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Sadly the convalescent Gresth Gkae listened to the reports of hislieutenants. More and more disgraced he felt as he realized how badly hehad blundered in reporting the people of this system unable to cope withthe attackers' weapons. Gresth Gkae looked up at his old friend andphysician, Merth Skahl. He shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid, MerthSkahl. I am afraid. We have, perhaps, made a mistake. The better and thestronger alone should rule. Aye, but is the _stronger_ always the_better_? I am afraid we have mistaken the Truth in assuming this. If wehave--then may Jarth, Lord of Truth and Wisdom punish us. Mighty Jarth,if I have mistaken in following my judgments, it is not fromdisobedience, it is lack of Thy knowledge. The strongest--they are notalways 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 Jarthhimself can ask no better of any one. You must rest, for only by restcan those terrible burns be healed. All your _stheen_ over half thebody-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 thebest always the strongest? An imbecile adult could destroy the life of agenius-grade child. The strongest wins, but not the best. Such would notbe the will of Jarth. If we be the stronger, _and_ the best, then it isright and just that these strange creatures should be destroyed that wemay have a stable world of stable light and heat. But look and see, withwhat terrible swiftness these strange creatures have learned! May it notbe they are the better race--that it is _we_ who are the weaker and thepoorer? Can it be that Jarth has brought us together that these peoplemight learn--and destroy us? If they be the stronger, and thebetter--then may Jarth's will be done. But we must test our strength tothe utmost. I must rise, and go to my laboratory soon. They have set itup?"
"Aye, they have, Gresth Gkae. But remember, the weak and the sick makefaults 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 theseterrible burns."
"You are wrong, my friend, wrong. Don't you see that my mind isclear--that it is the mind which must fight in these battles, for surelythe man is weak against such things as this infra-X-radiation? Why, I ambetter able to fight now than are you, for I am a trained fighter of themind, while you are a trained healer of the body. These strange beingswith their stiff arms and legs, their tender skins, and--and their swiftminds have fought us all too well. If we must test, let it be a test. Ihave 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 incommand, 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 stayhere, but if, as you have said, the mind is what must fight, then surelyyou can fight well from here, for your mind is here."
"No, I cannot, and you well know it. I may shorten my life, but whatmatter. 'Death is the end toward which the chemical reaction, Life,tends,'" quoted the scientist. "You know I have left my children--myimmortality is assured through them. I can afford to die in peace, if itassures their welfare. Time is precious, and while my mind might workfrom here, it must have data on which to work. For that, I must go tothe laboratories. Help me, Merth Skahl."
Reluctantly the physician granted the request, but begged of Gresth Gkaea promise of at least six hours rest in every fifteen, and a good sleepof at least twenty-seven hours every "night." Gresth Gkae agreed, andfrom a wheelchair, conducted his work, began a new line ofexperimentation he hoped would yield them the weapon they needed. Underhim, the staff of scientists worked, aiding and advising and suggesting.The apparatus was built, tested, and found wanting. Time and again asthe days passed, they watched Gresth Gkae, gaining strength very, veryslowly, taken away despondent at the end of his forty hours of work.
A dozen expeditions were sent to Jupiter's poles to watch and measureand study the tremendous auroral displays there, where Jupiter's vastmagnetic field sucked in countless quintillions of the flying electronsfrom the sun, and brought them circling in, in a vast, magnificentdisplay of auroral ionization.
* * * * *
Expeditions went to the great Southern Plateau, the Plateau of Storms,where the titanic air currents resulted in an everlasting display ofterrific lightnings, great burning balls of electric force floatingdangerous and deadly across the frozen, ultra-cold plain.
And the expeditions brought back data. Yet still Gresth Gkae could notsleep, his thoughts intruding constantly. Hours Merth Skahl spent withhim, calming him to sleep.
"But what is this constant search? It is little enough I know ofscience, but why do you send our men to these spots of wonderfullybeautiful, 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 thestrange balls of electric force I want to know about. Sthor had few, butoccasionally we saw them. Never were they properly investigated. I wantto know their secret, for I am sure they are balls of electric forcesnot vastly dissimilar from the nucleus of the atom. Always we have knownthat no system of purely electrical forces could remain stable. Yetthese strange balls of energy do. How is it? I am sure it will be ofvast importance. But the direct secret I hope to learn is in this: Whatcan be done with electric fields can nearly always be duplicated, orparalleled in magnetic fields. If I can learn how to make theseelectric balls of energy, can I not hope to make similar magnetic ballsof energy?"
"Yes, I see--that would seem true. But what benefit would you derivefrom that? You have magnetic beams now, and yet they are useless becauseyou 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 twosmall atomic bombs destroy it. But--we cannot stay near, for theterrible infra-X-rays of theirs burn holes in our ships, and--in ourmen.
"But look you, I can drop many atomic bombs from a distance where theirbeams are ineffective. Suppose I _do_ make a magnetic ball of energy, amagnetic bomb. Then--I can drop it from a distance! We have learned thatthe power supply of these forts is very great--but not endless, as isours now, thanks to the vast supplies of power metal on this heavyplanet. Then all we need do is stay at a distance where they cannotreach us--and drop magnetic bombs. Ah, they will be stopped, and theirenergy absorbed. But we can keep it up, day after day, and slowly drainout their power. Then--then our atomic bombs can destroy those forts,and we can move on!" But suddenly the animation and strength left hisvoice. 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 worryingwork. You need time, Gresth Gkae, only time for success. Tomorrow it maybe 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 theywere sending electric bombs across the laboratory. And in three daysmore, a magnetic bomb streaked dully across the laboratory to a magneticshield they had set up, and buried itself in it, to explode in brilliantlight and heat.
From that day Gresth Gkae began to mend. In the three weeks that wereneeded to build the apparatus into ships, he regained strength so thatwhen the first flight of five interstellar ships rose from Jupiter, hewas 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 ofMars below. The Mars Center and Deenmor forts were wasting no powerraying a ship at that distance. They could, of course, have damag
ed it,but not severely enough to make up for the loss of their strictlylimited power. The photocells had been working overtime, every minute ofavailable light had been used, and still scarcely 2100 tons of chargedmercury remained in the tanks of Mars Center and 1950 in the tanks atDeenmor.
The flight of five ships settled comfortably upon Phobos, while thethree relieved of duty started back to Jupiter. Immediately work wasbegun on the attack. The ships were first landed on the near side, whilethe apparatus of the projectors was unloaded, then the great ships movedaround to the far side. Phobos of course rotated with one face fixedirrevocably toward Mars itself, the other always to the cold of space.Great power leads trailed beneath the ships, and to the dark side. Thenthere were huge water lines for cooling. On this almost weightlessworld, where the great ships weighing hundreds of thousands of tons on aplanet, weighed so little they were frequently moved about by a singleman, the laying of five miles of water conduit was no impossibility.
Then they were ready. Mars Center came first. Automatic devices kept theaim exact, as the first of the magnetic bombs started down. Atfive-second intervals they were projected outward, invisible globes ofconcentrated magnetic energy, undetectable in space. Seven secondspassed before the first became dimly visible in the thin air of Mars. Itfloated down, it would miss the fort it seemed--so far to one side--Abruptly it turned, and darted with tremendously accelerating speed forthe great magnetic field of the fort. With a vast blast of light, itexploded. Five seconds later a second exploded. And a third.
Mars Center signaled scoffingly that the bombs were all being stoppeddead in the magnetic atmosphere, after the bombardment had beenwitnessed from Earth and Luna. An hour later they gave a report thatthey were concentrated magnetic fields of energy that would be ratherdangerous--if it weren't that they couldn't even stand into the magneticatmosphere. Three hours later Mars Center reported that they containedconsiderably more energy than had at first been thought. Further, whichthey had not carefully considered at first, they were taking energy withthem! They were taking away about an equal amount of energy as each blewup.
It was only a half-hour after that that the men at Mars Center realizedperfectly what it meant. Their power was being drained just a little bitbetter than twice as fast as they generated during the day--and sincePhobos 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 onPhobos--but where?
The Mirans were experts at camouflage. Deenmor Station, realizing themenace, immediately rayed the "projector." They tore up a great deal ofharmless rock with their huge UV rays. But the bomb device continued tothrow one bomb each five seconds.
When Deenmor operated from Phobos' position, Mars Center was exposed tothe deadly, constant drain. A day or two later, the bombs were comingone each second and a half, for more ships had joined in the work onPhobos.
Gresth Gkae saw the work was going nicely. He knew that now it was onlya question of time before those magnetic shields would fail--and thenthe whole fort would be powerless. Maybe--it might be a good idea, whenthe forts were powerless to investigate instead of blowing them up.There might be many interesting and worthwhile pieces ofapparatus--particularly the UV beam's apparatus.
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