The Onslaught from Rigel

by Fletcher Pratt

  CHAPTER VI

  The Terror by Night

  It would be futile--and impossible--to chronicle all the events of thatwild ride; to tell how the light-bombs dropped unceasingly from above;how the driver of one car, blinded by the glare, hurtled his vehiclethrough the plate-glass window of a store, and how McAllister, theartilleryman, fought off the birds with a huge shard of glass from thewindow; how the passengers in another car, wrecked by a bomb, got afire-engine and cleared their way to Times Square with clanging bell andclouds of malodorous fire-extinguisher chemicals; or how Mrs. Robertsdecapitated one of the monsters with a single blow of the cleaver shecarried.

  Dawn found them, a depressed group of fourteen, gathered in theprotection of the underground passages.

  "Well, what next?" asked Gloria, who seemed to have preserved more ofher normal cheerfulness than anyone. "Do we stay here till they come forus, or do we go get 'em?"

  "We get out," said Ben Ruby. "No good here. They know too much for us."

  "Right," declared Beeville. "The usual methods of dealing with animalswon't work this time. They are all based on the fact that animals arecreatures of habit instead of intelligence, and unless I am much wrong,these birds are intelligent and have some bigger intelligence backingthem."

  "You mean they'll try to bomb us out of here?" asked Roberts.

  McAllister looked up from the dice he was throwing. "You bet your sweetlife they will. Those babies know their stuff. The one that was after mewas onto the manual of the bayonet like he'd been raised on it."

  "That's nice," said Gloria, "but what are we going to do about it?"

  "Get an anti-aircraft gun from the Island and shell hell out of themwhen they come round again," suggested the artilleryman.

  "Said gun would be considerable weight for individual to transport inpocket," said Yoshio doubtfully, as Ben raised his hand for silence amidthe ensuing laughter.

  "There's a good deal in that idea," he said, "but I don't think it willdo as it stands. The birds would bomb our gun to blazes after they had adose or two from it. They're not so slow themselves you know. How aboutsome of the forts? Aren't there some big ones around New York?"

  McAllister nodded. "There's Hancock. We could get a ship through."

  "Say!" Gloria leaped suddenly to her feet. "While we're about it, can'twe get a warship--a battleship or something? Those babies would have ahot time trying to bomb one of Uncle Sam's battleships apart and there'sall kinds of anti-aircraft guns on them."

  "There's a destroyer in the Hudson," said someone.

  "How many men does it take to run her?"

  "Hundred and fifty."

  "But," put in Gloria, "that's a hundred and fifty of the old style menwho had to have their three squares and eight hours' sleep every day,and they did a lot of things like cooking that we won't have to. What doyou say, Dictator, old scout? Shall we give it a whirl?"

  "O. K.--unless somebody has something better to offer," declared Ben,and in fifteen minutes more the colonists were cautiously poking theirway out of the subway station en route to take command of U. S. S._Ward_.

  Cleaning up the ship before the start took the colonists a whole day. Asooty dust, like the product of a particularly obnoxious factory, hadsettled over everything, and dealing with the cast-iron bodies of thesailors, wedged in the queer corners where they had fallen at the momentof the change, was a job in itself.

  As night shut down, the whole crew, with the exception of Beeville andMurray Lee, who had spent some time in small boats and had thereforebeen appointed navigators, was busy going over the engine-room, strivingto learn the complex detail of handling a warship.

  Murray and Beeville were poring over their navigating charts when a stepsounded outside the chartroom and the wire-frizzled head of Gloria wasthrust in.

  "How goes it, children?" she asked. "Do we sail for the cannibal islandsat dawn?"

  "Not on your life," replied Murray. "This hooker is going to pull in atthe nearest garage until we learn what it's all about. Talk aboutarithmetic! This is worse than figuring out a time-table."

  Gloria laughed, then her face became serious. "Do you think they'll bombus again, Mr. Beeville?"

  "I don't see why not. They were clear winners in the last battle. Butwhat gets me is where they come from. Why, they're a living refutationof the laws of evolution on the earth! Four wings and two legs!Although ..." the naturalist looked at the sliding parts of his own arm,"they are rather less incredible than the evolution that has overtakenmankind, unless we're all off our heads. Do you know any way to accountfor it?"

  "Not me," said Murray, "that's supposed to be your job; all we do isbelieve you when--" Bang! The anti-aircraft gun had gone off justoutside with an earsplitting report. With a common impulse the threemade for the door and looked upward to see the shell burst in a puff ofwhite smoke, outlined against the dark clouds of evening, while aboveand beyond it sailed a black dot with whirring wings.

  "That settles it," said Murray. "Whether we like it or not, we're goingaway from here. I wish those nuts hadn't fired though. Now the birdsknow what we've got. Trot down and tell them to get up steam, that's agood girl, Gloria."

  The lone tetrapteryx seemed no more than a scout, for the attack was notfollowed up. But it takes time to get steam up on long disused marineengines and all hands were below when the real attack was delivered.

  It began with the explosion of a bomb somewhere outside and a dash ofwater against the vessel's side that threw all of them off their feet.There was a clang of metal and a rush for the deck--cut across by Ben'svoice. "Take it easy! Everybody to the engines but McAllister, O'Haraand the navigators."

  The four sprang for the ladder, Murray in the lead. Crash! A sound likethe thunder of a thousand tons of scrap iron on a sidewalk and thedestroyer pitched wildly.

  Murray's head came level with the deck. Instead of the darkness he hadexpected it was flung into dazzling illumination by a flare burning onthe water not fifty yards away, with a light so intense that it seemedto have physical body. There was a perceptible wave of heat from it andthe water round it boiled like a cauldron.

  Instead of the darkness he had expected, the deck wasflung into dazzling illumination.]

  He tumbled onto the deck, running forward to trip the release of theanchor chain. At the break of the forecastle, he stumbled, and thestumble saved him, for at that moment another of the bombs fell, just infront of the fore-deck gun. The whole bow of the ship seemed to burstinto intense, eye-searing flame. Deafened and blinded, Murray lay facedown on the deck, trying to recover his senses; behind him the others,equally overwhelmed, tumbled on the iron surface, rolling over and over,blindly.

  But the birds, apparently unaware of how heavy a blow they had struck,seemed wary of the gun. The four groveling on the deck heard scream andanswering scream above them as the monsters discussed the question onthe wing. If they reached a decision it was too late, for McAllister andO'Hara, blind, drunk and sick though they were, staggered to the gun andsent a shot shrieking at wild venture into the heavens. Beeville, nearerto the blinding blaze of light, recovered more slowly, but found his wayto the bridge where he fumblingly pulled the engine-room telegraph overto "Full Speed Ahead."

  Below, in the bowels of the vessel, there was a rumble of activity; arapid whoosh of steam came from an exhaust pipe, a dash of sparks fromthe destroyer's funnels, and slowly and haltingly she began to move.Bang! went the anti-aircraft gun. Beeville heard Murray climbing thebridge behind him and then his cry, "The anchor!"

  Too late--with a surge that changed to a rattle, the destroyer moved,tearing the anchor from its ground and swinging slowly half-way round asthe weight dragged the damaged bow to one side. At that moment cameanother bomb which, but for their motion, would have struck fair andsquare amidships. Bang! Bang! went the anti-aircraft gun. Murray draggedat the wheel, then swung the engine-room telegraph back to "Stop." Justin time--the destroyer's bottom grated on something, her prow rent theside of a big speed-boat an
d she came to rest, pointing diagonallyupstream.

  Fortunately the attack broke off as rapidly as it had begun. A fewscreams, lost in the darkness of the night were the only answer toanother shell from the gun. But there was no assurance that this wasmore than a temporary respite. Murray and Beeville strove desperately tobring the warped bridge mechanism into running order while O'Hararouted out a blow-torch from somewhere and attacked the anchor chain,now welded into a solid mass with the deck by the force of thelight-bomb. Finally, weaving to and fro in the hands of theinexperienced mariners, she was gotten round and pointed downstream andout to sea. If the birds sought them again in the darkness there was nosign of it.

  Day found them stumbling down the Jersey coast, the foredeck a mass ofwreckage and the ship leaking badly.

  "Well, where are we now?" called a cheerful voice, as Murray Lee stoodat the wheel. "Australia in sight yet?"

  He looked up to see Gloria's head emerging from the companion.

  "Come on up," he said, "I'm just going to turn the wheel over toBeeville and get busy with this radio. Don't think the bomb knocked itout. It did everything else, though. Look at that."

  He indicated the prow of the ship, where the big gun hung down like atired candle and the whole fore part of the vessel had dissolved intotears of metal.

  "Golly," said Gloria, "that was some egg those birds laid. What was it,anyway?"

  "Don't know. Never saw anything like it before. Must be some kind ofnew-fangled high-power incendiary bomb to melt steel down like butter.Why, even thermit wouldn't do that."

  "I hope our friends don't think of looking us up here, then, or we'll befinding out what it's like to walk under water."

  "You said something, sister," declared Murray. "Wait! I think I gotsomething."

  He fumbled with the radio dials before him, swinging them this way andthat: then clamped on the headset. "Oh, boy, there's something comingthrough ... we're not alone in the world then.... Yes, there she is....Damn, I wish they wouldn't send so fast.... AAM2 calling.... Now who isAAM2?" His fingers pressed the key in reply as the others watched himwith bated breath. "Position, seventy-three, fifty-three west longitude;forty, o-three, north latitude. Here ..." he wrote the figures down."Take this, one of you and dope it out. Ssh, there's more coming. Oh, hewants to know who we are and where. Call Ben, will you Gloria?"

  She dashed off to return with the dictator of the colonists just asBeeville, who had been fumbling over the charts with one hand, calledsuddenly, "Why, the position they give is right near here--hardly ahundred miles away. I don't know just what ours is, but it can't be farfrom this spot. Tell them that."

  "Find out who they are first," Ben put in, practically. "After whatthey've done, I wouldn't put it past the tetrapteryxes to handle a radioset."

  "... His Majesty's Australian ship _Brisbane_, they say," said Murray."Wait a minute, since they're so near, I think I can switch them over tothe radiophone." He ticked the key a moment, then twisted more dials andleaned back as a full and fruity voice, with a strong English accent,filled the room.

  "Compliments of Captain Entwhistle of the Royal Australian Navy to thecommander of the U. S. S. _Ward_, and can we arrange a meeting? TheComet appears to have done a good deal of damage in your part of theworld and you are the first people we have encountered."

  "Where's your microphone?" asked Ben. "Oh, there.... Compliments ofBenjamin Franklin Ruby, temporarily in command of U. S. S. _Ward_ toCaptain Entwhistle of the Royal Australian Navy, and none of us aresailors. We just borrowed this ship, and if you want to see us you'llhave to pick us up. We'll keep along the coast toward Cape May. Can youmeet us?"

  A chuckle was audible from the radiophone. "I think we can manage it.Are there any of the big birds about in your part of the world? Theyhave been bothering us all summer."

  "Yes," replied Ben, "that's what we're running away from now. They'vegot some bombs that are pure poison and they've been making regular waron us--or probably you know about it?"

  "We haven't seen anything like that yet," declared the voice from theloud-speaker, "but we've had plenty of trouble with them. Hold on amoment. Our lookout reports sighting smoke from your funnels. Hold yourcourse and speed. We'll pick you up."

  The voice ceased with a snap, and the four in the control room of thedestroyer looked at each other.

  "I'm glad he came around," remarked Ben. "This destroyer is gettingshopworn. Besides with a good warship on hand we'll be able to givethose birds what they're looking for. I hope he's got some airplanes."

  "And somebody to fly them," continued Murray. "What'll we do if hehas--go back and give them hell?"

  "If we can. Apparently he doesn't like the birds any too well himself.It was the first thing he mentioned."

  They ceased speaking as the thin pennon of smoke, followed by two tallmasts, became visible over the horizon. In a few minutes more the_Brisbane_ swept up, swung a circle and came to rest near them, whileout from her side dropped a boat that began to move toward them withdipping oars.

  A moment later she was alongside. Ben stepped out on the deck, and as hedid so, there was a mutual exclamation of horrified amazement--forCaptain Entwhistle of the Royal Australian Navy was as much flesh andblood as any man they had seen in the old days, but a pale blue incolor, and all his sailors were of the same extraordinary hue.