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diff --git a/27588.txt b/27588.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..208a72e --- /dev/null +++ b/27588.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1083 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jupiter Weapon, by Charles Louis Fontenay + +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 Jupiter Weapon + +Author: Charles Louis Fontenay + +Release Date: December 22, 2008 [EBook #27588] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUPITER WEAPON *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Jana Srna and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + [ Transcriber's Note: + This etext was produced from "Amazing Science Fiction Stories" March + 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as + possible; changes (corrections of spelling and punctuation) made to + the original text are listed at the end of this file. + ] + + + THE + JUPITER + WEAPON + + By CHARLES L. FONTENAY + + + He was a living weapon of + destruction--immeasurably + powerful, utterly invulnerable. + There was only one + question: Was he human? + + +Trella feared she was in for trouble even before Motwick's head dropped +forward on his arms in a drunken stupor. The two evil-looking men at the +table nearby had been watching her surreptitiously, and now they shifted +restlessly in their chairs. + +Trella had not wanted to come to the Golden Satellite. It was a squalid +saloon in the rougher section of Jupiter's View, the terrestrial +dome-colony on Ganymede. Motwick, already drunk, had insisted. + +A woman could not possibly make her way through these streets alone to +the better section of town, especially one clad in a silvery evening +dress. Her only hope was that this place had a telephone. Perhaps she +could call one of Motwick's friends; she had no one on Ganymede she +could call a real friend herself. + +Tentatively, she pushed her chair back from the table and arose. She had +to brush close by the other table to get to the bar. As she did, the +dark, slick-haired man reached out and grabbed her around the waist with +a steely arm. + +Trella swung with her whole body, and slapped him so hard he nearly fell +from his chair. As she walked swiftly toward the bar, he leaped up to +follow her. + +There were only two other people in the Golden Satellite: the fat, +mustached bartender and a short, square-built man at the bar. The latter +swung around at the pistol-like report of her slap, and she saw that, +though no more than four and a half feet tall, he was as heavily muscled +as a lion. + +His face was clean and open, with close-cropped blond hair and honest +blue eyes. She ran to him. + +"Help me!" she cried. "Please help me!" + +He began to back away from her. + +"I can't," he muttered in a deep voice. "I can't help you. I can't do +anything." + + * * * * * + +The dark man was at her heels. In desperation, she dodged around the +short man and took refuge behind him. Her protector was obviously +unwilling, but the dark man, faced with his massiveness, took no +chances. He stopped and shouted: + +"Kregg!" + +The other man at the table arose, ponderously, and lumbered toward them. +He was immense, at least six and a half feet tall, with a brutal, vacant +face. + +Evading her attempts to stay behind him, the squat man began to move +down the bar away from the approaching Kregg. The dark man moved in on +Trella again as Kregg overtook his quarry and swung a huge fist like a +sledgehammer. + +Exactly what happened, Trella wasn't sure. She had the impression that +Kregg's fist connected squarely with the short man's chin _before_ he +dodged to one side in a movement so fast it was a blur. But that +couldn't have been, because the short man wasn't moved by that blow that +would have felled a steer, and Kregg roared in pain, grabbing his +injured fist. + +"The bar!" yelled Kregg. "I hit the damn bar!" + +At this juncture, the bartender took a hand. Leaning far over the bar, +he swung a full bottle in a complete arc. It smashed on Kregg's head, +splashing the floor with liquor, and Kregg sank stunned to his knees. +The dark man, who had grabbed Trella's arm, released her and ran for the +door. + +Moving agilely around the end of the bar, the bartender stood over +Kregg, holding the jagged-edged bottleneck in his hand menacingly. + +"Get out!" rumbled the bartender. "I'll have no coppers raiding my place +for the likes of you!" + +Kregg stumbled to his feet and staggered out. Trella ran to the +unconscious Motwick's side. + +"That means you, too, lady," said the bartender beside her. "You and +your boy friend get out of here. You oughtn't to have come here in the +first place." + +"May I help you, Miss?" asked a deep, resonant voice behind her. + +She straightened from her anxious examination of Motwick. The squat man +was standing there, an apologetic look on his face. + +She looked contemptuously at the massive muscles whose help had been +denied her. Her arm ached where the dark man had grasped it. The broad +face before her was not unhandsome, and the blue eyes were +disconcertingly direct, but she despised him for a coward. + +"I'm sorry I couldn't fight those men for you, Miss, but I just +couldn't," he said miserably, as though reading her thoughts. "But no +one will bother you on the street if I'm with you." + +"A lot of protection you'd be if they did!" she snapped. "But I'm +desperate. You can carry him to the Stellar Hotel for me." + + * * * * * + +The gravity of Ganymede was hardly more than that of Earth's moon, but +the way the man picked up the limp Motwick with one hand and tossed him +over a shoulder was startling: as though he lifted a feather pillow. He +followed Trella out the door of the Golden Satellite and fell in step +beside her. Immediately she was grateful for his presence. The dimly +lighted street was not crowded, but she didn't like the looks of the men +she saw. + +The transparent dome of Jupiter's View was faintly visible in the +reflected night lights of the colonial city, but the lights were +overwhelmed by the giant, vari-colored disc of Jupiter itself, riding +high in the sky. + +"I'm Quest Mansard, Miss," said her companion. "I'm just in from +Jupiter." + +"I'm Trella Nuspar," she said, favoring him with a green-eyed glance. +"You mean Io, don't you--or Moon Five?" + +"No," he said, grinning at her. He had an engaging grin, with even white +teeth. "I meant Jupiter." + +"You're lying," she said flatly. "No one has ever landed on Jupiter. It +would be impossible to blast off again." + +"My parents landed on Jupiter, and I blasted off from it," he said +soberly. "I was born there. Have you ever heard of Dr. Eriklund +Mansard?" + +"I certainly have," she said, her interest taking a sudden upward turn. +"He developed the surgiscope, didn't he? But his ship was drawn into +Jupiter and lost." + +"It was drawn into Jupiter, but he landed it successfully," said Quest. +"He and my mother lived on Jupiter until the oxygen equipment wore out +at last. I was born and brought up there, and I was finally able to +build a small rocket with a powerful enough drive to clear the planet." + +She looked at him. He was short, half a head shorter than she, but broad +and powerful as a man might be who had grown up in heavy gravity. He +trod the street with a light, controlled step, seeming to deliberately +hold himself down. + +"If Dr. Mansard succeeded in landing on Jupiter, why didn't anyone ever +hear from him again?" she demanded. + +"Because," said Quest, "his radio was sabotaged, just as his ship's +drive was." + +"Jupiter strength," she murmured, looking him over coolly. "You wear +Motwick on your shoulder like a scarf. But you couldn't bring yourself +to help a woman against two thugs." + +He flushed. + +"I'm sorry," he said. "That's something I couldn't help." + +"Why not?" + +"I don't know. It's not that I'm afraid, but there's something in me +that makes me back away from the prospect of fighting anyone." + +Trella sighed. Cowardice was a state of mind. It was peculiarly +inappropriate, but not unbelievable, that the strongest and most agile +man on Ganymede should be a coward. Well, she thought with a rush of +sympathy, he couldn't help being what he was. + + * * * * * + +They had reached the more brightly lighted section of the city now. +Trella could get a cab from here, but the Stellar Hotel wasn't far. They +walked on. + +Trella had the desk clerk call a cab to deliver the unconscious Motwick +to his home. She and Quest had a late sandwich in the coffee shop. + +"I landed here only a week ago," he told her, his eyes frankly admiring +her honey-colored hair and comely face. "I'm heading for Earth on the +next spaceship." + +"We'll be traveling companions, then," she said. "I'm going back on that +ship, too." + +For some reason she decided against telling him that the assignment on +which she had come to the Jupiter system was to gather his own father's +notebooks and take them back to Earth. + + * * * * * + +Motwick was an irresponsible playboy whom Trella had known briefly on +Earth, and Trella was glad to dispense with his company for the +remaining three weeks before the spaceship blasted off. She found +herself enjoying the steadier companionship of Quest. + +As a matter of fact, she found herself enjoying his companionship more +than she intended to. She found herself falling in love with him. + +Now this did not suit her at all. Trella had always liked her men tall +and dark. She had determined that when she married it would be to a +curly-haired six-footer. + +She was not at all happy about being so strongly attracted to a man +several inches shorter than she. She was particularly unhappy about +feeling drawn to a man who was a coward. + +The ship that they boarded on Moon Nine was one of the newer ships that +could attain a hundred-mile-per-second velocity and take a hyperbolic +path to Earth, but it would still require fifty-four days to make the +trip. So Trella was delighted to find that the ship was the _Cometfire_ +and its skipper was her old friend, dark-eyed, curly-haired Jakdane +Gille. + +"Jakdane," she said, flirting with him with her eyes as in days gone +by, "I need a chaperon this trip, and you're ideal for the job." + +"I never thought of myself in quite that light, but maybe I'm getting +old," he answered, laughing. "What's your trouble, Trella?" + +"I'm in love with that huge chunk of man who came aboard with me, and +I'm not sure I ought to be," she confessed. "I may need protection +against myself till we get to Earth." + +"If it's to keep you out of another fellow's clutches, I'm your man," +agreed Jakdane heartily. "I always had a mind to save you for myself. +I'll guarantee you won't have a moment alone with him the whole trip." + +"You don't have to be that thorough about it," she protested hastily. "I +want to get a little enjoyment out of being in love. But if I feel +myself weakening too much, I'll holler for help." + +The _Cometfire_ swung around great Jupiter in an opening arc and +plummeted ever more swiftly toward the tight circles of the inner +planets. There were four crew members and three passengers aboard the +ship's tiny personnel sphere, and Trella was thrown with Quest almost +constantly. She enjoyed every minute of it. + +She told him only that she was a messenger, sent out to Ganymede to pick +up some important papers and take them back to Earth. She was tempted to +tell him what the papers were. Her employer had impressed upon her that +her mission was confidential, but surely Dom Blessing could not object +to Dr. Mansard's son knowing about it. + +All these things had happened before she was born, and she did not know +what Dom Blessing's relation to Dr. Mansard had been, but it must have +been very close. She knew that Dr. Mansard had invented the surgiscope. + +This was an instrument with a three-dimensional screen as its heart. The +screen was a cubical frame in which an apparently solid image was built +up of an object under an electron microscope. + + * * * * * + +The actual cutting instrument of the surgiscope was an ion stream. By +operating a tool in the three-dimensional screen, corresponding +movements were made by the ion stream on the object under the +microscope. The principle was the same as that used in operation of +remote control "hands" in atomic laboratories to handle hot material, +and with the surgiscope very delicate operations could be performed at +the cellular level. + +Dr. Mansard and his wife had disappeared into the turbulent atmosphere +of Jupiter just after his invention of the surgiscope, and it had been +developed by Dom Blessing. Its success had built Spaceway Instruments, +Incorporated, which Blessing headed. + +Through all these years since Dr. Mansard's disappearance, Blessing had +been searching the Jovian moons for a second, hidden laboratory of Dr. +Mansard. When it was found at last, he sent Trella, his most trusted +secretary, to Ganymede to bring back to him the notebooks found there. + +Blessing would, of course, be happy to learn that a son of Dr. Mansard +lived, and would see that he received his rightful share of the +inheritance. Because of this, Trella was tempted to tell Quest the good +news herself; but she decided against it. It was Blessing's privilege to +do this his own way, and he might not appreciate her meddling. + + * * * * * + +At midtrip, Trella made a rueful confession to Jakdane. + +"It seems I was taking unnecessary precautions when I asked you to be a +chaperon," she said. "I kept waiting for Quest to do something, and when +he didn't I told him I loved him." + +"What did he say?" + +"It's very peculiar," she said unhappily. "He said he _can't_ love me. +He said he wants to love me and he feels that he should, but there's +something in him that refuses to permit it." + +She expected Jakdane to salve her wounded feelings with a sympathetic +pleasantry, but he did not. Instead, he just looked at her very +thoughtfully and said no more about the matter. + +He explained his attitude after Asrange ran amuck. + +Asrange was the third passenger. He was a lean, saturnine individual who +said little and kept to himself as much as possible. He was distantly +polite in his relations with both crew and other passengers, and never +showed the slightest spark of emotion ... until the day Quest squirted +coffee on him. + +It was one of those accidents that can occur easily in space. The +passengers and the two crewmen on that particular waking shift +(including Jakdane) were eating lunch on the center-deck. Quest picked +up his bulb of coffee, but inadvertently pressed it before he got it to +his lips. The coffee squirted all over the front of Asrange's clean +white tunic. + +"I'm sorry!" exclaimed Quest in distress. + +The man's eyes went wide and he snarled. So quickly it seemed +impossible, he had unbuckled himself from his seat and hurled himself +backward from the table with an incoherent cry. He seized the first +object his hand touched--it happened to be a heavy wooden cane leaning +against Jakdane's bunk--propelled himself like a projectile at Quest. + +Quest rose from the table in a sudden uncoiling of movement. He did not +unbuckle his safety belt--he rose and it snapped like a string. + +For a moment Trella thought he was going to meet Asrange's assault. But +he fled in a long leap toward the companionway leading to the +astrogation deck above. Landing feet-first in the middle of the table +and rebounding, Asrange pursued with the stick upraised. + +In his haste, Quest missed the companionway in his leap and was cornered +against one of the bunks. Asrange descended on him like an avenging +angel and, holding onto the bunk with one hand, rained savage blows on +his head and shoulders with the heavy stick. + +Quest made no effort to retaliate. He cowered under the attack, holding +his hands in front of him as if to ward it off. In a moment, Jakdane and +the other crewman had reached Asrange and pulled him off. + + * * * * * + +When they had Asrange in irons, Jakdane turned to Quest, who was now +sitting unhappily at the table. + +"Take it easy," he advised. "I'll wake the psychosurgeon and have him +look you over. Just stay there." + +Quest shook his head. + +"Don't bother him," he said. "It's nothing but a few bruises." + +"Bruises? Man, that club could have broken your skull! Or a couple of +ribs, at the very least." + +"I'm all right," insisted Quest; and when the skeptical Jakdane insisted +on examining him carefully, he had to admit it. There was hardly a mark +on him from the blows. + +"If it didn't hurt you any more than that, why didn't you take that +stick away from him?" demanded Jakdane. "You could have, easily." + +"I couldn't," said Quest miserably, and turned his face away. + +Later, alone with Trella on the control deck, Jakdane gave her some +sober advice. + +"If you think you're in love with Quest, forget it," he said. + +"Why? Because he's a coward? I know that ought to make me despise him, +but it doesn't any more." + +"Not because he's a coward. Because he's an android!" + +"What? Jakdane, you can't be serious!" + +"I am. I say he's an android, an artificial imitation of a man. It all +figures. + +"Look, Trella, he said he was born on Jupiter. A human could stand the +gravity of Jupiter, inside a dome or a ship, but what human could stand +the rocket acceleration necessary to break free of Jupiter? Here's a man +strong enough to break a spaceship safety belt just by getting up out of +his chair against it, tough enough to take a beating with a heavy stick +without being injured. How can you believe he's really human?" + +Trella remembered the thug Kregg striking Quest in the face and then +crying that he had injured his hand on the bar. + +"But he said Dr. Mansard was his father," protested Trella. + +"Robots and androids frequently look on their makers as their parents," +said Jakdane. "Quest may not even know he's artificial. Do you know how +Mansard died?" + +"The oxygen equipment failed, Quest said." + +"Yes. Do you know when?" + +"No. Quest never did tell me, that I remember." + +"He told me: a year before Quest made his rocket flight to Ganymede! If +the oxygen equipment failed, how do you think _Quest_ lived in the +poisonous atmosphere of Jupiter, if he's human?" + +Trella was silent. + +"For the protection of humans, there are two psychological traits built +into every robot and android," said Jakdane gently. "The first is that +they can never, under any circumstances, attack a human being, even in +self defense. The second is that, while they may understand sexual +desire objectively, they can never experience it themselves. + +"Those characteristics fit your man Quest to a T, Trella. There is no +other explanation for him: he must be an android." + + * * * * * + +Trella did not want to believe Jakdane was right, but his reasoning +was unassailable. Looking upon Quest as an android, many things were +explained: his great strength, his short, broad build, his immunity to +injury, his refusal to defend himself against a human, his inability +to return Trella's love for him. + +It was not inconceivable that she should have unknowingly fallen in love +with an android. Humans could love androids, with real affection, even +knowing that they were artificial. There were instances of android +nursemaids who were virtually members of the families owning them. + +She was glad now that she had not told Quest of her mission to Ganymede. +He thought he was Dr. Mansard's son, but an android had no legal right +of inheritance from his owner. She would leave it to Dom Blessing to +decide what to do about Quest. + +Thus she did not, as she had intended originally, speak to Quest about +seeing him again after she had completed her assignment. Even if Jakdane +was wrong and Quest was human--as now seemed unlikely--Quest had told +her he could not love her. Her best course was to try to forget him. + +Nor did Quest try to arrange with her for a later meeting. + +"It has been pleasant knowing you, Trella," he said when they left the +G-boat at White Sands. A faraway look came into his blue eyes, and he +added: "I'm sorry things couldn't have been different, somehow." + +"Let's don't be sorry for what we can't help," she said gently, taking +his hand in farewell. + +Trella took a fast plane from White Sands, and twenty-four hours later +walked up the front steps of the familiar brownstone house on the +outskirts of Washington. + +Dom Blessing himself met her at the door, a stooped, graying man who +peered at her over his spectacles. + +"You have the papers, eh?" he said, spying the brief case. "Good, good. +Come in and we'll see what we have, eh?" + +She accompanied him through the bare, windowless anteroom which had +always seemed to her such a strange feature of this luxurious house, +and they entered the big living room. They sat before a fire in the +old-fashioned fireplace and Blessing opened the brief case with +trembling hands. + +"There are things here," he said, his eyes sparkling as he glanced +through the notebooks. "Yes, there are things here. We shall make +something of these, Miss Trella, eh?" + +"I'm glad they're something you can use, Mr. Blessing," she said. +"There's something else I found on my trip, that I think I should tell +you about." + +She told him about Quest. + +"He thinks he's the son of Dr. Mansard," she finished, "but apparently +he is, without knowing it, an android Dr. Mansard built on Jupiter." + +"He came back to Earth with you, eh?" asked Blessing intently. + +"Yes. I'm afraid it's your decision whether to let him go on living as a +man or to tell him he's an android and claim ownership as Dr. Mansard's +heir." + +Trella planned to spend a few days resting in her employer's spacious +home, and then to take a short vacation before resuming her duties as +his confidential secretary. The next morning when she came down from her +room, a change had been made. + +Two armed men were with Dom Blessing at breakfast and accompanied him +wherever he went. She discovered that two more men with guns were +stationed in the bare anteroom and a guard was stationed at every +entrance to the house. + +"Why all the protection?" she asked Blessing. + +"A wealthy man must be careful," said Blessing cheerfully. "When we +don't understand all the implications of new circumstances, we must be +prepared for anything, eh?" + +There was only one new circumstance Trella could think of. Without +actually intending to, she exclaimed: + +"You aren't afraid of Quest? Why, an android can't hurt a human!" + +Blessing peered at her over his spectacles. + +"And what if he isn't an android, eh? And if he is--what if old Mansard +didn't build in the prohibition against harming humans that's required +by law? What about that, eh?" + +Trella was silent, shocked. There was something here she hadn't known +about, hadn't even suspected. For some reason, Dom Blessing feared Dr. +Eriklund Mansard ... or his heir ... or his mechanical servant. + + * * * * * + +She was sure that Blessing was wrong, that Quest, whether man or android, +intended no harm to him. Surely, Quest would have said something of +such bitterness during their long time together on Ganymede and aspace, +since he did not know of Trella's connection with Blessing. But, since +this was to be the atmosphere of Blessing's house, she was glad that he +decided to assign her to take the Mansard papers to the New York +laboratory. + +Quest came the day before she was scheduled to leave. + +Trella was in the living room with Blessing, discussing the instructions +she was to give to the laboratory officials in New York. The two +bodyguards were with them. The other guards were at their posts. + +Trella heard the doorbell ring. The heavy oaken front door was kept +locked now, and the guards in the anteroom examined callers through a +tiny window. + +Suddenly alarm bells rang all over the house. There was a terrific crash +outside the room as the front door splintered. There were shouts and the +sound of a shot. + +"The steel doors!" cried Blessing, turning white. "Let's get out of +here." + +He and his bodyguards ran through the back of the house out of the +garage. + +Blessing, ahead of the rest, leaped into one of the cars and started the +engine. + +The door from the house shattered and Quest burst through. The two +guards turned and fired together. + +He could be hurt by bullets. He was staggered momentarily. + +Then, in a blur of motion, he sprang forward and swept the guards aside +with one hand with such force that they skidded across the floor and lay +in an unconscious heap against the rear of the garage. Trella had opened +the door of the car, but it was wrenched from her hand as Blessing +stepped on the accelerator and it leaped into the driveway with spinning +wheels. + +Quest was after it, like a chunky deer, running faster than Trella had +ever seen a man run before. + +Blessing slowed for the turn at the end of the driveway and glanced back +over his shoulder. Seeing Quest almost upon him, he slammed down the +accelerator and twisted the wheel hard. + +The car whipped into the street, careened, and rolled over and over, +bringing up against a tree on the other side in a twisted tangle of +wreckage. + +With a horrified gasp, Trella ran down the driveway toward the smoking +heap of metal. Quest was already beside it, probing it. As she reached +his side, he lifted the torn body of Dom Blessing. Blessing was dead. + +"I'm lucky," said Quest soberly. "I would have murdered him." + +"But why, Quest? I knew he was afraid of you, but he didn't tell me +why." + +"It was conditioned into me," answered Quest "I didn't know it until +just now, when it ended, but my father conditioned me psychologically +from my birth to the task of hunting down Dom Blessing and killing him. +It was an unconscious drive in me that wouldn't release me until the +task was finished. + +"You see, Blessing was my father's assistant on Ganymede. Right after my +father completed development of the surgiscope, he and my mother blasted +off for Io. Blessing wanted the valuable rights to the surgiscope, and +he sabotaged the ship's drive so it would fall into Jupiter. + +"But my father was able to control it in the heavy atmosphere of Jupiter, +and landed it successfully. I was born there, and he conditioned me to +come to Earth and track down Blessing. I know now that it was part of +the conditioning that I was unable to fight any other man until my task +was finished: it might have gotten me in trouble and diverted me from +that purpose." + +More gently than Trella would have believed possible for his +Jupiter-strong muscles, Quest took her in his arms. + +"Now I can say I love you," he said. "That was part of the conditioning +too: I couldn't love any woman until my job was done." + +Trella disengaged herself. + +"I'm sorry," she said. "Don't you know this, too, now: that you're not a +man, but an android?" + +He looked at her in astonishment, stunned by her words. + +"What in space makes you think that?" he demanded. + +"Why, Quest, it's obvious," she cried, tears in her eyes. "Everything +about you ... your build, suited for Jupiter's gravity ... your strength +... the fact that you were able to live in Jupiter's atmosphere after +the oxygen equipment failed. I know you think Dr. Mansard was your +father, but androids often believe that." + +He grinned at her. + +"I'm no android," he said confidently. "Do you forget my father was +inventor of the surgiscope? He knew I'd have to grow up on Jupiter, and +he operated on the genes before I was born. He altered my inherited +characteristics to adapt me to the climate of Jupiter ... even to being +able to breathe a chlorine atmosphere as well as an oxygen atmosphere." + +Trella looked at him. He was not badly hurt, any more than an elephant +would have been, but his tunic was stained with red blood where the +bullets had struck him. Normal android blood was green. + +"How can you be sure?" she asked doubtfully. + +"Androids are made," he answered with a laugh. "They don't grow up. And +I remember my boyhood on Jupiter very well." + +He took her in his arms again, and this time she did not resist. His +lips were very human. + + THE END + + + + +[ Transcriber's Note: + + The following is a list of corrections made to the original. The first + line is the original line, the second the corrected one. + + destruction--immeasureably + destruction--immeasurably + +dome-colony on Ganymede. Motwick, already, drunk, had insisted. +dome-colony on Ganymede. Motwick, already drunk, had insisted. + +her mission was confidential, but surely Dom Blesssing could not object +her mission was confidential, but surely Dom Blessing could not object + +microscope. The principal was the same as that used in operation of +microscope. The principle was the same as that used in operation of +] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Jupiter Weapon, by Charles Louis Fontenay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JUPITER WEAPON *** + +***** This file should be named 27588.txt or 27588.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/5/8/27588/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Jana Srna and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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