Skylark Three

by E. E. Smith

  CHAPTER XIII

  The Declaration of War

  The capital city of the Fenachrone lay in a jungle plain surrounded bytowering hills. A perfect circle of immense diameter, its buildings ofuniform height, of identical design, and constructed of the same dullgray, translucent metal, were arranged in concentric circles, like theannular rings seen upon the stump of a tree. Between each ring ofbuildings and the one next inside it there were lagoons, lawns andgroves--lagoons of tepid, sullenly-steaming water; lawns which wereveritable carpets of lush, rank rushes and of dank mosses; groves ofpalms, gigantic ferns, bamboos, and numerous tropical growths unknown toEarthly botany. At the very edge of the city began jungle unrelieved andprimeval; the impenetrable, unconquerable jungle, possible only to suchmeteorological conditions as obtained there. Wind there was none, norsunshine. Only occasionally was the sun of that reeking world visiblethrough the omnipresent fog, a pale, wan disk; always the atmosphere wasone of oppressive, hot, humid vapor. In the exact center of the cityrose an immense structure, a terraced cone of buildings, as thoughimmense disks of smaller and smaller diameter had been piled one uponthe other. In these apartments dwelt the nobility and the high officialsof the Fenachrone. In the highest disk of all, invisible always from thesurface of the planet because of the all-enshrouding mist, were theapartments of the Emperor of that monstrous race.

  Seated upon low, heavily-built metal stools about the great table in thecouncil-room were Fenor, Emperor of the Fenachrone; Fenimol, hisGeneral-in-Command, and the full Council of Eleven of the planet. Beingprojected in the air before them was a three-dimensional moving, talkingpicture--the report of the sole survivor of the warship that hadattacked the _Skylark II_. In exact accordance with the facts as theengineer knew them, the details of the battle and complete informationconcerning the conquerors were shown. As vividly as though the scenewere being re-enacted before their eyes they saw the captive revive inthe _Violet_, and heard the conversation between the engineer, DuQuesne,and Loring.

  In the _Violet_ they sped for days and weeks, with ever-mountingvelocity, toward the system of the Fenachrone. Finally, power reversed,they approached it, saw the planet looming large, and passed within thedetector screen.

  DuQuesne tightened the controls of the attractors, which had never beenentirely released from their prisoner, thus again pinning the Fenachronehelplessly against the wall.

  "Just to be sure you don't try to start something," he explained coldly."You have done well so far, but I'll run things myself from now on, sothat you can't steer us into a trap. Now tell me exactly how to goabout getting one of your vessels. After we get it, I'll see aboutletting you go."

  "Fools, you are too late! You would have been too late, even had youkilled me out there in space and had fled at your utmost acceleration.Did you but know it, you are as dead, even now--our patrol is upon you!"

  DuQuesne whirled, snarling, and his automatic and that of Loring wereleaping out when an awful acceleration threw them flat upon the floor, amagnetic force snatched away their weapons, and a heat-ray reduced themto two small piles of gray ash. Immediately thereafter a beam of forcefrom the patrolling cruiser neutralized the retractors bearing upon thecaptive, and he was transferred to the rescuing vessel.

  The emergency report ended, and with a brief "Torpedo message fromflagship Y427W resumed at point of interruption," the report from theill-fated vessel continued the story of its own destruction, but addedlittle in the already complete knowledge of the disaster.

  Fenor of the Fenachrone leaped up from the table, his terrible,flame-shot eyes glaring venomously--teetering in Berserk rage upon hisblock-like legs--but he did not for one second take his full attentionfrom the report until it had been completed. Then he seized the nearestobject, which happened to be his chair, and with all his enormousstrength hurled it across the floor, where it lay, a tattered, twisted,shapeless mass of metal.

  "Thus shall we treat the entire race of the accursed beings who havedone this!" he stormed, his heavy voice reverberating throughout theroom. "Torture, dismemberment and annihilation to every...."

  "Fenor of the Fenachrone!" a tremendous voice, a full octave lower thanFenor's own terrific bass, and of ear-shattering volume and timbre inthat dense atmosphere boomed from the general-wave speaker, itsdeafening roar drowning out Fenor's raging voice and every other lessersound.

  "Fenor of the Fenachrone! I know that you hear, for every general-wavespeaker upon your reeking planet is voicing my words. Listen well, forthis warning shall not be repeated. I am speaking by and with theauthority of the Overlord of the Green System, which you know as theCentral System of this, our Galaxy. Upon some of our many planets thereare those who wished to destroy you without warning and out of hand, butthe Overlord has ruled that you may continue to live provided you heedthese, his commands, which he has instructed me to lay upon you.

  "You must forthwith abandon forever your vainglorious and senselessscheme of universal conquest. You must immediately withdraw your everyvessel to within the boundaries of your solar system, and you must keepthem there henceforth.

  "You are allowed five minutes to decide whether or not you will obeythese commands. If no answer has been received at the end of thecalculated time the Overlord will know that you have defied him, andyour entire race shall perish utterly. Well he knows that your veryexistence is an affront to all real civilization, but he holds that evensuch vileness incarnate, as are the Fenachrone, may perchance have someobscure place in the Great Scheme of Things, and he will not destroy youif you are content to remain in your proper place, upon your own dankand steaming world. Through me, the two thousand three hundred andforty-sixth Sacner Carfon of Dasor, the Overlord has given you yourfirst, last and only warning. Heed its every word, or consider it theformal declaration of a war of utter and complete extinction!"

  * * * * *

  The awful voice ceased and pandemonium reigned in the council hall.Obeying a common impulse, each Fenachrone leaped to his feet, raised hishuge arms aloft, and roared out rage and defiance. Fenor snapped acommand, and the others fell silent as he began howling out orders.

  "Operator! Send recall torpedoes instantly to every outlying vessel!" Hescuttled over to one of the private-band speakers. "X-794-PW! Radiogeneral call for all vessels above E blank E to concentrate on battlestations! Throw out full-power defensive screens, and send the fullseries of detector screens out to the limit! Guards and patrols oninvasion plan XB-218!"

  "The immediate steps are taken, gentlemen!" He turned to the Council,his rage unabated. "Never before have we supermen of the Fenachrone beenso insulted and so belittled! That upstart Overlord will regret thatwarning to the instant of his death, which shall be exquisitelypostponed. All you of the Council know your duties in such a time asthis--you are excused to perform them. General Fenimol, you will staywith me--we shall consider together such other details as requireattention."

  After the others had left the room Fenor turned to the general.

  "Have you any immediate suggestions?"

  "I would suggest sending at once for Ravindau, the Chief of theLaboratories of Science. He certainly heard the warning, and may be ableto cast some light upon how it could have been sent, and from what pointit came."

  The Emperor spoke into another sender, and soon the scientist entered,carrying in his hand a small instrument upon which a blue light blazed.

  "Do not talk here, there is grave danger of being overheard by thatself-styled Overlord," he directed tersely, and led the way into aray-proof compartment of his private laboratory, several floors below.

  "It may interest you to know that you have sealed the doom of our planetand of all the Fenachrone upon it," Ravindau spoke savagely.

  "Dare you speak thus to me, your sovereign?" roared Fenor.

  "I dare so," replied the other, coldly. "When all the civilization of aplanet has been given to destruction by the unreasoning stupidity andinsatiable rapacity of its royalty, allegiance to suc
h royalty is at anend. SIT DOWN!" he thundered as Fenor sprang to his feet. "You are nolonger in your throne-room, surrounded by servile guards and byautomatic rays. You are in MY laboratory, and by a movement of my fingerI can hurl you into eternity!"

  The general, aware now that the warning was of much more serious importthan he had suspected, broke into the acrimonious debate.

  "Never mind questions of royalty!" he snapped. "The safety of the raceis paramount. Am I to understand that the situation is really grave?"

  "It is worse than grave--it is desperate. The only hope for evenultimate triumph is for as many of us as possible to flee instantlyclear out of the Galaxy, in the hope that we may escape the certaindestruction to be dealt out to us by the Overlord of the Green System."

  "You speak folly, surely," returned Fenimol. "Our science is--mustbe--superior to any other in the Universe?"

  "So thought I until this warning came in and I had an opportunity tostudy it. Then I knew that we are opposed by a science immeasurablyhigher than our own."

  "Such vermin as those two whom one of our smallest scouts capturedwithout a battle, vessel and all? In what respects is their science evencomparable to ours?"

  "Not those vermin, no. The one who calls himself the Overlord. That oneis our master. He can penetrate the impenetrable shield of force and canoperate mechanisms of pure force behind it; he can heterodyne, transmit,and use the infra-rays, of whose very existence we were in doubt untilrecently! While that warning was being delivered he was, in allprobability, watching you and listening to you, face to face. You inyour ignorance supposed his warning borne by the ether, and thoughttherefore he must be close to this system. He is very probably at homein the Central System, and is at this moment preparing the forces heintends to hurl against us."

  The Emperor fell back into his seat, all his pomposity gone, but thegeneral stiffened eagerly and went straight to the point.

  "How do you know these things?"

  "Largely by deduction. We of the school of science have cautioned yourepeatedly to postpone the Day of Conquest until we should have masteredthe secrets of sub-rays and of infra-rays. Unheeding, you of war havegone ahead with your plans, while we of science have continued to study.We know a little of the sub-rays, which we use every day, andpractically nothing of the infra-rays. Some time ago I developed adetector for infra-rays, which come to us from outer space in smallquantities and which are also liberated by our power-plants. It has beenregarded as a scientific curiosity only, but this day it proved of realvalue. This instrument in my hand is such a detector. At normal impactsof infra-rays its light is blue, as you see it now. Some time before thewarning sounded it turned a brilliant red, indicating that an intensesource of infra-rays was operating in the neighborhood. By plottinglines of force I located the source as being in the air of the councilhall, almost directly above the table of state. Therefore the carrierwave must have come through our whole system of screens without so muchas giving an alarm. That fact alone proves it to have been an infra-ray.Furthermore, it carried through those screens and released in thecouncil room a system of forces of great complexity, as is shown bytheir ability to broadcast from those pure forces without material aid amodulated wave in the exact frequency required to energize our generalspeakers.

  "As soon as I perceived these facts I threw about the council room ascreen of force entirely impervious to anything longer than ultra-rays.The warning continued, and I then knew that our fears were only too wellgrounded--that there is in this Galaxy somewhere a race vastly superiorto ours in science and that our destruction is a matter of hours,perhaps of minutes."

  "Are these ultra-rays, then, of such a dangerous character?" asked thegeneral. "I had supposed them to be of such infinitely high frequencythat they could be of no practical use whatever."

  * * * * *

  "I have been trying for years to learn something of their nature, butbeyond working out a method for their detection and a method of possibleanalysis that may or may not succeed I can do nothing with them. It isperfectly evident, however, that they lie below the level of the ether,and therefore have a velocity of propagation infinitely greater thanthat of light. You may see for yourself, then, that to a science able toguide and control them, to make them act as carrier waves for any otherdesired frequency--to do all of which the Overlord has this day shownhimself capable--they should theoretically afford weapons before whichour every defense would be precisely as efficacious as so much vacuum.Think a moment! You know that we know nothing fundamental concerningeven our servants, the sub-rays. If we really knew them we could utilizethem in thousands of ways as yet unknown to us. We work with the meresthandful of forces, empirically, while it is practically certain that theenemy has at his command the entire spectrum, visible and invisible,embracing untold thousands of bands of unknown but terrificpotentiality."

  "But he spoke of a calculated time necessary before our answer could bereceived. They must, then, be using vibrations in the ether."

  "Not necessarily--not even probably. Would we ourselves revealunnecessarily to an enemy the possession of such rays? Do not bechildish. No, Fenimol, and you, Fenor of the Fenachrone, instant andheadlong flight is our only hope of present salvation and of ultimatetriumph--flight to a far distant Galaxy, since upon no point in this oneshall we be safe from the infra-beams of that self-styled Overlord."

  "You snivelling coward! You pusillanimous bookworm!" Fenor had regainedhis customary spirit as the scientist explained upon what grounds hisfears were based. "Upon such a tenuous fabric of evidence would you havesuch a people as ours turn tail like beaten hounds? Because, forsooth,you detect a peculiar vibration in the air, will you have it that we areto be invaded and destroyed forthwith by a race of supernatural ability?Bah! Your calamity-howling clan has delayed the Day of Conquest fromyear to year--I more than half believe that you yourself or some othertreacherous poltroon of your ignominious breed prepared and sent thatwarning, in a weak and rat-brained attempt to frighten us into againpostponing the Day of Conquest! Know now, spineless weakling, that thetime is ripe, and that the Fenachrone in their might are about tostrike. But you, foul traducer of your emperor, shall die the death ofthe cur you are!" The hand within his tunic moved and a vibrator burstinto operation.

  "Coward I may be, and pusillanimous, and other things as well," thescientist replied stonily, "but, unlike you, I am not a fool. Thesewalls, this very atmosphere, are fields of force that will transmit norays directed by you. You weak-minded scion of a depraved and obscenehouse--arrogant, overbearing, rapacious, ignorant--your brain is toofeeble to realize that you are clutching at the Universe hundreds ofyears before the time has come. You by your overweening pride and follyhave doomed our beloved planet--the most perfect planet in the Galaxy inits grateful warmth and wonderful dampness and fogginess--and our entirerace to certain destruction. Therefore you, fool and dolt that you are,shall die--for too long already have you ruled." He flicked a finger andthe body of the monarch shuddered as though an intolerable current ofelectricity had traversed it, collapsed and lay still.

  "It was necessary to destroy this that was our ruler," Ravindauexplained to the general. "I have long known that you are not in favorof such precipitate action in the Conquest: hence all this talking uponmy part. You know that I hold the honor of Fenachrone dear, and that allmy plans are for the ultimate triumph of our race?"

  "Yes, and I begin to suspect that those plans have not been made sincethe warning was received."

  "My plans have been made for many years; and ever since an immediateConquest was decided upon I have been assembling and organizing themeans to put them into effect. I would have left this planet in anyevent shortly after the departure of the grand fleet upon its finalexpedition--Fenor's senseless defiance of the Overlord has only made itnecessary for me to expedite my leave-taking."

  "What do you intend to do?"

  "I have a vessel twice as large as the largest warship Fenor boasted;completely provisio
ned, armed, and powered for a cruise of one hundredyears at high acceleration. It is hidden in a remote fastness of thejungle. I am placing in that vessel a group of the finest, brainiest,most highly advanced and intelligent of our men and women, with theirchildren. We shall journey at our highest speed to a certain distantGalaxy, where we shall seek out a planet similar in atmosphere,temperature, and mass to the one upon which we now dwell. There we shallmultiply and continue our studies; and from that planet, in that daywhen we shall have attained sufficient knowledge, there shall descendupon the Central System of this Galaxy the vengeance of the Fenachrone.That vengeance will be all the sweeter for the fact that it shall havebeen delayed."

  "But how about libraries, apparatus and equipment? Suppose that we donot live long enough to perfect that knowledge? And with only one vesseland a handful of men we could not cope with that accursed Overlord andhis navies of the void."

  "Libraries are aboard, so are much apparatus and equipment. What wecannot take with us we can build. As for the knowledge I mentioned, itmay not be attained in your lifetime nor in mine. But the racial memoryof the Fenachrone is long, as you know; and even if the necessaryproblems are not solved until our descendants are sufficiently numerousto populate an entire planet, yet will those descendants wreak thevengeance of the Fenachrone upon the races of that hated one, theOverlord, before they go on with the Conquest of the Universe. Manyquestions will arise, of course; but they shall be solved. Enough! Timepasses rapidly, and all too long have I talked. I am using this timeupon you because in my organization there is no soldier, and theFenachrone of the future will need your great knowledge of warfare. Areyou going with us?"

  "Yes."

  "Very well." Ravindau led the general through a door and into an airboatlying upon the terrace outside the laboratory. "Drive us at speed toyour home, where we shall pick up your family."

  Fenimol took the controls and laid a ray to his home--a ray serving adouble purpose. It held the vessel upon its predetermined course throughthat thick and sticky fog and also rendered collision impossible, sinceany two of these controller rays repelled each other to such a degreethat no two vessels could take paths which would bring them together.Some such provision had been found necessary ages ago, for allFenachrone craft were provided with the same space-annihilating drive,to which any comprehensible distance was but a journey of a few moments,and at that frightful velocity collision meant annihilation.

  "I understand that you could not take any one of the military into yourconfidence until you were ready to put your plans into effect," thegeneral conceded. "How long will it take you to get ready to leave? Youhave said that haste is imperative, and I therefore assume that you havealready warned the other members of the expedition."

  "I flashed the emergency signal before I joined you and Fenor in thecouncil room. Each man of the organization has received that signal,wherever he may have been, and by this time most of them, with theirfamilies, are on the way to the hidden cruiser. We shall leave thisplanet in fifteen minutes from now at most--I dare not stay an instantlonger than is absolutely necessary."

  The members of the general's family were bundled, amazed, into theairboat, which immediately flew along a ray laid by Ravindau to thesecret rendezvous.

  In a remote and desolate part of the planet, concealed in the depths ofthe towering jungle growth, a mammoth space-cruiser was receiving hercomplement of passengers. Airboats, flying at their terrific velocitythrough the heavy, steaming fog as closely-spaced as their controllerrays would permit, flashed signals along their guiding beams, dove intothe apparently impenetrable jungle, and added their passengers to thethrong pouring into the great vessel.

  * * * * *

  As the minute of departure drew near, the feeling of tension aboard thecruiser increased and vigilance was raised to the maximum. None of thepassengers had been allowed senders of any description, and now even thehair-line beams guiding the airboats were cut off, and received onlywhen the proper code signal was heard. The doors were shut, no one wasallowed outside, and everything was held in readiness for instant flightat the least alarm. Finally a scientist and his family arrived from theopposite side of the planet--the last members of the organization--and,twenty-seven minutes after Ravindau had flashed his signal, the prow ofthat mighty space-ship reared toward the perpendicular, poising itsmassive length at the predetermined angle. There it halted momentarily,then disappeared utterly, only a vast column of tortured and shatteredvegetation, torn from the ground and carried for miles upward into theair by the vacuum of its wake, remaining to indicate the path taken bythe flying projectile.

  Hour after hour the Fenachrone vessel bored on, with its frightful andever-increasing velocity, through the ever-thinning stars, but it wasnot until the last star had been passed, until everything before themwas entirely devoid of light, and until the Galaxy behind them began totake on a well-defined lenticular aspect, that Ravindau would consent toleave the controls and to seek his hard-earned rest.

  Day after day and week after week went by, and the Fenachrone vesselstill held the rate of motion with which she had started out. Ravindauand Fenimol sat in the control cabin, staring out through thevisiplates, abstracted. There was no need of staring, and they were notreally looking, for there was nothing at which to look. Outside thetransparent metal hull of that monster of the trackless void, there wasnothing visible. The Galaxy of which our Earth is an infinitesimal mote,the Galaxy which former astronomers considered the Universe, was so farbehind that its immeasurable diameter was too small to affect the visionof the unaided eye. Other Galaxies lay at even greater distances away oneither side. The Galaxy toward which they were making their stupendousflight was as yet untold millions of light-years distant. Nothing wasvisible--before their gaze stretched an infinity of emptiness. No stars,no nebulae, no meteoric matter, nor even the smallest particle of cosmicdust--absolutely empty space. Absolute vacuum and absolute zero.Absolute nothingness--a concept intrinsically impossible for the mosthighly trained human mind to grasp.

  Conscienceless and heartless monstrosities though they both were, byheredity and training, the immensity of the appalling lack of anythingtangible oppressed them. Ravindau was stern and serious, Fenimol moody.Finally the latter spoke.

  "It would be endurable if we knew what had happened, or if we ever couldknow definitely, one way or the other, whether all this was necessary."

  "We shall know, general, definitely. I am certain in my own mind, butafter a time, when we have settled upon our new home and when theOverlord shall have relaxed his vigilance, you shall come back to thesolar system of the Fenachrone in this vessel or a similar one. I knowwhat you shall find--but the trip shall be made, and you shall yourselfsee what was once our home planet, a seething sun, second only inbrilliance to the parent sun about which she shall still be revolving."

  "Are we safe, even now--what of possible pursuit?" asked Fenimol, andthe monstrous, flame-shot wells of black that were Ravindau's eyesalmost emitted tangible fires as he made reply:

  "We are far from safe, but we grow stronger minute by minute. Fifty ofthe greatest minds our world has ever known have been working from themoment of our departure upon a line of investigation suggested to me bycertain things my instruments recorded during the visit of theself-styled Overlord. I cannot say anything yet: even to you--exceptthat the Day of Conquest may not be so far in the future as we havesupposed."