by E. E. Smith
CHAPTER IV
Within the Red Veil
Nevia, the home planet of the marauding space-ship, would have appearedpeculiar indeed to Terrestrial senses. High in the deep red heavens afervent blue sun poured down its flood of brilliant purplish light upona world of water. Not a cloud was to be seen in that flaming sky, andthrough that dustless atmosphere the eye could see the horizon--ahorizon three times as distant as the one to which we areaccustomed--with a distinctness and clarity impossible in our Terra'sdust-filled air. As that mighty sun dropped below the horizon the skywould fill suddenly with clouds and rain would fall violently andsteadily until midnight. Then the clouds would vanish as suddenly asthey had come into being, the torrential downpour would cease, and,through that huge world's wonderfully transparent, gaseous envelope, thefull glory of the firmament would be revealed. Not the firmament as weknow it--for that hot blue sun and Nevia, her one planet-child, weremany light-years distant from Old Sol and his numerous brood--but astrange and glorious firmament containing not one constellation familiarto earthly eyes.
Many bridges and more tubes extended through the air from building to building, and the watery "streets" teemed with surface craft, and with submarines.]
Out of the vacuum of space a fish-shaped vessel of the void--the vesselthat was shortly to attack so boldly both the massed fleet ofTriplanetary and Roger's planetoid--plunged into the rarefied outeratmosphere, and crimson beams of force tore shriekingly the thin air asit braked its terrific speed. A third of the circumference of Nevia'smighty globe was traversed before the velocity of the craft could bereduced sufficiently to make a landing possible. Then, approaching thetwilight zone, the vessel dived vertically downward, and it becameevident that Nevia was neither entirely aqueous nor devoid ofintelligent life. For the blunt nose of the space-ship was pointingtoward what was evidently a half-submerged city, a city whose buildingswere flat-topped, hexagonal towers, exactly alike in size, shape, color,and material. These buildings were arranged as the cells of a honeycombwould be if each cell were separated from its neighbors by a relativelynarrow channel of water, and all were built of the same white metal.Many bridges and more tubes extended through the air from building tobuilding, and the watery "streets" teemed with surface craft, and withsubmarines.
The pilot, stationed immediately below the conical prow of thespace-ship, peered intently through the thick windows of crystal-clearmetal which afforded unobstructed vision in every direction exceptvertically upward and behind him. His four huge and contractile eyeswere active, each operating independently in sending its own message tohis peculiar but capable brain. One was watching the instruments, theothers scanned narrowly the immense, swelling curve of the ship's belly,the water upon which his vessel was to land, and the floating dock towhich it was to be moored. Four hands--if hands they could becalled--manipulated levers and wheels with infinite delicacy of touch,and with scarcely a splash the immense mass of the Nevian sky-wandererstruck the water and glided to a stop within a foot of its exact berth.
Four mooring bars dropped neatly into their sockets and thecaptain-pilot, after locking his controls in neutral, released hissafety straps and leaped lightly from his padded bench to the floor.Scuttling across the floor and down a runway upon his four short,powerful, heavily scaled legs, he slipped smoothly into the water andflashed away, far below the surface. For Nevians are true amphibians.Their blood is cold; they use with equal comfort and efficiency gillsand lungs for breathing; their scaly bodies are equally at home in thewater or in the air; their broad, flat feet serve equally well forrunning about upon a solid surface or for driving their stream-linedbodies through the water at a pace few of our fishes can equal.
Through the water the Nevian commander darted along, steering his courseaccurately by means of his short, vaned tail. Through an opening in awall he sped and along a submarine hallway, emerging upon a broad ramp.He scurried up the incline and into an elevator which lifted him to thetop floor of the hexagon, directly into the office of the Secretary ofCommerce of all Nevia.
"Welcome, Captain Nerado!" The Secretary waved a tentacular arm and thevisitor sprang lightly upon a softly cushioned bench, where he lay atease, facing the official across his low, flat "desk." "We congratulateyou upon the success of your final trial flight. We received all yourreports, even while you were traveling with many times the velocity oflight. With the last difficulties overcome, you are now ready to start?"
"We are ready," the captain-scientist replied, soberly. "Mechanically,the ship is as nearly perfect as our finest minds can make her. She isstocked for two years. All the iron-bearing suns within reach have beenplotted. Everything is ready except the iron. Of course the Councilrefused to allow us any of the national supply--how much were you ableto purchase for us in the market?"
"Nearly ten pounds...."
"Ten pounds! Why, the securities we left with you could not have boughttwo pounds, even at the price then prevailing!"
"No, but you have friends. Many of us believe in you, and have dippedinto our own resources. You and your fellow scientists of the expeditionhave each contributed his entire personal fortune; why should not someof the rest of us also contribute, as private citizens?"
"Wonderful--we thank you. Ten pounds!" The captain's great triangulareyes glowed with an intense violet light. "A full year of cruising. But... what if, after all, we should be wrong?"
"In that case you shall have consumed ten pounds of irreplaceablemetal." The Secretary was unmoved. "That is the viewpoint of the Counciland of almost everyone else. It is not the waste of treasure they objectto; it is the fact that ten pounds of iron will be forever lost."
"A high price truly," the Columbus of Nevia assented, "And after all, Imay be wrong."
"You probably are--of course you are wrong," his host made a startlinganswer. "It is practically certain--it is almost a demonstrablemathematical fact--that no other sun within hundreds of thousands oflight-years of our own has a planet. In all probability Nevia is theonly planet in the entire Universe. We are the only intelligent life inthe Universe. But there is one chance in numberless millions that,somewhere with the cruising range of your newly perfected space-ship,there may be an iron-bearing planet upon which you can effect a landing,and it is upon that infinitesimal chance that some of us are staking aportion of our wealth. We expect no return whatever, but if you _should_by some miracle happen to find stores of iron somewhere in space, whatthen? Deep seas being made shallow, civilization extending itself overthe globe, science advancing by leaps and bounds, Nevia becomingpopulated as she should be peopled--that, my friend, is a chance wellworth taking!"
The Secretary called in a group of guards, who escorted the smallpackage of priceless metal to the space-ship, and before the massivedoor was sealed the friends bade each other farewell.
" ... I will keep in touch with you on the ultra-wave," the Captainconcluded. "After all, I do not blame the Council for refusing to allowthe other ship to go with us. Ten pounds of iron will be a fearful lossto the world. If we _should_ find iron, however, see to it that theother vessel loses no time in following us."
"No fear of that! If you find iron all space will be full of vessels, assoon as they can possibly be built--good-bye!"
The last opening was sealed and Nerado shot the great vessel into theair. Up and up, out beyond the last tenuous trace of atmosphere, on andon through space it flew with ever-increasing velocity until Nevia'sgigantic blue sun had been left so far behind that it became a splendidblue-white star. Then, projectors cut off to save the precious ironwhose disintegration furnished them power, for week after week CaptainNerado and his venturesome crew of scientists drifted idly through theillimitable void. Sun after sun, as visible in their ultra-instrumentsas though the flying vessel were moving slower than light, they studiedwithout finding a single planet.
Three months passed. Nerado had already applied the slight power whichwas to swing the vessel around in an immense circle, ba
ck toward hisnative world. In that course he was rapidly approaching a sun, anordinary G-type dwarf, whose spectrum revealed a blaze of lines of theprecious element for which he was searching. Now at close observingrange--he had long since abandoned his former eager habit of studying asun as soon as it showed the tiniest perceptible disk in his mostpowerful telescope--he turned on his powerful visiray beam withoutenthusiasm, swung it upon that very commonplace sun, and shrieked aloudin exultation. Not only one planet had that yellowish luminary--it hadsix, seven, eight; yes, possibly nine or ten; and several of thoseplanets were themselves apparently centers of attraction around whichwere circling other tiny worlds! Nerado thrilled with joy as he applieda full retarding force, and every creature aboard that great vessel hadto peer into a plate or through a telescope, before he could believethat planets other than Nevia did in reality exist!
Velocity checked to the merest crawl, as space-speed goes, and withelectro-magnetic detector screens full out, the Nevian vessel crepttoward our sun. Finally the detectors encountered an obstacle, aconductive substance which the patterns showed conclusively to bepractically pure iron. Iron--an enormous mass of it--floating alone outin space! Without waiting to investigate the nature, appearance, orstructure of the precious mass, Nerado ordered power into the convertersand drove an enormous softening field of force upon the object--a forceof such a nature that it would condense the metallic iron into anallotropic modification of much smaller bulk; a red, viscous, extremelydense and heavy liquid which could be stored conveniently in his tanks.
No sooner had the precious fluid been stored away than the detectorsagain broke into an uproar. In one direction was an enormous mass ofiron, scarcely detectable; in another a great number of smaller masses;in a third an isolated mass, comparatively small in size. Space seemedto be full of iron, and Nerado drove his most powerful beam towarddistant Nevia and sent an exultant message.
"We have found iron--easily obtained and in unthinkable quantity--not infractions of milligrams, but in millions upon unmeasured millions oftons! Send our sister ship here as once!"
"Nerado!" The captain was called to one of the observation plates assoon as he had opened his key. "I have been investigating the mass ofiron now nearest us, the small one. It is an artificial structure, asmall space-boat, and there are three creatures in it--monstrositiescertainly, but they must possess some intelligence or they could not benavigating space."
"What? Impossible!" exclaimed the chief explorer. "Probably, then, theother was--but no matter, we had to have the iron. Bring the boat inwithout converting it, so that we may study at our leisure both thebeings and their mechanisms," and Nerado swung his own visiray beam intothe emergency boat, seeing there the armored figures of Clio Marsden andthe two Triplanetary officers.
"They are indeed intelligent," Nerado commented, as he detected andsilenced Costigan's ultra-beam communicator. "Not, however, asintelligent as I had supposed," he went on, after studying the peculiarcreatures and their tiny space-ship more in detail. "They have immensestores of iron, yet use it for nothing other than building material.They apparently have a rudimentary knowledge of ultra-waves, but do notuse them intelligently--they cannot neutralize even these ordinaryforces we are now employing. They are of course more intelligent thanthe lower ganoids, or even than some of the higher fishes, but by nostretch of the imagination can they be compared to us. I am quiterelieved--I was afraid that in my haste I might slay members of a highlydeveloped race."
The helpless boat, all her forces neutralized, was brought up close tothe immense flying fish. There flaming knives of force sliced her neatlyinto sections and the three rigid armored figures, after being bereft oftheir external weapons, were brought through the air-locks and into thecontrol room, while the pieces of their boat were stored away for futurestudy. The Nevian scientists first analyzed the air inside thespace-suits of the Terrestrials, then removed without ado the protectivecovering of the captives.
Costigan--fully conscious through it all and now able to move a little,since the peculiar temporary paralysis was wearing off--braced himselffor he knew not what shock, but it was needless; their grotesque captorswere not torturers. The air, while somewhat less dense than earth's andof a peculiar odor, was eminently breathable, and even though the vesselwas motionless in space, an almost-normal gravitation gave them a largefraction of their usual weight. The space suits were removed with care,and after the three had been relieved of their pistols and otherarticles which the Nevians thought might prove to be weapons, thestrange paralysis was lifted entirely. The earthly clothing puzzled thecaptors immensely, but so strenuous were the objections raised to itsremoval, but they did not press the point, but fell back to study theirfind in detail.
Then faced each other the representatives of the civilizations of twowidely separated solar systems. The Nevians studied the human beingswith interest and curiosity blended largely with loathing and repulsion;the three Terrestrials regarded the unmoving, expressionless "faces"--ifthose coned heads could be said to possess such things--with horror anddisgust, as well as with other emotions, each according to his type andtraining. For to human eyes the Nevian is a fearful thing. Even to-daythere are few Terrestrials--or Solarians for that matter--who can lookat a Nevian, eye to eye, without feeling a creeping of the skin andexperiencing a "gone" sensation in the pit of the stomach. The horny,wrinkled, drought-resisting Martian, whom we all know and rather like,is a hideous being indeed. The bat-eyed, colorless, hairless,practically skinless Venerian is worse. But they both are, after all,remote cousins of Terra's humanity, and we get along with them quitewell whenever we are compelled to visit Mars or Venus. But the Nevians--
The horizontal, flat, fish body is not so bad, even supported as it isby four, short, powerful, scaly, flat-footed legs; and terminating as itdoes in the weird, four-vaned tail. The neck, even, is endurable,although it is long and flexible, heavily scaled, and is carried inwhatever eye-wringing loops, knots, or angles the owner considers mostconvenient or ornamental at the time. Even the smell of a Nevian--amalodorous reek of over-ripe fish--does in time become tolerable,especially if sufficiently disguised with creosote, which purelyTerrestrial chemical is the most highly prized perfume of Nevia. But thehead! It is that member that makes the Nevian so appalling to earthlyeyes, for it is a thing utterly foreign to all Solarian history orexperience. As most Tellurians already know, it is fundamentally amassive cone, covered with scales, based spearhead-like upon the neck.Four great sea-green, triangular eyes are spaced equidistant from eachother about half way up the cone. The pupils are contractile at will,like the eyes of the cat, permitting the Nevian to see equally well inany ordinary extreme of light or darkness. Immediately below each eyesprings out a long, jointless, boneless, tentacular arm; an arm which atits extremity divides into eight delicate and sensitive, but verystrong, fingers. Below each arm is a mouth: a beaked, needle-tuskedorifice of dire potentialities. Finally, under the overhanging edge ofthe cone-shaped head are the delicately frilled organs which serveeither as gills or as nostrils and lungs, as may be desired. To otherNevians the eyes and other features are highly expressive, but to usthey appear utterly cold and unmoving. Terrestrial senses can detect nochanges of expression in a Nevian's "face." Such were the frightfulbeings at whom the three prisoners stared with sinking hearts.
But if we human beings have always considered Nevians grotesque andrepulsive, the feeling has always been mutual. For those "monstrous"beings are a highly intelligent and extremely sensitive race, andour--to us--trim and graceful human forms seems to them the veryquintessence of malformation and hideousness.
"Good Heavens, Conway!" Clio exclaimed, shrinking against Costigan ashis left arm flashed around her. "What monstrosities! And they can'ttalk--not one of them has made a sound--suppose they can be deaf anddumb?"
But at the same time Nerado was addressing his fellows.
"What hideous, deformed creatures they are! Truly a low form of life,even though they do possess some intelligence. They
cannot talk, andhave made no signs of having heard our words to them--do you supposethat they communicate by sight? That those weird contortions of theirpeculiarly placed organs serve as speech?"
Thus both sides, neither realizing that the other had spoken. For theNevian voice is pitched so high that the lowest note audible to them isfar above our limit of hearing. The shrillest note of a Terrestrialpiccolo is to them so profoundly low that it cannot be heard.
"We have much to do." Nerado turned away from the captives. "We mustpostpone further study of the specimens until we have taken aboard afull cargo of the iron which is so plentiful here."
"What shall we do with them, sir?" asked one of the Nevian officers."Lock them in one of the storage rooms?"
"Oh, no! They might die there, and we must by all means keep them ingood condition, to be studied most carefully by the fellows of theCollege of Science. What a commotion there will be when we bring in thisgroup of strange creatures, living proof that there are other sunspossessing planets; planets which are supporting organic and intelligentlife! You may put them in three communicating rooms, say in the fourthsection--they will undoubtedly require light and exercise. Lock allexits, of course, but it would be best to leave the doors between therooms unlocked, so that they can be together or apart, as they choose.Since the smallest one, the female, stays so close to the larger male,it may be that they are mates. But since we know nothing of their habitsor customs, it will be best to give them all possible freedom compatiblewith safety."
Nerado turned back to his instruments and three of the frightful crewcame up to the human beings. One walked away, waving a couple of arms inan unmistakable signal that the prisoners were to follow him. The threeobediently set out after him, the other two guards falling behind.
"Now's our best chance!" Costigan muttered, as they passed through a lowdoorway and entered a narrow corridor. "Watch that one ahead of you,Clio--hold him for a second if you can. Bradley, you and I'll take thetwo behind us--now!"
Costigan stopped and whirled. Seizing a cable-like arm, he pulled theoutlandish head down, the while the full power of his mighty right legdrove a heavy service boot into the place where scaly neck and headjoined. The Nevian fell, and instantly Costigan leaped at the leader,ahead of the girl. Leaped; but dropped to the floor, again paralyzed.For the Nevian leader had been alert, his four eyes covering the entirecircle of vision, and he had acted rapidly. Not in time to stopCostigan's first Berserk attack--the First Officer's reactions werepractically instantaneous, and he moved like chain lightning--but intime to retain command of the situation. Another Nevian appeared and,while the stricken guard was recovering, all four arms wrapped tightlyaround his convulsively looping, knotting neck, the three helplessTerrestrials were lifted into the air and carried bodily into thequarters to which Nerado had assigned them. Not until they had beenplaced upon cushions in the middle room and the heavy metal doors hadbeen locked upon them did they again find themselves able to use arms orlegs.
"Well, that's another round we lose," Costigan commented, cheerfully. "Aguy can't mix it very well when he can neither kick, strike, nor bite. Iexpected those lizards to rough me up, but they didn't."
"They don't want to hurt us. They want to take us home with them,wherever that is, as curiosities, like wild animals or something,"decided the girl, shrewdly. "They're pretty bad, of course, but I likethem a lot better than I do Roger and his robots, anyway."
"I think you have the right idea, Miss Marsden," Bradley rumbled."That's it, exactly. I feel like a bear in a cage. I should think you'dfeel worse than ever. What chance has an animal of escaping from amenagerie?"
"These animals, lots. I'm feeling better and better all the time," Clioanswered, and her serene bearing bore out her words. "You two got us outof that horrible place of Roger's, and I'm pretty sure that you will getus away from here, somehow or other. They may think we're stupidanimals, but before you two and the Secret Service get done with themthey'll have another think coming."
"That's the old fight, Clio!" cheered Costigan. "I haven't got itfigured out as close as you have, but I see you, eye to eye. Thesefour-legged fish carry considerably heavier stuff than Roger did, I'mthinking; but they'll be up against something themselves pretty quick,that is NO light-weight, believe me!"
"Do you _know_ something, or are you just whistling in the dark?"Bradley demanded.
"I know a little; not much. The Science Service has been working on anew ship for a long time; a ship to travel so much faster than lightthat it can go anywhere in the Galaxy and back in a month or so. Newsub-ether drive, new power, new armament, new everything. Only bad thingabout it is that it doesn't work so good yet--it's fuller of "bugs" thana Venerian's kitchen. It has blown up five times that I know of, and haskilled twenty-nine men. But when they get it licked they'll _havesomething!_"
"When, or if?" asked Bradley, pessimistically.
"I said _when!_" snapped Costigan, his voice cutting like a knife. "Whenthat gang goes after anything they get it, and when they get it itstays...." He broke off abruptly and his voice lost its edge. "Sorry.Didn't mean to get high, but I think we'll have help, if we can keep ourheads up a while. And it looks good--these are first-class cages they'vegiven us. All the comforts of home, even to lookout plates. Let's seewhat's going on, shall we?"
After some experimenting with the unfamiliar controls Costigan learnedhow to operate the Nevian visiray, and upon the plate they saw the Coneof Battle hurling itself toward Roger's planetoid. They saw the piratefleet rush out to do battle with Triplanetary's massed forces, and withbated breath they watched every maneuver of that epic battle to itssavagely sacrificial end. And that same battle was being watched, alsowith intense interest, by the Nevians.
"It is indeed a blood-thirsty combat," mused Nerado at his observationplate. "And it is peculiar--or rather, probably only to be expected froma race of such a low stage of development--that they employ onlyether-borne forces. Warfare seems universal among primitivetypes--indeed, it is not so long ago that our own cities, few in numberthough they are, ceased fighting each other and combined against thesemi-civilized fishes of the greater deeps."
He fell silent, and for many minutes watched the furious battle betweenthe two navies of the void. That conflict ended, he watched theTriplanetary fleet reform its battle cone and rush upon the planetoid.
"Destruction, always destruction," he sighed, adjusting his powerswitches. "Since they are bent upon mutual destruction I can see nopurpose in refraining from destroying all of them. We need the iron, andthey are a useless race."
He launched his softening, converting field of dull red energy. Vast asthat field was, it could not encompass the whole of the fleet, but halfof the lip of the gigantic cone soon disappeared, its component vesselssubsiding into a sluggishly flowing stream of allotropic iron. Instantlythe fleet abandoned the attack upon the planetoid and swung its conearound, to bring the flame-erupting axis to bear upon the inchoatesomething dimly perceptible to the ultra-vision of the Secret Serviceobservers. Furiously the gigantic composite beam of the massed fleet washurled, nor was it alone.
For Roger in his floating citadel had realized at once that somethinguntoward was happening; something altogether beyond even his knowledgeand experience. He could not see anything--space was apparentlyempty--but he took his rays off the battleships and directed his everyforce just beyond the point in space where that red stream oftransformed metal was disappearing. Then, for the first time inTriplanetary history, the forces of law and order joined hands withthose of piracy and banditry against a common foe. Rods, beams, planes,and stilettoes of unbearable energy the doomed fleet launched, inaddition to its main beam of annihilation, and Roger also hurled outinto space every weapon at his command. Bombs, high-explosive shells,and deadly radio-dirigible torpedoes--all alike disappeared ineffectivein that redly murky veil of nothingness. And the fleet was being melted.In quick succession the vessels flamed red, shrank together, gave outtheir air, and merged their component iron in
to the intensely red,sullenly viscous stream which was flowing through the impenetrable veilupon which Triplanetarians and pirates alike were directing their everypossible weapon of offense.
The last vessel of the Triplanetary armada converted and the resultingmetal stored away in their capacious reservoirs, the Nevians turnedtheir attention upon the stronghold of the pirates. There ensued abattle royal. For this vast planetoid was no feeble warship, dependingsolely upon the limited power available in its accumulators. It was theproduct of a really mighty brain, a brain re-enforced by the manyperverted but powerful intellects which Roger had won over to his cause.It was powered by the incalculable force of cosmic radiation, powered todrive its unimaginable mass through space, against any possibleattractions, for an indefinite number of years. It was armed andequipped to meet any emergency which Roger's coldly analytical mind hadbeen able to foresee.
The fact that the scientists of the Secret Service had discoveredultra-waves as yet unknown to him was unfortunate. That Service wasitself unfortunate--impenetrable as it was, and incorruptible. He couldlearn nothing whatever about it. He had heard vague rumors of certainexperiments--but even if they should discover something it would be toolate to do them any good. Even without invisibility he would have notrouble in annihilating the massed Grand Fleet of the TriplanetaryLeague. He would very shortly collect his tribute and disappear. Andthis new enemy, himself invisible and armed with heretofore unknownweapons of dire power, who was apparently unaffected by his beams--evenhe would discover that Roger the Great was no puny opponent. He wouldanalyze those unknown forces, regenerate them, and hurl them back upontheir senders.
Thinking thus, the man of gray sat coldly motionless at his greatmulti-shielded desk, whose top was now swung up to become a board ofmassed and tiered instruments and controls. He shut off his offensivebeams and surrounded the entire planetoid with the peculiarly rigid andsubstantial shield which had so easily warded off Costigan's fiercestattacks. And that shield was more effective than even its designer hadsupposed--gray Roger had builded even better than he knew. For thevoracious and all-powerful converting beam of the Nevians, below thelevel of the ether though it was, struck that perfectly transparent walland rebounded, defeated and futile. Struck and rebounded, then struckand clung hungrily, licking out over that impermeable surface in dartingtongues of red flame as the surprised Nerado doubled and then quadrupledhis power. Fiercer and fiercer drove in the Nevian flood of force untilthe whole immense globe of the planetoid was one scintillant ball ofscarlet energy, but still the pirates' shield remained intact--at whatawful drain of resource, Roger alone knew.
"Here is the analysis of his screen, sir." A Nevian computer handed hischief a sheet of metal, upon which were engraved rows of symbols.
"Ah, a sixth-phase polycyclic. A screen of that type was scarcely tohave been expected from such a low form of life," Nerado commented, andrapidly adjusted the many dials and switches before him.
As he did so the character of the clinging mantle of force changed. Fromred it flamed quickly through the spectrum, became unbearably violet,then disappeared; and as it disappeared the shielding wall began to giveway. It did not cave in abruptly, but softened locally, sagging into apeculiar grouping of valleys and ridges--contesting stubbornly everyinch of position lost. And gray Roger knew that the planetoid wasdoomed. His supposedly impregnable screen was failing in spite of itsutmost measure of energy, and, that defense down, the citadel would notlast a minute. Therefore he summoned a chosen few of his motley crew ofrenegade scientists and issued brief instructions. For minutes a host ofrobots toiled mightily, then a portion of the shield bulged out,extended into a tube beyond the attacking layers of force, and from itthere erupted a beam of violence incredible. A beam behind which wasevery volt and ampere that the gigantic generators and accumulators ofthe planetoid could yield. A beam that tore screamingly through theether; that by the very vehemence of its incalculable energy tore a holethrough the redly impenetrable Nevian field and hurled itself upon theinner screen of the fish-shaped cruiser in frenzied incandescence. Andwas there, or was there not, a lesser eruption upon the other side--analmost imperceptible flash, as though something had shot from the doomedplanetoid out into space?
Nerado's looped neck straightened convulsively as his tortured driverswhined and shrieked at the terrific overload; but Roger's effort was fartoo intense to be long maintained. Even before his accumulators failed,generator after generator burned out, the defensive screen collapsed,and the red converter beam attacked voraciously the unresisting metal ofthose prodigious walls. Soon there was a terrific explosion as thepent-up air of the planetoid broke through its weakening container, andthe sluggish river of allotropic iron flowed in an ever larger stream,ever faster.
"It is well that we had an unlimited supply of iron." Nerado tied a knotin his neck and spoke in huge relief. "With but the seven poundsremaining of our original supply, I fear that it would have beendifficult to parry that last thrust."
"Difficult?" asked the second in command. "We would now be swimming inspace. But what shall I do with this iron? Our reservoirs will not holdit all."
"Seal up one or two of the lower storage compartments, to make room forthis lot. Immediately it is loaded, we return to Nevia. There we shallinstall reservoirs in all the spare space, and come back here for more."
The last drop of the precious liquid secured, the vessel moved away,sluggishly now because of its prodigious load. In their quarters in thefourth section the three Terrestrials, who had watched with strainedattention the downfall and absorption of the planetoid, stared at eachother with drawn faces. Clio broke the silence.
"Oh, Conway, this is ghastly! It's ... it's just simply perfectlyhorrible!" she gasped, then recovered a measure of her customary spiritas she stared in surprise at Costigan's face. For it was thoughtful, hiseyes were bright and keen--no trace of fear or disorganization wasvisible in any line of his hard young face.
"It's not so good," he admitted frankly. "I wish I wasn't such a dumbcluck--if Lyman Cleveland or Ford Rodebush were here they could help alot, but I don't know enough about any of their stuff to flag ahand-car. I can't even interpret that funny flash--if it really was aflash--that we saw."
"Why bother about one little flash, after all that really did happen?"asked Clio, curiously.
"You think Roger launched something? He couldn't have--I didn't see athing," Bradley argued.
"I don't know what to think. I've never seen anything material sent outso fast that I couldn't trace it with an ultra-wave--but on the otherhand, Roger's got a lot of stuff that I never saw anywhere else.However, I don't see that it has anything to do with the fix we're inright now--but at that, we might be worse off. We're still breathingair, you notice, and if they don't blanket my wave I can still talk."
He put both hands in his pockets and spoke.
"Samms? Costigan. Put me on a recorder, quick--I probably haven't gotmuch time," and for ten minutes he talked, concisely and as rapidly ashe could utter words, reporting clearly and exactly everything that hadtranspired. Suddenly he broke off, writhing in agony. Frantically hetore his shirt open and hurled a tiny object across the room.
"Wow!" he exclaimed. "They may be deaf, but they can certainly detect anultra-wave, and the interference they can set up on it is enough topulverize your bones. No, I'm not hurt," he reassured the anxious girl,now at his side, "but it's a good thing I had you out of circuit--itwould have jolted you loose from six or seven of your back teeth."
"Have you any idea where they're taking us?" she asked, soberly.
"No," he answered flatly, looking deep into her steadfast eyes. "No uselying to you--if I know you at all you'd rather take it standing up.That talk of Jovians or Neptunians is the bunk--nothing like that evergrew in our Solarian system. All the signs say that we're going for along, long ride!"