by Ray Cummings
17
"They are visible." Molo turned from the eyepiece of hiselectro-telescope. "Do you want to see them, Gregg Haljan?"
We were in the forward control and observation turret of the_Star-Streak_, Molo and his sister Meka, Venza, Anita and myself.Unobtrusively squatting on the floor was a small, gray, rat-facedfellow, put there, weapon in hand, to watch us. He was a ruffian fromthe underworld of Grebhar, a member of the _Star-Streak's_ piratecrew.
We were some ten hours out from Wandl. A group of four of the globularWandl ships were with us, strung in a line some ten thousand miles toour left. We had been heading diagonally toward Mars. Some fifteenother Wandl vessels were ahead and others following.
We were no more than fifteen million miles from Mars when Molo sightedthe allied ships. "Will you observe them, Gregg Haljan?"
I moved to take his place at the 'scope-grid, with the gaze of Anitaand Venza upon me. They sat huddled together on a low bench againstthe back curve of the circular turret.
It was dim here, with little spots of instrument lights, and theradiance coming in the glassite plates of the encircling dome. Theloss of Snap had put a grim look upon the girls. They were dispirited,docile with Meka. They had hardly had a word with me. I think that allof us had about given up hope during those hours. Molo had consultedme several times with his policies of navigation.
But I saw no chance to trick him. He was indeed, far more experiencedthan I, and more skillful, in celestial mechanics. I worked with him.I learned the operation and the handling of the _Star-Streak_, whichwas not greatly different from the _Cometara_ or the _Planetara_.
Poor Snap! He and I had planned to capture and navigate this_Star-Streak_. We could have handled her. There were, I gathered, somefifteen men aboard her now, but no more than two or three were engagedat the navigating mechanisms. Even they could be dispensed with attimes, for the ship's controls were all automatic, handled directlyfrom the forward turret.
I learned too, something, though not much, of the _Star-Streak's_weapons. They were similar to those of the allied ships, since Molo inequipping his pirate craft had seized upon all the best he could findof the three worlds.
The _Star-Streak_, during this flight toward Mars, was in closecommunication with the Wandl craft. There was a giant vessel, the Wor,off to our left now. It carried the brain master in command of theWandl forces. Molo took his orders from the Wor, but since hisequipment and his weapons were so wholly different, the _Star-Streak_was set apart.
"I can do what I like," Molo told me. "With my own judgement I canact; you shall see."
"You've had plenty of experience, Molo."
"Have I not! The terror of the starways, your world called me." Hechuckled vaingloriously. "I must justify it now."
"Act, do not talk," Meka commented sourly. "Children with toys makespeeches like that, and then the toys get broken."
"Fear not, sister. Never again will the _Star-Streak_ come to grief."
And now I gazed through the 'scope at the waiting allied ships. Theywere lying some eight million miles off Mars. I gazed and saw thepoised little group. There were perhaps fifty of them. The majoritywere Martian, long, low and very sharp-ended, and dull red in color.The wider Earth and Venus ships were silvery and drab. I coulddistinguish the several different types of craft in this hastilyassembled fleet: many converted commercials like my ill-starred_Cometara_; a few rakish police ships; and about a dozen of the long,narrow supermodern warships. It was their first voyage into battle.They had only been built these past few years, by peaceful governmentsthat protested there never again would be another war!
The little fleet was lying waiting for us. It was being augmented byoccasional other ships from Mars. They saw us coming now. The radianceof a Benson curve-light enveloped them, with a shaft toward us. Theimage of them shifted over a million miles to one side.
Molo laughed when he saw it. "Protecting themselves already! But weare not going to attack them there."
The first tactics of the Wandl commanders surprised me. We swung awayfrom the course to Mars and headed diagonally toward Earth and Venus.Earth was the nearer to us, with Venus some forty million miles beyondher. For hours we turned in that sweeping curve. Then with our Wandlconvoy following, we headed for Earth. I could not help admiring theway the _Star-Streak_ was handled. She turned more sharply than theWandl craft; and before our next meal, we were leading them all.
Would the allied ships follow us? It was immediately apparent theywere coming; but from their poised position, hours of attainingvelocity would be needed. The other allied vessels approaching fromVenus and Earth checked their flight and turned after us. We passedwithin five or six hundred thousand miles of several of them.
I found now that some twenty other Wandl ships, leaving Wandl afterus, had headed directly for Earth. We were all together presently, the_Star-Streak_ and nearly fifty Wandl ships, gathered close to one sideof the Moon. The allies, about a hundred of them, were strung throughspace, scattered, with varying velocities and flight direction, butmost of them endeavoring to get between the Moon and Earth.
This was the day! I call it that: a routine of meals which Meka grimlyserved us in the turret, and a little sleep when she took the girlsbelow and I lay on the turret floor. I wondered who was in command ofthis allied force, and did not learn until afterward that it wasGrantline. The _Cometara_ had fallen upon the Moon Apennines, not veryfar from where my old _Planetara_ still lay, near the base ofArchimedes. But Grantline and a few of his companions, with theirpowered suits, had struggled free from the gravity pull of thewreckage; and a few hours later, a ship out from Earth picked themup.
Grantline, on one of the Earth police ships, commanded the fleet now,and he afterward told me in detail how he endeavored to conduct hisforces in the battle, thus enabling me to describe it from bothviewpoints. He had been cruising toward Mars when he saw us make theturn. He thought a landing upon Earth might be planned and hastenedall his ships into the area between the Moon and Earth to cut us off.
But that was what Wandl wanted. The Wandl ships, with the_Star-Streak_ among them, made a complete slow circuit of the Moon. Ittook another day. Molo said very little to me in explanation of theWandl tactics, but I could see that the object was to lure Grantlineinto following. A few of the allied ships did follow us around, butnot many. The rest stayed carefully guarding the line between the Moonand Earth.
There had been no encounter yet between the hostile ships. The hugedistances involved in the engagement must be kept in mind. The gravityrays from the Wandl ships were only a slight disturbing element atsuch a long distance; Grantline's Zed-rays and Benson curve-lightswere defensive only. For offence, Grantline's electronic guns andother weapons were of varying range, but none for such distances asthese.
Wandl seemed unwilling to begin the battle, and Grantline was cautiousas well. He did not know what weapons these strange globular vesselswould use; his only experience had been our encounter with thewhirling discs.
Then, at the end of the second day, came the first clash. The_Star-Streak_, and all the Wandl ships, were again clustered on theEarth side of the Moon; they were hovering perhaps twenty thousandmiles above its surface. Grantline's force was a hundred thousandmiles off, toward Earth. One of the Wandl ships came tentativelyforward, and Grantline sent one of the new-style warships to meet it.
They encircled each other. Both were cautious, but there was a passingwithin fifty miles. The Earth ship fired her bolts. The insulatedbarrage of the Wandl ship withstood them. There was a shower of ethersparks close to the ship, and a reddening of the hull, but nothingmore. It seemed that the electro-barrages of the Wandl and alliedships were very similar in nature, an aura of electro-magnetism,enclosing the ship like a curtain fifty feet away, absorbed theelectronic stream of the enemy bolt. The Wandl ship flung no bolts;she loosed a score of the whirling discs during the passing. They wereof varying sizes, but similar to those which cut and wrecked the_Cometara_; in this instance, the Grantli
ne ship was able to destroyeach of them as it came close.
This was the first encounter. The Earth warship went back to itssquadron and the Wandl vessel rejoined its fellows. It had fired nobolts. Grantline suspected now what afterward proved to be the fact:these Wandl vessels were not equipped with long-range electronic guns.The Wandl defensive tactics were necessary; they feared a widespreadencounter. They were hovering in a compact group, covering a fivehundred mile area, over the Moon surface. Their purpose was not yetapparent, but Grantline saw now that one of the Wandl ships wasdropping down and landing on the Moon. It skimmed the Apennines andlanded not far from Archimedes.
What was that for? Grantline noticed that the lowering,closely-gathered Wandl fleet tried to mask the landing. And theirgravity-rays, with repulsive force, darted out to impede the Grantlinevessels should they try to advance.
This Earthward hemisphere of the Moon was now largely in shadow, butGrantline's Zed-ray magnifiers showed the vessel on the Moon.Apparatus was being unloaded. It seemed, down there on the rocky Moonplain in the foothills of the Apennines, that some extensive,elaborate base was being prepared.
It was for this the hovering Wandl fleet was waiting, holding off fromconflict until this Moon base was ready. When Grantline reached thatconclusion, he ordered all his vessels forward to a general attack.