Spacehounds of IPC

by E. E. Smith

  CHAPTER II

  ----But Does Not Arrive

  "All out--we climb the rest of the way on foot," Stevens told hiscompanion, as the elevator stopped at the uppermost passenger floor.They walked across the small circular hall and the guard on duty cameto attention and saluted as they approached him.

  "I have orders to pass you and Miss Newton, sir. Do you know all thecombinations?"

  "I know this good old tub better than the men that built her--I helpedcalculate her," Stevens replied, as he stepped up to an apparently blankwall of steel and deftly manipulated an almost invisible dial set flushwith its surface. "This is to keep the passengers where they belong," heexplained, as a section of the wall swung backward in a short arc andslid smoothly aside. "We will now proceed to see what makes it tick."

  Ladder after ladder of steel they climbed, and bulkhead after bulkheadopened at Stevens's knowing touch. At each floor the mathematicianexplained to the girl the operation of the machinery there automaticallyat work--devices for heating and cooling, devices for circulating,maintaining, and purifying the air and the water--in short, all thecomplex mechanism necessary for the comfort and convenience of the humancargo of the liner.

  Soon they entered the conical top compartment, a room scarcely fifteenfeet in diameter, tapering sharply upward to a hollow point sometwenty feet above them. The true shape of the room, however, was notimmediately apparent, because of the enormous latticed beams andgirders which braced the walls in every direction. The air glowedwith the violet light of the twelve great ultra-light projectors, likesearchlights with three-foot lenses, which lined the wall. The floorbeneath their feet was not a level steel platform, but seemed to becomposed of many lenticular sections of dull blue alloy.

  "We are standing upon the upper lookout lenses, aren't we?" asked thegirl. "Is that perfectly all right?"

  "Sure. They're so hard that nothing can scratch them, and of courseRoeser's Rays go right through our bodies, or any ordinary substance,like a bullet through a hole in a Swiss cheese. Even those lenseswouldn't deflect them if they weren't solid fields of force."

  As he spoke, one of the ultra-lights flashed around in a short, quickarc, and the girl saw that instead of the fierce glare she had expected,it emitted only a soft violet light. Nevertheless she dodgedinvoluntarily and Stevens touched her arm reassuringly.

  "All x, Miss Newton--they're as harmless as mice. They hardly ever haveto swing past the vertical, and even if one shines right through you youcan look it right in the eye as long as you want to--it can't hurt youa bit."

  "No ultra-violet at all?"

  "None whatever. Just a color--one of the many remaining crudities of ourultra-light vision. A lot of good men are studying this thing of directvision, though, and it won't be long before we have a system that willreally work."

  "I think it's all perfectly wonderful!" she breathed. "Just think oftraveling in comfort through empty space, and of actually seeing throughseamless steel walls, without even a sign of a window! How can suchthings be possible?"

  "I'll have to go pretty well back," he warned, "and any adequateexplanation is bound to be fairly deep wading in spots. How technicalcan you stand it?"

  "I can go down with you middling deep--I took a lot of general science,and physics through advanced mechanics. Of course, I didn't get into anysuch highly specialized stuff as sub-electronics or Roeser's Rays, butif you start drowning me, I'll yell."

  "That's fine--you can get the idea all x, with that to go on. Let's sitdown here on this girder. Roeser didn't do it all, by any means, eventhough he got credit for it--he merely helped the Martians do it. Thewhole thing started, of course, when Goddard shot his first rocket tothe moon, and was intensified when Roeser so perfected his short wavesthat signals were exchanged with Mars--signals that neither side couldmake any sense out of. Goddard's pupils and followers made bigger andbetter rockets, and finally got one that could land safely upon Mars.Roeser, who was a mighty keen bird, was one of the first voyagers, andhe didn't come back--he stayed there, living in a space-suit for threeor four years, and got a brand-new education. Martian science alwayswas hot, you know, but they were impractical. They were desperatelyhard up for water and air, and while they had a lot of wonderfulideas and theories, they couldn't overcome the practical technicaldifficulties in the way of making their ideas work. Now putting otherpeoples' ideas to work was Roeser's long suit--don't think that I'mbelittling Roeser at all, either, for he was a brave and far-sightedman, was no mean scientist, and was certainly one of the best organizersand synchronizers the world has ever known--and since Martian andTellurian science complemented each other, so that one filled in thegaps of the other, it wasn't long until fleets of space-freighters werebringing in air and water from Venus, which had more of both than sheneeded or wanted.

  "Having done all he could for the Martians and having learned most ofthe stuff he wanted to know, Roeser came back to Tellus and organizedInterplanetary, with scientists and engineers on all three planets,and set to work to improve the whole system, for the vessels they usedthen were dangerous--regular mankillers, in fact. At about this sametime Roeser and the Interplanetary Corporation had a big part in theunification of the world into one nation, so that wars could no longerinterfere with progress."

  * * * * *

  "With this introduction I can get down to fundamentals. Molecules areparticles of the first order, and vibrations of the first order includesound, light, heat, electricity, radio, and so on. Second order,atoms--extremely short vibrations, such as hard X-rays. Third order,electrons and protons, with their accompanying Millikan, or cosmic,rays. Fourth order, sub-electrons and sub-protons. These, in thematerial aspect, are supposed to be the particles of the fourth order,and in the energy aspect they are known as Roeser's Rays. That is, thesefourth-order rays and particles seem to partake of the nature of bothenergy and matter. Following me?"

  "Right behind you," she assured him. She had been listening intently,her wide-spaced brown eyes fastened upon his face.

  "Since these Roeser's Rays, or particles or rays of the fourth order,seem to be both matter and energy, and since the rays can be convertedinto what is supposed to be the particles, they have been thought to bethe things from which both electrons and protons were built. Therefore,everybody except Norman Brandon has supposed them the ultimate units ofcreation, so that it would be useless to try to go any further...."

  "Why, we were taught that they _are_ the ultimate units!" she protested.

  "I know you were--but we really don't know anything, except what wehave learned empirically, even about our driving forces. What is calledthe fourth-order particle is absolutely unknown, since nobody has beenable to detect it, to say nothing of determining its velocity or otherproperties. It has been assumed to have the velocity of light onlybecause that hypothesis does not conflict with observational data. I'mgoing to give you the generally accepted idea, since we have nothingdefinite to offer in its place, but I warn you that that idea is veryprobably wrong. There's a lot of deep stuff down there hasn't been dugup yet. In fact, Brandon thinks that the product of conversion isn'twhat we think it is, at all--that the actual fundamental unit and theprimary mechanism of the transformation lie somewhere below the fourthorder, and possibly even below the level of the ether--but we haven'tbeen able to find a point of attack yet that will let us get inanywhere. However, I'm getting 'way ahead of our subject. To get back toit, energy can be converted into something that acts like matter throughRoeser's Rays, and that is the empirical fact underlying the drive ofour space-ships, as well as that of almost all other vehicles on allthree planets. Power is generated by the great waterfalls of Tellus andVenus--water's mighty scarce on Mars, of course, so most of our plantsthere use fuel--and is transmitted on light beams, by means of powerfulfields of force to the receptors, wherever they may be. The individualtransmitting fields and receptors are really simply matched-frequencyunits, each matching the electrical characteristics of some part
icularand unique beam of force. This beam is composed of Roeser's Rays, intheir energy aspect. It took a long time to work out this tight-beamtransmission of power, but it was fairly simple after they got it."

  He took out a voluminous notebook, at the sight of which Nadia smiled.

  "A computer might forget to dress, but you'd never catch one without afull magazine pencil and a lot of blank paper," he grinned in reply andwent on, writing as he talked.

  "For any given frequency, _f_, and phase angle, _theta_, you integrate,between limits zero and _pi_ divided by two, sine theta d...."

  "Hold it--I'm sinking!" Nadia exclaimed. "I don't integrate at allunless it is absolutely necessary. As long as you stick to generalscience, I'm right on your heels, but please lay off of integrationsand all that--most especially stay away from those terrible electricalintegrations. I always did think that they were the most poisonous kindknown. I want only a general idea--that's all that I can understand,anyway."

  "Sure, I forgot--guess I was getting in deeper than is necessary,especially since this whole thing of beam transmission is pretty crudeyet and is bound to change a lot before long. There is so much lossthat when we get more than a few hundred million kilometers away froma power-plant we lose reception entirely. But to get going again,the receptors receive the beam and from them the power is sent to theaccumulators, where it is stored. These accumulators are an outgrowthof the storage battery. The theory of the accumulator is...."

  "Lay off the theory, please!" the listener interrupted. "I understandperfectly without it. Energy is stored in the accumulators--you put itin and take it out. That's all that is necessary."

  * * * * *

  "I'd like to give you some of the theory--but, after all, it wouldn'tadd much to your understanding of the working of things, and it mightmix you up, as some of it is pretty deep stuff. Then, too, it wouldtake a lot of time, and the rest of your friends would squawk if Ikept you here indefinitely. From the accumulators, then, the poweris fed to the converters, each of which is backed by a projector.The converters simply change the aspect of the rays, from theenergy aspect to the material aspect. As soon as this is done, thehighly-charged particles--or whatever they are--thus formed arerepelled by the terrific stationary force maintained in the projectorbacking the converter. Each particle departs with a velocity supposedto be that of light, and the recoil upon the projector drives thevessel, or car, or whatever it is attached to. Still with me?"

  "Struggling a little, but my nose is still above the surface. Theseparticles, being so infinitesimally small that they cannot even bedetected, go right through any substance without any effect--they arenot even harmful."

  "Exactly. Now we are in position to go ahead with the lights, detectors,and so on. The energy aspect of the rays you can best understand assimply a vibration in the ether--an extremely high frequency one.While not rigidly scientific, that is close enough for you and me.Nobody knows what the stuff really is, and it cannot be explained ordemonstrated by any model or concept in three-dimensional space. Itsphysical-mathematical interpretation, the only way in which it can begrasped at all, requires sixteen coordinates in four dimensions, andI don't suppose you'd care to go into that."

  "I'll say I wouldn't!" she exclaimed, feelingly.

  "Well, anyway, by the use of suitable fields of force it can be usedas a carrier wave. Most of this stuff of the fields of force--how tocarry the modulation up and down through all the frequency changesnecessary--was figured out by the Martians ages ago. Used as a purecarrier wave, with a sender and a receiver at each end, it isn't sobad--that's why our communicator and radio systems work as well as theydo. They are pretty good, really, but the ultra-light vision systemis something else again. Sending the heterodyned wave through steelis easy, but breaking it up, so as to view an object and return theimpulses, was an awful job and one that isn't half done yet. We seethings, after a fashion and at a distance of a few kilometers, bysending an almost parallel wave from a twin-projector to disintegrateand double back the viewing wave. That's the way the lookout plates andlenses work, all over the ship--from the master-screens in the controlroom to the plates of the staterooms and lifeboats and the viewing-areasof the promenades. But the whole system is a rotten makeshift, and...."

  "Just a minute!" exclaimed the girl. "I and everybody else have beenthinking that everything is absolutely perfect; and yet every singlething you have talked about, you have ended up by describing as'unknown,' 'rudimentary,' 'temporary,' or a 'makeshift.' You speak asthough the entire system were a poor thing that will have to do untilsomething better has been found, and that nobody knows anything aboutanything! How do you get that way?"

  "By working with Brandon and Westfall. Those birds have got real brainsand they're on the track of something that will, in all probability, beas far ahead of Roeser's Rays as our present system is ahead of thescience of the seventeenth century."

  "Really?" she looked at him in astonishment. "Tell me about it."

  "Can't be done," he refused. "I don't know much about it--even theydidn't know any too much about some of it when I had to come in. Andwhat little I do know I can't tell, because it isn't mine."

  "But you're working with them, aren't you?"

  "Yes, in the sense that a small boy helps his father build a house.They're the brains--I simply do some figuring that they don't want towaste time doing."

  Nadia, having no belief whatever in his modest disclaimer, but in secretgreatly pleased by his attitude, replied:

  "Of course you couldn't say anything about an unfinished project--Ishouldn't have asked. Where do we go from here?"

  "Down the lining of the hull, outside the passengers' quarters to theupper dirigible projectors," and he led the way down a series of steepsteel stairways, through bulkheads and partitions of steel. "One thingI forgot to tell you about--the detectors. They're worked on the sameprinciple as the lights, and are just about as efficient. Instead, oflight, though, they send out cones of electromagnetic waves, which setup induced currents in any conductor encountered beyond our own shell.Since all dangerous meteorites have been shown to contain conductingmaterial, that is enough to locate them, for radio finders automaticallydetermine the direction, distance, and magnitude of the disturbance, andswing a light on it. That was what happened when that light swung towardus, back there in the prow."

  "Are there any of those life-boats, that I've heard discussed so muchlately, near here?" asked the girl.

  "Lots of 'em--here's one right here," and at the next landing he openeda vacuum-insulated steel door, snapped on a light, and waved his hand."You can't see much of it from here, but it's a complete space-shipin itself, capable of maintaining a dozen or fifteen persons duringa two-weeks' cruise in space."

  "Why isn't it a good idea to retain them? Accidents are still possible,are they not?"

  "Of course, and there is no question of doing away with them entirely.Modern ships, however, have only enough of them to take care of thelargest number of persons ever to be carried by the vessel."

  "Has the _Arcturus_ more than she needs?"

  "I'll say she has, and more of everything else, except room forpay-load."

  "I've heard them talking about junking her. I think it's a shame."

  "So do I, in a way--you see, I helped design her and her sister-ship,the _Sirius_, which Brandon and Westfall are using as a floatinglaboratory. But times change, and the inefficient must go. She's a goodold tub, but she was built when everybody was afraid of space, and wehad to put every safety factor into her that we could think of. As aresult, she is four times as heavy as she should be, and that takes alot of extra power. Her skin is too thick. She has too many batteries ofaccumulators, too many life-boats, too many bulkheads and air-breaks,too many and too much of everything. She is so built that if she shouldbreak up out in space, nobody would die if they lived through theshock--there are so many bulkheads, air-breaks, and life-boats thatno matter how many pieces she broke up into, the survivors
would findthemselves in something able to navigate. That excessive constructionis no longer necessary. Modern ships carry ten times the pay-load onone-quarter of the power that this old battle-wagon uses. Even thoughshe's only four years old, she's a relic of the days when we used toslam through on the ecliptic route, right through all the meteoricstuff that is always there--trusting to heavy armor to ward offanything too small for the observers and detectors to locate. Now, withthe observatories and check-stations out in space, fairly light armoris sufficient, as we route ourselves well away from the ecliptic and somiss all the heavy stuff. So, badly as I hate to see her go there, theold tub is bound for the junk-yard."

  * * * * *

  A few more flights of stairs brought them to the upper band of dirigibleprojectors, which encircled the hull outside the passengers' quarters,some sixty feet below the prow. They were heavy, search-light-likeaffairs mounted upon massive universal bearings, free to turn in anydirection, and each having its converter nestling inside its prodigiousfield of force. Stevens explained that these projectors were used inturning the vessel and in dodging meteorites when necessary, and theywent on through another almost invisible door into a hall and took anelevator down to the main corridor.

  "Well, you've seen it, Miss Newton," Stevens said regretfully, as heled her toward the captain's office. "The lower half is full of heavystuff--accumulators, machinery, driving projectors, and such junk, sothat the center of gravity is below the center of action of the drivingprojectors. That makes stable flight possible. It's all more or lesslike what we've just seen, and I don't suppose you want to miss thedance--anyway, a lot of people want to dance with you."

  "Wouldn't you just as soon show me through the lower half as dance?"

  "Rather, lots!"

  "So would I. I can dance any time, and I want to see everything.Let's go!"

  Down they went, past battery after battery of accumulators; climbingover and around the ever-increasing number of huge steel girders andbracers; through mazes of heavily insulated wiring and conduits; pastmass after mass of automatic machinery which Stevens explained to hiseager listener. They inspected one of the great driving projectors,which, built rigidly parallel to the axis of the ship and held immovablyin place by enormous trusses of steel, revealed neither to the eye norto the ear any sign of the terrific force it was exerting. Still lowerthey went, until the girl had been shown everything, even down to thebottom ultra-lights and stern braces.

  "Tired?" Stevens asked, as the inspection was completed.

  "Not very. It's been quite a climb, but I've had a wonderful time."

  "So have I," he declared, positively. "I know what--we'll crawl up intoone of these stern lifeboats and make us a cup of coffee before we climbback. With me?"

  "'Way ahead of you!" Nadia accepted the invitation enthusiastically,and they made their way to the nearest of the miniature space-cruisers.Here, although no emergency had been encountered in all the four yearsof the vessel's life, they found everything in readiness, and the twosoon had prepared and eaten a hearty luncheon.

  "Well, I can't think of any more excuses for monopolizing you, MissNewton, so I suppose I'll have to take you back. Believe me, I'veenjoyed this more than you can realize--I've...."

  He broke off and listened, every nerve taut. "What was that?" heexclaimed.

  "What was what? I didn't hear anything?"

  "Something screwy somewhere! I felt a vibration, and anything that'dmake this mountain of steel even quiver must have given us onegosh-awful nudge. There's another!"

  The girl, painfully tense, felt only a barely perceptible tremor, butthe computer, knowing far better than she the inconceivable strength andmass of that enormous structure of solidly braced hardened steel, spranginto action. Leaping to the small dirigible look-out plate, he turned onthe power and swung it upward.

  * * * * *

  "Great suffering snakes!" he ejaculated, then stood mute, for theplate revealed a terrible sight. The entire nose of the gigantic crafthad been sheared off in two immense slices as though clipped off by agigantic sword, and even as they stared, fascinated, at the sight, thesevered slices were drifting slowly away. Swinging the view along theplane of cleavage, Stevens made out a relatively tiny ball of metal,only fifty feet or so in diameter, at a distance of perhaps a mile.From this ball there shot a blinding plane of light, and the _Arcturus_fell apart at the midsection, the lower half separating clean fromthe upper portion, which held the passengers. Leaving the upper halfintact, the attacker began slicing the lower, driving half into thin,disk-shaped sections. As that incandescent plane of destruction madeits first flashing cut through the body of the _Arcturus_, accompaniedby an additional pyrotechnic display of severed and short-circuitedhigh-tension leads, Stevens and Nadia suddenly found themselves floatingweightless in the air of the room. Still gripping the controls of thelook-out plate, Stevens caught the white-faced girl with one hand, drewher down beside him, and held her motionless while his keen mind flashedover all the possibilities of the situation and planned his courseof action.

  "They're apparently slicing us pretty evenly, and by the looks ofthings, one cut is coming right about here," he explained rapidly, ashe found a flashlight and drew his companion through the door and alonga narrow passage. Soon he opened another door and led her into a tinycompartment so low that they could not stand upright--a mere cubicle ofsteel. Carefully closing the door, he fingered dials upon each of thewalls of the cell, then folded himself up into a comfortable position,instructed Nadia to do the same, and snapped off the light.

  "Please leave it on," the shaken girl asked. "It's so ghastly!"

  "We'd better save it, Nadia," he advised, pressing her arm reassuringly,"it's the only light we've got, and we may need it worse later on--itslife is limited, you know."

  "Later on? Do you think we'll need anything--later on?"

  "Sure! Of course they may get us, Nadia, but this little tertiaryair-break is a mighty small target for them to hit. And if they miss us,as I think they will, there's a larger room opening off each wall ofthis one--at least one of which will certainly be left intact. From anyone of those rooms we can reach a life-boat. Of course, it's a littletoo much to expect that any one of the life-boats will be left whole,but they're bulkheaded, too, you know, so that we can be sure of findingsomething able to navigate--providing we can make our get-away. Believeme, ace, I'm sure glad we're aboard the old _Arcturus_ right now, withall her safety-devices, instead of on one of the modern liners. We'd besunk right."

  "I felt sunk enough for a minute--I'm feeling better now, though, sinceyou are taking it so calmly."

  "Sure--why not? A man's not dead until his heart stops beating, youknow--our turn'll come next, when they let up a little."

  "But suppose they change the width of their slices, and hit this cubby,small as it is?"

  "It'd be just too bad," he shrugged. "In that case, we'd never knowwhat hit us, so it's no good worrying about it. But say, we might dosomething at that, if they didn't hit us square. I can move fairly fast,and might be able to get a door open before the loss of pressure sealsit. We'll light the flash ... here, you hold it, so that I can have bothhands free. Put both arms around me, just under the arms, and stick tome like a porous plaster, because if I have to move at all, I'll haveto jump like chain lightning. Shine the beam right over there, so it'llreflect and light up all the dials at once. There ... hold on tight!Here they come!"

  As he spoke, a jarring shudder shook one side of their hiding-place,then, a moment later, the phenomenon was repeated, but with much lessforce, upon the other side. Stevens sighed with relief, took the light,and extinguished it.

  "Missed us clean!" he exulted. "Now, if they don't find us, we're allset."

  "How can they possibly find us? I seem to be always worried about thewrong things, but I should think that their finding us would be theleast of our troubles."

  "Don't judge their vision system by ours--they'
ve got everything,apparently. However, their apparatus may not be delicate enough to spotus in a space this small when their projectors flash through it, as theyprobably will. Then, too, there's a couple of other big items in ourfavor--nobody else is in the entire lower half, since all this machinerydown here is either automatic or else controlled from up above, so theywon't be expecting to see anybody when they get down this far; and wearen't at all conspicuous. We're both dressed in gray--your clothes inparticular are almost exactly the color of this armor-plate--soaltogether we stand a good chance of being missed."

  "What shall we do now?"

  "Nothing whatever--wish we could sleep for a couple of hours, but ofcourse there's no hope of that. Stretch out here, like that--you can'trest folded up like an accordion--and I'll lie down diagonally acrossthe room. There's just room for me that way. That's one advantage ofweightlessness--you can lie down standing on your head, and go to sleepand like it. But I forgot--you've never been weightless before, haveyou? Does it make you sick?"

  "Not so much, now, except that I feel awfully weird inside. I washorribly dizzy and nauseated at first, but it's going away."

  * * * * *

  "That's good--it makes lots of people pretty sick. In fact, some folksget awfully sick and can't seem to get used to it at all. It's thecanals in the inner ear that do most of it, you know. However, if you'reas well as that already, you'll be a regular spacehound in half an hour.I've been weightless for weeks at a stretch, out in the _Sirius_, andnow I've got so I really like it. Here, we'd better keep in touch."He found her hand and tucked it under his arm. "Stabilize our positionsmore, besides keeping us from getting too lonesome, here in the dark,"he concluded, in a matter-of-fact voice.

  "Thanks for saying 'us'--but you would, wouldn't you?" and a wave ofadmiration went through her for the real and chivalrous manhood of theman with whom she had been forced by circumstances to cast her lot."How long must we stay here?"

  "As long as the air lasts, and I'd like to stay here longer than that.We don't want to move around any more than we absolutely have to untiltheir rays are off of us, and we have no way of knowing how long thatwill be. Also, we'd better keep still. I don't know what kind of anaudio system they've got, but there's no use taking unnecessarychances."

  "All x--I'm an oyster's little sister," and for many minutes thetwo remained motionless and silent. Now and then Nadia twitched andstarted at some vague real or imaginary sound--now and then her fingerstightened upon his biceps--and he pressed her hand with his great arm inreassurance and understanding. Once a wall of their cell resounded underthe impact of a fierce blow and Stevens instantly threw his arm aroundthe girl, twisting himself between her and the threatened wall, readyfor any emergency. But nothing more happened; the door remained closed,the cell stayed bottle-tight, and time wore slowly on. All too soon theunmistakable symptoms of breathing an unfit atmosphere made themselvesapparent and Stevens, after testing each of the doors, drew the girlinto a larger room, where they breathed deeply of the fresh, cool air.

  "How did you know that this room was whole?" asked Nadia. "We might havestepped out into space, mightn't we?"

  "No; if this room had lost its tightness, the door wouldn't have opened.They won't open if there's a difference of one kilogram pressure on thetwo sides. That's how I knew that the room we were in at first was cutin two--the door into that air-break wouldn't move."

  "What comes next?"

  "I don't know exactly what to do--we'd better hold a little council ofwar. They may have gone..." Stevens broke off as the structure beganto move, and they settled down upon what had been one of the side-walls.Greater and greater became the acceleration, until their apparent weightwas almost as much as it would have been upon the Earth, at which pointit became constant. "... but they haven't," he continued the interruptedsentence. "This seems to be a capture and seizure, as well as an attack,so we'll have to take the risk of looking at them. Besides, it's gettingcold in here. One or two of the adjoining cells have apparently beenruptured and we're radiating our heat out into space, so we'll have toget into a life-boat or freeze. I'll go pick out the best one. Wonderif I'd better take you with me, or hide you and come back after you?"

  "Don't worry about that--I'm coming with you," Nadia declared, positively.

  "Just as well, probably," he assented, and they set out. A thoroughexploration of all the tight connecting cells revealed that not alifeboat within their reach remained intact, but that habitable andnavigable portions of three such craft were available. Selecting themost completely equipped of these, they took up their residence thereinby entering it and closing the massive insulating door. Stevensdisconnected all the lights save one, and so shielded that one beforeturning it on that it merely lightened the utter darkness into asemi-permeable gloom. He then stepped up to the lookout plate, and withhis hand upon the control, pondered long the possible consequences ofwhat he wished to do.

  "What harm would it do to take just a little peek?"

  "I don't know--that's the dickens of it. Maybe none, and then again,maybe a lot. You see, we don't know who or what we are up against. Theonly thing we know is that they've got us beat a hundred ways, and we'vegot to act accordingly. We've got to chance it sometime, though, if wecan ever get away, so we might as well do it now. I'll put it on veryshort range first, and see what we can see. By the small number of cellswe've got here I'm afraid they've split us up lengthwise, too--so thatinstead of having a whole slice of the old watermelon to live in, we'vegot only about a sixth of one--shaped about like a piece of restaurantpie. One thing I can do, though. I'll turn on the communicator receiverand put it on full coverage--maybe we can hear something useful."

  Putting a little power upon the visiray plate, he moved the point ofprojection a short distance from their hiding-place, so that the plateshowed a view of the wreckage. The upper half of the vessel was stillintact, the lower half a jumble of sharply-cut fragments. From each ofthe larger pieces a brilliant ray of tangible force stretched outward.Suddenly their receiver sounded behind them, as the high-poweredtransmitter in the telegraph room tried to notify headquarters oftheir plight.

  "_Arcturus_ attacked and cut up being taken tow...."

  Rapidly as the message was uttered the transmitter died with a rattlein the middle of a word, and Nadia looked at Stevens with foreboding inher eyes.

  "They've got something, that's one thing sure, to be able to neutralizeour communicator beams that way," he admitted. "Not so good--we'll haveto play this close to our vests, girl!"

  "Are you just trying to cheer me up, or do you really think we have achance?" she demanded. "I want to know just where we stand."

  "I'm coming clean with you, no kidding. If we can get away, we'll be allx, because I'll bet a farm that by this time Brandon's got everythingthose birds have, and maybe more. They beat us to it, that's all. I'mkind of afraid, though, that getting away isn't going to be quite assimple as shooting fish down a well."

  * * * * *

  Far ahead of them a port opened, a lifeboat shot out at its full power,and again their receiver tried to burst into sound, but it was a vainattempt. The sound died before one complete word could be uttered, andthe lifeboat, its power completely neutralized by the rays of the tinycraft of the enemy, floated gently back toward the mass of its parentand accompanied it in its headlong flight. Several more lifeboats madethe attempt, as the courageous officers of the _Arcturus_, some ofwhom had apparently succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the captors,launched the little shells from various ports; but as each boat issued,its power was neutralized and it found itself dragged helplessly alongin the grip of one of those mysterious, brilliant rays of force. Atleast one hidden officer must have been watching the fruitless efforts,for the next lifeboat to issue made no attempt, either to talk or toflee, but from it there flamed out into space a concentrated beam ofdestruction--the terrible ray of annihilation, against which no knownsubstance could endure for a mom
ent; the ray which had definitelyoutlawed war. But even that frightful weapon was useless--it spentits force harmlessly upon an impalpable, invisible barrier, a hundredyards from its source, and the bold lifeboat disappeared in one blindingexplosion of incandescence as the captor showed its real power inretaliation. Stevens, jaw hard-set, leaped from the screen, then broughthimself up so quickly that he skated across the smooth steel floor.Shutting off the lookout plate, he led the half-fainting girl acrossthe room to a comfortable seat and sat down beside her--raging, butthoughtful. Nadia soon recovered.

  "Why are you acting so contrary to your nature--is it because of _me_?"she demanded. "A dozen times I've seen you start to do something andthen change your mind. I _will not_ be a load on you nor hinder you inanything you want to do."

  "I told your father I'd look after you, and I'm going to do it," hereplied, indirectly. "I would do it anyway, of course--even if you areten or twelve years older than I thought you were."

  "Yes, Dad never has realized that I'm more than eight years old. Isee--you were going out there and be slaughtered?" He flushed, but madeno reply. "In that case I'm glad I'm here--that would have been silly.I think we'd better hold that council of war you mentioned a while ago,don't you?"

  "I need a smoke--do you indulge?"

  "No thanks. I tried it a few times at school, but never liked it."

  He searched his pockets, bringing to light an unopened package and atattered remnant which proved to contain one dilapidated cigarette.He studied it thoughtfully. "I'll smoke this wreck," he decided, "whileit's still smokable. We'll save the rest of them--I'm afraid it'll bea long time between smokes. Well, let's confer!"

  "This will have to be a one-sided conference. I don't imagine that anyof my ideas will prove particularly helpful. You talk and I'll listen.

  "You can't tell what ideas may be useful--chip in any time you feel theurge. Here's the dope, as I see it. They're highly intelligent creaturesand are in all probability neither Martians nor Venerians. If any ofthem had any such stuff as that, some of us would have known about itand, besides, I don't believe they would have used it in just that way.Mercury is not habitable, at least for organic beings; and we have neverseen any sign of any other kind of inhabitants who could work withmetals and rays. They're probably from Jupiter, although possibly fromfurther away. I say Jupiter, because I would think, judging from thesmall size of the ship, that it may still be in the experimental stage,so that they probably didn't come from any further away than Jupiter.Then, too, if they were very numerous, somebody would have sighted onebefore. I'd give my left leg and four fingers for one good look at theinside of that ship."

  "Why didn't you take it, then? You never even looked toward it, afterthat one first glimpse."

  "I'll say I didn't--the reason being that they may have automaticdetectors, and as I have suggested before, our system of vision is socrude that its use could be detected with a clothesline or a basketfull of scrap iron. But to resume: Their aim is to capture, not destroy,since they haven't killed anybody except the one crew that attackedthem. Apparently they want to study us or something. However, they don'tintend that any of us shall get away, nor even send out a word of whathas happened to us. Therefore it looks as though our best bet is to hidenow, and try to sneak away on them after a while--direct methods won'twork. Right?"

  "You sound lucid. Is there any possibility of getting back, though, ifwe got anywhere near Jupiter? It's so far away!"

  "It's a long stretch from Jupiter to any of the planets where we havepower-plants, all right--particularly now, when Mars and Tellus aresubtending an angle of something more than ninety degrees at the sun,and Venus is between the two, while Jupiter is clear across the sun fromall three of them. Even when Jupiter is in mean opposition to Mars, itis still some five hundred and fifty million kilometers away, so youcan form some idea as to how far it is from our nearest planet now.No, if we expect to get back under our own power, we've got to break awaypretty quick--these lifeboats have very little accumulator capacity, andthe receptors are useless above about three hundred millionkilometers...."

  "But it'll take us a long time to go that far, won't it?"

  "Not very. Our own ships, using only the acceleration of gravity, andboth plus and minus at that, make the better than four hundred millionkilometers of the long route to Mars in five days. These birds are usingalmost that much acceleration, and I don't see how they do it. They musthave a tractor ray. Brandon claimed that such a thing was theoreticallypossible, but Westfall and I couldn't see it. We ragged him about it alot--and he was right. I thought, of course, they'd drift with us, butthey are using power steadily. They've got _some_ system!"

  "Suppose they could be using intra-atomic energy? We were taught that itwas impossible, but you've shattered a lot of my knowledge today."

  "I wouldn't want to say definitely that it is absolutely impossible,but the deeper we go into that line, the more unlikely intra-atomicenergy power-plants become. No, they've got a real power-transmissionsystem--one that can hold a tight beam together a lot farther thananything we have been able to develop, that's all. Well, we've giventhem quite a lot of time to get over any suspicion of us, let's seeif we can sneak away from them."

  * * * * *

  By short and infrequent applications of power to the dirigibleprojectors of the life-boat, Stevens slowly shifted the position ofthe fragment which bore their craft until it was well clear of theother components of the mass of wreckage. He then exerted a very smallretarding force, so that their bit would lag behind the procession, asthough it had accidently been separated. But the crew of the captor wasalert, and no sooner did a clear space show itself between them and themass than a ray picked them up and herded them back into place. Stevensthen nudged other pieces so that they fell out, only to see them alsorounded up. Hour after hour he kept trying--doing nothing sufficientlyenergetic to create any suspicion, but attempting everything he couldthink of that offered any chance of escape from the clutches of theircaptors. Immovable at the plate, his hands upon the controls, heperformed every insidious maneuver his agile brain could devise, buthe could not succeed in separating their vehicle from its fellows.Finally, after a last attempt, which was foiled as easily as were itspredecessors, he shut off his controls and turned to his companionwith a grin.

  "I didn't think I could get away with it--they're keen, that gang--butI had to keep at it as long as it would have done us any good."

  "Wouldn't it do us any good now?"

  "Not a bit--we're going so fast that we couldn't stop--we're out of evenradio range of our closest power-plant. We'll have to put off any moreattempts until they slow us down. They're fairly close to at least oneof the moons of Jupiter, we'll have our best chance--so good, in fact,that I really think we can make it."

  "But what good would that do us, if we couldn't get back?" Direforeboding showed in her glorious eyes.

  "Lots of things not tried yet, girl, and we'll try them all. First, weget away. Second, we try to get in touch with Norman Brandon...."

  "How? No known radio will carry half that far."

  "No, but I think that a radio as yet unknown may be able to--and thereis a bare possibility that I'll be able to communicate."

  "Oh wonderful--that lifts a frightful load off my mind," she breathed.

  "But just a minute--I said I'd come clean with you, and I will. The oddsare all against us, no matter what we do. If that unknown radio won'twork--and it probably won't--there are several other things we can try,but they're all pretty slim chances. Even if we get away, it'll probablybe about the same thing as though you were to be marooned on a desertisland without any tools, and with your rescue depending upon yourability to build a high-powered radio station with which to call toa mainland for help. However, if we don't try to get away, our onlyalternative is letting them know we're here, and joining our friendsin captivity."

  "And then what?"

  "You know as much as I do. Imprisonment and restr
aint, certain; death,possible; return to Earth, almost certainly impossible--life as guests,highly improbable."

  "I'm with you, Steve, all the way."

  "Well, it's time to spring off--we've both been awake better than fiftyhours. Personally, I'm all in, and you're so near dead that you're aphysical wreck. We'll get us a bite of supper and turn in."

  An appetizing supper was prepared from the abundant stores and eachate a heartier meal than either would have believed possible. Stevensconsidered his unopened package of cigarettes, then regretfully put itback into his pocket still unopened and turned to Nadia.

  "Well, little fellow, it's time to shove off, and then some. You mightas well sleep here, and I'll go in there. If anything scares you, yell.Good-night, old trapper!"

  "Wait a minute, Steve." Nadia flushed, and her brown eyes and blackeyebrows, in comparison with her golden-blond hair, lent her face aquizzical, elfin expression that far belied her feelings as she staredstraight into his eyes. "I've never even been away from the Earthbefore, and with all this happening I'm simply scared to death. I'vebeen trying to hide it, but I couldn't stand it alone, and we're goingto be together too long and too close for senseless conventions toaffect us. There's two bunks over there--why don't you sleep in oneof them?"

  He returned her steadfast gaze for a moment in silence.

  "All x with me, Nadia," he answered, keeping out of his voice allsigns of the tenderness he felt for her, and of his very real admirationfor her straightforward conduct in a terrifying situation. "You trustme, then?"

  "_Trust_ you! Don't be silly--I know you! I know you, and I know Brandonand Westfall--I know what you've done, and exactly the kind of men youare. _Trust_ you!"

  "Thanks, old golf-shootist," and promises were made and receivedin a clasp from which Nadia's right hand, strong as it was, emergedslightly damaged.

  "By the way, what is your first name, fellow-traveller?" she asked inlighter vein. "Nobody, not even Dad or Breckie, ever seems to call youanything but 'Steve' when they talk about you." She was amazed at theeffect of her innocent question, for Stevens flushed to his hair andspluttered.

  "It's _Percy_!" He finally, snorted. "Percival Van Schravendyck Stevens.Wouldn't that tear it?"

  "Why, I think Percival's a real nice name!"

  "Silence!" he hissed in burlesque style. "Young woman, I have revealedto you a secret known to but few living creatures. On your life, keepit inviolate!"

  "Oh, very well, if you insist. Good-night--Steve!" and she gave him aradiant and honest smile: the first smile he had seen since the momentof the attack.