! They
+are of mottled coloring, predominately grayish brown. The
+ships are returning. They have divided into ten groups, nine
+groups of two each, and a main body of the rest of the fleet.
+The group of eighteen is descending within range, and we
+are focusing our beams on them&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Out by Europa, ten great UV beams were stabbing angrily
+toward ten great interstellar ships. The metal of the
+hulls glowed brilliant, and distorted slowly as the thick walls
+softened under the heat, and the air behind pressed against
+it. Grimly the ten ships came on. Torpedoes were being
+launched, and exploded, and now they had no effect, for
+the Mirans within were protected.</p>
+
+<p>The eighteen grouped ships separated, and arranged themselves
+in a circle around the fort. Suddenly one staggered
+as a great puff of gas shot out through the thin atmosphere
+of Europa to flare brilliantly in the lash of the stabbing UV
+beam. Instantly the ship righted itself, and labored upward.
+Another dropped to take its place&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>And the great walls of the IP fort suddenly groaned and
+started in their welded joints. The faint, whispering rustle of
+the crumbling beam was murmuring through the station. Engineers
+shouted suddenly as meters leapt the length of their
+scales, and the needles clicked softly on the stop pins. A thin
+rustle came from the atostors grouped in the great power
+room. "Spirits of Space&mdash;a revolving magnetic field!" roared
+the Chief Technician. "They're making this whole blasted
+station a squirrel cage!"</p>
+
+<p>The mighty walls of eight-foot metal shuddered and trembled.
+The UV beams lashed out from the fort in quivering
+arcs now, they did not hold their aim steady, and the magnetic
+shield that protected them from atomic bombs was
+working and straining wildly. Eighteen great ships quivered
+and tugged outside there now, straining with all their power
+to remain in the same spot, as they passed on from one to
+another the magnetic impulses that were now creating a titanic
+magnetic vortex about the fort.</p>
+
+<p>"The atostors will be exhausted in another fifteen minutes,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+the Chief Technician roared into his transmitter. "Can
+the signals get through those fields, Commander?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mac. They've been stopped, Sparks tells me. We're
+here&mdash;and let's hope we stay. What's happening?"</p>
+
+<p>"They've got a revolving magnetic field out there that would
+spin a minor planet. The whole blasted fort is acting like
+the squirrel cage in an induction motor! They've made us the
+armature in a five hundred million horsepower electric motor."</p>
+
+<p>"They can't tear this place loose, can they?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know&mdash;it was never&mdash;" The Chief stopped. Outside
+a terrific roar and crash had built up. White darts
+of flame leapt a thousand feet into the air, hurling terrific
+masses of shattered rock and soil.</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to say," the Chief went on, "this place wasn't
+designed for that sort of a strain. Our own magnetic field is
+supporting us now, preventing their magnetic field from
+getting its teeth on metal. When the strain comes&mdash;well,
+they're cutting loose our foundation with atomic bombs!"</p>
+
+<p>Five UV beams were combined on one interstellar ship.
+Instantly the great machine retreated, and another dropped
+in to take its place while the magnetic field spun on, uninterruptedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Can they keep that up long?"</p>
+
+<p>"God knows&mdash;but they have a hundred and more ships
+to send in when the power of one gives out, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"What's our reserve now?"</p>
+
+<p>The Chief paused a moment to look at the meters. "Half
+what it was ten minutes ago!"</p>
+
+<p>Commander Wallace sent some other orders. Every torpedo
+tube of the station suddenly belched forth deadly, fifteen-foot
+torpedoes, most of them mud-torpedoes, torpedoes
+loaded with high explosive in the nose, a delayed fuse,
+and a load of soft clinging mud in the rear. The mud would
+flow down over the nose and offer a resistance foot-hold for
+the explosive which empty space would not. Four hundred
+and three torpedoes, equipped with anti-magnetic apparatus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+darted out. One hundred and four passed the struggling
+fields. One found lodgement on a Miran ship, and crushed
+in a metal wall, to be stopped by a bulkhead.</p>
+
+<p>The Chief engineer watched his power declining. All ten
+UV beams were united in one now, driving a terrible
+sword of energy that made the attacked ship skip for safety
+instantly, yet the beams were all but useless. For the Miran
+reserves filled the gap, and the magnetic tornado continued.</p>
+
+<p>For seventeen long minutes the station resisted the attack.
+Then the last of the strained mercury flowed into the
+receivers, and the vast power of the atostors was exhausted.
+Slowly the magnetic fields declined. The great walls of the
+station felt the clutching lines of force&mdash;they began to heat
+and to strain. A low, harsh grinding became audible over the
+roar of the atomic bombs. The whole structure trembled, and
+jumped slightly. The roar of bombs ceased suddenly, as the
+station jerked again, more violently. Then it turned a bit,
+rolled clumsily. Abruptly it began to spin violently, more
+and more rapidly. It started rolling clumsily across the plateau&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A rain of atomic bombs struck the unprotected metal, and
+the eighth breached the walls. The twentieth was the
+last. There was no longer an IP station on Europa.</p>
+
+<p>"The difference," said Buck Kendall slowly, when the reports
+came in from scout-ships in space that had witnessed
+the last struggle, "between an atomic generator and an
+atomic power-store, or accumulator, is clearly shown. We
+haven't an adequate <i>source</i> of power."</p>
+
+<p>McLaurin sighed slowly, and rose to his feet. "What can
+we do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank our lucky stars that Faragaut here, and I, bought
+up all the mercury in the system, and had it brought to
+Earth. We at least have a supply of materials for the atostors."</p>
+
+<p>"They don't seem to do much good."</p>
+
+<p>"They're the best we've got. All the photocells on Earth
+and Venus and Mercury are at present busy storing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+sun's power in atostors. I have two thousand tons of charged
+mercury in our tanks here in the 'Lunar Bank.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Much good that will do&mdash;they can just pull and pull and
+pull till it's all gone. A starfish isn't strong, but he can open
+the strongest oyster just because he can pull from now on.
+You may have a lot of power&mdash;but."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;we also have those new fifteen-foot UV beams.
+And one fifteen-foot UV beam is worth, theoretically, nine
+five-foot beams, and practically, a dozen. We have a dozen
+of them. Remember, this place was designed not only to
+protect itself, but Earth, too."</p>
+
+<p>"They can still pull, can't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"They'll stop pulling when they get their fingers burned.
+In the meantime, why not use some of those IP ships to
+bring in a few more cargoes of charged mercury?"</p>
+
+<p>"They aren't good for much else, are they? I wonder if
+those fellows have anything more we don't know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, probably. I'm going to work on that crumbler thing.
+That's the first consideration now."</p>
+
+<p>"Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"So we can move a ship. As it is, even those two we
+built aren't any good."</p>
+
+<p>"Would they be anyway?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;I think I might disturb those gentlemen slightly.
+Remember, they each have a nose-beam eighteen feet across.
+Exceedingly unpleasant customers."</p>
+
+<p>"Score: Strangers; magnetic field, atomic bombs, atomic
+power, crumbler ray. Home team; UV beams."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall grinned. "I'd heard you were a pessimistic cuss
+when battle started&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pessimistic, hell, I'm merely counting things up."</p>
+
+<p>"McClellan had all the odds on Lee back in the Civil War
+of the States&mdash;but Lee sent him home faster than he came."</p>
+
+<p>"But Lee lost in the end."</p>
+
+<p>"Why bring that up? I've got work to do." Still smiling,
+Kendall went to the laboratory he had built up in the
+"Lunar Bank." Devin was already there, calculating. He
+looked unhappy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We can't do anything, as far as I can see. They're using
+an electric field all right, and projecting it. I can't see how
+we can do that."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither can I," agreed Kendall, "so we can't use that
+weapon. I really didn't want to anyway. Like the neutron
+gun which I told Commander McLaurin would be useless as
+a weapon, they'd be prepared for it, you can be sure. All
+I want to do is fight it, and make their projection useless."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we have to know how they project it before we can
+break up the projection, don't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. They're using an electric field of very high
+frequency, but variable frequency. As far as I can see, all
+we need is a similar variable electric field of a slightly different
+frequency to heterodyne theirs into something quite harmless."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Devin. "We could, couldn't we? But how are
+you going to do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have to learn, that's all."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Buck Kendall started trying to learn. In the meantime, the
+Mirans were taking over Jupiter. There were three IP stations
+on the planet itself, but they were vastly hindered by
+the thick, almost ultra-violet-proof atmosphere of Jupiter.
+Their rays were weak. And the magnetic fields of the Mirans
+were unaffected. Only their atomic bombs were hindered by
+the heavier gravity that pulled the rocks back in place faster
+than the bombs could throw them out. Still&mdash;a few hours
+of work, and the IP stations on Jupiter had rolled wildly
+across the flat plains of the planet like dented cans, to end
+in utter destruction.</p>
+
+<p>The Mirans had paid no attention to the fleeing passenger
+and freighter ships that left the planet, loaded to the
+utmost with human cargo, and absolutely no freight. The
+IP fleet had to go to their rescue with oxygen tanks to
+take care of the extra humans, but nearly three-quarters
+of the population of Jupiter, a newly established population,
+and hence a readily mobile one, was saved. The others, the
+Mirans did not bother with particularly except when they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+happened to be near where the Mirans wanted to work.
+Then they were instantly destroyed by atomic bombing, or
+gamma rays.</p>
+
+<p>The Mirans settled almost at once, and began their work
+of finding on Jupiter the badly needed atomic fuels. Machines
+were set up, and work begun, Mirans laboring under
+the gravity of the heavy planet. Then, fifty ships swam up
+again, reloaded with fuel, and with crews consisting solely
+of uninjured warriors, and started for Mars.</p>
+
+<p>Mars was half way between her near conjunction and her
+maximum elongation with respect to Jupiter at that time. The
+Mirans knew their business though, for they started in on the
+IP station on Phobos. They were practiced by this time,
+and this IP station had only seven five-foot beams. In half
+an hour that station fell, and its sister station on Deimos
+followed. Three wounded ships returned to Jupiter, and ten
+new ships came out. The attack on Mars itself was started.</p>
+
+<p>Mars was a different proposition. There were thirty-two IP
+stations here, one of them nearly as powerful as the Lunar
+Bank station. It was equipped with four of the huge fifteen-foot
+beams. And it had fifteen tons of mercury, more than
+seven-eighths charged. The Mars Center Station was located
+a short ten miles from the Mars Center City, and under
+the immediate orders of the IP heads, Mars Center City
+had been vacated.</p>
+
+<p>For two days the Mirans hung off Mars, solidifying their
+positions on Phobos and Deimos. Then, with sixty-two ships,
+they attacked. They had made some very astute observations,
+and they started on the smaller stations just beyond the
+range of the Mars Center Station. Naturally, near so powerful
+a center, these stations had never been strong. They fell
+rapidly. But they had been counted on by Mars Center as
+auxiliary supports. McLaurin had sent very definite orders
+to Mars Center forbidding any action on their part, save
+gathering of power-supplies.</p>
+
+<p>At last the direct attack on Mars Center was launched. For
+the first time, the Mirans saw one of the fifteen-foot beams.
+Mars' atmosphere is thin, and there is little ozone. The ultra-violet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+beams were nearly as effective as in empty space.
+When the Mirans dropped their ships, a full thirty of them,
+into the circle formation, Mars Center answered at once. All
+four beams started.</p>
+
+<p>Those fifteen-foot beams, connected directly to huge atostor
+release apparatus, delivered a maximum power of two
+and three-quarter billion horsepower, each. The first Miran
+ship struck, sparkled magnificently, and a terrific cascade of
+white-hot metal rolled down from its nose. The great ship
+nosed down and to the left abruptly, accelerated swiftly&mdash;and
+crashed with tremendous energy on the plain outside of
+Mars Center City. White, unwavering flames licked up suddenly,
+and made a column five hundred feet high against
+the dark sky. Then the wreck exploded with a violence that
+left a crater half a mile across.</p>
+
+<p>Three other ships had been struck, and were rapidly retreating.
+Another try was made for the ring formation, and
+four more ships were wounded, and replaced. The ring did
+not retreat, but the great magnetic field started. Atomic and
+gamma ray bombs started now, flashing sometimes dangerously
+close to the station as its magnetic field battled the
+rotating field of the ships. The four greater beams, and many
+smaller ones were in swift and angry action. Not more than
+a ten-second exposure could be endured by any one ship,
+before it must retreat.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>For five minutes the Mirans hung doggedly at their task.
+Then, wisely, they retreated. Of the fleet, not more than
+seven ships remained untouched. Mars Center Station had
+held&mdash;at what cost only they knew. Five hundred tons
+of their mercury had been exhausted in that brief five minutes.
+One hundred tons a minute had flowed into and out
+of the atostor apparatus. Mars Center radioed for help, when
+the fleet lifted.</p>
+
+<p>There was one other station on Mars that stood a good
+chance of survival, Deenmor Station, with three of the big
+beams installed, and apparatus for their fourth was in the
+station, and being rapidly worked over. McLaurin did a wise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+and courageous thing, at which every man on Mars cursed.
+He ordered that all IP stations save these two be deserted,
+and all mercury fuel reserves be moved to Deenmor and
+Mars Center.</p>
+
+<p>The Mirans could not land on the North Western section
+of Mars, nor in the South Central region. Therefore Mars was
+not exactly habitable to Miran ships, because the great beams
+had been so perfectly figured that they were effective at a
+range of nearly twelve hundred miles.</p>
+
+<p>Deenmor station was attacked&mdash;but it was a half-hearted
+attack, for Mirans were becoming distinctly skittish about fifteen-foot
+UV beams. Two badly blistered ships&mdash;and the
+Mirans retreated to Jupiter. But Mira held Phobos and Deimos.
+In two weeks, they had set up cannon there, and proved
+themselves accurate long-range gunners. Against the feeble attraction
+of Deimos, and with Mars' gravity to help them,
+they began bombarding the two stations, and anything that
+attempted to approach them, with gamma and atomic explosive
+bombs. Meanwhile they amused themselves occasionally
+by planting a gamma-ray bomb in each of Mars' major cities.
+They made Mars uninhabitable for Solarians as well as for
+Mirans, at least until the deadly slow-action atomic explosives
+wore off, or were removed.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Mirans, after a lapse of three weeks while they
+dug in their toes on Jupiter, prepared to leap. Earth was
+the next goal. Miran scout-ships had been sent out before
+this&mdash;and severely handled by the concentrated fleets of the
+IP that hung grimly off Earth and Luna now. But the
+scouts had learned one thing. Mirans could never hope to
+attain a firm grasp on Earth while terribly armed Luna hung
+like a Sword of Damocles over their heads. Further, attack
+on Earth directly would be next to impossible, for, thanks
+to Faragaut's Interplanetary Company, nearly all the mercury
+metal in the system was safely lodged on Earth, and
+saturated with power. Every major city had been equipped
+with great UV apparatus. And neutron guns in plenty waited
+on small ships just outside the atmosphere to explode harmlessly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+any atomic or gamma bombs Miran ships might attempt
+to deposit.</p>
+
+<p>An attack on Luna was the first step. But that terrible,
+gigantic fort on Luna worried them. Yet while that fort
+existed, Earth ships were free to come and go, for Mirans
+could not afford to stand near. At a distance of twenty
+thousand miles, small Miran ships had felt the touch of
+those great UV beams.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, a brief test-attack was made, with an entire fleet
+of one hundred ships. They drew almost into position, faster
+than light, faster than the signaling warnings could send
+their messages. In position, all those great ships strained and
+heaved at the mighty magnetic vortex that twisted at the
+field of the fort. Instantly, twelve of the fifteen-foot UV
+beams replied. And&mdash;two great UV beams of a size the
+Mirans had never seen before, beams from the two ships, "S
+Doradus" and "Cepheid."</p>
+
+<p>The test-attack dissolved as suddenly as it had come.
+The Mirans returned to Jupiter, and to the outer planets
+where they had further established themselves. Most of the
+Solar system was theirs. But the Solarians still held the
+choicest planets&mdash;and kept the Mirans from using the mild-temperatured
+Mars.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">They</span> can't take this, at least," sighed McLaurin as they
+retreated from Luna.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't think they could&mdash;right away. I'm wondering
+though if they haven't something we haven't seen yet. Besides
+which&mdash;give them time, give them time."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, give us time, too," snapped McLaurin. "How are
+you coming?"</p>
+
+<p>Buck smiled. "I'm sure I don't know. I have a machine
+but I haven't the slightest idea of whether or not it's any
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can destroy&mdash;I hope&mdash;but I can't build up their ray.
+I can't test the machine because I haven't their ray to test
+it against."</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do to test it?"</p>
+
+<p>"The only thing I can see is to call for volunteers&mdash;and
+send out a six-man cruiser. If the ship's too small, they may
+not destroy it with the big crumbler rays. If it's too large&mdash;and
+the machine didn't work&mdash;we'd lose too much."</p>
+
+<p>Twelve hours later, the IP men at the Lunar Bank fort
+were lined up. McLaurin stepped up on the platform, and
+addressed the men briefly, told them what was needed. Six
+volunteers were selected by a process of elimination, those
+who were married, had dependents, officers, and others were
+refused. Finally, six men of the IP were chosen, neither rookies
+nor veterans, six average men. And one average six-man
+cruiser, one hundred and eleven feet long, twenty-two in
+diameter. It was the T-208, a sister ship of the T-247, the
+first ship to be destroyed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The T-208 started out from Luna, and with full acceleration,
+sped out toward Phobos. Slowly she circled the
+satellite, while distant scouts kept her under view. Lazily,
+the Miran patrol on Phobos watched the T-208, indifferent
+to her. The T-208 dove suddenly, after five fruitless circles
+of the tiny world, and with her four-foot UV beam flaming,
+stabbed angrily at a flight of Miran scouts berthed in the
+very shadow of a great battle cruiser, one of the interstellar
+ships stationed here on Phobos.</p>
+
+<p>Four of the little ships slumped in incandescence. Angrily
+the terrific sword of energy slashed at the frail little scouts.</p>
+
+<p>Angrily the Miran interstellar ship shot herself abruptly
+into action against this insolent cruiser. The cruiser launched
+a flight of the mercury-torpedoes. Flashing, burning, ultra-violet
+energy flooded the great ship, harmlessly, for the men
+were, as usual, protected. The Miran answered with the
+neutron beam, atomic and gamma bombs&mdash;and the crumbler
+ray.</p>
+
+<p>Gently, softly a halo of shimmering-violet luminescence
+built up about the T-208. The UV beam continued to flare,
+wavering slightly in its aim&mdash;then fell way off to one side.
+The T-208 staggered suddenly, wandered from her course&mdash;whole,
+but uncontrolled. For the men within the ship were
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>Majestically the Miran swung along beside the dead ship,
+a great magnetic tow-cable shot out toward it, to shy off at
+first, then slowly to be adjusted, and take hold in the magnetic
+shield of the T-208. The pilots of the watching scout-ships
+turned away. They knew what would happen.</p>
+
+<p>It did. Five&mdash;ten&mdash;twenty seconds passed. Then the "dead-man"
+took over the ship&mdash;and the stored power in the atostor
+tanks blasted in a terrible flame that shattered the metal
+hull to molecular fragments. The interstellar cruiser shuddered,
+and rolled half over at the blasting pressure. Leaking
+seams appeared in her plates.</p>
+
+<p>The scouts raced back to Luna as the Miran settled heavily,
+and a trifle clumsily to Phobos. Miran radio-beams were
+forcing their way out toward the Miran station on Europa,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+to be relayed to the headquarters on Jupiter, just as Solarian
+radio beams were thrusting through space toward Luna.
+Said the Miran messages: "Their ships no longer crumble."
+Said the Solarian messages: "The ships no longer crumble&mdash;but
+the men die."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>His deep eyes burning tensely, Buck Kendall heard the
+messages coming in, and rose slowly from his seat to pace
+the floor. "I think I know why," he said at last. "I should
+have thought. For that too can be prevented."</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;what in the name of the Planets?" asked McLaurin.
+"It didn't kill the men in the forts&mdash;why does it kill
+the men in the ships, when the ships are protected?"</p>
+
+<p>"The protection kills them."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but they had the protective oscillations on all the
+way out!" protested the Commander.</p>
+
+<p>"Think how it works though. Think, man. The enemy's
+field is an electric-field oscillation. We combat it by setting up
+a similar oscillating field in the metal of the hull ourselves.
+Because the metal conducts the strains, they meet,
+and oppose. It is not a shield&mdash;a shield is impossible, as
+I have said, because of energy concentration factors. If their
+beam carried a hundred thousand horsepower in a ten-foot
+square beam, in every ten square feet of our shield, we'd
+have to have one hundred thousand horsepower. In other
+words, hundreds of times as much energy would be needed
+in the shield, as they used in their beam. We can't afford
+that. We had to let the beams oppose our oscillations in
+the metal, where, because the metal conducts, they meet on
+an equal basis. But&mdash;when two oscillations of slightly different
+frequency meet, what is the result?"</p>
+
+<p>"In this case, a heterodyne frequency of a lower, and
+harmless frequency."</p>
+
+<p>"So I thought. I was partly right. It does <i>not</i> harm the
+metal. But it kills the men. It is super-sonic. The terrible,
+shrill sounds destroy the cells of the men's bodies. Then,
+when their dead hands release the controls, the automatic
+switches blow up the ship."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"God! We stop one menace&mdash;and it is like the Hydra.
+For every head we lop off, two spring up."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;but they are lesser heads. Look, what is the fundamental
+difference between sound and light?"</p>
+
+<p>"One is a vibration of matter and the&mdash;ah&mdash;eliminate the
+material contact!"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly! All we need to do is to let the ships operate
+airless, the men in space suits. Then the air cannot carry
+the sounds to them. And by putting special damping materials
+in their suits, we can stop the vibrations that would
+reach them through their feet and hands. Another six-man
+ship must go out&mdash;but this ship will come back!"</p>
+
+<p>And with the order for another experimental ship, went the
+orders for commercial supplies of this new apparatus. Every
+IP ship must be equipped to resist it.</p>
+
+<p>Buck Kendall sailed on the six-man scout that went out
+this time. Again they swooped once at Phobos, again Miran
+scout-ships crumbled under the attack of the vicious UV
+beams. The Mirans were not waiting contemptuously this
+time. In an instant the great interstellar ship rose from its
+berth, its weapons working angrily. The crumbler ray snapped
+out at the T-253.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall stared into the periscope visor intently. Clumsily
+his padded hands worked at the specially adapted controls.
+The soft hiss of the oxygen release into his suit disturbed him
+slightly. The radio-phones in his helmet carried all the conversations
+in the ship to him with equal clarity. He watched
+as the great ship angled angrily up&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>His vision was momentarily obscured by a violet glow
+that built up and reached out gently from every point of
+metal in the ship. The instant Kendall saw that, the T-253
+was fleeing under his hands. The test had been made. Now all
+he desired was safety again. The ion-rockets flared recklessly
+as, crushed under an acceleration of four Earth-gravities,
+he sank heavily into his seat. Grimly the Miran ship
+was pursuing them, easily keeping up with the fleeing midget.
+The crumbler became more intense, the violet glow more
+vivid.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The UV beam was reaching out directly behind now. The&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>With a cry of agony, Kendall ripped the radio-phone
+connection out of his suit. A soft hiss of leaking air warned
+him of too great violence only minutes later. For his ears
+had been deafened by the sudden shriek of a tremendous
+signal from outside!</p>
+
+<p>Instantly Kendall knew what that meant. And he could
+not communicate with his men! There was no metal in these
+special suits, even the oxygen tanks were made of synthetic
+plastics of tremendous strength. No scrap of vibrating metal
+was permissible. The padded gloves and boots protected him&mdash;but
+there was a new and different type of crackle and
+haze from the metal points now. It was almost invisible in
+the practically airless ship, but Kendall saw it.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he felt it, as he desperately increased his acceleration.
+Slow creeping heat was attacking him. The heat
+was increasing rapidly now. Desperately he was working at
+the crumbler-protection controls&mdash;but immediately set them
+back as they were. He had to have the crumbler protection
+as well&mdash;!</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Grimly the great Miran ship hung right beside them.
+Angrily the two four-foot UV beams flashed back&mdash;seeking
+some weak spot. There were none. At her absolute maximum
+of acceleration the little ship plunged on. Gamma and atomic
+bombs were washing her in flame. The heavy blocks of paraffin
+between her walls were long since melted, retained
+only by the presence of the metal walls. Smoke was beginning
+to filter out now, and Kendall recognized a new,
+and deadlier menace! Heat&mdash;quantities of heat were being
+poured into the little ship, and the neutron guns were doing
+their best to add to it. The paraffin was confined in there&mdash;and
+like any substance, it could be volatilized, and as
+a vapor, develop pressure&mdash;explosive pressure!</p>
+
+<p>The Miran seemed satisfied in his tactics so far&mdash;and
+changed them. Forty-seven million miles from Earth, the
+Miran simply accelerated a bit more, and crowded the Solarian
+ship a bit. White-faced, Buck Kendall was forced to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+turn a bit aside. The Miran turned also. Kendall turned a
+bit more&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Flashing across his range of vision at an incredible speed,
+a tiny thing, no more than twenty feet long and five in
+diameter, a scout-ship appeared. Its tiny nose ultra-violet
+beam was blasting a solid cylinder of violet incandescence
+a foot across in the hull of the Miran&mdash;and, to the Miran,
+angling swiftly across his range of vision. Its magnetic field
+clashed for a thousandth of a second with the T-253, instantly
+meeting, and absorbing the fringing edges. Then&mdash;it
+swept through the Miran's magnetic shield as easily. The delicate
+instruments of the scout instantaneously adjusted its
+own magnetic field as much as possible. There was resistance,
+enormous resistance&mdash;the ship crumpled in on itself, the tail
+vanished in dust as a sweeping crumbler beam caught it at
+last&mdash;and the remaining portion of the ship plowed into
+the nose of the Miran.</p>
+
+<p>The Miran's force-control-room was wrecked. For perhaps
+a minute and a half, the ship was without control, then the
+control was re-established&mdash;and in vain the telescopes and
+instruments searched for the T-253. Lightless, her rockets out
+now, her fields damped down to extinction, the T-253 was lost
+in the pulsing, gyrating fields of half a dozen scout-ships.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall looked grimly at the crushed spot on the nose of
+the Miran. His ship was drifting slowly away from the
+greater ship. Presently, however, the Miran put on speed in
+the direction of Earth, and the T-253 fell far behind. The
+Miran was not seriously injured. But that scout pilot, in
+sacrificing life, had thrown dust in their eyes for just those
+few moments Kendall had needed to lose a lightless ship
+in lightless space&mdash;lightless&mdash;for the Mirans at any rate. The
+IP ships had been covered with a black paint, and in no
+time at all, Kendall had gotten his ship into a position where
+the energy radiations of the sun made him undetectable from
+the Miran's position, since the radiation of his own ship,
+even in the heat range, was mingled with the direct radiation
+of the sun. The sun was in the Miran's "eyes," both
+actual and instrumental.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>An hour later the Miran returned, passed the still-lightless
+ship at a distance of five million miles, and settled to
+Phobos for the slight repairs needed.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve hours later, the T-253 settled to Luna, for the
+many rearrangements she would need.</p>
+
+<p>"I rather knew it was coming," Kendall admitted sadly,
+"but danged if I didn't forget all about it. And&mdash;cost the
+life of one of the finest men in the system. Jehnson's family
+get a permanent pension just twice his salary, McLaurin.
+In the meantime&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What was it? Pure heat, but how?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pure radio. Nothing but short-wave radio directed at
+us. They probably had the apparatus, knew how to make
+it, but that's not a good type of heat ray, because a radio
+tube is generally less than eighty percent efficient, which is
+a whale of a loss when you're working in a battle, and
+a whale of an inconvenience. We were heated only four
+times as much as the Miran. He had to pump that heat into
+a heat-reservoir&mdash;a water tank probably&mdash;to protect himself.
+Highly inefficient and ineffective against a large ship.
+Also, he had to hold his beam on us nearly ten minutes
+before it would have become unbearable. He was again,
+trying to kill the men, and not the ship. The men are the
+weakest point, obviously."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you overcome that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Obviously, no. The thing works on pure energy. I'd have
+to match his energy to neutralize it. You knew it's an old
+proposition, that if you could take a beam of pure, monochromatic
+light and divide it exactly in half, and then recombine
+it in perfect interference, you'd have annihilation of
+energy. Cancellation to extinction. The trouble is, you never
+do get that. You can't get monochromatic light, because
+light can't be monochromatic. That's due to the Heisenberg
+Uncertainty&mdash;my pet bug-bear. The atom that radiates the
+light, must be moving. If it isn't, the emission of the light
+itself gives it a kick that moves it. Now, no matter what the
+quantum <i>might</i> have been, it loses energy in kicking the
+atom. That changes the situation instantly, and incidentally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+the 'color' of the light. Then, since all the radiating atoms
+won't be moving alike, etc., the mass of light can't be
+monochromatic. Therefore perfect interference is impossible.</p>
+
+<p>"The way that relates to the problem in hand, is that we
+can't possibly destroy his energy. We can, as we do in the
+crumbler stunt, change it. He can't, I suspect, put too
+much power behind his crumbler, or he'd have crumbling
+going on at home. We get a slight heating from it, anyway.
+Into the bargain, his radio was after us, and his neutrons
+naturally carried energy. Now, no matter what we do, we've
+got that to handle. When we fight his crumbler, we actually
+add heat-energy to it, ourselves, and make the heating effect
+just twice as bad. If we try to heterodyne his radio&mdash;presto&mdash;it
+has twice the heat energy anyway, though we might
+reduce it to a frequency that penetrated the ship instead of
+all staying in it. But by the proposition, we have to use as
+much energy, and in fact, remember the 80% rule. We've
+got to take it and like it."</p>
+
+<p>"But," objected McLaurin, "we <i>don't</i> like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then build ships as big as his, and he'll quit trying to
+roast you. Particularly if the inner walls are synthetic plastics.
+Did you know I used them in the 'S Doradus' and 'Cepheid'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Were you thinking of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;just luck&mdash;and the fact that they're light, strong as
+steel almost, and can be manufactured in forms much more
+quickly. Only the outer hull is tungsten-beryllium. The advantage
+in this will be that nearly all the energy will be
+absorbed outside, and we'll radiate pretty fast, particularly
+as that tungsten-beryllium has a high radiation-factor in the
+long heat range."</p>
+
+<p>"What does that mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ordinary polished silver is a mighty poor radiator.
+Homely example: Try waiting for your coffee to cool if it's
+in a polished silver pot. Then try it in a tungsten-beryllium
+pot. No matter how you polish that tungsten-beryllium,
+the stuff WILL radiate heat. That's why an IP ship is
+always so blamed cold. You know the passenger ships use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+polished aluminum outer walls. The big help is, that the
+tungsten-beryllium will throw off the energy pretty fast, and
+in a big ship, with a whale of a lot of matter to heat, the
+Strangers will simply give up the idea."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but only two ships in the system compare with them
+in size."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry&mdash;but I didn't build the IP fleet, and there are
+lots of tungsten and beryllium on Earth. Enough anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"Will they use that beam on the fort? And can't we use
+the thing on them?"</p>
+
+<p>"They won't and we won't&mdash;though we could. A bank
+of those new million watt tubes&mdash;perhaps a hundred of
+them&mdash;and we'd have a pretty effective heater&mdash;but an
+awful waste of power. I've got something better."</p>
+
+<p>"New?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhat. I've found out how to make the mirror field
+in a plate of metal, instead of a block. Come on to the lab,
+and I'll show you."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the advantage? Oh&mdash;weight saved, and silver
+metal saved."</p>
+
+<p>"A lot more than that, Mac. Watch."</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>At the laboratory, the new apparatus looked immensely
+lighter and simpler than the old. The atostor, the ionizer, and
+the twin ion-projectors were as before, great, rigid, metal
+structures that would maintain the meeting point of the ions
+with inflexible exactitude under any acceleration strains.
+But now, instead of the heavy silver block in which a mirror
+was figured, the mirror consisted of a polished silver
+plate, parabolic to be sure, but little more than a half-inch
+in thickness. It was mounted in a framework of complex,
+stout metal braces.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall started the ion-flame at low intensity, so the UV
+beam was little more than a spotlight.</p>
+
+<p>"You missed the point, Mac. Now&mdash;watch that tungsten-beryllium
+plate. I'll hold the power steady. It's an eighteen-inch
+beam&mdash;and now the energy is just sufficient to heat
+that tungsten plate to bright red. But&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Kendall turned over a small rheostat control&mdash;and abruptly
+the eighteen-inch diameter spot on the tungsten-beryllium
+plate began contracting; it contracted till it was a blazing,
+sparkling spot of molten incandescence less than an inch
+across!</p>
+
+<p>"That's the advantage of focus. At this distance of a few
+hundred feet with a small beam I can do that. With a
+twenty-foot beam, I can get a two-foot spot at a distance of
+nearly ten miles! That means that the receiving end will have
+the pleasure of handling <i>one hundred times the energy concentration</i>.
+That would punch a hole through most anything.
+All you have to do is focus it. The trouble being, if it's out
+of focus the advantage is more than lost. So if there's any
+question about getting the focus, we'll get along without
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"A real help, if you do. That would punch a hole before
+the Stranger ship could turn away as they do now."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall nodded. "That's what I was after. It is mainly
+for the forts, though. We'll have to signal the dope to the
+Mars Center and Deenmor stations. They can fix it up,
+themselves. In the meantime&mdash;all we can do is hold on
+and hunt, and let's hope better than the Strangers do."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Sadly</span> the convalescent Gresth Gkae listened to the reports
+of his lieutenants. More and more disgraced he felt as he
+realized how badly he had blundered in reporting the people
+of this system unable to cope with the attackers' weapons.
+Gresth Gkae looked up at his old friend and physician, Merth
+Skahl. He shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid, Merth Skahl. I
+am afraid. We have, perhaps, made a mistake. The better
+and the stronger alone should rule. Aye, but is the <i>stronger</i>
+always the <i>better</i>? I am afraid we have mistaken the Truth
+in assuming this. If we have&mdash;then may Jarth, Lord of Truth
+and Wisdom punish us. Mighty Jarth, if I have mistaken
+in following my judgments, it is not from disobedience, it is
+lack of Thy knowledge. The strongest&mdash;they are not always
+the better, are they?"</p>
+
+<p>Merth Skahl bent sharply over his friend. "Quiet thyself,
+Gresth Gkae. You know, and I know, you have done
+only your best, and surely Jarth himself can ask no better of
+any one. You must rest, for only by rest can those terrible
+burns be healed. All your <i>stheen</i> over half the body-area
+was burned off. You have been delirious for many days."</p>
+
+<p>"But Merth Skahl, think&mdash;have we disobeyed Jarth's will?
+It is, we know, his will that only the best and the strongest
+shall rule&mdash;but are the best always the strongest? An imbecile
+adult could destroy the life of a genius-grade child. The
+strongest wins, but not the best. Such would not be the will
+of Jarth. If we be the stronger, <i>and</i> the best, then it is right
+and just that these strange creatures should be destroyed
+that we may have a stable world of stable light and heat.
+But look and see, with what terrible swiftness these strange
+creatures have learned! May it not be they are the better
+race&mdash;that it is <i>we</i> who are the weaker and the poorer?
+Can it be that Jarth has brought us together that these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+people might learn&mdash;and destroy us? If they be the stronger,
+and the better&mdash;then may Jarth's will be done. But we must
+test our strength to the utmost. I must rise, and go to my
+laboratory soon. They have set it up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aye, they have, Gresth Gkae. But remember, the weak
+and the sick make faults the strong and the well do not.
+Better that you rest yourself. There is little you can do while
+your body seeks to recover from these terrible burns."</p>
+
+<p>"You are wrong, my friend, wrong. Don't you see that
+my mind is clear&mdash;that it is the mind which must fight
+in these battles, for surely the man is weak against such
+things as this infra-X-radiation? Why, I am better able to
+fight now than are you, for I am a trained fighter of the
+mind, while you are a trained healer of the body. These
+strange beings with their stiff arms and legs, their tender
+skins, and&mdash;and their swift minds have fought us all too
+well. If we must test, let it be a test. I have heard how
+they so quickly solved the riddle of the crumbling field.
+That took us longer, and we designed it. The Counsel of
+Worlds put me in command, let me up, Skahl, I must work."</p>
+
+<p>Concerned, the physician looked down at him. Finally he
+spoke again. "No, I will not permit you to leave the hospital-ship.
+You must stay here, but if, as you have said, the
+mind is what must fight, then surely you can fight well
+from here, for your mind is here."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I cannot, and you well know it. I may shorten my
+life, but what matter. 'Death is the end toward which the
+chemical reaction, Life, tends,'" quoted the scientist. "You
+know I have left my children&mdash;my immortality is assured
+through them. I can afford to die in peace, if it assures their
+welfare. Time is precious, and while my mind might work
+from here, it must have data on which to work. For that,
+I must go to the laboratories. Help me, Merth Skahl."</p>
+
+<p>Reluctantly the physician granted the request, but begged
+of Gresth Gkae a promise of at least six hours rest in every
+fifteen, and a good sleep of at least twenty-seven hours every
+"night." Gresth Gkae agreed, and from a wheelchair, conducted
+his work, began a new line of experimentation he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+hoped would yield them the weapon they needed. Under
+him, the staff of scientists worked, aiding and advising and
+suggesting. The apparatus was built, tested, and found
+wanting. Time and again as the days passed, they watched
+Gresth Gkae, gaining strength very, very slowly, taken away
+despondent at the end of his forty hours of work.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen expeditions were sent to Jupiter's poles to
+watch and measure and study the tremendous auroral displays
+there, where Jupiter's vast magnetic field sucked in
+countless quintillions of the flying electrons from the sun,
+and brought them circling in, in a vast, magnificent display
+of auroral ionization.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Expeditions went to the great Southern Plateau, the Plateau
+of Storms, where the titanic air currents resulted in an
+everlasting display of terrific lightnings, great burning balls of
+electric force floating dangerous and deadly across the frozen,
+ultra-cold plain.</p>
+
+<p>And the expeditions brought back data. Yet still Gresth
+Gkae could not sleep, his thoughts intruding constantly.
+Hours Merth Skahl spent with him, calming him to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"But what is this constant search? It is little enough I
+know of science, but why do you send our men to these
+spots of wonderfully beautiful, but useless natural forces.
+Can we somehow, do you think, turn them against the people
+of these worlds?"</p>
+
+<p>Softly the old Miran smiled. "Yes, you might say so. For
+look, it is the strange balls of electric force I want to know
+about. Sthor had few, but occasionally we saw them. Never
+were they properly investigated. I want to know their secret,
+for I am sure they are balls of electric forces not vastly
+dissimilar from the nucleus of the atom. Always we have
+known that no system of purely electrical forces could remain
+stable. Yet these strange balls of energy do. How is it?
+I am sure it will be of vast importance. But the direct secret
+I hope to learn is in this: What can be done with electric
+fields can nearly always be duplicated, or paralleled in
+magnetic fields. If I can learn how to make these electric<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+balls of energy, can I not hope to make similar magnetic
+balls of energy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I see&mdash;that would seem true. But what benefit
+would you derive from that? You have magnetic beams
+now, and yet they are useless because you can get nowhere
+near the forts. How then would these benefit you?"</p>
+
+<p>"We can do nothing to those forts, because of that magnetic
+shield. Could we once break it down, then the
+fort is helpless, and one or two small atomic bombs destroy
+it. But&mdash;we cannot stay near, for the terrible infra-X-rays
+of theirs burn holes in our ships, and&mdash;in our men.</p>
+
+<p>"But look you, I can drop many atomic bombs from a
+distance where their beams are ineffective. Suppose I <i>do</i> make
+a magnetic ball of energy, a magnetic bomb. Then&mdash;I can
+drop it from a distance! We have learned that the power
+supply of these forts is very great&mdash;but not endless, as is
+ours now, thanks to the vast supplies of power metal on this
+heavy planet. Then all we need do is stay at a distance where
+they cannot reach us&mdash;and drop magnetic bombs. Ah, they
+will be stopped, and their energy absorbed. But we can
+keep it up, day after day, and slowly drain out their power.
+Then&mdash;then our atomic bombs can destroy those forts, and
+we can move on!" But suddenly the animation and strength
+left his voice. He turned a sad, downcast face to his friend.
+"But Merth Skahl, we can't do it," he complained.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;now I can see why you so want to continue this
+wearing and worrying work. You need time, Gresth Gkae,
+only time for success. Tomorrow it may be that you will
+see the first hint that will lead you to success."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;I only hope it, Merth Skahl, I only hope it."</p>
+
+<p>But it was the next day that they saw the first glimpse of
+the secret, and saw the path that might lead to hope and
+success. In a week they were sending electric bombs across
+the laboratory. And in three days more, a magnetic bomb
+streaked dully across the laboratory to a magnetic shield they
+had set up, and buried itself in it, to explode in brilliant light
+and heat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>From that day Gresth Gkae began to mend. In the three
+weeks that were needed to build the apparatus into ships,
+he regained strength so that when the first flight of five
+interstellar ships rose from Jupiter, he was on the flagship.</p>
+
+<p>To Phobos they went first, to the little inner satellite of
+Mars, scarcely eight miles in diameter, a tiny bit of broken
+metal and rock, utterly airless, but scarcely more than 3700
+miles from the surface of Mars below. The Mars Center
+and Deenmor forts were wasting no power raying a ship
+at that distance. They could, of course, have damaged it, but
+not severely enough to make up for the loss of their strictly
+limited power. The photocells had been working overtime,
+every minute of available light had been used, and
+still scarcely 2100 tons of charged mercury remained in the
+tanks of Mars Center and 1950 in the tanks at Deenmor.</p>
+
+<p>The flight of five ships settled comfortably upon Phobos,
+while the three relieved of duty started back to Jupiter.
+Immediately work was begun on the attack. The ships
+were first landed on the near side, while the apparatus of
+the projectors was unloaded, then the great ships moved
+around to the far side. Phobos of course rotated with one
+face fixed irrevocably toward Mars itself, the other always
+to the cold of space. Great power leads trailed beneath the
+ships, and to the dark side. Then there were huge water
+lines for cooling. On this almost weightless world, where
+the great ships weighing hundreds of thousands of tons
+on a planet, weighed so little they were frequently moved
+about by a single man, the laying of five miles of water
+conduit was no impossibility.</p>
+
+<p>Then they were ready. Mars Center came first. Automatic
+devices kept the aim exact, as the first of the magnetic
+bombs started down. At five-second intervals they were
+projected outward, invisible globes of concentrated magnetic
+energy, undetectable in space. Seven seconds passed before
+the first became dimly visible in the thin air of Mars. It
+floated down, it would miss the fort it seemed&mdash;so far to
+one side&mdash; Abruptly it turned, and darted with tremendously
+accelerating speed for the great magnetic field of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+fort. With a vast blast of light, it exploded. Five seconds
+later a second exploded. And a third.</p>
+
+<p>Mars Center signaled scoffingly that the bombs were all
+being stopped dead in the magnetic atmosphere, after the
+bombardment had been witnessed from Earth and Luna. An
+hour later they gave a report that they were concentrated
+magnetic fields of energy that would be rather dangerous&mdash;if
+it weren't that they couldn't even stand into the magnetic
+atmosphere. Three hours later Mars Center reported
+that they contained considerably more energy than had at
+first been thought. Further, which they had not carefully
+considered at first, they were taking energy with them!
+They were taking away about an equal amount of energy as
+each blew up.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a half-hour after that that the men at Mars
+Center realized perfectly what it meant. Their power was
+being drained just a little bit better than twice as fast as
+they generated during the day&mdash;and since Phobos spun
+so swiftly across the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Deenmor got the attack just about the time Mars Center
+was released. Deenmor immediately began seeking for the
+source of it. Somewhere on Phobos&mdash;but where?</p>
+
+<p>The Mirans were experts at camouflage. Deenmor Station,
+realizing the menace, immediately rayed the "projector." They
+tore up a great deal of harmless rock with their huge UV
+rays. But the bomb device continued to throw one bomb
+each five seconds.</p>
+
+<p>When Deenmor operated from Phobos' position, Mars Center
+was exposed to the deadly, constant drain. A day or
+two later, the bombs were coming one each second and a
+half, for more ships had joined in the work on Phobos.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae saw the work was going nicely. He knew
+that now it was only a question of time before those magnetic
+shields would fail&mdash;and then the whole fort would be
+powerless. Maybe&mdash;it might be a good idea, when the forts
+were powerless to investigate instead of blowing them up.
+There might be many interesting and worthwhile pieces of
+apparatus&mdash;particularly the UV beam's apparatus.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Buck Kendall</span> entered the Communications room rather
+furtively. He hated the place. Cole was there, and McLaurin.
+Mac was looking tired and drawn, Cole not so tired, but
+equally drawn. The signals were coming through fairly well,
+because most of the disturbance was rising where the signals
+rose, and all the disturbance, practically, was magnetic
+rather than electric.</p>
+
+<p>"Deenmor is sending, Buck," McLaurin said as he entered.
+"They're down to the last fifty-five tons. They'll have more
+time now&mdash;a rest while Phobos sinks. Mars Center has another
+250 tons, but&mdash;it's just a question of time. Have you
+any hope to offer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Kendall in a strained voice. "But, Mac, I don't
+think men like those are afraid to die. It's dying uselessly
+they fear. Tell 'em&mdash;tell 'em they've defended not alone
+Mars, but all the system, in holding up the Strangers on Mars.
+We here on Luna have been safer because of them. And
+tell&mdash;Mac, tell them that in the meantime, while they defended
+us, and gave us time to work, we have begun to
+see the trail that will lead to victory."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You have!</i>" gasped McLaurin.</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;but they will never know!" Kendall left hastily.
+He went and stood moodily looking at the calculator machines&mdash;the
+calculator machines that refused to give the answers
+he sought. No matter how he might modify that original
+idea of his, no matter what different line of attack he
+might try in solving the problems of Space and Matter, while
+he used the system he <i>knew</i> was right&mdash;the answer came
+down to that deadly, hope-blasting expression that meant
+only "uncertain."</p>
+
+<p>Even Buck was beginning to feel uncertain under that constant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+crushing of hope. Uncertainty&mdash;uncertainty was eating
+into him, and destroying&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>From the Communications room came the hum and drive
+of the great sender flashing its message across seventy-two
+millions of miles of nothing. <span class="spaced">"B-u-c-k K-e-n-d-a-l-l s-a-y-s
+h-e h-a-s l-e-a-r-n-e-d s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g t-h-a-t w-i-l-l l-e-a-d
+t-o v-i-c-t-o-r-y w-h-i-l-e y-o-u h-e-l-d b-a-c-k t-h-e&mdash;"</span></p>
+
+<p>Kendall switched on a noisy, humming fan viciously. The
+too-intelligible signals were drowned in its sound.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;tell them to&mdash;destroy the apparatus before the last
+of the power is gone," McLaurin ordered softly.</p>
+
+<p>The men in Deenmor station did slightly better than
+that. Gradually they cut down their magnetic shield, and
+some of the magnetic bombs tore and twisted viciously at the
+heavy metal walls. The thin atmosphere of Mars leaked in.
+Grimly the men waited. Atomic bombs&mdash;or ships to investigate?
+It did not matter much to them personally&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae smiled with his old vigor as he ordered one
+of the great interstellar ships to land beside the powerless
+station, approaching from such an angle that the still-active
+Mars Center station could not attack. One of the fleet of Phobos
+rose, and circled about the planet, and settled gracefully
+beside the station. For half an hour it lay there quietly,
+waiting and watching. Then a crew of two dozen Mirans
+started across the dry, crumbly powder of Mars' sands,
+toward the fort. Simultaneously almost, three things happened.
+A three-foot UV beam wiped out the advancing
+party. A pair of fifteen-foot beams cut a great gaping hole
+in the wall of the interstellar ship, as it darted up, like a
+startled quail, its weapons roaring defiance, only to fall
+back, severely wounded.</p>
+
+<p>And the radio messages pounded out to Earth the first description
+of the Miran people. Methodically the men in Deenmor
+station used all but one ton of their power to completely
+and forever wreck and destroy the interstellar cripple that
+floundered for a few moments on the sands a bare mile
+away. Presently, before Deenmor was through with it, the
+atomic bombs stopped coming, and the atomic shells. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+magnetic shield that had been re-established for the few
+minutes of this last, dying sting, fell.</p>
+
+<p>Deenmor station vanished in a sudden, colossal tongue
+of blue-green light as the ton of atomically distorted mercury
+was exploded by a projector beam turned on the tank.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>It was long gone, when the first atomic bombs and magnetic
+bombs dropped from Phobos reached the spot, and
+only hot rock and broken metal remained.</p>
+
+<p>Mars Center failed in fact the next time Phobos rode high
+over it. The apparatus here had been carefully destroyed by
+technicians with a view of making it indecipherable, but the
+Mirans made it even more certain, for no ship settled here
+to investigate, but a stream of atomic bombs that lasted for
+over an hour, and churned the rock to dust, and the dust
+to molten lava, in which pools of fused tungsten-beryllium
+alloy bubbled slowly and sank.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Jarth&mdash;they are a brave race, whatever we may say
+of their queer shape," sighed Gresth Gkae as the last of Mars
+Center sank in bubbling lava. "They stung as they died."
+For some minutes he was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"We must move on," he said at length. "I have been thinking,
+and it seems best that a few ships land here, and establish
+a fort, while some twenty move on to the satellite
+of the third planet and destroy the fort there. We cannot
+operate against the planet while that hangs above us."</p>
+
+<p>Seven ships settled to Mars, while the fleet came up from
+Jupiter to join with Gresth Gkae's flight of ships on its way
+to Luna.</p>
+
+<p>An automatically controlled ship was sent ahead, and began
+the bombardment. It approached slowly, and was not
+destroyed by the UV beams till it had come to within 40,000
+miles of the fort. At 60,000 Gresth Gkae stationed his
+fleet&mdash;and returned to 150,000 immediately as the titanic
+UV beams of the Lunar Fort stretched out to their maximum
+range. The focus made a difference. One ship started limping
+back to Jupiter, in tow of a second, while the rest began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+the slow, methodical work of wearing down the defenses
+of the Lunar Fort.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall looked out at the magnificent display of clashing,
+warring energies, the great, whirling spheres and discs of
+opalescent flame, and turned away sadly. "The men at
+Deenmor must have watched that for days. And at Mars
+Center."</p>
+
+<p>"How long can we hold out?" asked McLaurin.</p>
+
+<p>"Three weeks or so, at the present rate. That's a long time,
+really. And we can escape if we want to. The UV beams
+here have a greater range than any weapon the Strangers
+have, and with Earth so near&mdash;oh, we could escape. Little
+good."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I," said Buck Kendall, suddenly savage, "am going to
+consign all the math machines in the universe to eternal
+damnation&mdash;and go ahead and build a machine anyway.
+I <i>know</i> that thing ought to be right. The math's wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no other thing to try?"</p>
+
+<p>"A billion others. I don't know how many others. We
+ought to get atomic energy somehow. But that thing infuriates
+me. A hundred things that math has predicted, that
+I have checked by experiment, simple little things. But&mdash;when
+I carry it through to the point where I can get something
+useful&mdash;it wriggles off into&mdash;uncertainty."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall stalked off to the laboratory. Devin was there working
+over the calculus machines, and Kendall called him
+angrily. Then more apologetic, he explained it was anger
+at himself. "Devin, I'm going to make that thing, if it blows
+up and kills me. I'm going to make that thing if this whole
+fort blows up and kills me. That math has blown up in my
+face for four solid months, and half killed me, so I'm going
+to kill it. Come on, we'll make that damned junk."</p>
+
+<p>Angrily, furiously, Kendall drove his helpers to the task.
+He had worked out the apparatus in plan a dozen times,
+and now he had the plans turned into patterns, the patterns
+into metal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Saucily, the "S Doradus" made the trip to and from Earth
+with patterns, and with metal, with supplies and with
+apparatus. But she had to dodge and fight every inch of the
+way as the Miran ships swooped down angrily at her. A
+fighting craft could get through when the Miran fleet was
+withdrawn to some distance, but the Mirans were careful
+that no heavy-loaded freighter bearing power supply should
+get through.</p>
+
+<p>And Gresth Gkae waited off Luna in his great ship, and
+watched the steady streams of magnetic bombs exploding on
+the magnetic shield of the Lunar Fort. Presently more ships
+came up, and added their power to the attack, for here,
+the photo-cell banks could gather tremendous energy, and
+Gresth Gkae knew he would need to overcome this, and
+drain the accumulated power.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae felt certain if he could once crack this nut,
+break down Earth, he would have the system. This was the
+home planet. If this fell, then the two others would follow
+easily, despite the fact that the few forts on the innermost
+planet, Mercury, could gather energy from the sun at a rate
+greater than their ships could generate.</p>
+
+<p>It took Kendall two weeks and three days to set up his
+preliminary apparatus. They had power for perhaps four days
+more, thanks to the fact that the long Lunar day had begun
+shortly after Gresth Gkae's impatient attack had started.
+Also, the "S Doradus" had brought in several hundred tons
+of charged mercury on each trip, though this was no great
+quantity individually, it had mounted up in the ten trips
+she had made. The "Cepheid," her sister ship, had gone
+along on seven of the trips, and added to the total.</p>
+
+<p>But at length the apparatus was set up. It was peculiar
+looking, and it employed a great deal of power, nearly
+as much as a UV beam in fact. McLaurin looked at it sceptically
+toward the last, and asked Buck: "What do you expect
+it to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," said Kendall sourly, "uncertain. The result will
+be uncertainty itself."</p>
+
+<p>Which, considering things, was a surprisingly accurate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+statement. Kendall gave the exact answer. He meant to give
+an ironic comment. For the mathematics had been perfectly
+correct, only Buck Kendall misinterpreted the answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I've followed the math with mechanism all the way
+through," he explained, "and I'm putting power into it.
+That's all I know. Somewhere, by the laws of cause and
+effect, this power <i>must</i> show itself again&mdash;despite what the
+damn math says."</p>
+
+<p>And in that, of course, Kendall was wrong. Because the
+laws of cause and effect didn't hold in what he was doing
+now.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to watch?" he asked at length. "I'm all
+set to try it."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I may as well." McLaurin smiled. "In our close-knit
+little community the fate of one is of interest to all.
+If it's going to blow up, I might as well be here, and if it
+isn't, I want to be."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall smiled appreciatively and replied: "Let it be on
+thy own head. Here she goes."</p>
+
+<p>He walked over to the power board, and took command.
+Devin, and a squad of other scientists were seated about
+the room with every conceivable type and combination of
+apparatus. Kendall wanted to see what this was doing.
+"Tubes," he called. "Circuits A and D. Tie-ins." He stopped,
+the preliminary switches in. "Main circuit coming." With a
+jerk he threw over the last contact. A heavy relay thudded
+solidly. The hum of a straining atostor. Then&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>An electric motor, humming smoothly stopped with a
+jerk. "This," it remarked in a deep throaty voice, "is probably
+the last stand of humanity."</p>
+
+<p>The galvanometer before which Devin was seated apparently
+agreed. In a rather high pitched voice it pointed
+out that: "If the Lunar Fort falls, the Earth&mdash;" It stopped
+abruptly, and an electroscope beside Douglass took up the
+thread in a high, shrill voice, rather slurred, "&mdash;will be
+directly attacked."</p>
+
+<p>"This," resumed the motor in a hoarse voice, "will certainly
+mean the end of humanity." The motor gave up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+discourse and hummed violently into action&mdash;in reverse!</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" Kendall pulled the switch open with a sagging
+jaw and staring eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The men in the room burst into sudden startled exclamations.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall didn't give them time. His jaw snapped shut, and
+a blazing light of wondrous joy shone in his eyes. He instantly
+threw the switch in again. Again the humming atostor,
+the strain&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Slowly Devin lifted from his seat. With thrashing arms
+and startled, staring eyes, he drifted gently across the room.
+Abruptly he fell to the floor, unhurt by the light Lunar
+gravity.</p>
+
+<p>"I advise," said the motor in its grumbling voice, "an
+immediate exodus." It stopped speaking, and practiced what
+it preached. It was a fifty-horse motor-generator, on a five-ton
+tungsten-beryllium base, but it rose abruptly, spun rapidly
+about an axis at right angles to the axis of its armature,
+and stopped as suddenly. In mid air it continued its
+interrupted lecture. "Mercury therefore is the destination I
+would advise. There power is sufficient for&mdash;all machines."
+Gently it inverted itself and settled to the middle of the floor.
+Kendall instantly cut the switch. The relay did not chunk
+open. It refused to obey. Settled in the middle of the
+floor now, torn loose from its power leads, the motor-generator
+began turning. It turned faster and faster. It was shrilling
+in a thin scream of terrific speed, a speed that should
+have torn its windings to fragments under the lash of
+centrifugal force. Contentedly it said throatily. "Settled."</p>
+
+<p>The galvanometer spoke again in its peculiar harsh voice.
+"Therefore, move." Abruptly, without apparent reason, the
+stubborn relay clicked open. The shrilly screaming motor
+stopped dead instantly, as though it had had no real momentum,
+or had been inertialess.</p>
+
+<p>Startled, white-faced men looked at Kendall. Buck's eyes
+were shining with an unholy glee.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Uncertainty!</i>" he shouted. "Uncertainty&mdash;uncertainty&mdash;uncertainty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+you fools! Don't you see it? All the math&mdash;it said
+uncertainty&mdash;man, man&mdash;<i>we've got just that&mdash;uncertainty</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're crazy," gasped McLaurin. "I'm crazy, everything's
+gone crazy."</p>
+
+<p>Kendall roared with sudden, joyous laughter. "Absolutely.
+Everything goes crazy&mdash;<i>the laws of nature break down</i>!
+Heisenberg's principle showed that the law of cause and effect
+weren't absolute. We've made them absolutely uncertain!"</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but motors <i>talking</i>, instruments giving lectures&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly&mdash;or rather uncertainly&mdash;anything, absolutely
+anything. The destruction of the laws of gravity, freedom
+from inertia&mdash;why, merely picking up a radio lecture is nothing!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, abruptly, a thousand questions poured in on
+him. Jubilantly he answered what he could, told what he
+thought&mdash;and then brought order. "The battle's still on,
+men&mdash;we've still got to find out how to use this, now we've
+got it. I have an idea&mdash;that there's a lot more. I know
+what I'll get this time. Now help me remake this apparatus
+so we don't broadcast the thing."</p>
+
+<p>At once, ten times the former pace, work was done. On
+the radio, news was sent out that Kendall was on the right
+track after all. In two hours the apparatus had been vastly
+altered, it was in the final stage, and an entirely different
+sort of field set up. Again they watched as Buck applied the
+power.</p>
+
+<p>The atostor hummed&mdash;but no strange tricks of matter
+happened this time. The more concentrated, altered field was,
+as Buck was to find out later, "Uncertainty of the Second
+Degree." It was molecular uncertainty. In a field a foot and
+a half in diameter, Buck saw the thing created&mdash;and suddenly
+a brilliant green-blue flame shot up, and a great dark
+cloud of terrible, red-brown deadly vapor. Then an instant
+later, Kendall had opened the relay. Gasping, the men ran
+from the laboratory, shutting the deadly fumes in. "N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>"
+gasped Morton, the chemist, as they reached safety. "It's
+exothermic&mdash;but it formed there!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In that instant, Kendall grasped the meaning the choking
+fumes carried. "Molecular uncertainty!" he decided.
+"We're going back&mdash;we're getting there&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He altered the apparatus again, added another atostor
+in series, reduced the size of his sphere of forces&mdash;of
+strange chaos of uncertainty. Within&mdash;little was certain. Without&mdash;the
+laws of nature applied as ever.</p>
+
+<p>Again the apparatus was started, cautiously this time.
+Only a strange jumbled ionization appeared this time, then
+a slow, rising blue flame began to creep up, and burn hot
+and blue. Buck looked at it for a moment, then his face
+grew tense and thoughtful. "Devin&mdash;give me a half-dollar."
+Blankly, Devin reached in his pocket, and handed over
+the metal disc. Cautiously Buck Kendall tossed it toward
+the sphere of force. Instantly there was a flash of flame, soundless
+and soft-colored. Then the silver disc was outlined in
+light, and swiftly, inevitably crumbling into dust so fine
+only a blue haze appeared. In less than two seconds, the
+metal was gone. Only the dense blue fog remained. Then
+this began to go, and the leaping blue flame grew taller,
+and stronger.</p>
+
+<p>"We're on the track&mdash;I'm going to stop here, and calculate.
+Bring the data&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Kendall shut off the machine, and went to the calculation
+room. Swiftly he selected already prepared graphs, graphs
+of the math he had worked on. Devin came soon, and others.
+They assembled the data and with tables and arithmetical
+machines turned it into graphs.</p>
+
+<p>Then all these graphs were fed into the machine. There
+were curves, and sine-curves, abrupt breaking lines&mdash;but the
+answer that came when all were compounded was a perfect
+diagram of a flight of four steps, descending in unequal
+treads to zero.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall looked at it for long minutes. "That," he said at
+length, "is what I expected. There are four degrees of uncertainty,
+we generated 'Uncertainty of the First Degree,'
+'Mass Uncertainty,' when we started. That, as here shown,
+takes little energy concentration. Then we increased the energy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+concentration and got 'Uncertainty of the Second Degree,'
+'Molecular Uncertainty.' Then I added more power, and reduced
+the field, and got 'Uncertainty of the Third Degree'&mdash;'Atomic
+Uncertainty.' There is 'Uncertainty of the Fourth
+Degree.' It is barely attainable with our atostors. It is&mdash;utter
+uncertainty.</p>
+
+<p>"In the First Degree, the laws of mass action fail, the
+great broad-reaching laws. In the Second Degree, the laws
+of the molecules, a finer organization, break down, and anything
+can happen in chemistry. In the Third Degree, the
+laws of atomic physics break down slowly. The atom is
+tough. It is very compact, and we just barely attained the
+concentration needed with that apparatus. But&mdash;in the Third
+Degree, when the Atomic Laws break down into utter uncertainty,
+the atoms break, and only hydrogen can exist.
+That was the blue flame.</p>
+
+<p>"But the Fourth Degree&mdash;<i>there is no law whatsoever</i>,
+nothing in all the Universe can exist. It means&mdash;<i>the utter
+destruction and release of the energy of matter</i>!" Kendall
+paused for a moment. "We have won, with this. We need
+only make up this apparatus&mdash;and maybe make it into a
+weapon. You know, in the Fourth Degree, nothing in all
+the Universe could resist, deflect, or control it, if launched
+freely, and self-maintaining. I think that might be done.
+You see, no law affects it, for it breaks down the law. Magnetism
+cannot attract or repel it because magnetic fields
+cannot exist; there is no law of magnetic force, where this
+field is.</p>
+
+<p>"And you know, Devin, how I have analyzed and duplicated
+their magnetic ball-fields. This should be capable of
+formation into a ball-field.</p>
+
+<p>"We need only make it up now. We will install it in the
+'S Doradus' and the 'Cepheid' as a weapon. We need only
+install it as an energy source here. Let us start."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Buck Kendall</span> with a slow smile, looked out of the port
+in the thick metal wall. The magnetic shield of the Lunar
+Fort was washed constantly with the fires of exploding magnetic
+bombs. The smile spread broader. "My friends," he
+said softly, "you can pull from now till doomsday as far
+as I'm concerned, and you won't even disturb us now." He
+looked back over his shoulder into the power room. A hunched
+bulk, beautifully designed and carefully finished, the apparatus
+that created 'Uncertainty of the Fourth Degree' was
+destroying matter, and creating by its destruction terrific
+electric fields. These fields were feeding the magnetic shield
+now. Under the present drain, the machine was not noticeably
+working. In fact, Kendall was a bit annoyed. He had
+tested out the energy generating properties of this machine,
+trying to find a limit. He had found there was no limit. The
+great copper conductors, charged with the same atostor
+force that was used in the mercury fuel, were perfect conductors,
+they had not heated. But the eleven thousand tons
+of discharged mercury metal had been completely charged
+in just a bit better than eleven minutes. The pumps wouldn't
+force it through the charging apparatus any faster than
+that.</p>
+
+<p>Two weeks more had passed, while the "S Doradus" and
+the "Cepheid" were fitted out with the new apparatus Buck
+had designed. They were almost ready to start now.</p>
+
+<p>McLaurin came down the corridor, and stopped near Kendall.
+He too smiled at the Miran's attempts. "They've got
+a long way to go, Buck."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They're going a long way. Clear back home&mdash;and we'll
+be right along. I don't think they can outdistance us."</p>
+
+<p>"I still don't see why you couldn't use one of those Uncertainty
+conditions&mdash;the First Degree perhaps, and annihilate
+our inertia."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't control Uncertainty. By its essential character
+it's beyond control."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that Fourth Degree machine of yours&mdash;the material
+energy&mdash;if it isn't controlled and utilized Uncertainty?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's utter and utterly uncontrolled Uncertainty. The matter
+within that field breaks down to absolutely nothing.
+Within, no law whatsoever applies, but fortunately, outside
+the old laws of physics apply&mdash;and we can gather and use
+the energy which is released outside, though nothing can
+be done inside. Why, think, man, if I could control that
+Uncertainty, I could do anything at all, absolutely anything.
+It would be a world as unreasonable as a bad dream. Think
+how unreasonable those manifestations we first got were!"</p>
+
+<p>"But can't you get any control at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very little. Anyway, if I could get inertialess conditions
+at will, I'd be afraid of them. They'd make chemical reactions
+impossible in all probability&mdash;and life is chemical. Two
+atoms must come into more or less violent contact before a
+union takes place, and cannot if they have neither momentum
+nor inertia.</p>
+
+<p>"Anyway&mdash;why worry. I can't do it, because I can't
+control this thing. And we have the extra-space drive."</p>
+
+<p>"How does that darned thing work? Can't you drop the
+math and tell me about it?"</p>
+
+<p>Kendall smiled. "Not too readily. Remember first, as to the
+driving system, that it works on the fabric of space. Space is,
+in the physical sense, a fabric woven of the threads of lines
+of force from every body in the universe, made up of fields
+and forces. It is elastic, and can transmit strains. But anything
+that can transmit strains, can be strained against. With
+the tremendous field intensities available by the material engines,
+I can get such fields as will 'dig their toes' into space
+and push.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's the drive itself. It is accelerationless, because it
+enfolds us, and acts equally on every atom of us. By maintaining
+in addition a slight artificial gravity&mdash;thanks also to
+the intensity of those material engine fields&mdash;we can be
+comfortable, while we accelerate at tremendous rates.</p>
+
+<p>"That is, I think, at least allied to the Stranger's system.
+For the high-speed drive, I do in fact use the Uncertainty.
+I can control it in a certain sense by determining its powers,
+and the limits of uncertainty, whether First, Second, Third
+or Fourth Degree. It advances in jumps&mdash;but on a finer plotting
+of the curve, you can see that each jump represents a
+vast series of smaller jumps. That is, there is Class A, B, C, D,
+and so forth Uncertainty of the First Degree. Now Class A
+First Degree Uncertainty involves only the deepest, broadest
+principles. Only they break down. One of these is the law of
+the speed of light.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure that isn't the system the Strangers use, but I'm
+also sure there's no limit to the speed we can get."</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't that wreck your drive system?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, because gravity and the fields I use in driving are
+First Degree Uncertainties of the higher classes.</p>
+
+<p>"But at any rate, it will work. And&mdash;I suspect you came
+to say you were ready to go."</p>
+
+<p>"I did." McLaurin nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Still stick to your original plan?"</p>
+
+<p>McLaurin nodded. "I think it's best. You follow those
+fellows back to their system in the 'S Doradus' and I'll stay
+here in the 'Cepheid' to protect the system. They may need
+some time to get out of the place here. And remember,
+we ought to be as decent as they were. They didn't bother
+the transports leaving Jupiter when they came in, only attacked
+the warships. We're bound to do the same, but we'll
+have to keep a watch on them, nonetheless. So you go on
+ahead."</p>
+
+<p>They started down the corridor, and came presently to
+the huge locks where the "S Doradus" and the "Cepheid"
+were berthed. The super-ships lay cold and gray now, men
+swarming in and out with last-minute supplies. Air, water,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+spare parts, bedding and personal equipment. Douglass, Cole,
+and most of the laboratory staff would go with Kendall when
+he followed the Strangers home. Devin and a few of the
+most advanced physicists would stay with McLaurin in case
+of need.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>An hour later the "S Doradus" rose gently, soundlessly
+from her berth, and floated out of the open lock-door. The
+"Cepheid" followed her in five seconds. Still under the great
+screen of the fort, the lashing, coruscating colors of the magnetic
+bombs and the magnetic screen flashed and was iridescent.
+The "S Doradus" poked her great nose gently through
+the screen, and an instant later her titanically powerful, material-engine
+effortlessly discharged a great magnetic bomb,
+sent with the combined power of five atomic-powered interstellar
+ships. The two ships separated now, the "Cepheid"
+under McLaurin flashing ahead with sudden, terrific acceleration
+toward Mars, whispering through space at a speed
+that made it undetectable, faster than light. The "S Doradus"
+journeyed out leisurely toward the fleet of forty-seven Miran
+ships.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae saw the "S Doradus" and as he watched the
+steady progress, felt sudden fear at his heart. The ship seemed
+so certain&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>At a distance of thirty thousand miles, Kendall stopped.
+Magnetic bombs were washing his screen continuously now,
+seeking to exhaust the ship as all the great ships beyond
+poured their energy against it. A slow smile spread over Kendall's
+mouth as he heard the gentle hum of the barely working
+material-engine. Carefully he aligned the nose UV beam
+of the "S Doradus" on the nearest of the Miran ships. Then
+he depressed a switch.</p>
+
+<p>There was no ion-release before the force-mirror now. Just
+a jet of gas whirling into a half-inch field of "Uncertainty of
+the Fourth Degree." The matter vanished instantly in released
+energy so stupendous that the greatest previous UV beams
+had been harmless things by comparison. Material energy
+maintained the mirror forces. Material energy gave the power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+that was released. And only material energy could have stood
+up before it. Thirty thousand miles away, a Miran ship
+flamed instantaneously into inconceivable incandescence, vanishing
+almost in blue-violet light of terrific intensity. The
+ship reeled away, a half-molten wreck.</p>
+
+<p>The beam spotted two more ships before it winked out.
+Then Kendall began sending bombs. He moved up to within
+2000 miles that his aim might be accurate. They were bombs
+of "Uncertainty of the Third Degree," the Uncertainty of
+atomic law in bomb form. One hit the nose of the nearest
+ship, and a sphere five feet in diameter glowed mistily blue
+for a moment. Then very easily, the matter that formed the
+wall of the cruiser began to run and change, and presently
+there was only a hole, and an expanding cloud of gas. Three
+more flowed toward it&mdash;and the hole enlarged, and another
+hole appeared in a bulkhead behind.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall made a change. For the first time there came the
+staccato bark of the material engine under strain, as it fashioned
+the terrific fields of "Uncertainty of the Ultimate Degree."
+Abruptly they leapt out, invisible till they entered a
+magnetic screen, then run over with opalescent light as the
+energy of the field was sucked into them and released.</p>
+
+<p>It struck the nose of a ship&mdash;a field no larger than an
+apple&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>A titanic gout of energy burst out that was soundless in
+space. The ship suddenly opened back, opened like the peel
+of a banana, till a little nub remained at the further end,
+and the metal flaps dropped back across and behind it dejectedly.
+A second ship was struck, and it was struck on one
+side, so that it was shattered like a spent firecracker.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Miran fleet vanished in speed.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall followed them. "I think," he said with a grin,
+"they tried to use their radio beam, but it spread too much
+to do anything at that distance. And they used their rotating
+magnetic field, which we couldn't feel. And their
+crumbler ray too, of course. I wonder&mdash;are they headed only
+for Jupiter? No&mdash;no, they've passed it!"</p>
+
+<p>Faster than light, faster than energy could follow through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+space, or Uncertainty Bombs pursue, the Mirans were fleeing
+for home. They knew now that only in speed lay safety.
+Already they knew that a similar ship had appeared off Jupiter,
+and, after wiping out the Phobos and Mars stations
+with one bomb each, had cleared the Jovian Satellites with
+equal terrible efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the fleeing ships was a broken, tired old man,
+and his staff. Gresth Gkae looked back at the blank, distorted
+space behind them, at the swiftly dwindling sun, and
+spoke. "I was at fault, my friends. Jarth has spoken. <i>They</i>
+are the stronger and the wiser race. Farth Skalt has shown
+you&mdash;they use space fields of intensity 100. That means the
+energy of the ultimate destruction. Jarth used us as his
+instrument of testing, only to drive and stimulate that race.
+I do not&mdash;nay. There is no doubt now, for look."</p>
+
+<p>Plainly visible, rapidly overtaking them, the "S Doradus"
+appeared sharp, and luminous on the jet of distorted space.</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot escape, my friends. Shall we return to Sthor
+or remain in space, lost?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let us deflect our course&mdash;at least he may not know our
+destination." The interstellar ship turned very slightly in her
+course. Plainly they saw the "S Doradus" flash on, in a
+straight line, headed for distant, red-glowing Mira. Gresth
+Gkae watched, and shrugged. Silently he put the ship back
+on its course, at its utmost speed. Parallel with them, near to
+them, the "S Doradus" flashed on. Day after day, the two
+hurled through space faster than light. Gradually Mira brightened,
+and at last became a disc.</p>
+
+<hr class="hrhide" />
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae slowed his ships, and Kendall, watching,
+slowed to match his speed. Five billion miles from Sthor,
+they had reached normal space speeds. Viciously the Miran
+fleet attacked the lone ship from Earth. Their rays, their
+bombs, their every weapon was flaming. Great interstellar
+ships flashed suddenly into speeds greater than that of light,
+seeking to ram and destroy the smaller ship. The "S Doradus"
+flashed into equal or greater speed, and eluded them.</p>
+
+<p>Kendall had determined now, which was the leader's ship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae watched dully as his ships attempted to
+destroy the single, small ship. He sighed in resignation, and
+turned to walk back to the chapel aboard the ship. One last
+prayer to Jarth&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae stopped abruptly. The great ship was lurching
+strangely. Men shouted sudden, frightened cries. The
+clanking and thud of relays sounded, the shrill of alarms.
+Then the alarms stopped, and suddenly the whole great
+ship vibrated to an infinitely deep voice speaking in perfect
+Sthorian. The voice remarked solemnly, in great, vibrant
+tones, that they would certainly receive news presently
+from the Expeditions. It went on for some seconds to
+discuss the conditions as reported in the new system. Then
+it stopped abruptly. An electric motor just above Gresth
+Gkae's head suddenly hummed into action without reason
+or power connection. Almost simultaneously he heard the
+shouts of startled men as the great lock doors began to
+open into space of their own accord, bulkhead doors slipped
+shut as the roar of escaping air echoed in the ship.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was all over. Gresth Gkae ran to the control
+room. The Mirans there looked up at him with drawn
+faces.</p>
+
+<p>"The instruments&mdash;Gresth Gkae&mdash;the instruments. The instruments
+read impossible things, the motors worked without
+reason, the fields fluctuated&mdash;the atomic engines stopped
+and the magnetic shield broke down and gripped part of the
+ship instead!" reported the bewildered pilot.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know&mdash;some strange weapon of&mdash;" began the
+old scientist. Something luminous and huge twisted suddenly
+through space toward them, a bomb of "Uncertainty
+of the First Degree." It wrapped the ship silently&mdash;and again
+strange things happened. Abruptly the ship started whirling
+violently, yet without centrifugal force. The heavens wheeled
+crazily, and turned about three axes simultaneously. There
+was no gyroscopic effect to hold them!</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the thing died out. Then a great field seemed
+to catch the ship, and hurl it away from its companions.
+Abruptly the pilot applied all his power to pull free. In vain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae shook his head slowly, and raised the pilot's
+hands from the board. "Let them do as they will. I think
+they mean us no real harm, Thart Kralt. They can, we know,
+destroy us in an instant. Perhaps he wants us to go somewhere
+with him"&mdash;Gresth Gkae smiled sadly&mdash;"and anyway,
+we can do nothing."</p>
+
+<p>For nearly a billion miles the great ship was hurled through
+space at tremendous normal-space velocity. Then abruptly
+it was halted, without a sign of strain or hurt. The great twenty-foot
+UV beam on the nose of the "S Doradus" broke
+into glowing gentle red light. It flashed twice. There was
+a pause. Then it flashed four times. A long wait. Then three
+times, a pause and nine times. A wait. Four times, a pause,
+sixteen times. Then it stopped.</p>
+
+<p>A slow smile of ineffable joy spread over Gresth Gkae's
+face. "Jarth Be Praised. He can destroy, but does not wish
+to. Ah, Thart Kralt, turn your spotlight toward him, and
+flash it twenty-five times, for he is trying to start communications
+with us. Jarth is wise beyond all understanding. They
+were the weaker race, and they are the stronger. But also
+they are the better, for they could destroy, and they do
+not, but seek only to communicate."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> interstellar liner "Mirasol" settled gently to Sthor, having
+circled wide of Asthor, and from her hold a cargo of the
+heavy Jovian elements was discharged, while a mixed stream
+of Solarians and Mirans came from her passenger quarters.</p>
+
+<p>A delegation of Mirans met the new Ambassador from
+Sol, Commander McLaurin, and conducted him joyfully to
+the Central Government Group. Beside the great buildings,
+a battered, scarred interstellar ship lay, her rear section a
+mass of great patches, rudely applied, and rudely made, mere
+cast metal plates.</p>
+
+<p>Gresth Gkae welcomed Commander McLaurin to the Government
+Hall. "Your arrival today, Commander McLaurin,
+was most fortunate," he said in the interstellar language that
+had been developed, "for but yesterday Gresth Talak, my
+brother, arrived in his ship. Before we made that fortunate-unfortunate
+expedition against your system, we waited for
+him, and he did not come, so we knew his ship had, like
+others, been lost.</p>
+
+<p>"He arrived only yesterday, some seventy hours ago, and
+explained how it had come about. He too found a solar
+system. But he was less fortunate than I, and while exploring
+this uninhabited system, far out still from the central
+sun, where there should have been no masses of matter,
+one of those rare things, a giant stony meteor that even a
+magnetic shield will not stop careened into the rear of his
+ship. Damaged badly, barely able to move, they settled to a
+planet. The atmosphere was breathable, the temperature
+mild. But while they could navigate planetary distances,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+they could not return, so for nearly four and a half of your
+years they remained there, working, working to repair their
+ship.</p>
+
+<p>"They have done it at last. And they have returned. And
+best of all, after a four-year stay there, they know all they
+need know about that system of eleven planets. It is compact
+as yours, with an ultra-light sun such as yours, and four
+of the planets are habitable. Together we can colonize that
+system! It is a system of stable heat and stable light. And
+it is small, yet large enough. And with the devices such as
+your new energy has permitted, we need never fear the stony
+meteors again." Gresth Gkae smiled happily. "Still better&mdash;it
+is inhabited only by the lowest forms of life. It is too costly
+to both races when Jarth sees fit to stimulate them by
+throwing one against the other, despite the good things that
+may come later."</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Ultimate Weapon, by John Wood Campbell
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@@ -0,0 +1,4098 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ultimate Weapon, by John Wood Campbell
+
+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: The Ultimate Weapon
+
+Author: John Wood Campbell
+
+Illustrator: Gerald McConnell
+
+Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23790]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ULTIMATE WEAPON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ [Cover Illustration:
+ JOHN W. CAMPBELL
+ THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
+
+ When star fights star,
+ is chaos the best defense?]
+
+
+
+
+RED SUN RISING
+
+
+The star Mira was unpredictably variable. Sometimes it was blazing,
+brilliant and hot. Other times it was oddly dim, cool, shedding little
+warmth on its many planets. Gresth Gkae, leader of the Mirans, was
+seeking a better star, one to which his "people" could migrate. That
+star had to be steady, reliable, with a good planetary system. And in
+his astronomical searching, he found Sol.
+
+With hundreds of ships, each larger than whole Terrestrial spaceports,
+and traveling faster than the speed of light, the Mirans set out to move
+in to Solar regions and take over.
+
+And on Earth there was nothing which would be capable of beating off
+this incredible armada--until Buck Kendall stumbled upon THE ULTIMATE
+WEAPON.
+
+
+
+
+JOHN W. CAMPBELL first started writing in 1930 when his first short
+story, _When the Atoms Failed_, was accepted by a science-fiction
+magazine. At that time he was twenty years old and still a student at
+college. As the title of the story indicates, he was even at that time
+occupied with the significance of atomic energy and nuclear physics.
+
+For the next seven years, Campbell, bolstered by a scientific background
+that ran from childhood experiments, to study at Duke University and the
+Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote and sold science-fiction,
+achieving for himself an enviable reputation in the field.
+
+In 1937 he became the editor of _Astounding Stories_ magazine and
+applied himself at once to the task of bettering the magazine and the
+field of s-f writing in general. His influence on science-fiction since
+then has been great. Today he still remains as the editor of that
+magazine's evolved and redesigned successor, _Analog_.
+
+
+
+
+            _THE
+          ULTIMATE
+           WEAPON_
+
+
+             by
+      JOHN W. CAMPBELL
+
+
+
+       ACE BOOKS, INC.
+ 1120 Avenue of the Americas
+    New York, N.Y. 10036
+
+
+
+
+THE ULTIMATE WEAPON
+
+Copyright, 1936, by John W. Campbell
+
+Originally published as a serial in _Amazing Stories_ under the title of
+_Uncertainty_.
+
+All Rights Reserved
+
+
+_Cover by Gerald McConnell_
+
+
+Printed in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+    copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
+    typographical errors have been corrected without note. Subscript
+    characters are shown within {braces}. The mathematical symbol pi is
+    shown as [pi].
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+I
+
+
+Patrol Cruiser "IP-T 247" circling out toward Pluto on leisurely
+inspection tour to visit the outpost miners there, was in no hurry at
+all as she loafed along. Her six-man crew was taking it very easy, and
+easy meant two-man watches, and low speed, to watch for the instrument
+panel and attend ship into the bargain.
+
+She was about thirty million miles off Pluto, just beginning to get in
+touch with some of the larger mining stations out there, when Buck
+Kendall's turn at the controls came along. Buck Kendall was one of
+life's little jokes. When Nature made him, she was absentminded. Buck
+stood six feet two in his stocking feet, with his usual slight stoop in
+operation. When he forgot, and stood up straight, he loomed about two
+inches higher. He had the body and muscles of a dock navvy, which Nature
+started out to make. Then she forgot and added something of the same
+stuff she put in Sir Francis Drake. Maybe that made Old Nature nervous,
+and she started adding different things. At any rate, Kendall, as
+finally turned out, had a brain that put him in the first rank of
+scientists--when he felt like it--the general constitution of an ostrich
+and a flair for gambling.
+
+The present position was due to such a gamble. An IP man, a friend of
+his, had made the mistake of betting him a thousand dollars he wouldn't
+get beyond a Captain's bars in the Patrol. Kendall had liked the idea
+anyway, and adding a bit of a bet to it made it irresistible. So, being
+a very particular kind of a fool, the glorious kind which old Nature
+turns out now and then, he left a five million dollar estate on Long
+Island, Terra, that same evening, and joined up in the Patrol. The Sir
+Francis Drake strain had immediately come forth--and Kendall was having
+the time of his life. In a six-man cruiser, his real work in the
+Interplanetary Patrol had started. He was still in it--but it was his
+command now, and a blue circle on his left sleeve gave his lieutenant's
+rank.
+
+Buck Kendall had immediately proceeded to enlist in his command the IP
+man who had made the mistaken bet, and Rad Cole was on duty with him
+now. Cole was the technician of the T-247. His rank as Technical
+Engineer was practically equivalent to Kendall's circle-rank, which made
+the two more comfortable together.
+
+Cole was listening carefully to the signals coming through from Pluto.
+"That," he decided, "sounds like Tad Nichols' fist. You can recognize
+that broken-down truck-horse trot of his on the key as far away as you
+can hear it."
+
+"Is that what it is?" sighed Buck. "I thought it was static mushing him
+at first. What's he like?"
+
+"Like all the other damn fools who come out two billion miles to scratch
+rock, as if there weren't enough already on the inner planets. He's got
+a rich platinum property. Sells ninety percent of his output to buy his
+power, and the other eleven percent for his clothes and food."
+
+"He must be an efficient miner," suggested Kendall, "to maintain 101%
+production like that."
+
+"No, but his bank account is. He's figured out that's the most economic
+level of production. If he produces less, he won't be able to pay for
+his heating power, and if he produces more, his operation power will
+burn up his bank account too fast."
+
+"Hmmm--sensible way to figure. A man after my own heart. How does he
+plan to restock his bank account?"
+
+"By mining on Mercury. He does it regularly--sort of a commuter. Out
+here his power bills eat it up. On Mercury he goes in for potassium, and
+sells the power he collects in cooling his dome, of course. He's a good
+miner, and the old fool can make money down there." Like any really
+skilled operator, Cole had been sending Morse messages while he talked.
+Now he sat quiet waiting for the reply, glancing at the chronometer.
+
+"I take it he's not after money--just after fun," suggested Buck.
+
+"Oh, no. He's after money," replied Cole gravely. "You ask him--he's
+going to make his eternal fortune yet by striking a real bed of jovium,
+and then he'll retire."
+
+"Oh, one of that kind."
+
+"They all are," Cole laughed. "Eternal hope, and the rest of it." He
+listened a moment and went on. "But old Nichols is a first-grade
+engineer. He wouldn't be able to remake that bankroll every time if he
+wasn't. You'll see his Dome out there on Pluto--it's always the best on
+the planet. Tip-top shape. And he's a bit of an experimenter too.
+Ah--he's with us."
+
+Nichols' ragged signals were coming through--or pounding through. They
+were worse than usual, and at first Kendall and Cole couldn't make them
+out. Then finally they got them in bursts. The man was excited, and his
+bad key-work made it worse. "--Randing stopped. They got him I think. He
+said--th--ship as big--a--nsport. Said it wa--eaded my--ay. Neutrons--on
+instruments--he's coming over the horizon--it's huge--war ship I
+think--register--instru--neutrons--." Abruptly the signals were blanked
+out completely.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cole and Kendall sat frozen and stiff. Each looked at the other abruptly,
+then Kendall moved. From the receiver, he ripped out the recording coil,
+and instantly jammed it into the analyzer. He started it through once,
+then again, then again, at different tone settings, till he found a very
+shrill whine that seemed to clear up most of Nichols' bad key-work.
+"T-247--T-247--Emergency. Emergency. Randing reports the--over his
+horizon. Huge--ip--reign manufacture. Almost spherical. Randing's stopped.
+They got him I think. He said the ship was as big as a transport. Said
+it was headed my way. Neutrons--ont--gister--instruments. I think--is
+h--he's coming over the horizon. It's huge, and a war ship I
+think--register--instruments--neutrons."
+
+Kendall's finger stabbed out at a button. Instantly the noise of the
+other men, wakened abruptly by the mild shocks, came from behind.
+Kendall swung to the controls, and Cole raced back to the engine room.
+The hundred-foot ship shot suddenly forward under the thrust of her tail
+ion-rockets. A blue-red cloud formed slowly behind her and expanded.
+Talbot appeared, and silently took her over from Kendall. "Stations,
+men," snapped Kendall. "Emergency call from a miner of Pluto reporting a
+large armed vessel which attacked them." Kendall swung back, and eased
+himself against the thrusting acceleration of the over-powered little
+ship, toward the engine room. Cole was bending over his apparatus,
+making careful check-ups, closing weapon-circuits. No window gave view
+of space here; on the left was the tiny tender's pocket, on the right,
+above and below the great water tanks that fed the ion-rockets, behind
+the rockets themselves. The tungsten metal walls were cold and gray
+under the ship lights; the hunched bulks of the apparatus crowded the
+tiny room. Gigantic racked accumulators huddled in the corners. Martin
+and Garnet swung into position in the fighting-tanks just ahead of the
+power rooms; Canning slid rapidly through the engine room, oozed through
+a tiny door, and took up his position in the stern-chamber, seated
+half-over the great ion-rocket sheath.
+
+"Ready in positions, Captain Kendall," called the war-pilot as the
+little green lights appeared on his board.
+
+"Test discharges on maximum," ordered Kendall. He turned to Cole. "You
+start the automatic key?"
+
+"Right, Captain."
+
+"All shipshape?"
+
+"Right as can be. Accumulators at thirty-seven per cent, thanks to the
+loaf out here. They ought to pick up our signal back on Jupiter, he's
+nearest now. The station on Europa will get it."
+
+"Talbot--we are only to investigate if the ship is as reported. Have you
+seen any signs of her?"
+
+"No sir, and the signals are blank."
+
+"I'll work from here." Kendall took his position at the commanding
+control. Cole made way for him, and moved to the power board. One by one
+he tested the automatic doors, the pressure bulkheads. Kendall watched
+the instruments as one after another of the weapons were tested on
+momentary full discharge--titanic flames of five million volt protons.
+Then the ship thudded to the chatter of the Garnell rifles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tensely the men watched the planet ahead, white, yet barely visible in
+the weak sunlight so far out. It was swimming slowly nearer as the tiny
+ship gathered speed.
+
+Kendall cast a glance over his detector-instruments. The radio network
+was undisturbed, the magnetic and electric fields recognized only the
+slight disturbances occasioned by the planet itself. There was nothing,
+noth--
+
+Five hundred miles away, a gigantic ship came into instantaneous being.
+Simultaneously, and instantaneously, the various detector systems howled
+their warnings. Kendall gasped as the thing appeared on his view screen,
+with the scale-lines below. The scale must be cock-eyed. They said the
+ship was fifteen hundred feet in diameter, and two thousand long!
+
+"Retreat," ordered Kendall, "at maximum acceleration."
+
+Talbot was already acting. The gyroscopes hummed in their castings, and
+the motors creaked. The T-247 spun on her axis, and abruptly the
+acceleration built up as the ion-rockets began to shudder. A faint smell
+of "heat" began to creep out of the converter. Immense "weight" built
+up, and pressed the men into their specially designed seats--
+
+The gigantic ship across the way turned slowly, and seemed to stare at
+the T-247. Then it darted toward them at incredible speed till the poor
+little T-247 seemed to be standing still, as sailors say. The stranger
+was so gigantic now, the screens could not show all of him.
+
+"God, Buck--he's going to take us!"
+
+Simultaneously, the T-247 rolled, and from her broke every possible
+stream of destruction. The ion-rocket flames swirled abruptly toward
+her, the proton-guns whined their song of death in their housings, and
+the heavy pounding shudder of the Garnell guns racked the ship.
+
+Strangely, Kendall suddenly noticed, there was a stillness in the ship.
+The guns and the rays were still going--but the little human sounds
+seemed abruptly gone.
+
+"Talbot--Garnet--" Only silence answered him. Cole looked across at him
+in sudden white-faced amazement.
+
+"They're gone--" gasped Cole.
+
+Kendall stood paralyzed for thirty seconds. Then suddenly he seemed to
+come to life. "Neutrons! Neutrons--and water tanks! Old Nichols was
+right--" He turned to his friend. "Cole--the tender--quick." He darted a
+glance at the screen. The giant ship still lay alongside. A wash of ions
+was curling around her, splitting, and passing on. The pinprick
+explosions of the Garnell shells dotted space around her--but never on
+her.
+
+Cole was already racing for the tender lock. In an instant Kendall piled
+in after him. The tiny ship, scarcely ten feet long, was powered for
+flights of only two hours acceleration, and had oxygen for but
+twenty-four hours for six men, seventy-two hours for two men--maybe. The
+heavy door was slammed shut behind them, as Cole seated himself at the
+panel. He depressed a lever, and a sudden smooth push shot them away
+from the T-247.
+
+"DON'T!" called Kendall sharply as Cole reached for the ion-rocket
+control. "Douse those lights!" The ship was dark in dark space. The
+lighted hull of the T-247 drifted away from the little tender--further
+and further till the giant ship on the far side became visible.
+
+"Not a light--not a sign of fields in operation." Kendall said,
+unconsciously speaking softly. "This thing is so tiny, that it may
+escape their observation in the fields of the T-247 and Pluto down
+there. It's our only hope."
+
+"What happened? How in the name of the planets did they kill those men
+without a sound, without a flash, and without even warning us, or
+injuring us?"
+
+"Neutrons--don't you see?"
+
+"Frankly, I don't. I'm no scientist--merely a technician. Neutrons
+aren't used in any process I've run across."
+
+"Well, remember they're uncharged, tiny things. Small as protons, but
+without electric field. The result is they pass right through an
+ordinary atom without being stopped unless they make a direct hit.
+Tungsten, while it has a beautifully high melting point, is mostly open
+space, and a neutron just sails right through it, or any heavy atom.
+Light atoms stop neutrons better--there's less open space in 'em.
+Hydrogen is best. Well--a man is made up mostly of light elements, and a
+man stops those neutrons--it isn't surprising it killed those other
+fellows invisibly, and without a sound."
+
+"You mean they bathed that ship in neutrons?"
+
+"Shot it full of 'em. Just like our proton guns, only sending neutrons."
+
+"Well, why weren't we killed too?"
+
+"'Water stops neutrons,' I said. Figure it out."
+
+"The rocket-water tanks--all around us! Great masses of water--" gasped
+Cole. "That saved us?"
+
+"Right. I wonder if they've spotted us."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The stranger ship was moving slowly in relation to the T-247. Suddenly
+the motion changed, the stranger spun--and a giant lock appeared in her
+side, opened. The T-247 began to move, floated more and more rapidly
+straight for the lock. Her various weapons had stopped operating now,
+the hoppers of the Garnell guns exhausted, the charge of the
+accumulators aboard the ship down so low the proton guns had died out.
+
+"Lord--they're taking the whole ship!"
+
+"Say--Cole, is that any ship you ever heard of before? _I don't think
+that's just a pirate!_"
+
+"Not a pirate--what then?"
+
+"How'd he get inside our detector screens so fast? Watch--he'll either
+leave, or come after us--" The T-247 had settled inside the lock now,
+and the great metal door closed after it. The whole patrol ship had been
+swallowed by a giant. Kendall was sketching swiftly on a notebook,
+watching the vast ship closely, putting down a record of its lines, and
+formation. He glanced up at it, and then down for a few more lines, and
+up at it--
+
+The stranger ship abruptly dwindled. It dwindled with incredible speed,
+rushing off along the line of sight at an impossible velocity, and
+abruptly clicking out of sight, like an image on a movie-film that has
+been cut, and repaired after the scene that showed the final
+disappearance.
+
+"Cole--Cole--did you get that? Did you see--do you understand what
+happened?" Kendall was excitedly shouting now.
+
+"He missed us," Cole sighed. "It's a wonder--hanging out here in space,
+with the protector of the T-247's fields gone."
+
+"No, no, you asteroid--that's not it. _He went off faster than light
+itself!_"
+
+"Eh--what? Faster than _light_? That can't be done--"
+
+"He did it, I know he did. That's how he got inside our screens. He came
+inside faster than the warning message could relay back the information.
+Didn't you see him accelerate to an impossible speed in an impossible
+time? Didn't you see how he just vanished as he exceeded the speed of
+light, and stopped reflecting it? _That ship was no ship of this solar
+system!_"
+
+"Where did he come from then?"
+
+"God only knows, but it's a long, long way off."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The IP-M-122 picked them up. The M-122 got out there two days later, in
+response to the calls the T-247 had sent out. As soon as she got within
+ten million miles of the little tender, she began getting Cole's
+signals, and within twelve hours had reached the tiny thing, located it,
+and picked it up.
+
+Captain Jim Warren was in command, one of the old school commanders of
+the IP. He listened to Kendall's report, listened to Cole's tale--and
+radioed back a report of his own. Space pirates in a large ship had
+attacked the T-247, he said, and carried it away. He advised a close
+watch. On Pluto, his investigations disclosed nothing more than the fact
+that three mines had been raided, all platinum supplies taken, and the
+records and machinery removed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The M-122 was a fifty-man patrol cruiser, and Warren felt sure he could
+handle the menace alone, and hung around for over two weeks looking for
+it. He saw nothing, and no further reports came of attack. Again and
+again, Kendall tried to convince him this ship he was hunting was no
+mere space pirate, and again and again Warren grunted, and went on his
+way. He would not send in any report Kendall made out, because to do so
+would add his endorsement to that report. He would not take Kendall
+back, though that was well within his authority.
+
+In fact, it was a full month before Kendall again set foot on any of the
+Minor Planets, and then it was Mars, the base of the M-122. Kendall and
+Cole took passage immediately on an IP supply ship, and landed in New
+York six days later. At once, Kendall headed for Commander McLaurin's
+office. Buck Kendall, lieutenant of the IP, found he would have to make
+regular application to see McLaurin through a dozen intermediate
+officers.
+
+By this time, Kendall was savagely determined to see McLaurin himself,
+and see him in the least possible time. Cole, too, was beginning to
+believe in Kendall's assertion of the stranger ship's extra-systemic
+origin. As yet neither could understand the strange actions of the
+machine, its attack on the Pluto mines, and the capture and theft of a
+patrol ship.
+
+"There is," said Kendall angrily, "just one way to see McLaurin and see
+him quick. And, by God, I'm going to. Will you resign with me, Cole?
+I'll see him within a week then, I'll bet."
+
+For a minute, Cole hesitated. Then he shook hands with his friends.
+"Today!" And that day it was. They resigned, together. Immediately, Buck
+Kendall got the machinery in motion for an interview, working now from
+the outside, pulling the strings with the weight of a hundred million
+dollar fortune. Even the IP officers had to pay a bit of attention when
+Bernard Kendall, multi-millionaire began talking and demanding things.
+Within a week, Kendall _did_ see McLaurin.
+
+At that time, McLaurin was fifty-three years old, his crisp hair still
+black as space, with scarcely a touch of the gray that appears in his
+more recent photographs. He stood six feet tall, a broad-shouldered,
+powerful man, his face grave with lines of intelligence and character.
+There was also a permanent narrowing of the eyes, from years under the
+blazing sun of space. But most of all, while those years in space had
+narrowed and set his eyes, they had not narrowed and set his mind. An
+infinitely finer character than old Jim Warren, his experience in space
+had taught him always to expect the unexpected, to understand the
+incomprehensible as being part of the unknown and incalculable
+properties of space and the worlds that swam in it. Besides the fine
+technical education he had started with, he had acquired a liberal
+education in mankind. When Buck Kendall, straight and powerful, came
+into his office with Cole, he recognized in him a character that would
+drive steadily and straight for its goal. Also, he recognized behind the
+millionaire that had succeeded in pulling wires enough to see him, the
+scientist who had had more than one paper published "in an amateur way."
+
+"Dr. Bernard Kendall?" he asked, rising.
+
+"Yes, sir. Late Buck Kendall, lieutenant of the IP. I quit and got Cole
+here to quit with me, so we could see you."
+
+"Unusual tactics. I've had several men join up to get an interview with
+me." McLaurin smiled.
+
+"Yes, I can imagine that, but we had to see you in a hurry. A hidebound
+old rapscallion by the name of Jim Warren picked us up out by Pluto,
+floating around in a six-man tender. We made some reports to him, but he
+wouldn't believe, and he wouldn't send them through--so we had to send
+ourselves through. Sir, this system is about to be attacked by some
+extra-systemic race. The IP-T-247 was so attacked, her crew killed off,
+and the ship itself carried away."
+
+"I got the report Captain Jim Warren sent through, stating it was a gang
+of space pirates. Now what makes you believe otherwise?"
+
+"That ship that attacked us, attacked with a neutron gun, a gun that
+shot neutrons through the hull of our ship as easily as protons pass
+through open space. Those neutrons killed off four of the crew, and
+spared us only because we happened to be behind the water tanks. Masses
+of hydrogen will stop neutrons, so we lived, and escaped in the tender.
+The little tender, lightless, escaped their observation, and we were
+picked up. Now, when the 247 had been picked up, and locked into their
+ship, that ship started accelerating. It accelerated so fast along my
+line of sight that it just dwindled, and--vanished. It didn't vanish in
+distance, it vanished _because it exceeded the speed of light_."
+
+"Isn't that impossible?"
+
+"Not at all. It can be done--if you can find some way of escaping from
+this space to do it. Now if you could cut across through a higher
+dimension, your _projection_ in this dimension might easily exceed the
+speed of light. For instance, if I could cut directly through the Earth,
+at a speed of one thousand miles an hour, my projection on the surface
+would go twelve thousand miles while I was going eight. Similar, if you
+could cut _through_ the four dimensional space instead of following its
+surface, you'd attain a speed greater than light."
+
+"Might it not still be a space pirate? That's a lot easier to believe,
+even allowing your statement that he exceeded the speed of light."
+
+"If you invented a neutron gun which could kill through tungsten walls
+without injuring anything within, a system of accelerating a ship that
+didn't affect the inhabitants of that ship, and a means of exceeding the
+speed of light, all within a few months of each other, would you become
+a pirate? I wouldn't, and I don't think any one else would. A pirate is
+a man who seeks adventure and relief from work. Given a means of
+exceeding the speed of light, I'd get all the adventure I wanted
+investigating other planets. If I didn't have a cent before, I'd have
+relief from work by selling it for a few hundred millions--and I'd sell
+it mighty easily too, for an invention like that is worth an
+incalculable sum. Tie to that the value of compensated acceleration, and
+no man's going to turn pirate. He can make more millions selling his
+inventions than he can make thousands turning pirate with them. So who'd
+turn pirate?"
+
+"Right." McLaurin nodded. "I see your point. Now before I'd accept your
+statements _in re_ the 'speed of light' thing, I'd want opinions from
+some IP physicists."
+
+"Then let's have a conference, because something's got to be done soon.
+I don't know why we haven't heard further from that fellow."
+
+"Privately--we have," McLaurin said in a slightly worried tone. "He was
+detected by the instruments of every IP observatory I suspect. We got
+the reports but didn't know what to make of them. They indicated so many
+funny things, they were sent in as accidental misreadings of the
+instruments. But since _all_ the observatories reported them, similar
+misreadings, at about the same times, that is with variations of only a
+few hours, we thought something must have been up. The only thing was
+the phenomena were reported progressively from Pluto to Neptune, clear
+across the solar system, in a definite progression, but at a velocity of
+crossing that didn't tie in with any conceivable force. They crossed
+faster than the velocity of light. That ship must have spent about half
+an hour off each planet before passing on to the next. And, accepting
+your faster-than-light explanation, we can understand it."
+
+"Then I think you have proof."
+
+"If we have, what would you do about it?"
+
+"Get to work on those 'misreadings' of the instruments for one thing,
+and for a second, and more important, line every IP ship with paraffin
+blocks six inches thick."
+
+"Paraffin--why?"
+
+"The easiest form of hydrogen to get. You can't use solid hydrogen,
+because that melts too easily. Water can be turned into steam too
+easily, and requires more work. Paraffin is a solid that's largely
+hydrogen. That's what they've always used on neutrons since they
+discovered them. Confine your paraffin between tungsten walls, and
+you'll stop the secondary protons as well as the neutrons."
+
+"Hmmm--I suppose so. How about seeing those physicists?"
+
+"I'd like to see them today, sir. The sooner you get started on this
+work, the better it will be for the IP."
+
+"Having seen me, will you join up in the IP again?" asked McLaurin.
+
+"No, sir, I don't think I will. I have another field you know, in which
+I may be more useful. Cole here's a better technician than fighter--and
+a darned good fighter, too--and I think that an inexperienced
+space-captain is a lot less useful than a second-rate physicist at work
+in a laboratory. If we hope to get anywhere, or for that matter, I
+suspect, stay anywhere, we'll have to do a lot of research pretty
+promptly."
+
+"What's your explanation of that ship?"
+
+"One of two things: an inventor of some other system trying out his
+latest toy, or an expedition sent out by a planetary government for
+exploration. I favor the latter for two reasons: that ship was _big_. No
+inventor would build a thing that size, requiring a crew of several
+hundred men to try out his invention. A government would build just
+about that if they wanted to send out an expedition. If it were an
+inventor, he'd be interested in meeting other people, to see what they
+had in the way of science, and probably he'd want to do it in a
+peaceable way. That fellow wasn't interested in peace, by any means. So
+I think it's a government ship, and an unfriendly government. They sent
+that ship out either for scientific research, for trade research and
+exploration, or for acquisitive exploration. If they were out for
+scientific research, they'd proceed as would the inventor, to establish
+friendly communication. If they were out for trade, the same would
+apply. If they were out for acquisitive exploration, they'd investigate
+the planets, the sun, the people, only to the extent of learning how
+best to overcome them. They'd want to get a sample of our people, and a
+sample of our weapons. They'd want samples of our machinery, our
+literature and our technology. That's exactly what that ship got.
+
+"Somebody, somewhere out there in space, either doesn't like their home,
+or wants more home. They've been out looking for one. I'll bet they sent
+out hundreds of expeditions to thousands of nearby stars, gradually
+going further and further, seeking a planetary system. This is probably
+the one and only one they found. It's a good one too. It has planets at
+all temperatures, of all sizes. It is a fairly compact one, it has a
+stable sun that will last far longer than any race can hope to."
+
+"Hmm--how can there be good and bad planetary systems?" asked McLaurin.
+"I'd never thought of that."
+
+Kendall laughed. "Mighty easy. How'd you like to live on a planet of a
+Cepheid Variable? Pleasant situation, with the radiation flaring up and
+down. How'd you like to live on a planet of Antares? That blasted sun
+is so big, to have a comfortable planet you'd have to be at least ten
+billion miles out. Then if you had an interplanetary commerce, you'd
+have to struggle with orbits tens of billions of miles across instead of
+mere millions. Further, you'd have a sun so blasted big, it would take
+an impossible amount of energy to lift the ship up from one planet to
+another. If your trip was, say, twenty billions of miles to the next
+planet, you'd be fighting a gravity as bad as the solar gravity at Earth
+here all the way--no decline with a little distance like that."
+
+"H-m-m-m--quite true. Then I should say that Mira would take the prize.
+It's a red giant, and it's an irregular variable. The sunlight there
+would be as unstable as the weather in New England. It's almost as big
+as Antares, and it won't hold still. Now that _would_ make a bad
+planetary system."
+
+"It would!" Kendall laughed. But as we know--he laughed too soon, and he
+shouldn't have used the conditional. He should have said, "It does!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+Gresth Gkae, Commander of Expeditionary Force 93, of the Planet Sthor,
+was returning homeward with joyful mind. In the lock of his great ship,
+lay the T-247. In her cargo holds lay various items of machinery, mining
+supplies, foods, and records. And in her log books lay the records of
+many readings on the nine larger planets of a highly satisfactory
+planetary system.
+
+Gresth Gkae had spent no less than three ultra-wearing years going from
+one sun to another in a definitely mapped out section of space. He had
+investigated only eleven stars in that time, eleven stars, progressively
+further from the titanic red-flaming sun he knew as "the" sun. He knew
+it as "the" sun, and had several other appellations for it. Mira was
+so-named by Earthmen because it was indeed a "wonder" star, in Latin,
+mirare means "to wonder." Irregularly, and for no apparent reason it
+would change its rate of radiation. So far as those inhabitants of Sthor
+and her sister world Asthor knew, there was no reason. It just did it.
+Perhaps with malicious intent to be annoying. If so, it was
+exceptionally successful. Sthor and Asthor experienced, periodically, a
+young ice age. When Mira decided to take a rest, Sthor and Asthor froze
+up, from the poles most of the way to the equators. Then Mira would
+stretch herself a little, move about restlessly and Sthor and Asthor
+would become uninhabitably hot, anywhere within twenty degrees of the
+equator.
+
+Those Sthorian people had evolved in a way that made the conditions
+endurable for savage or uncivilized people, but when a scientific
+civilization with a well-ordered mode of existence tried to establish
+itself, Mira was all sorts of a nuisance.
+
+Gresth Gkae was a peculiar individual to human ways of thinking. He
+stood some seven feet tall, on his strange, double-kneed legs and his
+four toed feet. His body was covered with little, short feather-like
+things that moved now with a volition of their own. They were moving
+very slowly and regularly. The space-ship was heated to a comfortable
+temperature, and the little fans were helping to cool Gresth Gkae. Had
+it been cold, every little feather would have lain down close against
+its neighbors, forming an admirable, wind-proof and cold-proof blanket.
+
+Nature, on Sthor, had original ideas of arrangement too. Sthorians
+possessed two eyes--one directly above the other, in the center of their
+faces. The face was so long, and narrow, it resembled a blunt hatchet,
+with the two eyes on the edge. To counter-balance this vertical
+arrangement of the eyes, the nostrils had been separated some four
+inches, with one on each of the sloping cheeks. His ears were little
+pink-flesh cups on short, muscular stems. His mouth was narrow, and
+small, but armed with quite solid teeth adapted to his diet, a diet
+consisting of almost anything any creature had ever considered edible.
+Like most successful forms of intelligent life, Gresth Gkae was
+omnivorous. An intelligent form of life is necessarily adaptable, and
+adaptation meant being able to eat what was at hand.
+
+One of his eyes, the upper one, was fully twice the size of the lower
+one. This was his telescopic eye. The lower, or microscopic eye was
+adapted to work for which a human being would have required a low power
+microscope, the upper eye possessed a more normal power of vision,
+_plus_ considerable telescopic powers.
+
+Gresth Gkae was using it now to look ahead in the blank of space to
+where gigantic Mira appeared. On his screens now, Mira appeared deep
+violet, for he was approaching at a speed greater than that of light,
+and even this projected light of Mira was badly distorted.
+
+"The distance is half a light-year now, sir," reported the navigation
+officer.
+
+"Reduce the speed, then, to normal velocity for these ranges. What
+reserve of fuel have we?"
+
+"Less than one thousand pounds. We will barely be able to stop. We were
+too free in the use of our weapons, I fear," replied the Chief
+Technician.
+
+"Well, what would you? We needed those things in our reports. Besides,
+we could extract fuel from that ore we took on at Planet Nine of Phahlo.
+It is merely that I wish speed in the return."
+
+"As we all do. How soon do you believe the Council will proceed against
+the new system?"
+
+"It will be fully a year, I fear. They must gather the expeditions
+together, and re-equip the ships. It will be a long time before all will
+have come in."
+
+"Could they not send fast ships after them to recall them?"
+
+"Could they have traced us as we wove our way from Thart to Karst to
+Raloork to Phahlo? It would be impossible."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Steadily the great ship had been boring on her way. Mira had been a disc
+for nearly two days, gigantic, two-hundred-and-fifty-million-mile Mira
+took a great deal of dwarfing by distance to lose her disc. Even at the
+Twin Planets, eight thousand two hundred and fifty millions of miles
+out, Mira covered half the sky, it seemed, red and angry. Sometimes,
+though, to the disgust of the Sthorians it was just red-faced and lazy.
+Then Sthor froze.
+
+"Grih is in a descendant stage," said the navigation officer presently.
+"Sthor will be cold when we arrive."
+
+"It will warm quickly enough with our news!" Gresth laughed. "A
+system--a delightful system--discovered. A system of many close-grouped
+planets. Why think--from one side of that system to the other is less of
+a distance than from Ansthat, our first planet's orbit, to Insthor's
+orbit! That sun, as we know, is steady and warm. All will be well, when
+we have eliminated that rather peculiar race. Odd, that they should, in
+some ways, be so nearly like us! Nearly Sthorian in build. I would not
+have expected it. Though they did have some amazing peculiarities!
+Imagine--two eyes just alike, and in a horizontal row. And that flat
+face. They looked as though they had suffered some accident that smashed
+the front of the face in. And also the peculiar beak-like projection.
+Why should a race ever develop so amazing a projection in so peculiar
+and exposed a position? It sticks out inviting attack and injury. Right
+in the middle of the face. And to make it worse, there is the
+air-channel, and the only air channel. Why, one minor injury to the
+throat would be certain to damage that passage beyond repair, and bring
+death. Yet such relatively unimportant things as ears, and eyes are
+doubled. Surely you would expect that so important a member as the
+air-passage would be doubled for safety.
+
+"Those strange, awkward arms and legs were what puzzled me. I have been
+attempting to manipulate myself as they must be forced to, and I cannot
+see how delicate or accurate manual manipulation would be possible with
+those rigid, inflexible arms. In some ways I feel they must have had
+clever minds to overcome so great a handicap to constructive work. But I
+suppose single joints in the arms become as natural to them as our own
+more mobile two.
+
+"I wonder if life in any intelligent form wouldn't develop somewhat
+similar formations, though. Think, in all parts of Sthor, before men
+became civilized and developed communication, even so much as twenty
+thousand years ago, our records show that seats and chairs were much as
+they are today, and much as they are, in all places among all groups.
+Then too, the eye has developed in many different species, and always
+reached much the same structure. When a thing is intended and developed
+to serve a given purpose, no matter who develops it, or where or how, is
+it not apt to have similar shapes and parts? A chair must have legs, and
+a seat and arm-rests and a back. You may vary their nature and their
+shape, but not widely, and they must be there. An eye must, anywhere,
+have a sensitive retina, an adjustable lens, and an adjustable device
+for controlling the entrance of light. Similarly there are certain
+functions that the body of an intelligent creature must serve which
+naturally tend to make intelligent creatures similar. He must have a
+tool--the hand--"
+
+"Yes, yes--I see your point. It must be so, for surely these creatures
+out there are strange enough in other ways."
+
+"But tell me, have you calculated when we shall land?"
+
+"In twelve hours, thirty-three minutes, sir."
+
+Eleven hours later, the expedition ship had slowed to a normal
+space-speed. On her left hung the giant globe of Asthor, rotating
+slowly, moving slowly in her orbit. Directly ahead, Sthor loomed even
+greater. Tiny Teelan, the thousand-mile diameter moon of the Insthor
+system shone dull red in the reflected light of gigantic Mira. Mira
+herself was gigantic, red and menacing across eight and a quarter
+billions of miles of space.
+
+One hundred thousand miles apart, the twin worlds Sthor and Asthor
+rotated about their common center of gravity, eternally facing each
+other. Ten million miles from their common center of gravity, Teelan
+rotated in a vast orbit.
+
+Sthor and Asthor were capped at each pole now by gigantic white icecaps.
+Mira was sulking, and as a consequence the planets were freezing.
+
+The expedition ship sank slowly toward Sthor. A swarm of smaller craft
+had flown up at its approach to meet it. A gaily-colored small ship
+marked the official greeting-ship. Gresth had withheld his news
+purposely. Now suddenly he began broadcasting it from the powerful
+transmitter on his ship. As the words came through on a thousand sets,
+all the little ships began to whirl, dance and break out into glowing,
+sparkling lights. On Sthor and Asthor even commotions began to be
+visible. A new planetary system had been found-- They could move! Their
+overflowing populations could be spread out!
+
+The whole Insthor system went mad with delight as the great
+Expeditionary Ship settled downward.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+There was a glint of humor in Buck Kendall's eyes as he passed the sheet
+over to McLaurin. Commander McLaurin looked down the columns with
+twinkling eyes.
+
+"'Petition to establish the Lunar Mining Bank,'" he read. "What a bank!
+Officers: President, General James Logan, late of the IP;
+Vice-president, Colonel Warren Gerardhi, also late of the IP; Staff,
+consists of 90% ex-IP men, and a few scattered accountants. Designed by
+the well-known designer of IP stations, Colonel Richard Murray."
+Commander McLaurin looked up at Kendall with a broad grin. "And you
+actually got Interplanetary Life to give you a mortgage on the
+structure?"
+
+"Why not? It'll cut cost fifty-eight millions, with its twelve-foot
+tungsten-beryllium walls and the heavy defense weapons against those
+terrible pirates. You know we must defend our property."
+
+"With the thing you're setting up out there on Luna, you could more
+readily wipe out the IP than anything else I know of. Any new defense
+ideas?"
+
+"Plenty. Did you get any further appropriations from the IP
+Appropriations Board?"
+
+McLaurin looked sour. "No. The dear taxpayers might object, and those
+thickheaded, clogged rockets on the Board can't see your data on the
+Stranger. They gave me just ten millions, and that only because you
+demonstrated you could shoot every living thing out of the latest IP
+cruiser with that neutron gun of yours. By the way, they may kick when I
+don't install more than a few of those."
+
+"Let 'em. You can stall for a few months. You'll need that money more
+for other purposes. You've installed that paraffin lining?"
+
+"Yes--I got a report on that of 'finished' last week. How have you made
+out?"
+
+Buck Kendall's face fell. "Not so hot. Devin's been the biggest help--he
+did most of the work on that neutron gun really--"
+
+"After," McLaurin interrupted, "you told him how."
+
+"--but we're pretty well stuck now, it seems. You'll be off duty
+tomorrow evening, can't you drop around to the lab? We're going to try
+out a new system for releasing atomic energy."
+
+"Isn't that a pretty faint hope? We've been trying to get it for three
+centuries now, and haven't yet. What chance at it within a year or
+so?--which is the time you allow yourself before the Stranger returns."
+
+"It is, I'll admit that. But there's another factor, not to be
+forgotten. The data we got from correlating those 'misreadings' from the
+various IP posts mean a lot. We are working on an entirely different
+trail now. You come on out, and you can see our new apparatus. They are
+working on tremendous voltages, and hoping to smash the thing by a
+brutal bombardment of terrific voltage. We're trying, thanks to the
+results of those instruments, to get results with small, terrifically
+intense fields."
+
+"How do you know that's their general system?"
+
+"They left traces on the records of the post instruments. These records
+show such intensities as we never got. They have atomic energy,
+necessarily, and they might have had material energy, actual destruction
+of matter, but apparently, from the field readings it's the former. To
+be able to make those tremendous hops, light-years in length, they
+needed a real store of energy. They have accumulators, of course, but I
+don't think they could store enough power by the system they use to do
+it."
+
+"Well, how's your trick 'bank' out on Luna, despite its twelve-foot
+walls, going to stand an atomic explosion?"
+
+"More protective devices to come is our only hope. I'm working on three
+trails: atomic energy, some type of magnetic shield that will stop any
+moving material particle, and their faster-than-light thing. Also, that
+fortress--I mean, of course, bank--is going to have a lot of lead-lined
+rooms."
+
+"I wish I could use the remaining money the Board gave me to lead-line a
+lot of those IP ships," said McLaurin wistfully. "Can't you make a
+gamma-ray bomb of some sort?"
+
+"Not without their atomic energy release. With it, of course, it's easy
+to flood a region with rays. It'll be a million times worse than radium
+'C,' which is bad enough."
+
+"Well, I'll send through this petition for armaments. They'll pass it
+all right, I think. They may get some kicks from old Jacob Ezra Stubbs.
+Jacob Ezra doesn't believe in anything war-like. I wish they'd find some
+way to keep him off of the Arms Petition Board. He might just as well
+stay home and let 'em vote his ticket uniformly 'nay.'" Buck Kendall
+left with a laugh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Buck Kendall had his troubles though. When he had reached Earth again,
+he found that his properties totaled one hundred and three million
+dollars, roughly. One doesn't sell properties of that magnitude, one
+borrows against them. But to all intents and purposes, Buck Kendall
+owned two half-completed ship's hulls in the Baldwin Spaceship Yards, a
+great deal of massive metal work on its way to Luna, and contracts for
+some very extensive work on a "bank." Beyond that, about eleven million
+was left.
+
+A large portion of the money had been invested in a laboratory, the like
+of which the world had never seen. It was devoted exclusively to
+physics, and principally the physics of destruction. Dr. Paul Devin was
+the Director, Cole was in charge of the technical work, and Buck Kendall
+was free to do all the work he thought needed doing.
+
+Returned to his laboratory, he looked sourly at the bench on which seven
+mechanicians were working. The ninth successive experiment on the
+release of atomic energy had failed. The tenth was in process of
+construction. A heavy pure tungsten dome, three feet in diameter, three
+inches thick, was being lowered over a clear insulum dome, a foot
+smaller. Inside, the real apparatus was arranged around the little pool
+of mercury. From it, two massive tungsten-copper alloy conductors led
+through the insulum housing, and outside. These, so Kendall had hoped,
+would surge with the power of broken atoms, but he was beginning to
+believe rather bitterly, they would never do so.
+
+Buck went on to his offices, and the main calculator room. There were
+ten calculator tables here, two of them in operation now.
+
+"Hello, Devin. Getting on?"
+
+"No," said Devin bitterly, "I'm getting off. Look at these results." He
+brought over a sheaf of graphs, with explanatory tables attached.
+Rapidly Buck ran through them with him. Most of them were graphs of
+functions of light, considered as a wave in these experiments.
+
+"H-m-m-m--not very encouraging. Looks like you've got the field--but it
+just snaps shut on itself and won't work. The lack of volume makes it
+break down, if you establish it, and makes it impossible to establish in
+the first place without the energy of matter. Not so hot. That's
+certainly cock-eyed somewhere."
+
+"I'm not. The math may be."
+
+"Well"--Kendall grinned--"it amounts to the same thing. The point is,
+light doesn't. Let's run over that theory again. Light is not only
+magnetic; but electric. Somehow it transforms electric fields cyclically
+into magnetic fields and back again. Now what we want to do is to
+transform an electric into a magnetic field and have it stay there.
+That's the first step. The second thing, is to have the lines of
+magnetic force you develop, lie down like a sheath around the ship,
+instead of standing out like the hairs on an angry cat, the way they
+want to. That means turning them ninety degrees, and turning an electric
+into a magnetic field means turning the space-strain ninety degrees.
+Light evidently forms a magnetic field whose lines of force reach along
+its direction of motion, so that's your starting point."
+
+"Yes, and _that_," growled Devin, "seems to be the finishing point.
+Quite definitely and clearly, the graph looped down to zero. In other
+words, the field closed in on itself, and destroyed itself."
+
+"Light doesn't vanish."
+
+"I'll make you all the lights you want."
+
+"I simply mean there must be something that will stop it."
+
+"Certainly. Transform it back to electric field before it gets a chance
+to close in, then repeat the process--the way light does."
+
+"That wouldn't make such a good magnetic shield. Every time that field
+started pulsing out through the walls of the ship it would generate
+heat. We want a permanent field that will stay on the job out there. I
+wonder if you couldn't make a conductor device that would open that
+field out--some special type of oscillating field that would keep it
+open."
+
+"H-m-m-m--that's an angle I might try. Any suggestions?"
+
+Kendall had suggestions, and rapidly he outlined a development that
+appeared from some of the earlier mathematics on light, and might be
+what they wanted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kendall, however, had problems of his own to work on. The question of
+atomic energy he was leaving alone, till the present experiment either
+succeeded, or, as he rather suspected, failed as had its predecessors.
+His present problem was to develop more fully some interesting lines of
+research he had run across in investigating mathematically the trick of
+turning electric to magnetic fields and then turning them back again. It
+might be that along this line he would find the answer to the speed
+greater than that of light. At any rate, he was interested.
+
+He worked the rest of that day, and most of the next on that line--till
+he ran it into the ground with a pair of equations that ended with the
+expression: dx.dv=h/(4[pi]m). Then Kendall looked at them for a long
+moment, then he sighed gently and threw them into a file cabinet.
+Heisenberg's Uncertainty. He'd reduced the thing to a form that simply
+told him it was beyond the limits of certainty and he ran it into the
+normal, natural uncertainty inevitable in Nature.
+
+Anyway he had real work to do now. The machine was about ready for his
+attention. The mechanicians had finished putting it in shape for
+demonstration and trial. He himself would have to test it over the rest
+of the afternoon and arrange for power and so forth.
+
+By evening, when Commander McLaurin called around with some of the other
+investors in Kendall's "bank" on Luna, the thing was already started,
+warming up. The fields were being fed and the various scientists of the
+group were watching with interest. Power was flowing in already at a
+rate of nearly one hundred thousand horsepower per minute, thanks to a
+special line given them by New York Power (a Kendall property). At ten
+o'clock they were beginning to expect the reaction to start. By this
+time the fields weren't gaining in intensity very rapidly, a maximum
+intensity had been reached that should, they felt, break the atoms soon.
+
+At eleven-thirty, through the little view window, Buck Kendall saw
+something that made him cry out in amazement. The mercury metal in the
+receiver, behind its layers of screening was beginning to glow, with a
+dull reddish light, and little solidifications were appearing in it!
+Eagerly the men looked, as the solidifications spread slowly, like
+crystals growing in an evaporating solution.
+
+Twelve o'clock came and went, and one o'clock and two o'clock. Still the
+slow crystallization went on. Buck Kendall was casting furtive glances
+at the kilowatt-hour meter. It stood at a figure that represented
+twenty-seven thousand dollars' worth of power. Long since the power rate
+had been increased to the maximum available, as the power plant's normal
+load reduced as the morning hours came. Surely, this time something
+would start, but Buck had two worries. If all the enormous amount of
+energy they had poured in there decided to release itself at once--
+
+And at any rate, Buck saw they'd never dare to let a generator stop,
+once it was started!
+
+The men were a tense group around the machine at three-fifteen A.M.
+There remained only a tiny, dancing globule of silvery mercury
+skittering around on the sharp, needle-like crystals of the dull red
+metal that had resulted. Slowly that skittering drop was shrinking--
+
+Three twenty-two and a half A.M. saw the last fraction of it vanish.
+Tensely the men stared into the machine--backing off slowly--watching
+the meters on the board. At nearly eighty thousand volts the power had
+been fed into it.
+
+The power continued to flow, and a growing halo of intense violet light
+appeared suddenly on those red, needle-like crystals, a swiftly
+expanding halo--
+
+Without a sound, without the slightest disturbance, the halo vanished,
+and softly, gently, the needle-like crystals relapsed, melted away, and
+a dull pool of metallic mercury rested in the receiver.
+
+At eighty thousand volts, power was flowing in--
+
+And it didn't even sparkle.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+The apparatus of the magnetic shield had been completed two days later,
+and set up in Buck's own laboratory. On the bench was the powerful, but
+small, little projector of the straight magnetic field, simply a
+specially designed accumulator, a super-condenser, and the peculiar
+apparatus Devin had designed to distort the electric field through
+ninety degrees to a magnetic field. Behind this was a curious,
+paraboloid projector made up of hundreds of tiny, carefully orientated
+coils. This was Buck's own contribution. They were ready for the tests.
+
+"I would invite McLaurin in to see this," said Kendall looking at them,
+and then across the room bitterly toward the alleged atomic power
+apparatus on the opposite bench. "I think it will work. But after
+_that_--" He stared, glaring, at the heavy tungsten dome with its heavy
+tungsten contacts, across which the flame of released atomic energy was
+supposed to have leapt. "That was probably the flattest flop any
+experiment ever flopped."
+
+"Well--it didn't blow up. That's one comfort," suggested Devin.
+
+"I wish it had. Then at least it would have shown some response. The
+only response shown, actually, was shown on the power meter. It damn
+near wore out the bearings turning so fast."
+
+"Personally, I prefer the lack of action." Devin laughed. "Have you got
+that circuit hooked up?"
+
+"Right," sighed Kendall, turning back to the work in hand. "Is Douglass
+in on this?"
+
+"Yes--in the next room. He'll let us know when he's ready. He's setting
+up those instruments."
+
+Douglass, a young junior physicist, late of the IP Physics Department,
+stuck his head in the door and announced his instruments were all set
+up.
+
+"Keep an eye on them. They'll move somehow, at any rate. This thing
+couldn't go as flat as that atom-buster of mine."
+
+Carefully Kendall made a few last-minute adjustments on the limiting
+relays, and took up his position at the power board. Devin took his
+place near the apparatus, with another series of instruments, similar to
+those Douglass was now watching in the next room, some thirty feet away,
+through the two-inch metal wall. "Ready," called Kendall.
+
+The switch shot home. Instantly Kendall, Devin, and all the men in the
+building jumped some six feet from their former positions. A monstrous
+roar of sound crashed out in that laboratory that thundered from one
+wall to the other, and bellowed in a Titan's fury. It thundered and
+growled, it bellowed and howled, the walls shook with the march and
+counter-march of crashing waves of sound.
+
+And a ten-foot wavering flame of blue-white, bellying electric fire
+shuddered up to the ceiling from the contact points of the alleged
+atomic generator. The heat, pouring out from the flashing, roaring arc
+sent prickles of aching burns over Kendall's skin. For ten seconds he
+stood in utter, paralyzed surprise as his flop of flops bellowed its
+anger at his disdain. Then he leapt to the power board and shut off the
+roaring thing, by cutting the switch that had started it.
+
+"Spirits of Space! Did _that_ come to life!"
+
+"_Atomic Energy!_" Devin cried.
+
+"Atomic energy, hell. That's my thirty thousand dollars' worth of power
+breaking loose again," chortled Kendall. "We missed the atomic energy,
+but, sweet boy, what an accumulator we stubbed our toes on! I wondered
+where in blazes all that power went to. That's the answer. I'll bet I
+can tell you right now what happened. We built that mercury up to a new
+level, and that transitional stage was the red, crystalline metal. When
+it reached the higher stage, it was temporarily stable--but that
+projector over there that we designed for the purpose of holding open
+electric and magnetic fields just opened the door and let all that power
+right out again."
+
+"But why isn't it atomic energy? How do you know that no more than your
+power that you put in is coming out?" demanded Devin.
+
+"The arc, man, the arc. That was a high-current, and low-voltage arc.
+Couldn't you tell by the sound that no great voltage--as atomic voltages
+go--was smashing across there? If we were getting atomic voltage--and
+power--there'd have been a different tone to it, high and shriller.
+
+"Now, did you take any readings?"
+
+"What do you think, man? I'm human. Do you think I got any readings with
+that thing bellowing and shrieking in my ears, and burning my skin with
+ultra-violet? It itches now."
+
+Kendall laughed. "You know what to do for an itch. Now, I'm going to
+make a bet. We had those points separated for a half-million volts
+discharge, but there was a dust-cover thrown over them just now. That,
+you notice, is missing. I'll bet that served as a starter lead for the
+main arc. Now I'm going to start that projector thing again, and move
+the points there through about six inches, and that thing probably won't
+start itself."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Most of the laboratory staff had collected at the doorway, looking in at
+the white-hot tungsten discharge points, and the now silent "atomic
+engine." Kendall turned to them and said: "The flop picked itself up.
+You go on back, we seem to be all in one piece yet. Douglass, you didn't
+get any readings, did you?"
+
+Sheepishly, Douglass grinned at him. "Eh--er--no--but I tore my pants.
+The magnetic field grabbed me and I jumped. They had some steel buttons,
+and a lot of steel keys--they're kinda' hard to keep on now."
+
+The laboratory staff broke into a roar of laughter, as Douglass, holding
+up his trousers with both hands was beheld.
+
+"I guess the field worked," he said.
+
+"I guess maybe it did," adjudged Kendall solemnly. "We have some rope
+here if you need it--"
+
+Douglass returned to his post.
+
+Swiftly, Kendall altered the atomic distortion storage apparatus, and
+returned to the power-board. "Ready?"
+
+"Check."
+
+Kendall shoved home the switch. The storage device was silent. Only a
+slight feeling of strain made itself felt, and the sudden noisy hum of a
+small transformer nearby. "She works, Buck!" Devin called. "The readings
+check almost exactly."
+
+"All good then. Now I want to get to that atomic thing. We can let that
+slide for a little bit--I'll answer it."
+
+The telephone had rung noisily. "Kendall Labs--Kendall speaking."
+
+"This is Superintendent Foster, of the New York Power, Mr. Kendall. We
+have some trouble just now that we think your operations may be
+responsible for. The sub-station at North Beaumont blew all the fuses,
+and threw the breakers at the main station. The men out there said the
+transformers began howling--"
+
+"Right you are--I'm afraid I did do that. I had no idea that it would
+reach so far. How far is that from my place here?"
+
+"It's about a thousand yards, according to the survey maps."
+
+"Thanks--and I'll be careful about it. Any damage, I am responsible for?
+All okay?"
+
+"Yes, sir, Mr. Kendall."
+
+Kendall hung up. "We stirred up a lot more dust
+than we expected, Devin. Now let's start seeing if we can keep track of
+it. Douglass, how did your readings show?"
+
+"I took them at the ten stations, and here they are. The stations are
+two feet apart."
+
+"H-m-m--.5--.55--.6--.7--20--198--5950--6010--6012--5920. Very, very
+nice--only the darned thing's got an arm as long as the law. Your
+readings were about .2, Devin?"
+
+"That's right."
+
+"Then these little readings are just leakage. What's our normal
+intensity here?"
+
+"About .19. Just a very small fraction less than the readings."
+
+"Perfect--we have what amounts to a hollow shell of magnetic force--we
+can move inside, and you can move outside--far enough. But you can't get
+a conductor or a magnetic field through it." He put the readings on the
+bench, and looked at the apparatus across the room. "Now I want to start
+right on that other. Douglass, you move that magnetostat apparatus out
+of the way, and leave just the 'can-opener' of ours--the projector. I'm
+pretty sure that's what does the deed. Devin, see if you can hunt up
+some electrostatic voltmeters with a range in the neighborhood of--I
+think it'll be about eighty thousand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rapidly, Douglass was dismounting the apparatus, as Devin started for
+the stock room. Kendall started making some new connections,
+reconnecting the apparatus they had intended using on the "atomic
+engine," largely high-capacity resistances. He seemed to perform this
+work mechanically, his mind definitely on something else. Suddenly he
+stopped, and looked carefully into the receiver of the machine. The
+metal in it was silvery, liquid, and here and there a floating crystal
+of the dull red metal. Slowly a smile spread across his face. He turned
+to Douglass.
+
+"Douglass--ah, you're through. Get on the trail of MacBride, and get him
+and his crew to work making half a dozen smaller things like this. Tell
+'em they can leave off the tungsten shield. I want different metals in
+the receiver of each. Use--hmmm--sodium--copper--magnesium--aluminium,
+iron and chromium. Got it?"
+
+"Yes, sir." He left, just as Devin returned with a large electrostatic
+voltmeter.
+
+"I'd like," said he, "to know how you know the voltage will range around
+eighty thousand."
+
+"K-ring excitation potential for mercury. I'm willing to bet that thing
+simply shoved the whole electron system of the mercury out a notch--that
+it simply _hasn't_ any K-ring of electrons now. I'm trying some other
+metals. Douglass is going to have MacBride make up half a dozen more
+machines. Machines--they need a name. This--ah--this is an 'atostor.'
+MacBride's going to make up half a dozen of 'em, and try half a dozen
+metals. I'm almost certain that's not mercury in there now, at all. It's
+probably element 99 or something like it."
+
+"It looks like mercury--"
+
+"Certainly. So would 99. Following the periodic table, 99 would probably
+have an even lower melting point than mercury, be silvery, dense and
+heavy--and perhaps slightly radioactive. The series under the B family
+of Group II is Magnesium, Zinc, Cadmium, Mercury--and 99. The melting
+point is going down all the way, and they're all silvery metals. I'm
+going to try copper, and I fully expect it to turn silvery--in fact, to
+become silver."
+
+"Then let's see." Swiftly they hooked up the apparatus, realigned the
+projector, and again Kendall took his place at the power-board. As he
+closed the switch, on no-load, the electrostatic voltmeter flopped over
+instantly, and steadied at just over 80,000 volts.
+
+"I hate to say 'I told you so,'" said Kendall. "But let's hook in a
+load. Try it on about 100 amps first."
+
+Devin began cutting in load. The resistors began heating up swiftly as
+more and more current flowed through them. By not so much as by a
+vibration of the voltmeter needle, did the apparatus betray any strain
+as the load mounted swiftly. 100--200--500--1000 amperes. Still, that
+needle held steady. Finally, with a drain of ten thousand amperes, all
+the equipment available could handle, the needle was steady as a rock,
+though the tremendous load of 800,000,000 watts was cut in and out.
+That, to atoms, atoms by the nonillions, was no appreciable load at all.
+There was _no_ internal resistance whatever. The perfect accumulator
+had certainly been discovered.
+
+"I'll have to call McLaurin--" Kendall hurried away with a broad, broad
+smile.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+"Hello, Tom?"
+
+The telephone rattled in a peeved sort of way. "Yes, it is. What now?
+And when am I going to see you in a social sort of way again?"
+
+"Not for a long, long time; I'm busy. I'm busy right now as a matter of
+fact. I'm calling up the vice-president of Faragaut Interplanetary
+Lines, and I want to place an order."
+
+"Why bother me? We have clerks, you know, for that sort of thing,"
+suggested Faragaut in a pained voice.
+
+"Tom, do you know how much I'm worth now?"
+
+"Not much," replied Faragaut promptly. "What of it? I hear, as a matter
+of fact that you're worth even less in a business way. They're talking
+quite a lot down this way about an alleged bank you're setting up on
+Luna. I hear it's got more protective devices, and armor than any IP
+station in the System, that you even had it designed by an IP designer,
+and have a gang of Colonels and Generals in charge. I also hear that
+you've succeeded in getting rid of money at about one million dollars a
+day--just slightly shy of that."
+
+"You overestimate me, my friend. Much of that is merely contracted for.
+Actually it'll take me nearly nine months to get rid of it. And by that
+time I'll have more. Anyway, I think I have something like ten million
+left. And remember that way back in the twentieth century some old
+fellow beat my record. Armour, I think it was, lost a million dollars a
+day for a couple of months running.
+
+"Anyway, what I called you up for was to say I'd like to order five
+hundred thousand tons of mercury, for delivery as soon as possible."
+
+"What! Oh, say, I thought you were going in for business." Faragaut gave
+a slight laugh of relief.
+
+"Tom, I am. I mean exactly what I say. I want
+five--hundred--thousand--_tons_ of metallic mercury, and just as soon as
+you can get it."
+
+"Man, there isn't that much in the system."
+
+"I know it. Get all there is on the market for me, and contract to take
+all the 'Jupiter Heavy-Metals' can turn out. You send those orders
+through, and clean out the market completely. Somebody's about to pay
+for the work I've been doing, and boy, they're going to pay through the
+nose. After you've got that order launched, and don't make a christening
+party of the launching either, why just drop out here, and I'll show you
+why the value of mercury is going so high you won't be able to follow it
+in a space ship."
+
+"The cost of that," said Faragaut, seriously now, "will be
+about--fifty-three million at the market price. You'd have to put up
+twenty-six cash, and I don't believe you've got it."
+
+Buck laughed. "Tom, loan me a dozen million, will you? You send that
+order through, and then come see what I've got. I've got a break, too!
+Mercury's the best metal for this use--and it'll stop gamma rays too!"
+
+"So it will--but for the love of the system, what of it?"
+
+"Come and see--tonight. Will you send that order through?"
+
+"I will, Buck. I hope you're right. Cash is tight now, and I'll probably
+have to put up nearer twenty million, when all that buying goes through.
+How long will it be tied up in that deal, do you think?"
+
+"Not over three weeks. And I'll guarantee you three hundred percent--if
+you'll stay in with me after you start. Otherwise--I don't think making
+this money would be fair just now."
+
+"I'll be out to see you in about two hours, Buck. Where are you? At the
+estate?" asked Faragaut seriously.
+
+"In my lab out there. Thanks, Tom."
+
+McLaurin was there when Tom Faragaut arrived. And General Logan, and
+Colonel Gerardhi. There was a restrained air of gratefulness about all
+of them that Tom Faragaut couldn't quite understand. He had been looking
+up Buck Kendall's famous bank, and more and more he had begun to wonder
+just what was up. The list of stockholders had read like a list of IP
+heroes and executives. The staff had been a list of IP men with a
+slender sprinkling of accountants. And the sixty-million dollar
+structure was to be a bank without advertising of any sort! Usually such
+a venture is planned and published months in advance. This had sprung up
+suddenly, with a strange quietness.
+
+Almost silently, Buck Kendall led the way to the laboratory. A small
+metal tank was supported in a peculiar piece of apparatus, and from it
+led a small platinum pipe to a domed apparatus made largely of insulum.
+A little pool of mercury, with small red crystals floating in it rested
+in a shallow hollow surrounded by heavy conductors.
+
+"That's it, Tom. I wanted to show you first what we have, and why I
+wanted all that mercury. Within three weeks, every man, woman and child
+in the system will be clamoring for mercury metal. That's the perfect
+accumulator." Quickly he demonstrated the machine, charging it, and then
+discharging it. It was better than 99.95% efficient on the charge, and
+was 100% efficient on the discharge.
+
+"Physically, any metal will do. Technically, mercury is best for a
+number of reasons. It's a liquid. I can, and do it in this, charge a
+certain quantity, and then move it up to the storage tank. Charge
+another pool, and move it up. In discharge, I can let a stream flow in
+continuously if I required a steady, terrific drain of power without
+interruption. If I wanted it for more normal service, I'd discharge a
+pool, drain it, refill the receiver, and discharge a second pool. Thus,
+mercury is the metal to use.
+
+"Do you see why I wanted all that metal?"
+
+"I do, Buck--Lord, I do," gasped Faragaut. "That is the perfect power
+supply."
+
+"No, confound it, it isn't. It's a secondary source. It isn't primary.
+We're just as limited in the _supply_ of power as ever--only we have
+increased our distribution of power. Lord knows, we're going to need a
+power _supply_ badly enough before long--" Buck relapsed into moody
+silence.
+
+"What," asked Faragaut, looking around him, "does that mean?"
+
+It was McLaurin who told him of the stranger ship, and Kendall's
+interpretation of its meaning. Slowly Faragaut grasped the meaning
+behind Buck's strange actions of the past months.
+
+"The Lunar Bank," he said slowly, half to himself. "Staffed by trained
+IP men, experts in expert destruction. Buck, you said something about
+the profits of this venture. What did you mean?"
+
+Buck smiled. "We're going to stick up IP to the extent necessary to pay
+for that fort--er--bank--on Luna. We'll also boost the price so that
+we'll make enough to pay for those ships I'm having made. The public
+will pay for that."
+
+"I see. And we aren't to stick the price too high, and just make money?"
+
+"That's the general idea."
+
+"The IP Appropriations Board won't give you what you need, Commander,
+for real improvements on the IP ships?"
+
+"They won't believe Kendall. Therefore they won't."
+
+"What did you mean about gamma rays, Buck?"
+
+"Mercury will stop them and the Commander here intends to have the
+refitted ships built so that the engine room and control room are one,
+and completely surrounded by the mercury tanks. The men will be
+protected against the gamma rays."
+
+"Won't the rays affect the power stored in the mercury--perhaps release
+it?"
+
+"We tried it out, of course, and while we can't get the intensities we
+expect, and can't really make any measurements of the gamma-ray energy
+impinging on the mercury--it seems to absorb, and store that energy!"
+
+"What's next on the program, Buck?"
+
+"Finish those ships I have building. And I want to do some more
+development work. The Stranger will return within six months now, I
+believe. It will take all that time, and more for real refitting of the
+IP ships."
+
+"How about more forts--or banks, whichever you want to call them. Mars
+isn't protected."
+
+"Mars is abandoned," replied General Logan seriously. "We haven't any
+too much to protect old Earth, and she must come first. Mars will, of
+course, be protected as best the IP ships can. But--we're expecting
+defeat. This isn't a case of glorious victory. It will be a case of hard
+won survival. We don't know anything about the enemy--except that they
+are capable of interstellar flights, and have atomic energy. They are
+evidently far ahead of us. Our battle is to survive till we learn how to
+conquer. For a time, at least, the Strangers will have possession of
+most of the planets of the system. We do not think they will be able to
+reach Earth, because Commander McLaurin here will withdraw his ships to
+Earth to protect the planet--and the great 'Lunar Bank' will display its
+true character."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Faragaut looked unsympathetically at Buck Kendall, as he stood glaring
+perplexedly at the apparatus he had been working on.
+
+"What's the matter, Buck, won't she perk?"
+
+"No, damn it, and it should."
+
+"That," pointed out Faragaut, "is just what you think. Nature thinks
+otherwise. We generally have to abide by her opinions. What is it--or
+what is it meant to be?"
+
+"Perfect reflector."
+
+"Make a nice mirror. What else, and how come?"
+
+"A mirror is just what I want. I want something that will reflect _all_
+the radiation that falls on it. No metal will, even in its range of
+maximum reflectivity. Aluminum goes pretty high, silver, on some ranges,
+a bit higher. But none of them reaches 99%. I want a perfect reflector
+that I can put behind a source of wild, radiant energy so I can focus
+it, and put it where it will do the most good."
+
+"Ninety-nine percent. Sounds pretty good. That's better efficiency than
+most anything else we have, isn't it?"
+
+"No, it isn't. The accumulator is 100% efficient on the discharge, and a
+good transformer, even before that, ran as high as 99.8 sometimes. They
+had to. If you have a transformer handling 1,000,000 horsepower, and
+it's even 1% inefficient, you have a heat loss of nearly 10,000
+horsepower to handle. I want to use this as a destructive weapon, and if
+I hand the other fellow energy in distressing amounts, it's even worse
+at my end, because no matter how perfect a beam I work out, there will
+still be some spread. I can make it mighty tight though, if I make my
+surface a perfect parabola. But if I send a million horse, I have to
+handle it, and a ship can't stand several hundred thousand horsepower
+roaming around loose as heat, let alone the weapon itself. The thing
+will be worse to me than to him.
+
+"I figured there was something worth investigating in those fields we
+developed on our magnetic shield work. They had to do, you know, with
+light, and radiant energy. There must be some reason why a metal
+reflects. Further, though we can't get down to the basic root of matter,
+the atom, yet, we can play around just about as we please with molecules
+and molecular forces. But it is molecular force that determines whether
+light and radiant energy of that caliber shall be reflected or
+transmitted. Take aluminum as an example. In the metallic molecule
+state, the metal will reflect pretty well. But volatilize it, and it
+becomes transparent. All gases are transparent, all metals reflective.
+Then the secret of perfect reflection lies at a molecular level in the
+organization of matter, and is within our reach. Well--this thing was
+supposed to make that piece of silver reflective. I missed it that
+time." He sighed. "I suppose I'll have to try again."
+
+"I should think you'd use tungsten for that. If you do have a slight
+leak, that would handle the heat."
+
+"No, it would hold it. Silver is a better conductor of heat. But the
+darned thing won't work."
+
+"Your other scheme has." Faragaut laughed. "I came out principally for
+some signatures. IP wants one hundred thousand tons of mercury. I've
+sold most of mine already in the open market. You want to sell?"
+
+"Certainly. And I told you my price."
+
+"I know," sighed Faragaut. "It seems a shame though. Those IP board men
+would pay higher. And they're so damn tight it seems a crime not to make
+'em pay up when they have to."
+
+"The IP will need the money worse elsewhere. Where do I--oh, here?"
+
+"Right. I'll be out again this evening. The regular group will be here?"
+
+Kendall nodded as he signed in triplicate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That evening, Buck had found the trouble in his apparatus, for as he
+well knew, the theory was right, only the practical apparatus needed
+changing. Before the group composed of Faragaut, McLaurin and the
+members of Kendall's "bank," he demonstrated it.
+
+It was merely a small, model apparatus, with a mirror of space-strained
+silver that was an absolutely perfect reflector. The mirror had been
+ground out of a block of silver one foot deep, by four inches square,
+carefully annealed, and the work had all been done in a cooling bath.
+The result was a mirror that was so nearly a perfect paraboloid that the
+beam held sharp and absolutely tight for the half-mile range they tested
+it on. At the projector it was three and one-half inches in diameter. At
+the target, it was three and fifty-two one hundredths inches in
+diameter.
+
+"Well, you've got the mirror, what are you going to reflect with it
+now?" asked McLaurin. "The greatest problem is getting a radiant source,
+isn't it? You can't get a temperature above about ten thousand degrees,
+and maintain it very long, can you?"
+
+"Why not?" Kendall smiled.
+
+"It'll volatilize and leave the scene of action, won't it?"
+
+"What if it's a gaseous source already?"
+
+"What? Just a gas-flame? That won't give you the point source you need.
+You're using just a spotlight here, with a Moregan Point-light. That
+won't give you energy, and if you use a gas-flame, the spread will be so
+great, that no matter how perfectly you figure your mirror, it won't
+beam."
+
+"The answer is easy. Not an ordinary gas-flame--a very extra-special
+kind of gas-flame. Know anything about Renwright's ionization-work?"
+
+"Renwright--he's an IP man isn't he?"
+
+"Right. He's developed a system, which, thanks to the power we can get
+in that atostor, will sextuply ionize oxygen gas. Now: what does that
+mean?"
+
+"Spirits of space! Concentrated essence of energy!"
+
+"Right. And in preparation, Cole here had one made up for me. That--and
+something else. We'll just hook it up--"
+
+With Devin's aid, Kendall attached the second apparatus, a larger device
+into which the silver block with its mirror surface fitted. With the
+uttermost care, the two physicists lined it up. Two projectors pointed
+toward each other at an angle, the base angles of a triangle, whose apex
+was the center of the mirror. On very low power, a soft, glowing violet
+light filtered out through the opening of the one, and a slight green
+light came from the other. But where the two streams met, an intense,
+violet glare built up. The center of action was not at the focus, and
+slowly this was lined up, till a sharp, violet beam of light reached out
+across the open yard to the target set up.
+
+Buck Kendall cut off the power, and slowly got into position. "Now. Keep
+out from in front of that thing. Put on these glasses--and watch out."
+Heavy, thick-lensed orange-brown goggles were passed out, and Kendall
+took his place. Before him, a thick window of the same glass had been
+arranged, so that he might see uninterruptedly the controls at hand, and
+yet watch unblinded, the action of the beam.
+
+Dully the mirror-force relay clicked. A hazy glow ran over the silver
+block, and died. Then--simultaneously the power was thrown from two
+small, compact atostors into the twin projectors. Instantly--a titanic
+eruption of light almost invisibly violet, spurted out in a solid,
+compact stream. With a roar and crash, it battered its way through the
+thick air, and crashed into the heavy target plate. A stream of flame
+and scintillating sparks erupted from the armor plate--and died as
+Kendall cut the beam. A white-hot area a foot across leaked down the
+face of the metal.
+
+"That," said Faragaut gently, removing his goggles. "That's not a
+spotlight, and it's not exactly a gas-flame. But I still don't know what
+that blue-hot needle of destruction is. Just what do you call that tame
+stellar furnace of yours?"
+
+"Not so far off, Tom," said Kendall happily, "except that even S Doradus
+is cold compared to that. That sends almost pure ultra-violet
+light--which, by the way, it is almost impossible to reflect
+successfully, and represents a temperature to be expressed not in
+thousands of degrees, nor yet in tens of thousands. I calculated the
+temperature would be about 750,000 degrees. What is happening is that a
+stream of low-voltage electrons--cathode rays--in great quantity are
+meeting great quantities of sextuply ionized oxygen. That means that a
+nucleus used to having two electrons in the K-ring, and six in the next,
+has had that outer six knocked off, and then has been hurled violently
+into free air.
+
+"All by themselves, those sextuply ionized oxygen atoms would have a
+good bit to say, but they don't really begin to talk till they start
+roaring for those electrons I'm feeding them. At the meeting point, they
+grab up all they can get--probably about five--before the competition
+and the fierce release of energy drives them out, part-satisfied. I lose
+a little energy there, but not a real fraction. It's the howl they put
+up for the first four that counts. The electron-feed is necessary,
+because otherwise they'd smash on and ruin that mirror. They work
+practically in a perfect vacuum. That beam smashes the air out of the
+way. Of course, in space it would work better."
+
+"How could it?" asked Faragaut, faintly.
+
+"Kendall," asked McLaurin, "can we install that in the IP ships?"
+
+"You can start." Kendall shrugged. "There isn't a lot of apparatus. I'm
+going to install them in my ships, and in the--bank. I suspect--we
+haven't a lot of time left."
+
+"How near ready are those ships?"
+
+"About. That's all I can say. They've been torn up a bit for
+installation of the atostor apparatus. Now they'll have to be changed
+again."
+
+"Anything more coming?"
+
+Buck smiled slowly. He turned directly to McLaurin and replied:
+"Yes--the Strangers. As to developments--I can't tell, naturally. But if
+they do, it will be something entirely unexpected now. You see, given
+one new discovery, a half-dozen will follow immediately from it. When we
+announced that atostor, look what happened. Renwright must have thought
+it was God's gift to suffering physicists. He stuck some oxygen in the
+thing, added some of his own stuff--and behold. The magnetic apparatus
+gave us directly the shield, and indirectly this mirror. Now, I seem to
+have reached the end for the time. I'm still trying to get that
+space-release for high speed--speed greater than light, that is. So
+far," he added bitterly, "all I've gotten as an answer is a single
+expression that simply means practical zero--Heisenberg's Uncertainty
+Expression."
+
+"I'm uncertain as to your meaning"--McLaurin smiled--"but I take it
+that's nothing new."
+
+"No. Nearly four centuries old--twentieth century physics. I'll have to
+try some other line of attack, I guess, but that did seem so darned
+right. It just sounded right. Something ought to happen--and it just
+keeps saying 'nothing more except the natural uncertainty of nature.'"
+
+"Try it out, your math might be wrong somewhere."
+
+Kendall laughed. "If it was--I'd hate to try it out. If it wasn't I'd
+have no reason to. And there's plenty of other work to do. For one
+thing, getting that apparatus in production. The IP board won't like
+me." Kendall smiled.
+
+"They don't," replied McLaurin. "They're getting more and more and more
+worried--but they've got to keep the IP fleet in such condition that it
+can at least catch an up-to-date freighter."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gresth Gkae looked back at Sthor rapidly dropping behind, and across at
+her sister world, Asthor, circling a bare 100,000 miles away. Behind his
+great interstellar cruiser came a long line of similar ships. Each was
+loaded now not with instruments and pure scientists, but with weapons,
+fuel and warriors. Colonists too, came in the last ships. One hundred
+and fifty giant ships. All the wealth of Sthor and Asthor had been
+concentrated in producing those great machines. Every one represented
+nearly the equivalent of thirty million Earth-dollars. Four and a half
+billions of dollars for mere materials.
+
+Gresth Gkae had the honor of lead position, for he had discovered the
+planets and their stable, though tiny, sun. Still, Gresth Gkae knew his
+own giant Mira was a super-giant sun--and a curse and a menace to any
+rational society. Our yellow-white sun (to his eyes, an almost invisible
+color, similar to our blue) was small, but stable, and warm enough.
+
+In half an hour, all the ships were in space, and at a given signal, at
+ten-second intervals, they sprang into the superspeed, faster than
+light. For an instant, giant Mira ran and seemed distorted, as though
+seen through a porthole covered with running water, then steadied,
+curiously distorted. Faster than light they raced across the galaxy.
+
+Even in their super-fast ships, nearly three and a half weeks passed
+before the sun they sought, singled itself from the star-field as an
+extra bright point. Two days more, and the sun was within planetary
+distance. They came at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic, but they
+leveled down to it now, and slanted toward giant Jupiter and Jovian
+worlds. Ten worlds, in one sweep, it was--four habitable worlds. The
+nine satellites would be converted into forts at once, nine
+space-sweeping forts guarding the approaches to the planet. Gresth Gkae
+had made a fairly good search of the worlds, and knew that Earth was the
+main home of civilization in this system. Mars was second, and Venus
+third. But Jupiter offered the greatest possibilities for quick
+settlement, a base from which they could more easily operate, a base for
+fuels, for the heavy elements they would need--
+
+Fifteen million miles from Jupiter they slowed below the speed of
+light--and the IP stations observed them. Instantly, according to
+instructions issued by Commander McLaurin, a fleet of ten of the
+tiniest, fastest scouts darted out. As soon as possible, a group of
+three heavy cruisers, armed with all the inventions that had been
+discovered, the atostor power system, perfectly conducting power leads,
+the terrible UV ray, started out.
+
+The scouts got there first. Cameras were grinding steadily, with long
+range telescopic lenses, delicate instruments probed and felt and caught
+their fingers in the fields of the giant fleet.
+
+At ten-second intervals, giant ships popped into being, and glided
+smoothly toward Jupiter.
+
+Then the cruisers arrived. They halted at a respectful distance, and
+waited. The Miran ships plowed on undisturbed. Simultaneously, from the
+three leaders, terrific neutron rays shot out. The paraffin block walls
+stopped those--and the cruisers started to explain their feelings on the
+subject. They were the IP-J-37, 39, and 42. The 37 turned up the full
+power of the UV ray. The terrific beam of ultra-violet energy struck the
+second Miran ship, and the spot it touched exploded into incandescence,
+burned white-hot--and puffed out abruptly as the air pressure within
+blew the molten metal away.
+
+The Mirans were startled. This was not the type of thing Gresth Gkae had
+warned them of. Gresth Gkae himself frowned as the sudden roar of the
+machines of his ship rose in the metal walls. A stream of ten-inch
+atomic bombs shrieked out of their tubes, fully glowing green things
+floated out more slowly, and immediately waxed brilliant. Gamma ray
+bombs--but they could be guarded against--
+
+The three Solarian cruisers were washed in such frightful flame as they
+had never imagined. Streams of atomic bombs were exploding soundlessly,
+ineffectively in space, not thirty feet from them as they felt the
+sudden resistance of the magnetic shields. Hopefully, the 39 probed with
+her neutron gun. Nothing happened save that several gamma ray bombs went
+off explosively, and all the atomic bombs in its path exploded at once.
+
+Gresth Gkae knew what that meant. Neutron beam guns. Then this race was
+more intelligent than he had believed. They had not had them before. Had
+he perhaps given them too much warning and information?
+
+There was a sudden, deeper note in the thrumming roar of the great
+ship. Eagerly Gresth Gkae watched--and sighed in relief. The nearer of
+the three enemy ships was crumbling to dust. Now the other two were
+beginning to become blurred of outline. They were fleeing--but oh, so
+slowly. Easily the greater ship chased them down, till only floating
+dust, and a few small pieces of--
+
+Gresth Gkae shrieked in pain, and horror. The destroyed ships had fought
+in dying. All space seemed to blossom out with a terrible light, a light
+that wrapped around them, and burned into him, and through him. His eyes
+were dark and burning lumps in his head, his flesh seemed crawling,
+stinging--he was being flayed alive--in shrieking agony he crumpled to
+the floor.
+
+Hospital attaches came to him, and injected drugs. Slowly torturing
+consciousness left him. The doctors began working over his horribly
+burned body, shuddering inwardly as the protective, feather-like
+covering of his skin loosened, and dropped from his body. Tenderly they
+lowered him into a bath of chemicals--
+
+"The terrible light which caused so much damage to our men," reported a
+physicist, "was analyzed, and found to have some extraordinary lines. It
+was largely mercury-vapor spectrum, but the spectrum of mercury-atoms in
+an impossibly strained condition. I would suggest that great care be
+used hereafter, and all men be equipped with protective masks when
+observations are needed. This sun is very rich in the infra-X-rays and
+ultra-visible light. The explosion of light, we witnessed, was dangerous
+in its consisting almost wholly of very short and hard infra-X-rays."
+
+The physicist had a special term for what we know as ultra-violet light.
+To him, blue was ultra-violet, and exceedingly dangerous to
+red-sensitive eyes. To him, our ultra-violet was a long X-ray, and was
+designated by a special term. And to him--the explosion of the atostor
+reservoirs was a terrible and mystifying calamity.
+
+To the men in the five tiny scout-ships, it was also a surprise, and a
+painful one. Even space-hardened humans were burned by the terrifically
+hard ultra-violet from the explosion. But they got some hint of what it
+had meant to the Mirans from the confusion that resulted in the fleet.
+Several of the nearer ships spun, twisted, and went erratically off
+their courses. All seemed uncontrolled momentarily.
+
+The five scouts, following orders, darted instantly toward the Lunar
+Bank. Why, they did not know. But those were orders. They were to land
+there.
+
+The reason was that, faster than any Solarian ship, radio signals had
+reached McLaurin, and he, and most of the staff of the IP service had
+been moved to the Lunar Bank. Buck Kendall had extended an invitation in
+this "unexpected emergency." It so happened that Buck Kendall's
+invitation got there before any description of the Strangers, or their
+actions had arrived. The staff was somewhat puzzled as to how this
+happened--
+
+And now for the satellites of great Jupiter.
+
+One hundred and fifty giant interstellar cruisers advanced on Callisto.
+They didn't pause to investigate the mines and scattered farms of the
+satellite, but ten great ships settled, and a horde of warriors began
+pouring out.
+
+One hundred and forty ships reached Ganymede. One hundred and thirty
+sailed on. One hundred and thirty ships reached Europa--and they sailed
+on hurriedly, one hundred and twenty-nine of them. Gresth Gkae did not
+know it then, but the fleet had lost its first ship. The IP station on
+Europa had spoken back.
+
+They sailed in, a mighty armada, and the first dropped through Europa's
+thin, frozen atmosphere. They spotted the dome of the station, and a
+neutron ray lashed out at it. On the other, undefended worlds, this had
+been effective. Here--it was answered by ten five-foot UV rays. Further,
+these men had learned something from the destruction of the cruisers,
+and ten torpedoes had been unloaded, reloaded with atostor mercury, and
+sent out bravely.
+
+Easily the Mirans wiped out the first torpedo--
+
+Shrieking, the Miran pilots clawed their way from the controls as the
+fearful flood of ultra-violet light struck their unaccustomed skins.
+Others too felt that burning flood.
+
+The second torpedo they caught and deflected on a beam of
+alternating-current magnetism that repelled it. It did not come nearer
+than half a mile to the ship. The third they turned their deflecting
+beam on--and something went strangely wrong with the beam. It pulled
+that torpedo toward the ship with a sickening acceleration--and the
+torpedo exploded in that frightful violet flame.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Five-foot diameter UV beams are nothing to play with. The Mirans were
+dodging these now as they loosed atomic bombs, only to see them exploded
+harmlessly by neutron guns, or caught in the magnetic screen. Gamma ray
+bombs were as useless. Again the beam of disintegrating force was turned
+on--
+
+The present opponent was not a ship. It was an IP defense station,
+equipped with everything Solarian science knew, and the dome was an
+eight-foot wall of tungsten-beryllium. The eight feet of solid,
+ultra-resistant alloy drank up that crumbling beam, and liked it. The
+wall did not fail. The men inside the fort jerked and quivered as the
+strange beam, a small, small fraction of it, penetrated the eight feet
+of outer wall, the six feet or so of intervening walls, and the mercury
+atostor reserves.
+
+"Concentrate all those UV beams on one spot, and see if you can blast a
+hole in him before he shakes it loose," ordered the ray technician.
+"He'll wiggle if you start off with the beam. Train your sights on the
+nose of that first ship--when you're ready, call out."
+
+"Ready--ready--" Ten men replied. "Fire!" roared the technician. Ten
+titanic swords of pure ultra-violet energy, energy that practically no
+unconditioned metal will reflect to more than fifty per cent, emerged.
+There was a single spot of intense incandescence for a single hundredth
+of a second--and then the energy was burning its way through the inner,
+thinner skins with such rapidity that they sputtered and flickered like
+a broken televisor.
+
+One hundred and twenty-nine ships retreated hastily for conference,
+leaving a gutted, wrecked hull, broken by its fall, on Europa.
+Triumphantly, the Europa IP station hurled out its radio message of the
+first encounter between a fort and the Miran forces.
+
+Most important of all, it sent a great deal of badly wanted information
+regarding the Miran weapons. Particularly interesting was the fact that
+it had withstood the impact of that disintegrating ray.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+Grimly Buck Kendall looked at the reports. McLaurin stood beside him,
+Devin sat across the table from him. "What do you make of it, Buck?"
+asked the Commander.
+
+"That we have just one island of resistance left on the Jovian worlds.
+And that will, I fear, vanish. They haven't finished with their arsenal
+by any means."
+
+"But what was it, man, what was it that ruined those ships?"
+
+"Vibration. Somehow--Lord only knows how it's done--they can project
+electric fields. These projected fields are oscillated, and they are
+tuned in with some parts of the ship. I suspect they are crystals of the
+metals. If they can start a vibration in the crystals of the
+metal--that's fatigue, metal fatigue enormously speeded. You know how a
+quartz crystal oscillator in a radio-control apparatus will break, if
+you work it on a very heavy load at the peak? They simply smash the
+crystals of metal in the same way. Only they project their field."
+
+"Then our toughest metals are useless? Can't something tough, rather
+than hard, like copper or even silver for instance, stand it?"
+
+"Calcium metal's the toughest going--and even that would break under the
+beating those ships give it. The only way to withstand it is to have
+such a mass of metal that the oscillations are damped out. But--"
+
+The set tuned in on the IP station on Europa was speaking again. "The
+ships are returning. There are one hundred and twenty-nine by accurate
+count. Jorgsen reports that telescopic observation of the dead on the
+fallen cruiser show them to be a _completely un-human race_! They are
+of mottled coloring, predominately grayish brown. The ships are
+returning. They have divided into ten groups, nine groups of two each,
+and a main body of the rest of the fleet. The group of eighteen is
+descending within range, and we are focusing our beams on them--"
+
+Out by Europa, ten great UV beams were stabbing angrily toward ten great
+interstellar ships. The metal of the hulls glowed brilliant, and
+distorted slowly as the thick walls softened under the heat, and the air
+behind pressed against it. Grimly the ten ships came on. Torpedoes were
+being launched, and exploded, and now they had no effect, for the Mirans
+within were protected.
+
+The eighteen grouped ships separated, and arranged themselves in a
+circle around the fort. Suddenly one staggered as a great puff of gas
+shot out through the thin atmosphere of Europa to flare brilliantly in
+the lash of the stabbing UV beam. Instantly the ship righted itself, and
+labored upward. Another dropped to take its place--
+
+And the great walls of the IP fort suddenly groaned and started in their
+welded joints. The faint, whispering rustle of the crumbling beam was
+murmuring through the station. Engineers shouted suddenly as meters
+leapt the length of their scales, and the needles clicked softly on the
+stop pins. A thin rustle came from the atostors grouped in the great
+power room. "Spirits of Space--a revolving magnetic field!" roared the
+Chief Technician. "They're making this whole blasted station a squirrel
+cage!"
+
+The mighty walls of eight-foot metal shuddered and trembled. The UV
+beams lashed out from the fort in quivering arcs now, they did not hold
+their aim steady, and the magnetic shield that protected them from
+atomic bombs was working and straining wildly. Eighteen great ships
+quivered and tugged outside there now, straining with all their power to
+remain in the same spot, as they passed on from one to another the
+magnetic impulses that were now creating a titanic magnetic vortex about
+the fort.
+
+"The atostors will be exhausted in another fifteen minutes," the Chief
+Technician roared into his transmitter. "Can the signals get through
+those fields, Commander?"
+
+"No, Mac. They've been stopped, Sparks tells me. We're here--and let's
+hope we stay. What's happening?"
+
+"They've got a revolving magnetic field out there that would spin a
+minor planet. The whole blasted fort is acting like the squirrel cage in
+an induction motor! They've made us the armature in a five hundred
+million horsepower electric motor."
+
+"They can't tear this place loose, can they?"
+
+"I don't know--it was never--" The Chief stopped. Outside a terrific
+roar and crash had built up. White darts of flame leapt a thousand feet
+into the air, hurling terrific masses of shattered rock and soil.
+
+"I was going to say," the Chief went on, "this place wasn't designed for
+that sort of a strain. Our own magnetic field is supporting us now,
+preventing their magnetic field from getting its teeth on metal. When
+the strain comes--well, they're cutting loose our foundation with atomic
+bombs!"
+
+Five UV beams were combined on one interstellar ship. Instantly the
+great machine retreated, and another dropped in to take its place while
+the magnetic field spun on, uninterruptedly.
+
+"Can they keep that up long?"
+
+"God knows--but they have a hundred and more ships to send in when the
+power of one gives out, remember."
+
+"What's our reserve now?"
+
+The Chief paused a moment to look at the meters. "Half what it was ten
+minutes ago!"
+
+Commander Wallace sent some other orders. Every torpedo tube of the
+station suddenly belched forth deadly, fifteen-foot torpedoes, most of
+them mud-torpedoes, torpedoes loaded with high explosive in the nose, a
+delayed fuse, and a load of soft clinging mud in the rear. The mud would
+flow down over the nose and offer a resistance foot-hold for the
+explosive which empty space would not. Four hundred and three torpedoes,
+equipped with anti-magnetic apparatus darted out. One hundred and four
+passed the struggling fields. One found lodgement on a Miran ship, and
+crushed in a metal wall, to be stopped by a bulkhead.
+
+The Chief engineer watched his power declining. All ten UV beams were
+united in one now, driving a terrible sword of energy that made the
+attacked ship skip for safety instantly, yet the beams were all but
+useless. For the Miran reserves filled the gap, and the magnetic tornado
+continued.
+
+For seventeen long minutes the station resisted the attack. Then the
+last of the strained mercury flowed into the receivers, and the vast
+power of the atostors was exhausted. Slowly the magnetic fields
+declined. The great walls of the station felt the clutching lines of
+force--they began to heat and to strain. A low, harsh grinding became
+audible over the roar of the atomic bombs. The whole structure trembled,
+and jumped slightly. The roar of bombs ceased suddenly, as the station
+jerked again, more violently. Then it turned a bit, rolled clumsily.
+Abruptly it began to spin violently, more and more rapidly. It started
+rolling clumsily across the plateau--
+
+A rain of atomic bombs struck the unprotected metal, and the eighth
+breached the walls. The twentieth was the last. There was no longer an
+IP station on Europa.
+
+"The difference," said Buck Kendall slowly, when the reports came in
+from scout-ships in space that had witnessed the last struggle, "between
+an atomic generator and an atomic power-store, or accumulator, is
+clearly shown. We haven't an adequate _source_ of power."
+
+McLaurin sighed slowly, and rose to his feet. "What can we do?"
+
+"Thank our lucky stars that Faragaut here, and I, bought up all the
+mercury in the system, and had it brought to Earth. We at least have a
+supply of materials for the atostors."
+
+"They don't seem to do much good."
+
+"They're the best we've got. All the photocells on Earth and Venus and
+Mercury are at present busy storing the sun's power in atostors. I have
+two thousand tons of charged mercury in our tanks here in the 'Lunar
+Bank.'"
+
+"Much good that will do--they can just pull and pull and pull till it's
+all gone. A starfish isn't strong, but he can open the strongest oyster
+just because he can pull from now on. You may have a lot of power--but."
+
+"But--we also have those new fifteen-foot UV beams. And one fifteen-foot
+UV beam is worth, theoretically, nine five-foot beams, and practically,
+a dozen. We have a dozen of them. Remember, this place was designed not
+only to protect itself, but Earth, too."
+
+"They can still pull, can't they?"
+
+"They'll stop pulling when they get their fingers burned. In the
+meantime, why not use some of those IP ships to bring in a few more
+cargoes of charged mercury?"
+
+"They aren't good for much else, are they? I wonder if those fellows
+have anything more we don't know?"
+
+"Oh, probably. I'm going to work on that crumbler thing. That's the
+first consideration now."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"So we can move a ship. As it is, even those two we built aren't any
+good."
+
+"Would they be anyway?"
+
+"Well--I think I might disturb those gentlemen slightly. Remember, they
+each have a nose-beam eighteen feet across. Exceedingly unpleasant
+customers."
+
+"Score: Strangers; magnetic field, atomic bombs, atomic power, crumbler
+ray. Home team; UV beams."
+
+Kendall grinned. "I'd heard you were a pessimistic cuss when battle
+started--"
+
+"Pessimistic, hell, I'm merely counting things up."
+
+"McClellan had all the odds on Lee back in the Civil War of the
+States--but Lee sent him home faster than he came."
+
+"But Lee lost in the end."
+
+"Why bring that up? I've got work to do." Still smiling, Kendall went to
+the laboratory he had built up in the "Lunar Bank." Devin was already
+there, calculating. He looked unhappy.
+
+"We can't do anything, as far as I can see. They're using an electric
+field all right, and projecting it. I can't see how we can do that."
+
+"Neither can I," agreed Kendall, "so we can't use that weapon. I really
+didn't want to anyway. Like the neutron gun which I told Commander
+McLaurin would be useless as a weapon, they'd be prepared for it, you
+can be sure. All I want to do is fight it, and make their projection
+useless."
+
+"Well, we have to know how they project it before we can break up the
+projection, don't we?"
+
+"Not at all. They're using an electric field of very high frequency, but
+variable frequency. As far as I can see, all we need is a similar
+variable electric field of a slightly different frequency to heterodyne
+theirs into something quite harmless."
+
+"Oh," said Devin. "We could, couldn't we? But how are you going to do
+that?"
+
+"We'll have to learn, that's all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Buck Kendall started trying to learn. In the meantime, the Mirans were
+taking over Jupiter. There were three IP stations on the planet itself,
+but they were vastly hindered by the thick, almost ultra-violet-proof
+atmosphere of Jupiter. Their rays were weak. And the magnetic fields of
+the Mirans were unaffected. Only their atomic bombs were hindered by the
+heavier gravity that pulled the rocks back in place faster than the
+bombs could throw them out. Still--a few hours of work, and the IP
+stations on Jupiter had rolled wildly across the flat plains of the
+planet like dented cans, to end in utter destruction.
+
+The Mirans had paid no attention to the fleeing passenger and freighter
+ships that left the planet, loaded to the utmost with human cargo, and
+absolutely no freight. The IP fleet had to go to their rescue with
+oxygen tanks to take care of the extra humans, but nearly three-quarters
+of the population of Jupiter, a newly established population, and hence
+a readily mobile one, was saved. The others, the Mirans did not bother
+with particularly except when they happened to be near where the Mirans
+wanted to work. Then they were instantly destroyed by atomic bombing, or
+gamma rays.
+
+The Mirans settled almost at once, and began their work of finding on
+Jupiter the badly needed atomic fuels. Machines were set up, and work
+begun, Mirans laboring under the gravity of the heavy planet. Then,
+fifty ships swam up again, reloaded with fuel, and with crews consisting
+solely of uninjured warriors, and started for Mars.
+
+Mars was half way between her near conjunction and her maximum
+elongation with respect to Jupiter at that time. The Mirans knew their
+business though, for they started in on the IP station on Phobos. They
+were practiced by this time, and this IP station had only seven
+five-foot beams. In half an hour that station fell, and its sister
+station on Deimos followed. Three wounded ships returned to Jupiter, and
+ten new ships came out. The attack on Mars itself was started.
+
+Mars was a different proposition. There were thirty-two IP stations
+here, one of them nearly as powerful as the Lunar Bank station. It was
+equipped with four of the huge fifteen-foot beams. And it had fifteen
+tons of mercury, more than seven-eighths charged. The Mars Center
+Station was located a short ten miles from the Mars Center City, and
+under the immediate orders of the IP heads, Mars Center City had been
+vacated.
+
+For two days the Mirans hung off Mars, solidifying their positions on
+Phobos and Deimos. Then, with sixty-two ships, they attacked. They had
+made some very astute observations, and they started on the smaller
+stations just beyond the range of the Mars Center Station. Naturally,
+near so powerful a center, these stations had never been strong. They
+fell rapidly. But they had been counted on by Mars Center as auxiliary
+supports. McLaurin had sent very definite orders to Mars Center
+forbidding any action on their part, save gathering of power-supplies.
+
+At last the direct attack on Mars Center was launched. For the first
+time, the Mirans saw one of the fifteen-foot beams. Mars' atmosphere is
+thin, and there is little ozone. The ultra-violet beams were nearly as
+effective as in empty space. When the Mirans dropped their ships, a full
+thirty of them, into the circle formation, Mars Center answered at once.
+All four beams started.
+
+Those fifteen-foot beams, connected directly to huge atostor release
+apparatus, delivered a maximum power of two and three-quarter billion
+horsepower, each. The first Miran ship struck, sparkled magnificently,
+and a terrific cascade of white-hot metal rolled down from its nose. The
+great ship nosed down and to the left abruptly, accelerated swiftly--and
+crashed with tremendous energy on the plain outside of Mars Center City.
+White, unwavering flames licked up suddenly, and made a column five
+hundred feet high against the dark sky. Then the wreck exploded with a
+violence that left a crater half a mile across.
+
+Three other ships had been struck, and were rapidly retreating. Another
+try was made for the ring formation, and four more ships were wounded,
+and replaced. The ring did not retreat, but the great magnetic field
+started. Atomic and gamma ray bombs started now, flashing sometimes
+dangerously close to the station as its magnetic field battled the
+rotating field of the ships. The four greater beams, and many smaller
+ones were in swift and angry action. Not more than a ten-second exposure
+could be endured by any one ship, before it must retreat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For five minutes the Mirans hung doggedly at their task. Then, wisely,
+they retreated. Of the fleet, not more than seven ships remained
+untouched. Mars Center Station had held--at what cost only they knew.
+Five hundred tons of their mercury had been exhausted in that brief five
+minutes. One hundred tons a minute had flowed into and out of the
+atostor apparatus. Mars Center radioed for help, when the fleet lifted.
+
+There was one other station on Mars that stood a good chance of
+survival, Deenmor Station, with three of the big beams installed, and
+apparatus for their fourth was in the station, and being rapidly worked
+over. McLaurin did a wise and courageous thing, at which every man on
+Mars cursed. He ordered that all IP stations save these two be deserted,
+and all mercury fuel reserves be moved to Deenmor and Mars Center.
+
+The Mirans could not land on the North Western section of Mars, nor in
+the South Central region. Therefore Mars was not exactly habitable to
+Miran ships, because the great beams had been so perfectly figured that
+they were effective at a range of nearly twelve hundred miles.
+
+Deenmor station was attacked--but it was a half-hearted attack, for
+Mirans were becoming distinctly skittish about fifteen-foot UV beams.
+Two badly blistered ships--and the Mirans retreated to Jupiter. But Mira
+held Phobos and Deimos. In two weeks, they had set up cannon there, and
+proved themselves accurate long-range gunners. Against the feeble
+attraction of Deimos, and with Mars' gravity to help them, they began
+bombarding the two stations, and anything that attempted to approach
+them, with gamma and atomic explosive bombs. Meanwhile they amused
+themselves occasionally by planting a gamma-ray bomb in each of Mars'
+major cities. They made Mars uninhabitable for Solarians as well as for
+Mirans, at least until the deadly slow-action atomic explosives wore
+off, or were removed.
+
+Then the Mirans, after a lapse of three weeks while they dug in their
+toes on Jupiter, prepared to leap. Earth was the next goal. Miran
+scout-ships had been sent out before this--and severely handled by the
+concentrated fleets of the IP that hung grimly off Earth and Luna now.
+But the scouts had learned one thing. Mirans could never hope to attain
+a firm grasp on Earth while terribly armed Luna hung like a Sword of
+Damocles over their heads. Further, attack on Earth directly would be
+next to impossible, for, thanks to Faragaut's Interplanetary Company,
+nearly all the mercury metal in the system was safely lodged on Earth,
+and saturated with power. Every major city had been equipped with great
+UV apparatus. And neutron guns in plenty waited on small ships just
+outside the atmosphere to explode harmlessly any atomic or gamma bombs
+Miran ships might attempt to deposit.
+
+An attack on Luna was the first step. But that terrible, gigantic fort
+on Luna worried them. Yet while that fort existed, Earth ships were free
+to come and go, for Mirans could not afford to stand near. At a distance
+of twenty thousand miles, small Miran ships had felt the touch of those
+great UV beams.
+
+Finally, a brief test-attack was made, with an entire fleet of one
+hundred ships. They drew almost into position, faster than light, faster
+than the signaling warnings could send their messages. In position, all
+those great ships strained and heaved at the mighty magnetic vortex that
+twisted at the field of the fort. Instantly, twelve of the fifteen-foot
+UV beams replied. And--two great UV beams of a size the Mirans had never
+seen before, beams from the two ships, "S Doradus" and "Cepheid."
+
+The test-attack dissolved as suddenly as it had come. The Mirans
+returned to Jupiter, and to the outer planets where they had further
+established themselves. Most of the Solar system was theirs. But the
+Solarians still held the choicest planets--and kept the Mirans from
+using the mild-temperatured Mars.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+"They can't take this, at least," sighed McLaurin as they retreated from
+Luna.
+
+"I didn't think they could--right away. I'm wondering though if they
+haven't something we haven't seen yet. Besides which--give them time,
+give them time."
+
+"Well, give us time, too," snapped McLaurin. "How are you coming?"
+
+Buck smiled. "I'm sure I don't know. I have a machine but I haven't the
+slightest idea of whether or not it's any good."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I can destroy--I hope--but I can't build up their ray. I can't test the
+machine because I haven't their ray to test it against."
+
+"What can we do to test it?"
+
+"The only thing I can see is to call for volunteers--and send out a
+six-man cruiser. If the ship's too small, they may not destroy it with
+the big crumbler rays. If it's too large--and the machine didn't
+work--we'd lose too much."
+
+Twelve hours later, the IP men at the Lunar Bank fort were lined up.
+McLaurin stepped up on the platform, and addressed the men briefly, told
+them what was needed. Six volunteers were selected by a process of
+elimination, those who were married, had dependents, officers, and
+others were refused. Finally, six men of the IP were chosen, neither
+rookies nor veterans, six average men. And one average six-man cruiser,
+one hundred and eleven feet long, twenty-two in diameter. It was the
+T-208, a sister ship of the T-247, the first ship to be destroyed.
+
+The T-208 started out from Luna, and with full acceleration, sped out
+toward Phobos. Slowly she circled the satellite, while distant scouts
+kept her under view. Lazily, the Miran patrol on Phobos watched the
+T-208, indifferent to her. The T-208 dove suddenly, after five fruitless
+circles of the tiny world, and with her four-foot UV beam flaming,
+stabbed angrily at a flight of Miran scouts berthed in the very shadow
+of a great battle cruiser, one of the interstellar ships stationed here
+on Phobos.
+
+Four of the little ships slumped in incandescence. Angrily the terrific
+sword of energy slashed at the frail little scouts.
+
+Angrily the Miran interstellar ship shot herself abruptly into action
+against this insolent cruiser. The cruiser launched a flight of the
+mercury-torpedoes. Flashing, burning, ultra-violet energy flooded the
+great ship, harmlessly, for the men were, as usual, protected. The Miran
+answered with the neutron beam, atomic and gamma bombs--and the crumbler
+ray.
+
+Gently, softly a halo of shimmering-violet luminescence built up about
+the T-208. The UV beam continued to flare, wavering slightly in its
+aim--then fell way off to one side. The T-208 staggered suddenly,
+wandered from her course--whole, but uncontrolled. For the men within
+the ship were dead.
+
+Majestically the Miran swung along beside the dead ship, a great
+magnetic tow-cable shot out toward it, to shy off at first, then slowly
+to be adjusted, and take hold in the magnetic shield of the T-208. The
+pilots of the watching scout-ships turned away. They knew what would
+happen.
+
+It did. Five--ten--twenty seconds passed. Then the "dead-man" took over
+the ship--and the stored power in the atostor tanks blasted in a
+terrible flame that shattered the metal hull to molecular fragments. The
+interstellar cruiser shuddered, and rolled half over at the blasting
+pressure. Leaking seams appeared in her plates.
+
+The scouts raced back to Luna as the Miran settled heavily, and a trifle
+clumsily to Phobos. Miran radio-beams were forcing their way out toward
+the Miran station on Europa, to be relayed to the headquarters on
+Jupiter, just as Solarian radio beams were thrusting through space
+toward Luna. Said the Miran messages: "Their ships no longer crumble."
+Said the Solarian messages: "The ships no longer crumble--but the men
+die."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+His deep eyes burning tensely, Buck Kendall heard the messages coming
+in, and rose slowly from his seat to pace the floor. "I think I know
+why," he said at last. "I should have thought. For that too can be
+prevented."
+
+"Why--what in the name of the Planets?" asked McLaurin. "It didn't kill
+the men in the forts--why does it kill the men in the ships, when the
+ships are protected?"
+
+"The protection kills them."
+
+"But--but they had the protective oscillations on all the way out!"
+protested the Commander.
+
+"Think how it works though. Think, man. The enemy's field is an
+electric-field oscillation. We combat it by setting up a similar
+oscillating field in the metal of the hull ourselves. Because the metal
+conducts the strains, they meet, and oppose. It is not a shield--a
+shield is impossible, as I have said, because of energy concentration
+factors. If their beam carried a hundred thousand horsepower in a
+ten-foot square beam, in every ten square feet of our shield, we'd have
+to have one hundred thousand horsepower. In other words, hundreds of
+times as much energy would be needed in the shield, as they used in
+their beam. We can't afford that. We had to let the beams oppose our
+oscillations in the metal, where, because the metal conducts, they meet
+on an equal basis. But--when two oscillations of slightly different
+frequency meet, what is the result?"
+
+"In this case, a heterodyne frequency of a lower, and harmless
+frequency."
+
+"So I thought. I was partly right. It does _not_ harm the metal. But it
+kills the men. It is super-sonic. The terrible, shrill sounds destroy
+the cells of the men's bodies. Then, when their dead hands release the
+controls, the automatic switches blow up the ship."
+
+"God! We stop one menace--and it is like the Hydra. For every head we
+lop off, two spring up."
+
+"Ah--but they are lesser heads. Look, what is the fundamental difference
+between sound and light?"
+
+"One is a vibration of matter and the--ah--eliminate the material
+contact!"
+
+"Exactly! All we need to do is to let the ships operate airless, the men
+in space suits. Then the air cannot carry the sounds to them. And by
+putting special damping materials in their suits, we can stop the
+vibrations that would reach them through their feet and hands. Another
+six-man ship must go out--but this ship will come back!"
+
+And with the order for another experimental ship, went the orders for
+commercial supplies of this new apparatus. Every IP ship must be
+equipped to resist it.
+
+Buck Kendall sailed on the six-man scout that went out this time. Again
+they swooped once at Phobos, again Miran scout-ships crumbled under the
+attack of the vicious UV beams. The Mirans were not waiting
+contemptuously this time. In an instant the great interstellar ship rose
+from its berth, its weapons working angrily. The crumbler ray snapped
+out at the T-253.
+
+Kendall stared into the periscope visor intently. Clumsily his padded
+hands worked at the specially adapted controls. The soft hiss of the
+oxygen release into his suit disturbed him slightly. The radio-phones in
+his helmet carried all the conversations in the ship to him with equal
+clarity. He watched as the great ship angled angrily up--
+
+His vision was momentarily obscured by a violet glow that built up and
+reached out gently from every point of metal in the ship. The instant
+Kendall saw that, the T-253 was fleeing under his hands. The test had
+been made. Now all he desired was safety again. The ion-rockets flared
+recklessly as, crushed under an acceleration of four Earth-gravities, he
+sank heavily into his seat. Grimly the Miran ship was pursuing them,
+easily keeping up with the fleeing midget. The crumbler became more
+intense, the violet glow more vivid.
+
+The UV beam was reaching out directly behind now. The--
+
+With a cry of agony, Kendall ripped the radio-phone connection out of
+his suit. A soft hiss of leaking air warned him of too great violence
+only minutes later. For his ears had been deafened by the sudden shriek
+of a tremendous signal from outside!
+
+Instantly Kendall knew what that meant. And he could not communicate
+with his men! There was no metal in these special suits, even the oxygen
+tanks were made of synthetic plastics of tremendous strength. No scrap
+of vibrating metal was permissible. The padded gloves and boots
+protected him--but there was a new and different type of crackle and
+haze from the metal points now. It was almost invisible in the
+practically airless ship, but Kendall saw it.
+
+Presently he felt it, as he desperately increased his acceleration. Slow
+creeping heat was attacking him. The heat was increasing rapidly now.
+Desperately he was working at the crumbler-protection controls--but
+immediately set them back as they were. He had to have the crumbler
+protection as well--!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Grimly the great Miran ship hung right beside them. Angrily the two
+four-foot UV beams flashed back--seeking some weak spot. There were
+none. At her absolute maximum of acceleration the little ship plunged
+on. Gamma and atomic bombs were washing her in flame. The heavy blocks
+of paraffin between her walls were long since melted, retained only by
+the presence of the metal walls. Smoke was beginning to filter out now,
+and Kendall recognized a new, and deadlier menace! Heat--quantities of
+heat were being poured into the little ship, and the neutron guns were
+doing their best to add to it. The paraffin was confined in there--and
+like any substance, it could be volatilized, and as a vapor, develop
+pressure--explosive pressure!
+
+The Miran seemed satisfied in his tactics so far--and changed them.
+Forty-seven million miles from Earth, the Miran simply accelerated a bit
+more, and crowded the Solarian ship a bit. White-faced, Buck Kendall was
+forced to turn a bit aside. The Miran turned also. Kendall turned a bit
+more--
+
+Flashing across his range of vision at an incredible speed, a tiny
+thing, no more than twenty feet long and five in diameter, a scout-ship
+appeared. Its tiny nose ultra-violet beam was blasting a solid cylinder
+of violet incandescence a foot across in the hull of the Miran--and, to
+the Miran, angling swiftly across his range of vision. Its magnetic
+field clashed for a thousandth of a second with the T-253, instantly
+meeting, and absorbing the fringing edges. Then--it swept through the
+Miran's magnetic shield as easily. The delicate instruments of the scout
+instantaneously adjusted its own magnetic field as much as possible.
+There was resistance, enormous resistance--the ship crumpled in on
+itself, the tail vanished in dust as a sweeping crumbler beam caught it
+at last--and the remaining portion of the ship plowed into the nose of
+the Miran.
+
+The Miran's force-control-room was wrecked. For perhaps a minute and a
+half, the ship was without control, then the control was
+re-established--and in vain the telescopes and instruments searched for
+the T-253. Lightless, her rockets out now, her fields damped down to
+extinction, the T-253 was lost in the pulsing, gyrating fields of half a
+dozen scout-ships.
+
+Kendall looked grimly at the crushed spot on the nose of the Miran. His
+ship was drifting slowly away from the greater ship. Presently, however,
+the Miran put on speed in the direction of Earth, and the T-253 fell far
+behind. The Miran was not seriously injured. But that scout pilot, in
+sacrificing life, had thrown dust in their eyes for just those few
+moments Kendall had needed to lose a lightless ship in lightless
+space--lightless--for the Mirans at any rate. The IP ships had been
+covered with a black paint, and in no time at all, Kendall had gotten
+his ship into a position where the energy radiations of the sun made him
+undetectable from the Miran's position, since the radiation of his own
+ship, even in the heat range, was mingled with the direct radiation of
+the sun. The sun was in the Miran's "eyes," both actual and
+instrumental.
+
+An hour later the Miran returned, passed the still-lightless ship at a
+distance of five million miles, and settled to Phobos for the slight
+repairs needed.
+
+Twelve hours later, the T-253 settled to Luna, for the many
+rearrangements she would need.
+
+"I rather knew it was coming," Kendall admitted sadly, "but danged if I
+didn't forget all about it. And--cost the life of one of the finest men
+in the system. Jehnson's family get a permanent pension just twice his
+salary, McLaurin. In the meantime--"
+
+"What was it? Pure heat, but how?"
+
+"Pure radio. Nothing but short-wave radio directed at us. They probably
+had the apparatus, knew how to make it, but that's not a good type of
+heat ray, because a radio tube is generally less than eighty percent
+efficient, which is a whale of a loss when you're working in a battle,
+and a whale of an inconvenience. We were heated only four times as much
+as the Miran. He had to pump that heat into a heat-reservoir--a water
+tank probably--to protect himself. Highly inefficient and ineffective
+against a large ship. Also, he had to hold his beam on us nearly ten
+minutes before it would have become unbearable. He was again, trying to
+kill the men, and not the ship. The men are the weakest point,
+obviously."
+
+"Can you overcome that?"
+
+"Obviously, no. The thing works on pure energy. I'd have to match his
+energy to neutralize it. You knew it's an old proposition, that if you
+could take a beam of pure, monochromatic light and divide it exactly in
+half, and then recombine it in perfect interference, you'd have
+annihilation of energy. Cancellation to extinction. The trouble is, you
+never do get that. You can't get monochromatic light, because light
+can't be monochromatic. That's due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty--my pet
+bug-bear. The atom that radiates the light, must be moving. If it isn't,
+the emission of the light itself gives it a kick that moves it. Now, no
+matter what the quantum _might_ have been, it loses energy in kicking
+the atom. That changes the situation instantly, and incidentally the
+'color' of the light. Then, since all the radiating atoms won't be
+moving alike, etc., the mass of light can't be monochromatic. Therefore
+perfect interference is impossible.
+
+"The way that relates to the problem in hand, is that we can't possibly
+destroy his energy. We can, as we do in the crumbler stunt, change it.
+He can't, I suspect, put too much power behind his crumbler, or he'd
+have crumbling going on at home. We get a slight heating from it,
+anyway. Into the bargain, his radio was after us, and his neutrons
+naturally carried energy. Now, no matter what we do, we've got that to
+handle. When we fight his crumbler, we actually add heat-energy to it,
+ourselves, and make the heating effect just twice as bad. If we try to
+heterodyne his radio--presto--it has twice the heat energy anyway,
+though we might reduce it to a frequency that penetrated the ship
+instead of all staying in it. But by the proposition, we have to use as
+much energy, and in fact, remember the 80% rule. We've got to take it
+and like it."
+
+"But," objected McLaurin, "we _don't_ like it."
+
+"Then build ships as big as his, and he'll quit trying to roast you.
+Particularly if the inner walls are synthetic plastics. Did you know I
+used them in the 'S Doradus' and 'Cepheid'?"
+
+"Yes. Were you thinking of that?"
+
+"No--just luck--and the fact that they're light, strong as steel almost,
+and can be manufactured in forms much more quickly. Only the outer hull
+is tungsten-beryllium. The advantage in this will be that nearly all the
+energy will be absorbed outside, and we'll radiate pretty fast,
+particularly as that tungsten-beryllium has a high radiation-factor in
+the long heat range."
+
+"What does that mean?"
+
+"Well, ordinary polished silver is a mighty poor radiator. Homely
+example: Try waiting for your coffee to cool if it's in a polished
+silver pot. Then try it in a tungsten-beryllium pot. No matter how you
+polish that tungsten-beryllium, the stuff WILL radiate heat. That's why
+an IP ship is always so blamed cold. You know the passenger ships use
+polished aluminum outer walls. The big help is, that the
+tungsten-beryllium will throw off the energy pretty fast, and in a big
+ship, with a whale of a lot of matter to heat, the Strangers will simply
+give up the idea."
+
+"Yes, but only two ships in the system compare with them in size."
+
+"Sorry--but I didn't build the IP fleet, and there are lots of tungsten
+and beryllium on Earth. Enough anyway."
+
+"Will they use that beam on the fort? And can't we use the thing on
+them?"
+
+"They won't and we won't--though we could. A bank of those new million
+watt tubes--perhaps a hundred of them--and we'd have a pretty effective
+heater--but an awful waste of power. I've got something better."
+
+"New?"
+
+"Somewhat. I've found out how to make the mirror field in a plate of
+metal, instead of a block. Come on to the lab, and I'll show you."
+
+"What's the advantage? Oh--weight saved, and silver metal saved."
+
+"A lot more than that, Mac. Watch."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the laboratory, the new apparatus looked immensely lighter and
+simpler than the old. The atostor, the ionizer, and the twin
+ion-projectors were as before, great, rigid, metal structures that would
+maintain the meeting point of the ions with inflexible exactitude under
+any acceleration strains. But now, instead of the heavy silver block in
+which a mirror was figured, the mirror consisted of a polished silver
+plate, parabolic to be sure, but little more than a half-inch in
+thickness. It was mounted in a framework of complex, stout metal braces.
+
+Kendall started the ion-flame at low intensity, so the UV beam was
+little more than a spotlight.
+
+"You missed the point, Mac. Now--watch that tungsten-beryllium plate.
+I'll hold the power steady. It's an eighteen-inch beam--and now the
+energy is just sufficient to heat that tungsten plate to bright red.
+But--"
+
+Kendall turned over a small rheostat control--and abruptly the
+eighteen-inch diameter spot on the tungsten-beryllium plate began
+contracting; it contracted till it was a blazing, sparkling spot of
+molten incandescence less than an inch across!
+
+"That's the advantage of focus. At this distance of a few hundred feet
+with a small beam I can do that. With a twenty-foot beam, I can get a
+two-foot spot at a distance of nearly ten miles! That means that the
+receiving end will have the pleasure of handling _one hundred times the
+energy concentration_. That would punch a hole through most anything.
+All you have to do is focus it. The trouble being, if it's out of focus
+the advantage is more than lost. So if there's any question about
+getting the focus, we'll get along without it."
+
+"A real help, if you do. That would punch a hole before the Stranger
+ship could turn away as they do now."
+
+Kendall nodded. "That's what I was after. It is mainly for the forts,
+though. We'll have to signal the dope to the Mars Center and Deenmor
+stations. They can fix it up, themselves. In the meantime--all we can do
+is hold on and hunt, and let's hope better than the Strangers do."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+Sadly the convalescent Gresth Gkae listened to the reports of his
+lieutenants. More and more disgraced he felt as he realized how badly he
+had blundered in reporting the people of this system unable to cope with
+the attackers' weapons. Gresth Gkae looked up at his old friend and
+physician, Merth Skahl. He shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid, Merth
+Skahl. I am afraid. We have, perhaps, made a mistake. The better and the
+stronger alone should rule. Aye, but is the _stronger_ always the
+_better_? I am afraid we have mistaken the Truth in assuming this. If we
+have--then may Jarth, Lord of Truth and Wisdom punish us. Mighty Jarth,
+if I have mistaken in following my judgments, it is not from
+disobedience, it is lack of Thy knowledge. The strongest--they are not
+always the better, are they?"
+
+Merth Skahl bent sharply over his friend. "Quiet thyself, Gresth Gkae.
+You know, and I know, you have done only your best, and surely Jarth
+himself can ask no better of any one. You must rest, for only by rest
+can those terrible burns be healed. All your _stheen_ over half the
+body-area was burned off. You have been delirious for many days."
+
+"But Merth Skahl, think--have we disobeyed Jarth's will? It is, we know,
+his will that only the best and the strongest shall rule--but are the
+best always the strongest? An imbecile adult could destroy the life of a
+genius-grade child. The strongest wins, but not the best. Such would not
+be the will of Jarth. If we be the stronger, _and_ the best, then it is
+right and just that these strange creatures should be destroyed that we
+may have a stable world of stable light and heat. But look and see, with
+what terrible swiftness these strange creatures have learned! May it not
+be they are the better race--that it is _we_ who are the weaker and the
+poorer? Can it be that Jarth has brought us together that these people
+might learn--and destroy us? If they be the stronger, and the
+better--then may Jarth's will be done. But we must test our strength to
+the utmost. I must rise, and go to my laboratory soon. They have set it
+up?"
+
+"Aye, they have, Gresth Gkae. But remember, the weak and the sick make
+faults the strong and the well do not. Better that you rest yourself.
+There is little you can do while your body seeks to recover from these
+terrible burns."
+
+"You are wrong, my friend, wrong. Don't you see that my mind is
+clear--that it is the mind which must fight in these battles, for surely
+the man is weak against such things as this infra-X-radiation? Why, I am
+better able to fight now than are you, for I am a trained fighter of the
+mind, while you are a trained healer of the body. These strange beings
+with their stiff arms and legs, their tender skins, and--and their swift
+minds have fought us all too well. If we must test, let it be a test. I
+have heard how they so quickly solved the riddle of the crumbling field.
+That took us longer, and we designed it. The Counsel of Worlds put me in
+command, let me up, Skahl, I must work."
+
+Concerned, the physician looked down at him. Finally he spoke again.
+"No, I will not permit you to leave the hospital-ship. You must stay
+here, but if, as you have said, the mind is what must fight, then surely
+you can fight well from here, for your mind is here."
+
+"No, I cannot, and you well know it. I may shorten my life, but what
+matter. 'Death is the end toward which the chemical reaction, Life,
+tends,'" quoted the scientist. "You know I have left my children--my
+immortality is assured through them. I can afford to die in peace, if it
+assures their welfare. Time is precious, and while my mind might work
+from here, it must have data on which to work. For that, I must go to
+the laboratories. Help me, Merth Skahl."
+
+Reluctantly the physician granted the request, but begged of Gresth Gkae
+a promise of at least six hours rest in every fifteen, and a good sleep
+of at least twenty-seven hours every "night." Gresth Gkae agreed, and
+from a wheelchair, conducted his work, began a new line of
+experimentation he hoped would yield them the weapon they needed. Under
+him, the staff of scientists worked, aiding and advising and suggesting.
+The apparatus was built, tested, and found wanting. Time and again as
+the days passed, they watched Gresth Gkae, gaining strength very, very
+slowly, taken away despondent at the end of his forty hours of work.
+
+A dozen expeditions were sent to Jupiter's poles to watch and measure
+and study the tremendous auroral displays there, where Jupiter's vast
+magnetic field sucked in countless quintillions of the flying electrons
+from the sun, and brought them circling in, in a vast, magnificent
+display of auroral ionization.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Expeditions went to the great Southern Plateau, the Plateau of Storms,
+where the titanic air currents resulted in an everlasting display of
+terrific lightnings, great burning balls of electric force floating
+dangerous and deadly across the frozen, ultra-cold plain.
+
+And the expeditions brought back data. Yet still Gresth Gkae could not
+sleep, his thoughts intruding constantly. Hours Merth Skahl spent with
+him, calming him to sleep.
+
+"But what is this constant search? It is little enough I know of
+science, but why do you send our men to these spots of wonderfully
+beautiful, but useless natural forces. Can we somehow, do you think,
+turn them against the people of these worlds?"
+
+Softly the old Miran smiled. "Yes, you might say so. For look, it is the
+strange balls of electric force I want to know about. Sthor had few, but
+occasionally we saw them. Never were they properly investigated. I want
+to know their secret, for I am sure they are balls of electric forces
+not vastly dissimilar from the nucleus of the atom. Always we have known
+that no system of purely electrical forces could remain stable. Yet
+these strange balls of energy do. How is it? I am sure it will be of
+vast importance. But the direct secret I hope to learn is in this: What
+can be done with electric fields can nearly always be duplicated, or
+paralleled in magnetic fields. If I can learn how to make these
+electric balls of energy, can I not hope to make similar magnetic balls
+of energy?"
+
+"Yes, I see--that would seem true. But what benefit would you derive
+from that? You have magnetic beams now, and yet they are useless because
+you can get nowhere near the forts. How then would these benefit you?"
+
+"We can do nothing to those forts, because of that magnetic shield.
+Could we once break it down, then the fort is helpless, and one or two
+small atomic bombs destroy it. But--we cannot stay near, for the
+terrible infra-X-rays of theirs burn holes in our ships, and--in our
+men.
+
+"But look you, I can drop many atomic bombs from a distance where their
+beams are ineffective. Suppose I _do_ make a magnetic ball of energy, a
+magnetic bomb. Then--I can drop it from a distance! We have learned that
+the power supply of these forts is very great--but not endless, as is
+ours now, thanks to the vast supplies of power metal on this heavy
+planet. Then all we need do is stay at a distance where they cannot
+reach us--and drop magnetic bombs. Ah, they will be stopped, and their
+energy absorbed. But we can keep it up, day after day, and slowly drain
+out their power. Then--then our atomic bombs can destroy those forts,
+and we can move on!" But suddenly the animation and strength left his
+voice. He turned a sad, downcast face to his friend. "But Merth Skahl,
+we can't do it," he complained.
+
+"Ah--now I can see why you so want to continue this wearing and worrying
+work. You need time, Gresth Gkae, only time for success. Tomorrow it may
+be that you will see the first hint that will lead you to success."
+
+"Ah--I only hope it, Merth Skahl, I only hope it."
+
+But it was the next day that they saw the first glimpse of the secret,
+and saw the path that might lead to hope and success. In a week they
+were sending electric bombs across the laboratory. And in three days
+more, a magnetic bomb streaked dully across the laboratory to a magnetic
+shield they had set up, and buried itself in it, to explode in brilliant
+light and heat.
+
+From that day Gresth Gkae began to mend. In the three weeks that were
+needed to build the apparatus into ships, he regained strength so that
+when the first flight of five interstellar ships rose from Jupiter, he
+was on the flagship.
+
+To Phobos they went first, to the little inner satellite of Mars,
+scarcely eight miles in diameter, a tiny bit of broken metal and rock,
+utterly airless, but scarcely more than 3700 miles from the surface of
+Mars below. The Mars Center and Deenmor forts were wasting no power
+raying a ship at that distance. They could, of course, have damaged it,
+but not severely enough to make up for the loss of their strictly
+limited power. The photocells had been working overtime, every minute of
+available light had been used, and still scarcely 2100 tons of charged
+mercury remained in the tanks of Mars Center and 1950 in the tanks at
+Deenmor.
+
+The flight of five ships settled comfortably upon Phobos, while the
+three relieved of duty started back to Jupiter. Immediately work was
+begun on the attack. The ships were first landed on the near side, while
+the apparatus of the projectors was unloaded, then the great ships moved
+around to the far side. Phobos of course rotated with one face fixed
+irrevocably toward Mars itself, the other always to the cold of space.
+Great power leads trailed beneath the ships, and to the dark side. Then
+there were huge water lines for cooling. On this almost weightless
+world, where the great ships weighing hundreds of thousands of tons on a
+planet, weighed so little they were frequently moved about by a single
+man, the laying of five miles of water conduit was no impossibility.
+
+Then they were ready. Mars Center came first. Automatic devices kept the
+aim exact, as the first of the magnetic bombs started down. At
+five-second intervals they were projected outward, invisible globes of
+concentrated magnetic energy, undetectable in space. Seven seconds
+passed before the first became dimly visible in the thin air of Mars. It
+floated down, it would miss the fort it seemed--so far to one side--
+Abruptly it turned, and darted with tremendously accelerating speed for
+the great magnetic field of the fort. With a vast blast of light, it
+exploded. Five seconds later a second exploded. And a third.
+
+Mars Center signaled scoffingly that the bombs were all being stopped
+dead in the magnetic atmosphere, after the bombardment had been
+witnessed from Earth and Luna. An hour later they gave a report that
+they were concentrated magnetic fields of energy that would be rather
+dangerous--if it weren't that they couldn't even stand into the magnetic
+atmosphere. Three hours later Mars Center reported that they contained
+considerably more energy than had at first been thought. Further, which
+they had not carefully considered at first, they were taking energy with
+them! They were taking away about an equal amount of energy as each blew
+up.
+
+It was only a half-hour after that that the men at Mars Center realized
+perfectly what it meant. Their power was being drained just a little bit
+better than twice as fast as they generated during the day--and since
+Phobos spun so swiftly across the sky.
+
+Deenmor got the attack just about the time Mars Center was released.
+Deenmor immediately began seeking for the source of it. Somewhere on
+Phobos--but where?
+
+The Mirans were experts at camouflage. Deenmor Station, realizing the
+menace, immediately rayed the "projector." They tore up a great deal of
+harmless rock with their huge UV rays. But the bomb device continued to
+throw one bomb each five seconds.
+
+When Deenmor operated from Phobos' position, Mars Center was exposed to
+the deadly, constant drain. A day or two later, the bombs were coming
+one each second and a half, for more ships had joined in the work on
+Phobos.
+
+Gresth Gkae saw the work was going nicely. He knew that now it was only
+a question of time before those magnetic shields would fail--and then
+the whole fort would be powerless. Maybe--it might be a good idea, when
+the forts were powerless to investigate instead of blowing them up.
+There might be many interesting and worthwhile pieces of
+apparatus--particularly the UV beam's apparatus.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+Buck Kendall entered the Communications room rather furtively. He hated
+the place. Cole was there, and McLaurin. Mac was looking tired and
+drawn, Cole not so tired, but equally drawn. The signals were coming
+through fairly well, because most of the disturbance was rising where
+the signals rose, and all the disturbance, practically, was magnetic
+rather than electric.
+
+"Deenmor is sending, Buck," McLaurin said as he entered. "They're down
+to the last fifty-five tons. They'll have more time now--a rest while
+Phobos sinks. Mars Center has another 250 tons, but--it's just a
+question of time. Have you any hope to offer?"
+
+"No," said Kendall in a strained voice. "But, Mac, I don't think men
+like those are afraid to die. It's dying uselessly they fear. Tell
+'em--tell 'em they've defended not alone Mars, but all the system, in
+holding up the Strangers on Mars. We here on Luna have been safer
+because of them. And tell--Mac, tell them that in the meantime, while
+they defended us, and gave us time to work, we have begun to see the
+trail that will lead to victory."
+
+"_You have!_" gasped McLaurin.
+
+"No--but they will never know!" Kendall left hastily. He went and stood
+moodily looking at the calculator machines--the calculator machines that
+refused to give the answers he sought. No matter how he might modify
+that original idea of his, no matter what different line of attack he
+might try in solving the problems of Space and Matter, while he used the
+system he _knew_ was right--the answer came down to that deadly,
+hope-blasting expression that meant only "uncertain."
+
+Even Buck was beginning to feel uncertain under that constant crushing
+of hope. Uncertainty--uncertainty was eating into him, and destroying--
+
+From the Communications room came the hum and drive of the great sender
+flashing its message across seventy-two millions of miles of nothing.
+"B-u-c-k K-e-n-d-a-l-l s-a-y-s h-e h-a-s l-e-a-r-n-e-d s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g
+t-h-a-t w-i-l-l l-e-a-d t-o v-i-c-t-o-r-y w-h-i-l-e y-o-u h-e-l-d
+b-a-c-k t-h-e--"
+
+Kendall switched on a noisy, humming fan viciously. The too-intelligible
+signals were drowned in its sound.
+
+"And--tell them to--destroy the apparatus before the last of the power
+is gone," McLaurin ordered softly.
+
+The men in Deenmor station did slightly better than that. Gradually they
+cut down their magnetic shield, and some of the magnetic bombs tore and
+twisted viciously at the heavy metal walls. The thin atmosphere of Mars
+leaked in. Grimly the men waited. Atomic bombs--or ships to investigate?
+It did not matter much to them personally--
+
+Gresth Gkae smiled with his old vigor as he ordered one of the great
+interstellar ships to land beside the powerless station, approaching
+from such an angle that the still-active Mars Center station could not
+attack. One of the fleet of Phobos rose, and circled about the planet,
+and settled gracefully beside the station. For half an hour it lay there
+quietly, waiting and watching. Then a crew of two dozen Mirans started
+across the dry, crumbly powder of Mars' sands, toward the fort.
+Simultaneously almost, three things happened. A three-foot UV beam wiped
+out the advancing party. A pair of fifteen-foot beams cut a great gaping
+hole in the wall of the interstellar ship, as it darted up, like a
+startled quail, its weapons roaring defiance, only to fall back,
+severely wounded.
+
+And the radio messages pounded out to Earth the first description of the
+Miran people. Methodically the men in Deenmor station used all but one
+ton of their power to completely and forever wreck and destroy the
+interstellar cripple that floundered for a few moments on the sands a
+bare mile away. Presently, before Deenmor was through with it, the
+atomic bombs stopped coming, and the atomic shells. The magnetic shield
+that had been re-established for the few minutes of this last, dying
+sting, fell.
+
+Deenmor station vanished in a sudden, colossal tongue of blue-green
+light as the ton of atomically distorted mercury was exploded by a
+projector beam turned on the tank.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was long gone, when the first atomic bombs and magnetic bombs dropped
+from Phobos reached the spot, and only hot rock and broken metal
+remained.
+
+Mars Center failed in fact the next time Phobos rode high over it. The
+apparatus here had been carefully destroyed by technicians with a view
+of making it indecipherable, but the Mirans made it even more certain,
+for no ship settled here to investigate, but a stream of atomic bombs
+that lasted for over an hour, and churned the rock to dust, and the dust
+to molten lava, in which pools of fused tungsten-beryllium alloy bubbled
+slowly and sank.
+
+"Ah, Jarth--they are a brave race, whatever we may say of their queer
+shape," sighed Gresth Gkae as the last of Mars Center sank in bubbling
+lava. "They stung as they died." For some minutes he was silent.
+
+"We must move on," he said at length. "I have been thinking, and it
+seems best that a few ships land here, and establish a fort, while some
+twenty move on to the satellite of the third planet and destroy the fort
+there. We cannot operate against the planet while that hangs above us."
+
+Seven ships settled to Mars, while the fleet came up from Jupiter to
+join with Gresth Gkae's flight of ships on its way to Luna.
+
+An automatically controlled ship was sent ahead, and began the
+bombardment. It approached slowly, and was not destroyed by the UV beams
+till it had come to within 40,000 miles of the fort. At 60,000 Gresth
+Gkae stationed his fleet--and returned to 150,000 immediately as the
+titanic UV beams of the Lunar Fort stretched out to their maximum range.
+The focus made a difference. One ship started limping back to Jupiter,
+in tow of a second, while the rest began the slow, methodical work of
+wearing down the defenses of the Lunar Fort.
+
+Kendall looked out at the magnificent display of clashing, warring
+energies, the great, whirling spheres and discs of opalescent flame, and
+turned away sadly. "The men at Deenmor must have watched that for days.
+And at Mars Center."
+
+"How long can we hold out?" asked McLaurin.
+
+"Three weeks or so, at the present rate. That's a long time, really. And
+we can escape if we want to. The UV beams here have a greater range than
+any weapon the Strangers have, and with Earth so near--oh, we could
+escape. Little good."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"I," said Buck Kendall, suddenly savage, "am going to consign all the
+math machines in the universe to eternal damnation--and go ahead and
+build a machine anyway. I _know_ that thing ought to be right. The
+math's wrong."
+
+"There is no other thing to try?"
+
+"A billion others. I don't know how many others. We ought to get atomic
+energy somehow. But that thing infuriates me. A hundred things that math
+has predicted, that I have checked by experiment, simple little things.
+But--when I carry it through to the point where I can get something
+useful--it wriggles off into--uncertainty."
+
+Kendall stalked off to the laboratory. Devin was there working over the
+calculus machines, and Kendall called him angrily. Then more apologetic,
+he explained it was anger at himself. "Devin, I'm going to make that
+thing, if it blows up and kills me. I'm going to make that thing if this
+whole fort blows up and kills me. That math has blown up in my face for
+four solid months, and half killed me, so I'm going to kill it. Come on,
+we'll make that damned junk."
+
+Angrily, furiously, Kendall drove his helpers to the task. He had worked
+out the apparatus in plan a dozen times, and now he had the plans turned
+into patterns, the patterns into metal.
+
+Saucily, the "S Doradus" made the trip to and from Earth with patterns,
+and with metal, with supplies and with apparatus. But she had to dodge
+and fight every inch of the way as the Miran ships swooped down angrily
+at her. A fighting craft could get through when the Miran fleet was
+withdrawn to some distance, but the Mirans were careful that no
+heavy-loaded freighter bearing power supply should get through.
+
+And Gresth Gkae waited off Luna in his great ship, and watched the
+steady streams of magnetic bombs exploding on the magnetic shield of the
+Lunar Fort. Presently more ships came up, and added their power to the
+attack, for here, the photo-cell banks could gather tremendous energy,
+and Gresth Gkae knew he would need to overcome this, and drain the
+accumulated power.
+
+Gresth Gkae felt certain if he could once crack this nut, break down
+Earth, he would have the system. This was the home planet. If this fell,
+then the two others would follow easily, despite the fact that the few
+forts on the innermost planet, Mercury, could gather energy from the sun
+at a rate greater than their ships could generate.
+
+It took Kendall two weeks and three days to set up his preliminary
+apparatus. They had power for perhaps four days more, thanks to the fact
+that the long Lunar day had begun shortly after Gresth Gkae's impatient
+attack had started. Also, the "S Doradus" had brought in several hundred
+tons of charged mercury on each trip, though this was no great quantity
+individually, it had mounted up in the ten trips she had made. The
+"Cepheid," her sister ship, had gone along on seven of the trips, and
+added to the total.
+
+But at length the apparatus was set up. It was peculiar looking, and it
+employed a great deal of power, nearly as much as a UV beam in fact.
+McLaurin looked at it sceptically toward the last, and asked Buck: "What
+do you expect it to do?"
+
+"I am," said Kendall sourly, "uncertain. The result will be uncertainty
+itself."
+
+Which, considering things, was a surprisingly accurate statement.
+Kendall gave the exact answer. He meant to give an ironic comment. For
+the mathematics had been perfectly correct, only Buck Kendall
+misinterpreted the answer.
+
+"I've followed the math with mechanism all the way through," he
+explained, "and I'm putting power into it. That's all I know. Somewhere,
+by the laws of cause and effect, this power _must_ show itself
+again--despite what the damn math says."
+
+And in that, of course, Kendall was wrong. Because the laws of cause and
+effect didn't hold in what he was doing now.
+
+"Do you want to watch?" he asked at length. "I'm all set to try it."
+
+"I suppose I may as well." McLaurin smiled. "In our close-knit little
+community the fate of one is of interest to all. If it's going to blow
+up, I might as well be here, and if it isn't, I want to be."
+
+Kendall smiled appreciatively and replied: "Let it be on thy own head.
+Here she goes."
+
+He walked over to the power board, and took command. Devin, and a squad
+of other scientists were seated about the room with every conceivable
+type and combination of apparatus. Kendall wanted to see what this was
+doing. "Tubes," he called. "Circuits A and D. Tie-ins." He stopped, the
+preliminary switches in. "Main circuit coming." With a jerk he threw
+over the last contact. A heavy relay thudded solidly. The hum of a
+straining atostor. Then--
+
+An electric motor, humming smoothly stopped with a jerk. "This," it
+remarked in a deep throaty voice, "is probably the last stand of
+humanity."
+
+The galvanometer before which Devin was seated apparently agreed. In a
+rather high pitched voice it pointed out that: "If the Lunar Fort falls,
+the Earth--" It stopped abruptly, and an electroscope beside Douglass
+took up the thread in a high, shrill voice, rather slurred, "--will be
+directly attacked."
+
+"This," resumed the motor in a hoarse voice, "will certainly mean the
+end of humanity." The motor gave up the discourse and hummed violently
+into action--in reverse!
+
+"My God!" Kendall pulled the switch open with a sagging jaw and staring
+eyes.
+
+The men in the room burst into sudden startled exclamations.
+
+Kendall didn't give them time. His jaw snapped shut, and a blazing light
+of wondrous joy shone in his eyes. He instantly threw the switch in
+again. Again the humming atostor, the strain--
+
+Slowly Devin lifted from his seat. With thrashing arms and startled,
+staring eyes, he drifted gently across the room. Abruptly he fell to the
+floor, unhurt by the light Lunar gravity.
+
+"I advise," said the motor in its grumbling voice, "an immediate
+exodus." It stopped speaking, and practiced what it preached. It was a
+fifty-horse motor-generator, on a five-ton tungsten-beryllium base, but
+it rose abruptly, spun rapidly about an axis at right angles to the axis
+of its armature, and stopped as suddenly. In mid air it continued its
+interrupted lecture. "Mercury therefore is the destination I would
+advise. There power is sufficient for--all machines." Gently it inverted
+itself and settled to the middle of the floor. Kendall instantly cut the
+switch. The relay did not chunk open. It refused to obey. Settled in the
+middle of the floor now, torn loose from its power leads, the
+motor-generator began turning. It turned faster and faster. It was
+shrilling in a thin scream of terrific speed, a speed that should have
+torn its windings to fragments under the lash of centrifugal force.
+Contentedly it said throatily. "Settled."
+
+The galvanometer spoke again in its peculiar harsh voice. "Therefore,
+move." Abruptly, without apparent reason, the stubborn relay clicked
+open. The shrilly screaming motor stopped dead instantly, as though it
+had had no real momentum, or had been inertialess.
+
+Startled, white-faced men looked at Kendall. Buck's eyes were shining
+with an unholy glee.
+
+"_Uncertainty!_" he shouted. "Uncertainty--uncertainty--uncertainty,
+you fools! Don't you see it? All the math--it said uncertainty--man,
+man--_we've got just that--uncertainty_!"
+
+"You're crazy," gasped McLaurin. "I'm crazy, everything's gone crazy."
+
+Kendall roared with sudden, joyous laughter. "Absolutely. Everything
+goes crazy--_the laws of nature break down_! Heisenberg's principle
+showed that the law of cause and effect weren't absolute. We've made
+them absolutely uncertain!"
+
+"But--but motors _talking_, instruments giving lectures--"
+
+"Certainly--or rather uncertainly--anything, absolutely anything. The
+destruction of the laws of gravity, freedom from inertia--why, merely
+picking up a radio lecture is nothing!"
+
+Suddenly, abruptly, a thousand questions poured in on him. Jubilantly he
+answered what he could, told what he thought--and then brought order.
+"The battle's still on, men--we've still got to find out how to use
+this, now we've got it. I have an idea--that there's a lot more. I know
+what I'll get this time. Now help me remake this apparatus so we don't
+broadcast the thing."
+
+At once, ten times the former pace, work was done. On the radio, news
+was sent out that Kendall was on the right track after all. In two hours
+the apparatus had been vastly altered, it was in the final stage, and an
+entirely different sort of field set up. Again they watched as Buck
+applied the power.
+
+The atostor hummed--but no strange tricks of matter happened this time.
+The more concentrated, altered field was, as Buck was to find out later,
+"Uncertainty of the Second Degree." It was molecular uncertainty. In a
+field a foot and a half in diameter, Buck saw the thing created--and
+suddenly a brilliant green-blue flame shot up, and a great dark cloud of
+terrible, red-brown deadly vapor. Then an instant later, Kendall had
+opened the relay. Gasping, the men ran from the laboratory, shutting the
+deadly fumes in. "N{2}O{4}" gasped Morton, the chemist, as they reached
+safety. "It's exothermic--but it formed there!"
+
+In that instant, Kendall grasped the meaning the choking fumes carried.
+"Molecular uncertainty!" he decided. "We're going back--we're getting
+there--"
+
+He altered the apparatus again, added another atostor in series, reduced
+the size of his sphere of forces--of strange chaos of uncertainty.
+Within--little was certain. Without--the laws of nature applied as ever.
+
+Again the apparatus was started, cautiously this time. Only a strange
+jumbled ionization appeared this time, then a slow, rising blue flame
+began to creep up, and burn hot and blue. Buck looked at it for a
+moment, then his face grew tense and thoughtful. "Devin--give me a
+half-dollar." Blankly, Devin reached in his pocket, and handed over the
+metal disc. Cautiously Buck Kendall tossed it toward the sphere of
+force. Instantly there was a flash of flame, soundless and soft-colored.
+Then the silver disc was outlined in light, and swiftly, inevitably
+crumbling into dust so fine only a blue haze appeared. In less than two
+seconds, the metal was gone. Only the dense blue fog remained. Then this
+began to go, and the leaping blue flame grew taller, and stronger.
+
+"We're on the track--I'm going to stop here, and calculate. Bring the
+data--"
+
+Kendall shut off the machine, and went to the calculation room. Swiftly
+he selected already prepared graphs, graphs of the math he had worked
+on. Devin came soon, and others. They assembled the data and with tables
+and arithmetical machines turned it into graphs.
+
+Then all these graphs were fed into the machine. There were curves, and
+sine-curves, abrupt breaking lines--but the answer that came when all
+were compounded was a perfect diagram of a flight of four steps,
+descending in unequal treads to zero.
+
+Kendall looked at it for long minutes. "That," he said at length, "is
+what I expected. There are four degrees of uncertainty, we generated
+'Uncertainty of the First Degree,' 'Mass Uncertainty,' when we started.
+That, as here shown, takes little energy concentration. Then we
+increased the energy concentration and got 'Uncertainty of the Second
+Degree,' 'Molecular Uncertainty.' Then I added more power, and reduced
+the field, and got 'Uncertainty of the Third Degree'--'Atomic
+Uncertainty.' There is 'Uncertainty of the Fourth Degree.' It is barely
+attainable with our atostors. It is--utter uncertainty.
+
+"In the First Degree, the laws of mass action fail, the great
+broad-reaching laws. In the Second Degree, the laws of the molecules, a
+finer organization, break down, and anything can happen in chemistry. In
+the Third Degree, the laws of atomic physics break down slowly. The atom
+is tough. It is very compact, and we just barely attained the
+concentration needed with that apparatus. But--in the Third Degree, when
+the Atomic Laws break down into utter uncertainty, the atoms break, and
+only hydrogen can exist. That was the blue flame.
+
+"But the Fourth Degree--_there is no law whatsoever_, nothing in all the
+Universe can exist. It means--_the utter destruction and release of the
+energy of matter_!" Kendall paused for a moment. "We have won, with
+this. We need only make up this apparatus--and maybe make it into a
+weapon. You know, in the Fourth Degree, nothing in all the Universe
+could resist, deflect, or control it, if launched freely, and
+self-maintaining. I think that might be done. You see, no law affects
+it, for it breaks down the law. Magnetism cannot attract or repel it
+because magnetic fields cannot exist; there is no law of magnetic force,
+where this field is.
+
+"And you know, Devin, how I have analyzed and duplicated their magnetic
+ball-fields. This should be capable of formation into a ball-field.
+
+"We need only make it up now. We will install it in the 'S Doradus' and
+the 'Cepheid' as a weapon. We need only install it as an energy source
+here. Let us start."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Buck Kendall with a slow smile, looked out of the port in the thick
+metal wall. The magnetic shield of the Lunar Fort was washed constantly
+with the fires of exploding magnetic bombs. The smile spread broader.
+"My friends," he said softly, "you can pull from now till doomsday as
+far as I'm concerned, and you won't even disturb us now." He looked back
+over his shoulder into the power room. A hunched bulk, beautifully
+designed and carefully finished, the apparatus that created 'Uncertainty
+of the Fourth Degree' was destroying matter, and creating by its
+destruction terrific electric fields. These fields were feeding the
+magnetic shield now. Under the present drain, the machine was not
+noticeably working. In fact, Kendall was a bit annoyed. He had tested
+out the energy generating properties of this machine, trying to find a
+limit. He had found there was no limit. The great copper conductors,
+charged with the same atostor force that was used in the mercury fuel,
+were perfect conductors, they had not heated. But the eleven thousand
+tons of discharged mercury metal had been completely charged in just a
+bit better than eleven minutes. The pumps wouldn't force it through the
+charging apparatus any faster than that.
+
+Two weeks more had passed, while the "S Doradus" and the "Cepheid" were
+fitted out with the new apparatus Buck had designed. They were almost
+ready to start now.
+
+McLaurin came down the corridor, and stopped near Kendall. He too smiled
+at the Miran's attempts. "They've got a long way to go, Buck."
+
+"They're going a long way. Clear back home--and we'll be right along. I
+don't think they can outdistance us."
+
+"I still don't see why you couldn't use one of those Uncertainty
+conditions--the First Degree perhaps, and annihilate our inertia."
+
+"You can't control Uncertainty. By its essential character it's beyond
+control."
+
+"What's that Fourth Degree machine of yours--the material energy--if it
+isn't controlled and utilized Uncertainty?"
+
+"It's utter and utterly uncontrolled Uncertainty. The matter within that
+field breaks down to absolutely nothing. Within, no law whatsoever
+applies, but fortunately, outside the old laws of physics apply--and we
+can gather and use the energy which is released outside, though nothing
+can be done inside. Why, think, man, if I could control that
+Uncertainty, I could do anything at all, absolutely anything. It would
+be a world as unreasonable as a bad dream. Think how unreasonable those
+manifestations we first got were!"
+
+"But can't you get any control at all?"
+
+"Very little. Anyway, if I could get inertialess conditions at will, I'd
+be afraid of them. They'd make chemical reactions impossible in all
+probability--and life is chemical. Two atoms must come into more or less
+violent contact before a union takes place, and cannot if they have
+neither momentum nor inertia.
+
+"Anyway--why worry. I can't do it, because I can't control this thing.
+And we have the extra-space drive."
+
+"How does that darned thing work? Can't you drop the math and tell me
+about it?"
+
+Kendall smiled. "Not too readily. Remember first, as to the driving
+system, that it works on the fabric of space. Space is, in the physical
+sense, a fabric woven of the threads of lines of force from every body
+in the universe, made up of fields and forces. It is elastic, and can
+transmit strains. But anything that can transmit strains, can be
+strained against. With the tremendous field intensities available by the
+material engines, I can get such fields as will 'dig their toes' into
+space and push.
+
+"That's the drive itself. It is accelerationless, because it enfolds us,
+and acts equally on every atom of us. By maintaining in addition a
+slight artificial gravity--thanks also to the intensity of those
+material engine fields--we can be comfortable, while we accelerate at
+tremendous rates.
+
+"That is, I think, at least allied to the Stranger's system. For the
+high-speed drive, I do in fact use the Uncertainty. I can control it in
+a certain sense by determining its powers, and the limits of
+uncertainty, whether First, Second, Third or Fourth Degree. It advances
+in jumps--but on a finer plotting of the curve, you can see that each
+jump represents a vast series of smaller jumps. That is, there is Class
+A, B, C, D, and so forth Uncertainty of the First Degree. Now Class A
+First Degree Uncertainty involves only the deepest, broadest principles.
+Only they break down. One of these is the law of the speed of light.
+
+"I'm sure that isn't the system the Strangers use, but I'm also sure
+there's no limit to the speed we can get."
+
+"Doesn't that wreck your drive system?"
+
+"No, because gravity and the fields I use in driving are First Degree
+Uncertainties of the higher classes.
+
+"But at any rate, it will work. And--I suspect you came to say you were
+ready to go."
+
+"I did." McLaurin nodded.
+
+"Still stick to your original plan?"
+
+McLaurin nodded. "I think it's best. You follow those fellows back to
+their system in the 'S Doradus' and I'll stay here in the 'Cepheid' to
+protect the system. They may need some time to get out of the place
+here. And remember, we ought to be as decent as they were. They didn't
+bother the transports leaving Jupiter when they came in, only attacked
+the warships. We're bound to do the same, but we'll have to keep a watch
+on them, nonetheless. So you go on ahead."
+
+They started down the corridor, and came presently to the huge locks
+where the "S Doradus" and the "Cepheid" were berthed. The super-ships
+lay cold and gray now, men swarming in and out with last-minute
+supplies. Air, water, spare parts, bedding and personal equipment.
+Douglass, Cole, and most of the laboratory staff would go with Kendall
+when he followed the Strangers home. Devin and a few of the most
+advanced physicists would stay with McLaurin in case of need.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour later the "S Doradus" rose gently, soundlessly from her berth,
+and floated out of the open lock-door. The "Cepheid" followed her in
+five seconds. Still under the great screen of the fort, the lashing,
+coruscating colors of the magnetic bombs and the magnetic screen flashed
+and was iridescent. The "S Doradus" poked her great nose gently through
+the screen, and an instant later her titanically powerful,
+material-engine effortlessly discharged a great magnetic bomb, sent with
+the combined power of five atomic-powered interstellar ships. The two
+ships separated now, the "Cepheid" under McLaurin flashing ahead with
+sudden, terrific acceleration toward Mars, whispering through space at a
+speed that made it undetectable, faster than light. The "S Doradus"
+journeyed out leisurely toward the fleet of forty-seven Miran ships.
+
+Gresth Gkae saw the "S Doradus" and as he watched the steady progress,
+felt sudden fear at his heart. The ship seemed so certain--
+
+At a distance of thirty thousand miles, Kendall stopped. Magnetic bombs
+were washing his screen continuously now, seeking to exhaust the ship as
+all the great ships beyond poured their energy against it. A slow smile
+spread over Kendall's mouth as he heard the gentle hum of the barely
+working material-engine. Carefully he aligned the nose UV beam of the "S
+Doradus" on the nearest of the Miran ships. Then he depressed a switch.
+
+There was no ion-release before the force-mirror now. Just a jet of gas
+whirling into a half-inch field of "Uncertainty of the Fourth Degree."
+The matter vanished instantly in released energy so stupendous that the
+greatest previous UV beams had been harmless things by comparison.
+Material energy maintained the mirror forces. Material energy gave the
+power that was released. And only material energy could have stood up
+before it. Thirty thousand miles away, a Miran ship flamed
+instantaneously into inconceivable incandescence, vanishing almost in
+blue-violet light of terrific intensity. The ship reeled away, a
+half-molten wreck.
+
+The beam spotted two more ships before it winked out. Then Kendall began
+sending bombs. He moved up to within 2000 miles that his aim might be
+accurate. They were bombs of "Uncertainty of the Third Degree," the
+Uncertainty of atomic law in bomb form. One hit the nose of the nearest
+ship, and a sphere five feet in diameter glowed mistily blue for a
+moment. Then very easily, the matter that formed the wall of the cruiser
+began to run and change, and presently there was only a hole, and an
+expanding cloud of gas. Three more flowed toward it--and the hole
+enlarged, and another hole appeared in a bulkhead behind.
+
+Kendall made a change. For the first time there came the staccato bark
+of the material engine under strain, as it fashioned the terrific fields
+of "Uncertainty of the Ultimate Degree." Abruptly they leapt out,
+invisible till they entered a magnetic screen, then run over with
+opalescent light as the energy of the field was sucked into them and
+released.
+
+It struck the nose of a ship--a field no larger than an apple--
+
+A titanic gout of energy burst out that was soundless in space. The ship
+suddenly opened back, opened like the peel of a banana, till a little
+nub remained at the further end, and the metal flaps dropped back across
+and behind it dejectedly. A second ship was struck, and it was struck on
+one side, so that it was shattered like a spent firecracker.
+
+Then the Miran fleet vanished in speed.
+
+Kendall followed them. "I think," he said with a grin, "they tried to
+use their radio beam, but it spread too much to do anything at that
+distance. And they used their rotating magnetic field, which we couldn't
+feel. And their crumbler ray too, of course. I wonder--are they headed
+only for Jupiter? No--no, they've passed it!"
+
+Faster than light, faster than energy could follow through space, or
+Uncertainty Bombs pursue, the Mirans were fleeing for home. They knew
+now that only in speed lay safety. Already they knew that a similar ship
+had appeared off Jupiter, and, after wiping out the Phobos and Mars
+stations with one bomb each, had cleared the Jovian Satellites with
+equal terrible efficiency.
+
+In one of the fleeing ships was a broken, tired old man, and his staff.
+Gresth Gkae looked back at the blank, distorted space behind them, at
+the swiftly dwindling sun, and spoke. "I was at fault, my friends. Jarth
+has spoken. _They_ are the stronger and the wiser race. Farth Skalt has
+shown you--they use space fields of intensity 100. That means the energy
+of the ultimate destruction. Jarth used us as his instrument of testing,
+only to drive and stimulate that race. I do not--nay. There is no doubt
+now, for look."
+
+Plainly visible, rapidly overtaking them, the "S Doradus" appeared
+sharp, and luminous on the jet of distorted space.
+
+"We cannot escape, my friends. Shall we return to Sthor or remain in
+space, lost?"
+
+"Let us deflect our course--at least he may not know our destination."
+The interstellar ship turned very slightly in her course. Plainly they
+saw the "S Doradus" flash on, in a straight line, headed for distant,
+red-glowing Mira. Gresth Gkae watched, and shrugged. Silently he put the
+ship back on its course, at its utmost speed. Parallel with them, near
+to them, the "S Doradus" flashed on. Day after day, the two hurled
+through space faster than light. Gradually Mira brightened, and at last
+became a disc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Gresth Gkae slowed his ships, and Kendall, watching, slowed to match his
+speed. Five billion miles from Sthor, they had reached normal space
+speeds. Viciously the Miran fleet attacked the lone ship from Earth.
+Their rays, their bombs, their every weapon was flaming. Great
+interstellar ships flashed suddenly into speeds greater than that of
+light, seeking to ram and destroy the smaller ship. The "S Doradus"
+flashed into equal or greater speed, and eluded them.
+
+Kendall had determined now, which was the leader's ship.
+
+Gresth Gkae watched dully as his ships attempted to destroy the single,
+small ship. He sighed in resignation, and turned to walk back to the
+chapel aboard the ship. One last prayer to Jarth--
+
+Gresth Gkae stopped abruptly. The great ship was lurching strangely. Men
+shouted sudden, frightened cries. The clanking and thud of relays
+sounded, the shrill of alarms. Then the alarms stopped, and suddenly the
+whole great ship vibrated to an infinitely deep voice speaking in
+perfect Sthorian. The voice remarked solemnly, in great, vibrant tones,
+that they would certainly receive news presently from the Expeditions.
+It went on for some seconds to discuss the conditions as reported in the
+new system. Then it stopped abruptly. An electric motor just above
+Gresth Gkae's head suddenly hummed into action without reason or power
+connection. Almost simultaneously he heard the shouts of startled men as
+the great lock doors began to open into space of their own accord,
+bulkhead doors slipped shut as the roar of escaping air echoed in the
+ship.
+
+Then it was all over. Gresth Gkae ran to the control room. The Mirans
+there looked up at him with drawn faces.
+
+"The instruments--Gresth Gkae--the instruments. The instruments read
+impossible things, the motors worked without reason, the fields
+fluctuated--the atomic engines stopped and the magnetic shield broke
+down and gripped part of the ship instead!" reported the bewildered
+pilot.
+
+"I do not know--some strange weapon of--" began the old scientist.
+Something luminous and huge twisted suddenly through space toward them,
+a bomb of "Uncertainty of the First Degree." It wrapped the ship
+silently--and again strange things happened. Abruptly the ship started
+whirling violently, yet without centrifugal force. The heavens wheeled
+crazily, and turned about three axes simultaneously. There was no
+gyroscopic effect to hold them!
+
+Gradually the thing died out. Then a great field seemed to catch the
+ship, and hurl it away from its companions. Abruptly the pilot applied
+all his power to pull free. In vain.
+
+Gresth Gkae shook his head slowly, and raised the pilot's hands from the
+board. "Let them do as they will. I think they mean us no real harm,
+Thart Kralt. They can, we know, destroy us in an instant. Perhaps he
+wants us to go somewhere with him"--Gresth Gkae smiled sadly--"and
+anyway, we can do nothing."
+
+For nearly a billion miles the great ship was hurled through space at
+tremendous normal-space velocity. Then abruptly it was halted, without a
+sign of strain or hurt. The great twenty-foot UV beam on the nose of the
+"S Doradus" broke into glowing gentle red light. It flashed twice. There
+was a pause. Then it flashed four times. A long wait. Then three times,
+a pause and nine times. A wait. Four times, a pause, sixteen times. Then
+it stopped.
+
+A slow smile of ineffable joy spread over Gresth Gkae's face. "Jarth Be
+Praised. He can destroy, but does not wish to. Ah, Thart Kralt, turn
+your spotlight toward him, and flash it twenty-five times, for he is
+trying to start communications with us. Jarth is wise beyond all
+understanding. They were the weaker race, and they are the stronger. But
+also they are the better, for they could destroy, and they do not, but
+seek only to communicate."
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE
+
+
+The interstellar liner "Mirasol" settled gently to Sthor, having circled
+wide of Asthor, and from her hold a cargo of the heavy Jovian elements
+was discharged, while a mixed stream of Solarians and Mirans came from
+her passenger quarters.
+
+A delegation of Mirans met the new Ambassador from Sol, Commander
+McLaurin, and conducted him joyfully to the Central Government Group.
+Beside the great buildings, a battered, scarred interstellar ship lay,
+her rear section a mass of great patches, rudely applied, and rudely
+made, mere cast metal plates.
+
+Gresth Gkae welcomed Commander McLaurin to the Government Hall. "Your
+arrival today, Commander McLaurin, was most fortunate," he said in the
+interstellar language that had been developed, "for but yesterday Gresth
+Talak, my brother, arrived in his ship. Before we made that
+fortunate-unfortunate expedition against your system, we waited for him,
+and he did not come, so we knew his ship had, like others, been lost.
+
+"He arrived only yesterday, some seventy hours ago, and explained how it
+had come about. He too found a solar system. But he was less fortunate
+than I, and while exploring this uninhabited system, far out still from
+the central sun, where there should have been no masses of matter, one
+of those rare things, a giant stony meteor that even a magnetic shield
+will not stop careened into the rear of his ship. Damaged badly, barely
+able to move, they settled to a planet. The atmosphere was breathable,
+the temperature mild. But while they could navigate planetary
+distances, they could not return, so for nearly four and a half of your
+years they remained there, working, working to repair their ship.
+
+"They have done it at last. And they have returned. And best of all,
+after a four-year stay there, they know all they need know about that
+system of eleven planets. It is compact as yours, with an ultra-light
+sun such as yours, and four of the planets are habitable. Together we
+can colonize that system! It is a system of stable heat and stable
+light. And it is small, yet large enough. And with the devices such as
+your new energy has permitted, we need never fear the stony meteors
+again." Gresth Gkae smiled happily. "Still better--it is inhabited only
+by the lowest forms of life. It is too costly to both races when Jarth
+sees fit to stimulate them by throwing one against the other, despite
+the good things that may come later."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Ultimate Weapon, by John Wood Campbell
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