“Follow out Combat Plan Seventy-seven-SA,” he ordered. “Report in fifteen minutes. I’ll handle the rest from here.”
He switched off and sat down in the control chair, motioned to Iana to settle beside him. She obeyed without uttering a word, unwilling to disturb his concentrations. In silence she kept her eyes fixed on the giant central screen which gave a complete televised view of the city and landscape outside.
CHAPTER IV
RED WAR
It was not long before menacing shapes appeared. The night sky outside was presently patterned by dark, swiftly moving shapes. With the moments they came so thick and fast that the stars themselves were blotted out.
Then came hell itself! Concussion smote the city, concussion so violent that even at this mile depth the buried control room quivered under the impact.
Again—and again—until the quivering merged into one complete vibration. Cal Anrax gave a grim smile. His lean fingers began to play over the control keys in front of him as though it were a complicated organ, Iana, though by no means an amateur scientist, could not even hope to guess at the subtle mechanics involved. Cal Anrax himself had invented this master-keyboard, the brains of a city’s defence, and since he was the greatest scientist the Western Hemisphere had ever produced there was no point in her questioning him.
She caught her breath suddenly and watched intently in the major and minor screens as the swarming armada of bombing planes was suddenly changed from a dark, shapeless mass against the stars to a plainly outlined solid phalanx of fliers. Secret floodlighting, directed from the bowels of the city and merging into one flaring sea of light, had every section and fragment of the attacking fleet enveloped in an effulgence as bright as day.
“Now we can see what we’re doing,” Cal murmured, his fingers still playing on the keys.
The automatic defences of the city came into being immediately under his remote control. Blast rays ripped forth, leaving a wake of condensation in the air. Neutronic guns hurled their deadly load into the bellies of the fliers. From directional towers at the city’s four corners radiant energy spread forth in its basest and most deadly form, heating the attackers to an intolerable degree by the sudden kinetic interchange.
Chaos broke loose.
The fliers turned and twisted and dived to escape one defence and ran smack into another. Three planes crashed and their bombs with them. Others fell in the middle of the city and exploded with cataclysmic violence. Cal had formed a complete trap round the city. To escape from the neutron guns meant colliding with the radiant energy waves, and to escape from those meant running the deadly battery of blast rays.
Not that the city itself was improved by the counter onslaught. The bombs fell just the same, sowing ruin in a criss-cross pattern.
The intercom buzzed and Cal flicked the switch.
“Land armour invaders two miles south of city, sir,” said the impartial Directional Tower Controller.
Cal nodded and threw another series of buttons into commission. Out on the city outskirts another mass of scientific equipment moved to the ready—
Then, abruptly, there was a concussion so violent from somewhere above that the underground room rocked beneath it. Cal found himself half flung from his chair and Iana went pitching against the control board.
Other things had happened too. The flaring illumination light on the armada had vanished. Cal’s frantic play over the switches failed to have any effect in any direction.
“The devil!” he breathed, staring at the power-meters fixedly. “Look! Power’s stopped!”
He met the girl’s wide, anguished eyes.
“Only one explanation,” he said bitterly. “Somewhere we have a traitor amongst us—a thing I could never have expected. I was of the opinion we were united. That concussion we felt. It must have been from the major power room buried a mile away. All my apparatus was powered from there. And somebody’s destroyed it!”
For a moment he seemed incapable of thinking. He stared mutely at the giant screen, operating from its subsidiary unit. He winced at the concussion of a rain of explosives from above.
“I can’t fight the inevitable,” he whispered, clenching his fists. “Without power we’re helpless.” His hand reached out for the microphone. “Good job the subsidiary unit feeds the radio equipment and lighting anyway…”
“But what are you going to do?” the girl demanded, catching his arm.
He looked at her steadily. “I am going to surrender.”
“But you can’t surrender! Don’t you realize what it means if Vaxil gains control of our Hemisphere?”
“Of course. But I also realize that he has got control already. I can’t fight without weapons, and the only way to save something from the wreck is to surrender on the best terms we can get. It isn’t cowardice, Iana, it’s common sense. It isn’t his scientific skill that has given him the victory; it’s my own stupidity! For one thing I trusted the people too much and did not suspect a possible traitor, and for another I made the fatal mistake of concentrating all my defensive power in one spot. With the heart destroyed, so are we.”
Cal turned and switched on the microphone.
“Cal Anrax speaking,” he announced briefly. “Put me in direct touch with Vaxil over priority waveband.”
There was an interval, then out of the lambent weavings of colour on the screen the stern, sharply chiselled face of the Eastern Hemisphere ruler appeared.
“You have something to say?” he asked, laconic as always.
“Only a few words,” Cal answered in a quiet voice. “I am prepared to surrender. What are your terms?”
“Unconditional! With your main source of power gone what else do you expect?”
“What does ‘unconditional’ constitute?” Cal asked.
Vaxil reflected for a moment.
“You are a brilliant man, Cal Anrax, and a scientist like myself. For that reason I am inclined to extend clemency. The terms I impose demand your personal surrender to my commander in the field, together with the personage of the Princess Iana and the twenty men and women who form your Government. That done, I will decide what shall become of you.”
Cal was silent, his lips tight. He glanced at the girl.
“You have no alternative,” she said, low voiced.
Cal turned back to the instrument. “Very well, I agree. Instruct your field Commander to meet us in Central Square within an hour, hostilities to cease forthwith.”
Vaxil nodded and switched off his instrument. Cal did likewise, sat for a long moment in thought, then with a shrug of his lean shoulders he got to his feet.
“Does this mean—death?” the girl asked soberly. “Tell me if it does, Cal. It’s only right that I should know. I’m not afraid to die.”
He put an arm about her.
“Everything depends on the mind of Vaxil, dearest. He is not a vicious man, a swaggering conqueror. He fancies himself as a kind of magnanimous super-scientist, and for that very reason he may flatter himself by showing us the courtesy to which our high rank entitles us. If we escape death, there is much I can do. If not—well, we’ll have to face it. We’ll give them time to call off the war dogs. Then we’ll go up to the surface.”
Iana got to her feet and stood in despondent silence. Cal looked at her and smiled tautly.
“This isn’t the end, Iana,” he said gently. “If life is still permitted to us we can yet avenge these wrongs. I shall live only for that! Remember that I am a better scientist than Vaxil. I’ve made a mistake this time, and I admit it. But give me the slenderest chance to turn round and fight back and I’ll smash Vaxil forever. I’ll reclaim not only our own Hemisphere but conquer his as well. You’ll see.”
It was three days later, with Vaxil fully in power in Jaloon, before Cal Anrax and Iana, with the men and women of their former Government, learned their fate. They were summoned before the Grand Council of Conquerors in the city’s administration hall, and in silence listened to the Eastern ruler as he
spoke from the head of the council table.
“Death is the obvious answer—but by no means a sensible one,” he said slowly. “Only fools destroy people who are clever scientists. Yet on the other hand, if I permit you to live on this planet there may come a time when your ingenuity will prove to my detriment. So, I have to choose between that possibility on the one hand and death on the other. That leaves only one course—banishment!”
Cal Anrax tensed a little and cast Iana a quick look. Around them the assembled men and women waited, grimly silent.
“Not banishment to another part of Alron where you might make an effort to regain control,” Vaxil proceeded. “I mean banishment to Vinra, the second planet from the sun. It will be to another world altogether where you cannot possibly make any attempt to strike at us! By the same token you will be able to make a stand for yourselves. Whether you die or prosper, whether you marry and bring forth young to carry on your struggle, will be up to you. In the records of this world at least you will be known as the ‘Outcasts’!”
“But Vinra is a terrible world!” Iana cried. “Scorched and frozen, not a scrap of water, a planet long since abandoned by our space expeditions as dead. It’s a graveyard, and you know it!”
“Perhaps,” Vaxil replied coldly. “You are such ingenious scientists that you might make it habitable—though I do not say how. At least, if you die it will be your own fault and I shall not have it on my own conscience. It is not our intention that you should be hurled to this arid, merciless planet without even the means to save yourselves. I and the Council are in agreement that you be allowed six hours consultation among yourselves to decide what equipment you wish to take with you. Two space cruisers will be placed at your disposal, but the controls on both will be locked so that you can only land on Vinra and nowhere else. When you reach Vinra automatic devices will destroy the motors so that no return is possible. One ship will carry you and your compatriots, and the other the essentials you have chosen for your new life. Have you, Cal Anrax, anything you wish to say?”
For some reason he smiled slowly.
“No, Excellency—except to express my thanks for your leniency. As the vanquished, we rather expected instant death. All I ask is that I be allowed the consultation immediately.”
Vaxil rose to his feet and motioned to a bronze door leading from the hall.
“You may retire immediately to the anteroom. When you have reached your decision press the signal button and you will be released. The Council will then consider your report.”
Cal Anrax nodded and led the way across the hall, into the broad expanse of anteroom with its long shining table and polished chairs. He took up his position at the head of the table, Iana on his left hand side, and looked down the two rows of faces, the men and women whose lives were virtually in his hands.
“We comprise a new race,” he said seriously. “On the face of it that sounds a big assertion, but it is true. Banishment to another world means just that, especially when that world is known to be dead. When we arrive there, union and children will be our only means of perpetuating the race. To that, however, we will give our attention later. For the moment I believe that Vaxil’s lack of perception—his belief that we can do nothing to avenge ourselves if banished to another world—has placed a supreme chance in our hands. I take it that we are agreed on one thing only—vengeance?”
The men and women nodded firmly, and the look in Iana’s grey eyes was sufficient for Cal.
“Good!” he nodded. “I do not mean the impetuous violence of revengeful fanatics, or the half-hearted effort of the spiteful—but cold, deliberately planned, scientific reprisal! Vaxil and his cohorts have got to realize, sooner or later, that the science of the Western Hemisphere cannot be so easily disposed of. I suggest, therefore, that in our choice of materials for our new planet we take only enough provisions for two years and make up the remainder of our equipment in machine tools. Arms we shall not need since the planet is known to be quite dead.”
“Machine tools?” Iana repeated, mystified. “But Cal, we shall need homes, protection from the terrible heat and frost. I am of the opinion we ought to take twenty-two pre-fabricated homes.”
“No!” Cal shook his head firmly. “We’ll find places to shelter, even as our ancestors did. Caves if need be. What we need are the tools to make tools, machines to mould metals, equipment to gouge out the solid rock, instruments to create synthetic clothes and food—in fact an assortment of machines to build us gradually into a prosperous power which, sooner or later, through the very use of those machine tools, will give us the chance to avenge!”
“Behind all this, I sense that you have some mighty scheme,” Iana said slowly. “None of us here is as expert in science as you so maybe we cannot see your purpose. I’m prepared to trust your judgment—to the limit. And you others?”
The men and women looked at each other, murmured among themselves for a few moments. Then the chief physicist stood up.
“We agree, sir,” he announced. “The example set by the First Lady of the Royal House is sufficient for us. You’ll have our full collaboration.”
“Good! Later you will see how right I am. Now, here are the machines I suggest we take—”
And thereupon the debate on machine tools began—and lasted for a couple of hours until a fully detailed list was drawn up. The matter of immediate requirements in food and weapons was simpler. In four hours they had everything decided to their satisfaction and Cal Anrax signalled for release.
CHAPTER V
DEDICATION TO VENGEANCE
Silently Vaxil and the Council listened to the list of requirements, and evidently they saw no ulterior purpose behind it. Nor had the room been wired for sound so that any secrets could have been betrayed. Cal knew at least that in Vaxil he had a man who rigidly adhered to the laws of statecraft.
“Very well,” he agreed, when he had finished consulting his colleagues. “Your requirements will be granted, Cal Anrax. The second space cruiser will begin loading immediately with the machines of your choice, together with provisions in the first cruiser for your own use. You and your colleagues will spend the night in captivity as before and will prepare to depart at dawn. You, Cal Anrax, will be given the opportunity for a final check up on the second cruiser’s contents before departure is made. It will be for you to choose a pilot from amongst your followers.”
Cal nodded.
“Very well, Excellency. I have assigned Ralix, my chief physicist, to that task.”
Vaxil rose to his feet.
“The matter is decided. Guard, return the prisoners to their rooms.”
Dawn was just streaking the eastern Martian sky when the space cruisers departed. Below, in accordance with traditional ceremony, Cal and Iana watched the puffs of smoke dispersing from the firing of the twenty protonic guns in farewell salute.
Then the busy world of their birth was falling away swiftly into the gulf. It became a wide landscape, circular, a concave circle, and at last a globe…
“The end of an old chapter and the beginning of a new,” Cal said quietly, turning back to the control board. “Now we are really launched on a mighty venture.”
He closed a switch and the face of Ralix, controlling the following cruiser of equipment, appeared on the screen.
“Everything in order?” Cal asked briefly.
“Everything, sir,” the physicist agreed. “I’ll follow out your directions and report any trouble the moment it arises.”
“That will be Vinra itself, I’m afraid,” Cal said, smiling wryly. He switched off and gave his attention to the board in front of him.
It was the beginning of a long, tedious journey. All of them had made space trips before—to Deimos, Phobos, or brief excursions to highly valuable meteoroids—but this was the first time they had made a really long trip. Formerly such journeys had been the lot of tough space explorers.
If there was fear, none of the men and women present showed it. They disposed themselves i
n various parts of the big control room, or watched the eternal stars through the ports. Iana, for her part, busied herself in the section given over to sidereal analysis, gathering together what facts she could from the pin point of bright light towards which they were heading.
Day and night—they were the same thing with the eternal blaze of the sun. Steadily, the motors fixed and unalterable, the vessels pursued their course at swift cruising speed. Cal and Ralix both were relieved at intervals by robot controls.
Onwards past the mystery green world, third from the sun, which space explorers had found to be a planet as yet infinitely young, filled with swirling gases, torrential rains, and chaotic landscape. A world to be—someday.
Half the journey was covered in tedious monotony—three quarters. Then at last the blinding white world of their destiny filled the entire ebony void ahead of them. There was no sign of anything except eye-searing whiteness, an arid waterless landscape exposed to a nakedly near sun. Serried mountain ranges powdered with snowy dust, monstrous fissures and ravines, endless plains wherein clouds of white powder whirled up to the zenith in the thinnest of thin atmospheres.
“Gravity nearly double that of our own world,” Iana said, consulting the instruments. “Atmospheric density about a quarter less than our own. That means extreme thinness. Very great heat—about two hundred degrees.”
“In fact all the things we don’t like.” Cal sighed, staring down through his purple goggles. “This world is going to play the very devil with our bodies, but maybe we’ll struggle through. Here we go.”
He broke off, as the last stage of the journey began.
The tension was nerve racking as they had no control over their fall. The crazy, tortured landscape rose up towards them with seemingly diabolical speed. Then they began to feel the power controlling the motors lessen somewhat. The noses of both machines rose gently preparatory to levelling out. Giant rockets in the forefront flared red. On the control board screen the face of Ralix appeared, strained and anxious as he crouched over his controls.
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