by E. E. Smith
CHAPTER XIII
The Meeting of the Giants
"Check your blast, Fred, I think I hear something trying to comethrough!" Cleveland called out, sharply. For days the _Boise_ had tornthrough the illimitable reaches of empty space, and now the long vigilof the keen-eared listeners was to be ended. Rodebush cut off his power,and through the deafening roar of tube-noise an almost inaudible voicemade itself heard.
" ... all the help you can give us. Samms--Cleveland--Rodebush--anybodyof Triplanetary who can hear me, listen! This is Costigan, with MissMarsden and Captain Bradley, heading for where we think the sun is, fromright ascension about six hours, declination about plus fourteendegrees. Distance unknown, but probably hundreds of light-years. Tracemy call. One Nevian ship is overhauling us slowly, another is comingtoward us from the sun. We may or may not be able to dodge it, but weneed all the help you can give us. Samms--Rodebush--Cleveland--anybodyof Triplanetary...."
Endlessly the faint, faint voice went on, but Rodebush and Clevelandwere no longer listening. Sensitive ultra-loops had been swung, andalong the indicated line shot Triplanetary's super-ship at a velocitywhich she had never before even approached; the utterlyincomprehensible, almost incalculable velocity attained by inertialessmatter, driven through an almost perfect vacuum by the _Boise_'s maximumprojector blast--a blast which would lift her stupendous normal tonnageagainst a gravity five times that of earth's! At the full frightfulmeasure of that velocity the super-ship literally annihilated distance,while ahead of her the furiously driven, but scarcely faster spy-raybeam tore on in quest of the three Terrestrials who were calling forhelp.
"Got any idea how fast we're going?" Rodebush demanded, glancing up foran instant from the observation plate. "We should be able to see him,since we could hear him, and our range is certainly as great as anythinghe can have."
"No, can't figure velocity without any reliable data on how many atomsof matter exist per cubic meter out here." Cleveland was staring at thecalculator. "It's constant, of course, at the value at which thefriction of the medium is equal to our thrust. Incidentally, we can'thold it long. We're running a temperature, which shows that we'restepping along faster than anybody ever computed before. TakingThrockmorton's estimates it figures somewhere near the order ofmagnitude of ten to the twenty-seventh. Fast enough, anyway, so you'dbetter bend an eye on that plate. Even after you see him you won't knowanything about where he really is, because we don't know any of thevelocities involved--our own, his, or that of the beam--and we may beright on top of him."
"Or, if we are outrunning the beam, we won't see him at all. That makesit nice piloting."
"How are you going to handle things when we get there?"
"Lock to them and take them aboard if we're in time. If not, if they arefighting already--_there they are_!"
The picture of the speedster's control room flashed upon the plate andCostigan's voice greeted them from the speaker.
"Hello, fellows, welcome to our city! Where are you?"
"We don't know," Cleveland snapped back, "and we don't know where youare, either. Can't figure anything without data. I see you're stillbreathing air. Where are the Nevians? How much time we got yet?"
"Not enough, I'm afraid. By the looks of things they will be withinrange of us in a couple of hours, and you're so far away yet that ittook our voices four minutes and about fifty seconds to make the roundtrip, _on the ultra_! Play that on your calculator, Lyman! You haven'teven touched our detector screen yet. I'm mighty glad to have seen youfellows again, though, anyway."
"A couple of hours!" In his relief Cleveland almost shouted the words."That's time to burn. We can be clear out of the Galaxy in lessthan...." He broke off at a yell from Rodebush.
"Broadcast, Conway, broadcast!" that worthy had cried, as Costigan'simage had disappeared utterly from his plate.
Now he cut off the _Boise_'s power, stopping her instantaneously inmid-space, but the connection had been broken. Costigan could notpossibly have heard the orders to change his beam signal to a broadcast,so that they could pick it up; nor would it have done any good if he hadheard and had obeyed. So immeasurably great had been their velocity thatthey had flashed past the speedster without seeing it, even upon theultra-plates, and now they were unknown billions of miles beyond thefugitives they had come so far to help--far beyond the range of anypossible broadcast. But Cleveland had understood instantly what hadhappened. He now had a little data upon which to work, and his fingerswere flying over the keys of the calculator.
"Back blast, maximum, seventeen seconds!" he directed, crisply. "Notexact, of course, but that'll put us close enough to find 'em with ourdetectors!"
Then for the calculated seventeen seconds the super-ship retraced herpath, at the same awful speed with which she had come so far. The blastexpired and there, plainly limned upon the observation plates, was theNevian speedster.
"As a computer you're good," Rodebush applauded. "So close that we can'tuse the neutralizers to catch him. If we use a dyne of driving forcewe'll overshoot him a million kilometers before I can snap the switchesout."
"And yet he's so far away and going so fast that if we keep our inertiaon it'll take all day at full drive to overtake him." Cleveland wasfrankly puzzled. "What to do? Shunt in a potentiometer?"
"No, we don't need it." Rodebush turned to the transmitter. "Costigan!We are going to take hold of you with a very light tractor. Don't cutit!"
"A tractor--inertialess?" Cleveland wondered.
"Why not?" Rodebush launched the tractor, set at its absolute minimum ofpower, and threw in his master switches.
While hundreds of thousands of miles separating the two vessels and thetractor beam was exerting the least effort of which it was capable, yetthe super-ship leaped toward the smaller craft at a pace which coveredthat distance in the twinkling of an eye. So rapidly were the objectivesenlarging upon the plates that the automatic focusing devices couldscarcely function rapidly enough to keep them in place. Clevelandflinched involuntarily and seized his arm-rests in a spasmodic clutch ashe watched this, the first inertialess space-approach; and evenRodebush, who knew better than anyone else what to expect, held hisbreath and swallowed hard at the unbelievable rate at which the twovessels were rushing together.
And if these two, who had rebuilt the space-flyer, could hardly controlthemselves, what of the three in the speedster, who knew nothingwhatever of the super-ship's potentialities? Clio, staring into theplate with Costigan, uttered a piercing shriek, as she sank her fingersinto his shoulders. Bradley swore a mighty deep-space oath and bracedhimself against certain annihilation. Costigan stared for an instant,unable to believe his eyes, then his hand darted to the contacts whichwould cut the beam. Too late. Before his flying fingers could reach thestuds the _Boise_ was upon them; had struck them in direct centralimpact. Moving at the full measure of her unthinkable velocity thoughthe super-ship was at the moment of impact, yet the most delicaterecording instruments of the speedster could not detect the slightestshock as the enormous globe struck the comparatively tiny torpedo andclung to it; accommodating instantly and effortlessly her own terrificpace to that of the smaller and infinitely slower craft. Clio sobbed inrelief and Costigan, one arm around her, sighed hugely.
"Hey, you space-fleas!" he cried. "Glad to see you and all that, but youmight as well kill a man outright as scare him to death! So that's thesuper-ship, huh? SOME ship!"
"Hello, Conway!" "Clear ether, Conway!" The two scientists answered thehail of their fellow.
"I didn't realize that an inertialess approach would be quite such aterrifying spectacle, or I would have warned you," Rodebush went on."Yes, thanks to you, the super-ship works as she should, at last. Butyou had better put on your suits and transfer. You might get your thingsready...."
"'Things' is good!" Costigan laughed, and Clio giggled sunnily.
"We've made so many transfers already that what you see us in is all wehave," Bradley explained. "We'll bring ourselves, and we'll hurry; thatNev
ian is coming up fast."
"Is there anything on this ship you fellows want?" Costigan asked.
"There may be, but we haven't any locks big enough to let her inside andwe haven't time to study her now. You might leave her controls inneutral, so that Lyman can calculate her position if we should want herlater on."
"All right." The three armor-clad figures stepped into the _Boise_'sopen lock, the tractor beam was cut off, and the speedster flashed awayfrom the now stationary super-ship.
"Better let formalities go for a while," Captain Bradley interrupted thegeneral introduction taking place. "I was scared out of nine years'growth when I saw you coming at us, and maybe I've still got the humps;but that Nevian is coming up fast, and if you don't already know it Ican tell you that he's no light cruiser."
"That's so, too," Costigan concurred. "Have you fellows got enough stuffso that you think you can take him? You've got the legs on him,anyway--you can certainly run if you want to!"
"Run?" Cleveland laughed. "We have a bone of our own to pick with thatship. We licked her to a standstill once, until we burned out a set ofgenerators, and since we got them fixed we've been chasing her all overspace. We were chasing her when we picked up your call. See there? She'sdoing the running."
The Nevian was running, in truth. Her commander had seen and hadrecognized the great vessel which had flashed out of nowhere to therescue of the three Terrestrials; and, having once been at grips withthat vengeful super-dreadnaught, he had little stomach for anotherencounter. Therefore his side-thrust was now being exerted in theopposite direction; he was frankly trying to put as much distance aspossible between himself and Triplanetary's formidable cruiser. In vain.A light tractor was clamped on and the _Boise_ flashed up to close rangebefore Rodebush threw on her inertia and Cleveland brought the twovessels relatively to rest by increasing gradually his tractor's pull.And this time the Nevian could not cut the tractor. Again that shearingplane of force bit into it and tore at it, but it neither yielded norbroke. The rebuilt generators of Number Four were designed to carry theload, and they carried it. And again Triplanetary's every mighty weaponwas brought into play.
The "cans" were thrown, ultra-and infra-beams were driven, the furiousmacro-beam gnawed hungrily at the Nevian's defenses; and one by onethose defenses went down. In desperation the enemy commander threw hisevery generator behind a polycyclic screen; only to see Cleveland's evenmore powerful drill bore relentlessly through it. Punctured that lastdefense, the end came soon. A secondary SX7 beam was now in place onmighty Ten's inner rings, and one fierce blast blew a hole completelythrough the Nevian cruiser. Into that hole entered Adlington's terrificbombs and their gruesome fellows, and where they entered, life departed.All defenses vanished, and under the blasts of the _Boise_'s projectors,now unopposed, the metal of the Nevian vessel exploded instantly into awidely spreading cloud of vapor. Sparkling vapor, with perhaps here andthere a droplet or two of material which had only been liquefied.
So passed the sister-ship, and Rodebush turned his plates upon thevessel of Nerado. But that highly intelligent amphibian had seen allthat had occurred. He had long since given over the pursuit of thespeedster, and he did not rush in to do hopeless battle beside hisfellow Nevians against the Terrestrials. His analytical detectors hadwritten down each detail of every weapon and of every screen employed;and even while prodigious streamers of red force were raving out fromhis vessel, braking her terrific progress and swinging her around in animmense circle back toward far Nevia, his scientists and mechanics weredoubling and redoubling the power of his already Titanic installations,to match and if possible to overmatch those of Triplanetary'ssuper-dreadnaught.
"Do we kill him now or do we let him suffer a while longer?" Costigandemanded.
"I don't think so, yet," replied Rodebush. "Would you, Lyman?"
"Not yet," replied Cleveland, grimly, reading the thought of the otherand agreeing with it. "Let him pilot us to Nevia; we might not be ableto find it without a guide. While we're at it we want to so pulverizethat crowd that if they never come near the Solarian system againthey'll think it's twenty minutes too soon!"
Thus it was that the _Boise_, under only a few dynes of propulsion,pursued the Nevian ship. Apparently exerting every effort, she nevercame quite within range of the fleeing raider; yet never was she so farbehind that the Nevian space-ship was not in clear register upon herobservation plates. Nor was Nerado alone in strengthening his vessel.Costigan knew well and respected highly the Nevian scientist-captain,and at his suggestion the entire time of the long and uneventful flightwas spent in re-enforcing the super-ship's armament to the iron-drivenlimit of theoretical and mechanical possibility.
Thus, when Nevia and her hot, blue sun appeared upon his plates Rodebushwas ready for any emergency, and hurled his battleship upon the Nevianwith every weapon aflame. But so was Nerado ready; and, unlike hersister-ship, his vessel was manned by scientists well versed in thefundamental theory of the weapons with which they fought. Beams, rods,and lances of energy flamed and flared; planes and pencils cut, slashed,and stabbed; defensive screens glowed redly or flashed suddenly intointensely brilliant, coruscating incandescence. Crimson opacitystruggled sullenly against violet curtain of annihilation. Materialprojectiles and torpedoes were launched under full beam control; only tobe exploded harmlessly in mid-space, to be rayed into nothingness, or todisappear innocuously against impenetrable polycyclic screens. Bothvessels were equipped completely with iron-driven mechanisms; both weremanned by scientists capable of wringing the last possible watt of powerfrom their sources. They were approximately equal in size, and each shipnow wielded the theoretical ultimate of power for her mass; thereforeneither could harm the other, furiously though each was trying. And moreand more nearly they were approaching the red atmosphere of the world ofthe amphibians. Down into that crimson blanket the two warringspace-ships dropped, down toward a city which Costigan recognized asthat in which Nerado made his headquarters.
"Better hold off a bit," Costigan cautioned. "If I know that bird atall, he's cooking up something," and even as he spoke there shot upwardfrom the city a multitude of flashing balls. The Nevians had masteredthe secret of the explosive of the fishes of the greater deeps and werelaunching it in a veritable storm against the Terrestrial visitor.
"Those?" asked Rodebush, calmly. The detonating balls of destructionwere literally annihilating even the atmosphere beyond the polycyclicscreen, but that barrier was scarcely affected.
"No, that," pointing out a hemispherical dome which, redly translucent,surrounded a group of buildings towering high above their neighbors."Neither those high towers nor those screens were there the last time Iwas in this town. They're stalling for time down there, that's all thosefireballs are for. Good sign, too--maybe they aren't ready for us yet.If not, you'd better take 'em while the taking's good; and if they _are_ready for us, we'd better get out of here while we're all in one piece."
And in fact Nerado had been in touch with the scientists of his city;had been instructing them in the construction of converters andgenerators of such weight and power that they could crush even thedefenses of the super-ship. They were not, however, quite done; theentirely unsuspected possibilities of speed inherent in absoluteinertialessness had not entered into Nerado's calculations.
"Better drop a few cans down on that dome, fellows, before they maketrouble for us," suggested Rodebush to his gunners.
"We can't," came Adlington's instant reply. "We've been trying it, butthat's a polycyclic screen. Can you drill it? If you can, I've got areal bomb here--that special we built--that will do the trick if you canprotect it from their beams until it gets down into the water."
"I'll try it," Cleveland answered, at a nod from the physicist. "Icouldn't drill Nerado's polycyclics, but I couldn't use any momentum onhim. Couldn't ram him--he fell back with my thrust. But that screen downthere can't back off, so maybe I can work on it. Get your special ready,and hang on, everybody!"
The _Boise_ looped upwar
d, and from an altitude of miles dove downwardthrough a storm of force-balls, rays, and shells; a dive checkedabruptly as the hollow tube of energy, which was Cleveland's drill,snarled savagely down ahead of her and struck the shielding hemispherewith a grinding, lightning-splitting shock. As it struck, backed by allthe enormous momentum of the plunging space-ship and driven by the fullpower of her mightiest generators, it bored in, clawing and gougingviciously through the tissue of that rigid and unyielding barrier ofpure energy. Then, mighty drill and plunging mass against iron-drivenwall, eye-tearing and furiously spectacular warfare was waged. Well itwas for Triplanetary, that day, that its super ship carried ample supplyof allotropic iron; well it was that her originally Gargantuanconverters and generators had been doubled and quadrupled in power onthe long Nevian way! For that oven-girdled fortress was powered towithstand any conceivable assault; but the _Boise_'s power and momentumwere now inconceivable, and every watt and every dyne was solidly behindthat hellishly flaming, that voraciously tearing, that irresistiblyravening cylinder of energy incredible!
Through the Nevian shield that cylinder gnawed its frightful way, anddown its protecting length there drove Adlington's "Special" bomb."Special" it was indeed; so great of girth that it could barely passthrough the central orifice of Ten's mighty projector, so heavilycharged with sensitized atomic iron that its detonation upon any planetwould not have been considered for an instant if that planet's integritymeant anything to its attackers. Down the shielding pipe of force the"Special" screamed under full propulsion, and beneath the surface ofNevia's ocean it plunged.
"Cut!" yelled Adlington, and as the scintillating drill expired, thebomber snapped his detonating switch.
For a moment the effect of the explosion seemed unimportant. A dull, lowrumble was all that was to be heard of a concussion that jarred redNevia to her very center; and all that could be seen was a slow heavingof the water. But that heaving did not cease. Slowly, _so_ slowly itseemed to the observers now high in the heavens, the waters rose up andparted; revealing a vast chasm blown deep into the ocean's rocky bed.Higher and higher the lazy, mountains of water reared; effortlessly topick up, to smash, to grind into fragments, and finally to toss asideevery building, every structure, every scrap of material substancepertaining to the whole Nevian city.
Flattened out, driven backward for miles the tortured waters were urged,leaving exposed bare ground and broken rock where once had been theocean's busy floor; while tremendous blasts of incandescent gas ravedupward, buffeting even the enormous masses of the two space-ships,poised by their breathless crews so high above the site of theexplosion. Then the displaced millions of tons of water rushed back intothat newly rived pit, seeming to seek in that mad rush to make even morecomplete the already total destruction of the city. The raging torrentspoured into that yawning cavern, filled it, and piled mountainouslyabove it; receding and piling up, again and again, causing tidal waveswhich swept a full half of Nevia's mighty, watery globe.
The city forever silenced, Rodebush again directed his weapons uponNerado's vessel, but the Nevian was no longer fighting. For the firsttime in that long and bitter engagement, not a Nevian beam was inoperation. His screens, however, were as capable as ever, and after afew fruitless attempts to make an impression upon them, Rodebush cut offhis own offensive and turned to Costigan.
"What do you make of it, Conway? You know these people better than wedo; what are they up to?"
"I wish to talk to you," Nerado's voice came from the speaker, "and Icould not do so while the beams were operating. You are, I now perceive,a much higher form of life than any of us had thought possible; a formperhaps as high in evolution as our own. It is a pity that we did notmeet you when we first neared your planet, so that much life, bothTellurian and Nevian, might have been spared. But what is past cannot berecalled. As reasoning beings, however, you will see the futility ofcontinuing a contest in which neither of us is capable of injuring theother. You may, of course, destroy more of our Nevian cities, in whichcase I should be compelled to go and destroy similarly upon your earth;but, to reasoning minds, such a course of procedure is sheerest folly."
Rodebush cut the communicator beam.
"Does he mean it?" he demanded of Costigan. "It sounds reasonable,but...."
"But fishy," broke in Cleveland. "Altogether too reasonable for a...."
"Yes, he means it; every word of it," interrupted Costigan in turn."That's the way they are. Reasonable, passionless. Funny--they lack alot of things we have, but they've got a lot of things that I wish moreof us Tellurians had too. Give me the plate--I'll talk forTriplanetary," and the beam was restored.
"Captain Nerado." he greeted the Nevian commander. "Having been with youand among your people, I know that you mean what you say and that youspeak for your race. Similarly, I believe that I can speak for theTriplanetary Council--the government of three of the planets of oursolar system--in saying that there need be no more conflict between ourpeoples. I also was compelled by circumstances to do certain thingswhich I now wish could be undone; but as you have said, the past ispast. Our two races have much to gain from each other by friendlyexchanges of materials and of ideas, while we can expect nothing exceptmutual extermination, if we elect to continue this warfare. I offer youthe friendship of Triplanetary. Will you release your screens and comeaboard to sign a treaty?"
"I will come; my screens are down." Rodebush likewise cut off his power,although somewhat apprehensively, and a Nevian lifeboat entered the mainairlock of the _Boise_.
* * * * *
Then, at a table in the control room of Triplanetary's first super-ship,there was written the first Inter-Systemic Treaty. Upon one side thethree Nevians; amphibious, cone-headed, loop-necked, scale-bodies,four-legged things to us monstrosities: upon the other the three humans,air-breathing, rounded-headed, shortnecked, smooth-bodied, two-leggedcreatures equally monstrous to the fastidious Nevians. Yet each of theserepresentatives, of two races so different, felt respect for the otherrace increase within him minute by minute as the conversation went on.
The Nevians had destroyed Pittsburgh, but Adlington's bomb had blown anequally populous Nevian city out of existence. One Nevian vessel hadwiped out an entire unit of Triplanetary's fleet; but Costigan,practically unaided, had depopulated one Nevian city and had seriouslydamaged another. He had also beamed down many Nevian ships. Thereforeloss of life and material could be balanced. The Solarian system wasrich in iron, to which the Nevians were welcome; red Nevia possessedabundant stores of substances which upon earth were extremely rare andof vital importance. Therefore commerce was to be encouraged. TheNevians had knowledges and skills unknown to earthly science, but wereentirely ignorant of many things, to us commonplace. Thereforeinterchange of students and of books was highly desirable. And so on.
Thus was signed the Triplanetario-Nevian Treaty of Eternal Peace. Neradoand his two companions were escorted ceremoniously to their vessel, andthe _Boise_ took off in an inertialess dash toward earth, bearing thegood news that the Nevian menace was no more.
Clio, now a hardened space-flea, immune even to the horrible nausea ofinertialessness, wriggled lithely in the curve of Costigan's arm andlaughed up at him.
"You can talk all you want to, Conway, but I don't like them a bit. Theygive me the purple jitters! I suppose that they are really estimablefolks; talented, cultured, and everything; but just the same I'll betthat it will be a long, long time before anybody on earth will really,truly _like_ them!"