by E. E. Smith
CHAPTER VIII
Callisto to the Rescue
All humanity of Callisto, the fourth major satellite of Jupiter,had for many years been waging a desperate and apparently hopelessdefense against invading hordes of six-limbed beings. Every city andtown had long since been reduced to level fields of lava by the raysof the invaders. Every building and every trace of human civilizationhad long since disappeared from the surface of the satellite. Farbelow the surface lay the city of Zbardk, the largest of the fewremaining strongholds of the human race. At one portal of the city atorpedo-shaped, stubby-winged rocket plane rested in the carriage of acatapult. Near it the captain addressed briefly the six men normallycomposing his crew.
"Men, you already know that our cruise today is not an ordinary patrol.We are to go to One, there to destroy a base of the hexans. We haveperhaps one chance in ten thousand of returning. Therefore I am takingonly one man--barely enough to operate the plane. Volunteers step onepace forward."
The six stepped forward as one man, and a smile came over the wornface of their leader as he watched them draw lots for the privilege ofaccompanying him to probable death. The two men entered the body of thetorpedo, sealed the openings and waited.
"Free exits?" snapped the Captain of the Portal, and twelve keen-eyedobservers studied minutely screens and instrument panels connected tothe powerful automatic lookout stations beneath the rims of the widelyseparated volcanic craters from which their craft could issue intoCallisto's somber night.
"No hexan radiation can be detected from Exit Eight," came the report.The Captain of the Portal raised an arm in warning, threw in the guides,and the two passengers were hurled violently backward, deep into theircushioned seats, as the catapult shot their plane down the runway. Asthe catapult's force was spent automatic trips upon the undercarriageactuated the propelling rockets and mile after mile, with rapidlymounting velocity, the plane sped through the tube. As the exit wasapproached, the tunnel described a long vertical curve, so that when theopening into the shaft of the crater was reached and the undercarriagewas automatically detached, the vessel was projected almost verticallyupward. Such was its velocity and so powerful was the liquid propellantof its rocket motors, that the eye could not follow the flight of thewarship as it tore through the thin layer of the atmosphere and hurleditself out into the depths of space.
"Did we get away?" asked the captain, hands upon his controls and eyesupon his moving chart of space.
"I believe so, sir," answered the other officer, at the screens of thesix periscopic devices which covered the full sphere of vision. "Noreports from the rim, and all screens blank." Once more a vessel hadissued from the jealously secret city of Zbardk without betraying itsexistence to the hated and feared hexans.
For a time the terrific rocket motors continued the deafening roar oftheir continuous explosions, then, the desired velocity having beenattained, they were cut out and for hours the good ship "Bzark" hurtledon through the void at an enormous but constant speed toward the distantworld of One, which it was destined never to reach.
"Captain Czuv! Hexan radiation, coordinates twenty two, fourteen, areasix!" cried the observer, and the commander swung his own telescopicfinder into the indicated region. His hands played over course anddistance plotters for a brief minute, and he stared at his results inastonishment.
"I never heard of a hexan traveling that way before," he frowned."Constant negative acceleration and in a straight line. He must thinkthat we have been cleared out of the ether. Almost parallel to us andnot much faster--even at this long range, it is an easy kill unlesshe starts dodging, as usual."
As he spoke, he snapped a switch and from a port under the starboardwing there shot out into space a small package of concentrateddestruction--a rocket-propelled, radio-controlled torpedo. The rocketsof the tiny missile were flaming, but that flame was visible only fromthe rear and no radio beam was upon it. Czuv had given it precisely thedirection and acceleration necessary to make it meet the hexan spherein central impact, provided that sphere maintained its course andacceleration unchanged.
"Shall I direct the torpedo in the case the hexan shifts?" asked theofficer.
"I think not. They can, of course, detect any wave at almost anydistance, and at the first sign of radioactivity they would locate anddestroy the bomb. They also, in all probability, would destroy us. Iwould not hesitate to attack them on that account alone, but we mustremember that we are upon a more important mission than attacking onehexan ship. We are far out of range of their electromagnetic detectors,and our torpedo will have such a velocity that they will have no time toprotect themselves against it after detection. Unless they shift in thenext few seconds, they are lost. This is the most perfect shot I everhad at one of them, but one shot is all I dare risk--we must not betrayourselves."
* * * * *
Course, lookout, and rank forgotten, the little crew of two staredinto the narrow field of vision, set at its maximum magnification. Theinstruments showed that the enemy vessel was staying upon its originalcourse. Very soon the torpedo came within range of the detectors of thehexans. But as Captain Czuv had foretold, the detection was a fractionof a second too late, rapidly as their screens responded, and the twomen of Zbardk uttered together a short, fierce cry of joy as a brilliantflash of light announced the annihilation of the hexan vessel.
"But hold!" The observer stared into his screen. "Upon that same line,but now at constant velocity, there is still a very faint radiation,of a pattern I have never seen before."
"I think ... I believe ..." the captain was studying the pattern,puzzled. "It must be low frequency, low-tension electricity, which isnever used, so far as I know. It may be some new engine of destruction,which the hexan was towing at such a distance that the explosion of ourtorpedo did not destroy it. Since there are no signs of hexan activityand since it will not take much fuel, we shall investigate thatradiation."
Tail and port-side rockets burst into roaring activity and soon theplane was cautiously approaching the mass of wreckage, which had beenthe IPV _Arcturus_.
"Human beings, although of some foreign species!" exclaimed the captain,as his vision-ray swept through the undamaged upper portion of the greatliner and came to rest upon Captain King at his desk.
Although the upper ultra-lights of the Terrestrial vessel had beencut away by the hexan plane of force, jury lights had been rigged,and the two commanders were soon trying to communicate with eachother. Intelligible conversation was, of course, impossible, but Kingsoon realized that the visitors were not enemies. At their pantomimedsuggestion he put on a space-suit and wafted himself over to the airlockof the Callistonian warplane. Inside the central compartment, thestrangers placed over his helmet a heavily wired harness, and he foundhimself instantly in full mental communication with the Callistoniancommander. For several minutes they stood silent, exchanging thoughtswith a rapidity impossible in any language; then, dressed inspace-suits, both leaped lightly across the narrow gap into the stillopen outer lock of the terrestrial liner. King watched Czuv narrowlyafter the pressure began to collapse his suit, but the stranger madeno sign of distress. He had been right in his assurance that the extrapressure would scarcely inconvenience him. King tore off his helmet,issued a brief order, and soon every speaker in the _Arcturus_announced:
"All passengers and all members of the crew except lookouts on duty willassemble immediately in Saloon Three to discuss a possible immediaterescue."
The subject being one of paramount interest, it was a matter of minutesuntil the full complement of two hundred men and women were in the mainsaloon, clinging to hastily rigged hand lines, closely packed before theraised platform upon which were King and Czuv, wired together with thepeculiar Callistonian harness. To most of the passengers, familiar withthe humanity of three planets, the appearance of the stranger broughtno surprise; but many of them stared in undisguised amazement at hischildish body, his pale, almost colorless skin, his small, weak legs andarms, an
d his massive head.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Captain King opened the meeting. "I introduce toyou Captain Czuv, of the scout cruiser _Bzarvk_, of the only human racenow living upon the fourth large satellite of Jupiter, which satellitewe know as Callisto. I am avoiding their own names as much as possible,because they are almost unpronounceable in English or Interplanetarian.This device that you see connecting us is a Callistonian thoughttransformer, by means of which any two intelligent beings can conversewithout language. Our situation is peculiar, and in order that you mayunderstand fully what lies ahead of us, the captain will now speak toyou, through me--that is, what follows will be spoken by Captain Czuv,of the _Bzarvk_, but he will be using my vocal organs."
"Friends from distant Tellus," King's voice went on, almost without abreak, "I greet you. I am glad, for your sake as well as our own, thatyour vessel was able to destroy the hexan ship holding you captive, andwhose crew would have killed you all as soon as they had landed yourvessel and had read your minds. I regret bitterly that we can do solittle for you, for only the representatives of a human civilizationbeing exterminated by a race of highly intelligent monsters can fullyrealize how desirable it is for all the various races of humanity toassist and support each other. In order that you may understand thesituation, it is necessary that I delve at some length into ancienthistory, but we have ample time. In about ..." he broke off, realizingthat the two races had no thought in common in the measure of time.
"One-half time of rotation of Great Planet upon axis?" flashed fromCzuv's brain, and "About five hours," King's mind flashed back.
"It will be about five hours before any steps can be taken, so that Ifeel justified in using a brief period for explanation. In the evolutionof the various forms of life upon Callisto, two genera developedintelligence far ahead of all others. One genus was the human, as youand I; the other the hexan. This creature, happily unknown to you of theplanets nearer our common sun, is the product of an entirely differentevolution. It is a six-limbed animal, with a brain equal to our own--oneperhaps in some ways superior to our own. They have nothing in commonwith humanity, however; they have few of our traits and fewer of ourmental processes. Even we who have fought them so long can scarcelycomprehend the chambers of horror that are their minds. Even were I ableto paint a sufficiently vivid picture with words, you of Earth could notbegin to understand their utter ruthlessness and inhumanity, even amongthemselves. You would believe that I was lying, or that my viewpoint waswarped. I can say only that I hope most sincerely that none of you willever get better acquainted with them."
* * * * *
"Ages ago, then, the human and the hexan developed upon all four of themajor satellites of the Great Planet, which you know as Jupiter, andupon the north polar region of Jupiter itself. By what means the tworaces came into being upon worlds so widely separated in space we knownot--we only know it to be the fact. Human life, however, could not longendure upon Jupiter. The various human races, after many attempts tomeet conditions of life there by variations in type fell before thehexans; who, although very small in size upon the planet, thrived thereamazingly. Upon the three outer satellites humanity triumphed, and manyhundreds of cycles ago the hexans of those satellites were wiped out,save for an occasional tribe of savages of low intelligence who lived invarious undesirable portions of the three worlds. For ages then therewas peace upon Callisto. Here is the picture at that time--upon Jupiterthe hexans; upon Io hexans and humans, waging a ceaseless and relentlesswar of mutual extermination; upon the three outer satellites humanity inundisturbed and unthreatened peace. Five worlds, each ignorant of lifeupon any other.
"As I have said, the hexans of Jupiter were, and are, diabolicallyintelligent. Driven probably by their desire to see what lay beyondtheir atmosphere of eternal cloud, to the penetration of which theireyesight was attuned, they developed the space-ship; and effected asafe landing, first upon the barren, airless moonlet nearest them, andthen upon fruitful Io. There they made common cause with the hexansagainst the humans, and in space of time Ionian humanity ceased to exist.Much traffic and interbreeding followed between the hexans of Jupiterand those of Io, resulting in time in a race intermediate in sizebetween the parent stocks and equally at home in the widely variant airpressures and gravities of planet and satellite. Soon their astronomicalinstruments revealed the cities of Europa to their gaze, and as soonas they discovered that the civilization of Europa was human, theydestroyed it utterly, with the insatiable blood lust that is theirheritage.
"In the meantime the human civilizations of Ganymede and Callisto hadalso developed instruments of power. Observing the cities upon the othersatellites, many scientists studied intensively the problem of spacenavigation, and finally there was some commerce between the two outersatellites at favorable times. Finally, vessels were also sent to Ioand to Europa, but none of them returned. Knowing then what to expect,Ganymede and Callisto joined forces and prepared for war. But ourscience, so long attuned to the arts of peace, had fallen behindlamentably in the devising of more and ever more deadly instrumentsof destruction. Ganymede fell, and in her fall we read our own doom.Abandoning our cities, we built anew underground. Profiting from lessonslearned full bloodily upon Ganymede, we resolved to prolong theexistence of the human race as long as possible.
"The hexans were, and are masters of the physical science. Theycommand the spectrum in a way undreamed of. Their detectors revealetheric disturbances at unbelievable distances, and they have at theirbeck and call forces of staggering magnitude. Therefore in our citiesis no electricity save that which is wired, shielded, and grounded;no broadcast radio; no source whatever of etheric disturbances savelight--and our walls are fields of force which we believe to beimpenetrable to any searching frequency capable of being generated.Now I am able to picture to you the present.
"We are the last representatives of the human race in the Jovianplanetary system. Our every trace upon the surface has been obliterated.We are hiding in our holes in the ground, coming out at night by stealthso that our burrows shall not be revealed to the hexans. We are fightingfor time in which our scientists may learn the secrets of power--andfearing, each new day, that the enemy may have so perfected theirsystems of rays that they will be able to detect us and destroy us, evenin our underground and heavily shielded retreats, by means of forceseven more incomprehensible than those they are now employing.
"Therefore, friends, you see how little we are able to do for you, wea race fighting for our very existence and doomed to extinction savefor a miracle. We cannot take you to Callisto, for it is besieged by thehexans and the driving forces of your lifeboats, practically broadcastas they are, would be detected and we should all be destroyed longbefore we could reach safety. Captain King and I have pondered long andhave been able to see only one course of action. We are drifting atconstant velocity, using no power, and with all save the most vitallynecessary machinery at rest. Thus only may we hope to avoid detectionduring the next two hours.
"Our present course will take us very close to Europa, which the hexansbelieve to be like Ganymede, entirely devoid of civilized life. Itsoriginal humanity was totally destroyed, and all its civilized hexansare finding shelter from our torpedoes upon Jupiter until we of Callistoshall likewise have been annihilated. The temperature of Europa willsuit you. Its atmosphere, while less dense than that to which you areaccustomed, will adequately support your life. If we are not detectedin the course of the next few hours we can probably land upon Europa insafety, since its neighborhood is guarded but loosely. In fact, we havea city there, as yet unsuspected by the hexans, in which our scientistswill continue to labor after Callisto's civilization shall havedisappeared. We think that it will be safe to use your power for theshort time necessary to effect a landing. We shall land in a cavern,in a crater already in communication with our city. In that cavern,instructed and aided by some of us, you will build a rocket vessel--norays can be used because of the hexans--in which you will be able totravel
to a region close enough to your earth so that you can call forhelp. You will not be able to carry enough fuel to land there--in fact,nearly all the journey will have to be made without power, travelingfreely in a highly elongated orbit around the sun--but if you escape thehexans, you should be able to reach home safely, in time. It is for theconsideration of this plan that this meeting has been called."
* * * * *
"Just one question," Breckenridge spoke. "The hexans are intelligent.Why are they leaving Europa and Ganymede so unguarded that human beingscan move back there and that we can land there, all undetected?"
"I will answer that question myself," replied King. "Captain Czuv didnot quite do justice to his own people. It is true that they are beingconquered, but for every human life that is taken, a thousand hexansdie, and for every human ship that is lost, twenty hexan vessels areannihilated in return. While the hexans are masters of rays, thehumans are equally masters of explosives and of mechanisms. They canhit a perfect score upon any target in free space whose course andacceleration can be determined, at any range up to five thousandkilometers, and they have explosives thousands of times as powerful asany known to us. Ray screens are effective only against rays, and thehexans cannot destroy anything they cannot see before it strikes them.So it is that all the hexan vessels except those necessary to protecttheir own strongholds, are being concentrated against Callisto. Theycannot spare vessels to guard uselessly the abandoned satellites.Because of the enormously high gravity of Jupiter the hexans there aresafe from human attack save for ineffectual long-range bombardment, butIo is being attacked constantly and it is probable that in a few moreyears Io also will be an abandoned world. Some of you may have receivedthe impressions that the hexans are to triumph immediately, but such anidea is wrong. The humans can, and will, hold out for a hundred years ormore unless the enemy perfects a destructive ray of the type referredto. Even then, I think that our human cousins will hold out a long time.They are able men, fighters all, and their underground cities arebeautifully protected."
There was little argument. Most of the auditors could understand thatthe suggested course was the best one possible. The remainder wereso stunned by the unbelievable events of the attack that they had noinitiative, but were willing to follow wherever the more valiant spiritsled. It was decided that no attempt should be made to salvage anyportion of the _Arcturus_, since any such attempt would be fraught withdanger and since the wreckage would be of little value. The new vesselwas to be rocket driven and was to be built of Callistonian alloys.Personal belongings were moved into lifeboats, doors were closed, andthere ensued a painful period of waiting and suspense.
The stated hour was reached without event--no hexan scout had comeclose enough to them to detect the low-tension radiation of the vitalmachinery of the _Arcturus_, cut as it was to the irreducible minimumand quite effectively grounded as it was by the enormous mass of hershielding armor. At a signal from Captain Czuv the pilot of eachlifeboat shot his tiny craft out into space and took his allotted placein the formation following closely behind the _Bzarvk_, flying towardEuropa, now so large in the field of vision that she resembled more aworld than a moon. Captain King, in the Callistonian vessel, transmittedto Breckenridge the route and flight data given him by the navigator ofthe winged craft. The chief pilot, flying "point," in turn relayed moredetailed instructions to the less experienced pilots of the otherlifeboats.
Soon the surface of Europa lay beneath them; a rugged, cratered, andtorn topography of mighty ranges of volcanic mountains. Most of thecraters were cold and lifeless; but here and there a plume of smokeand steam betrayed the presence of vast, quiescent forces. Straightdown one of those gigantic lifeless shafts the fleet of space craftdropped--straight down a full two miles before the landing signal wasgiven. At the bottom of the shaft a section of the rocky wall swungaside, revealing the yawning black mouth of a horizontal tunnel. Atintervals upon its roof there winked into being almost invisible pointsof light. Along that line of lights the lifeboats felt their way, comingfinally into a huge cavern, against one sheer metal wall of which theyparked in an orderly row. Roll was called, and the terrestrials walked,as well as they could in the feeble gravity of the satellite, across thevast chamber and into a conveyance somewhat resembling a railway coach,which darted away as soon as the doors were shut. For hundreds of milesthat strange tunnel extended, and as the car shot along door after doorof natural rock opened before it, and closed as soon as it had spedthrough. In spite of the high velocity of the vehicle, it requiredalmost two hours to complete the journey. Finally, however, it slowedto a halt and the Terrestrial visitors disembarked at a portal of theEuropan city of the Callistonians.
"Attention!" barked Captain King. "The name of this city, as nearly asI can come to it in English, is _WRUZK_. 'Roosk' comes fairly close toit and is easier to pronounce. We must finish our trip in small cars,holding ten persons each. We shall assemble again in the building inwhich we have been assigned quarters. The driver of each car will leadhis passengers to the council room in which we shall meet."
"Oh, what's the use--this is horrible, horrible--we might as well die!"a nervous woman shrieked, and fainted.
"Such a feeling is, perhaps, natural," King went on, after the woman hadbeen revived and quiet had been restored, "but please control it as muchas possible. We are alive and well, and will be able to return to Telluseventually. Please remember that these people are putting themselvesto much trouble and inconvenience to help us, desperate as their ownsituation is, and conduct yourselves accordingly."
The rebuke had its effect, and with no further protest the companyboarded the small cars, which shot through an opening in the wall andinto a street of that strange subterranean city. Breckenridge, in thelast car to leave the portal, studied his surroundings with interest ashis conveyance darted through the gateway. More or less a fatalist bynature and an adventurer, of course, since no other type existed amongthe older spacehounds of the IPC, he was intensely interested in everynew phase of their experience, and was no whit dismayed or frightened.
* * * * *
He found himself seated in a narrow canoe of metal, immediately behindthe pilot, who sat at a small control panel in the bow. Propelled byelectromagnetic fields above a single rail, upon lightly touching andnoiseless wheels, the terrestrial pilot saw with keen appreciation themanner in which switch after switch ahead of them obeyed the impulsessent ahead from the speeding car. The streets were narrow and filledwith monorails; pedestrians pursued their courses upon walks attachedto the walls of the buildings, far above the level of the streets. Thewalls were themselves peculiar, rising as they did stark, unbroken,windowless expanses of metal, merging into and supporting a massiveroof of the same silvery metal. Walls and roof alike reflected a soft,yet intense, white light. Soon a sliding switch ahead of them shot inand simultaneously an opening appeared in the blank metal wall of abuilding. Through the opening the street-car flew, and as the pilotslowed the canoe to a halt, the door slid smoothly shut behind them.Parking the car beside a row of its fellows, the Callistonian driverindicated that the Terrestrials were to follow him and led the way intoa large hall. There the others from the _Arcturus_ were assembled,facing Captain King, who was standing upon a table.
"Fellow travelers," King addressed them, "our course of action hasbeen decided. There are two hundred three of us. There will be twentysections of ten persons, each section being in charge of one of theofficers of the _Arcturus_. Doctor Penfield, our surgeon, a man whoseintelligence, fairness, and integrity are unquestioned, will be insupreme command. His power and authority will be absolute, limited onlyby the Callistonian Council. He will work in harmony with the engineer,who is to direct the entire project of building the new vessel. Each ofyou will be expected to do whatever he can--the work you will be askedto do will be well within your powers, and you will each have ampleleisure for recreation, study, and amusement, of all of which you willfind unsuspected s
tores in this underground community. You will eachbe registered and studied by physicians, surgeons, and psychologists;and each of you will have prescribed for him the exact diet that isnecessary for his best development. You will find this diet somewhatmonotonous, compared to our normal fare of natural products, since itis wholly synthetic; but that is one of the minor drawbacks that mustbe endured. Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I will not be with you. Insome small and partial recompense for what they are doing for us all,he and I are going with Captain Czuv to Callisto, there to see whetheror not we can aid them in any way in the fight against the hexans. Onelast word--Doctor Penfield's rulings will be the products of his ownwell-ordered mind after consultation and agreement with the Council ofthis city, and will be for the best good of all. I do not anticipate anyrefusal to cooperate with him. If, however, such refusal should occur,please remember that he is a despot with absolute power, and that anyoneobstructing the program by refusing to follow his suggestions will spendthe rest of his time here in confinement and will go back to Tellus inirons, if at all. In case Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I should not seeyou again, we bid you goodbye and wish you a safe voyage--but we expectto go back with you."
Brief farewells were said and captain and pilot accompanied Czuv to oneof the little street-cars. Out of the building it dashed and down thecrowded but noiseless thoroughfare to the portal. Signal lights flashedbriefly there and they did not stop, but tore on through the portal andthe tunnel, with increasing speed.
"Don't have to transfer to a big car, then?" asked Breckenridge.
"No," King made answer. "Small cars can travel these tubes as well asthe large ones, and on much less power. In the city the wheels touchthe rails lightly, not for support, but to make contacts through whichtraffic signals are sent and received. In the tunnels the wheels donot touch at all, as signaling is unnecessary--the tunnels being usedinfrequently and by but one vehicle at a time. No trolleys, tracks, orwires are visible, you notice. Everything is hidden from any possiblevisiray of the hexans."
"How about their power?"
"I don't understand it very well--hardly at all, in fact."
"It is quite simple." To the surprise of both Terrestrials, Czuv wasspeaking English, but with a strong and very peculiar accent; slightingall the vowels and accenting heavily the consonant sounds. "The car nolonger requires my attention, so I am now free to converse. You aresurprised at my knowing your language? You will speak mine after a fewmore applications of the thought exchanger. I am speaking with a vileaccent, of course, but that is merely because my vocal organs arenot accustomed to making vowel sounds. Our power is obtained by thecombustion of gases in highly efficient turbines. It is transmitted andused as direct current, our generator and motors being so constructedthat they can produce no etheric disturbances capable of penetratingthe shielding walls of our city. The city was built close to depositsof coal, oil, and gas of sufficient amount to support our life forthousands of years; for from these deposits come power, food, clothing,and all the other necessities and luxuries of our lives. Strong fansdraw air from various extinct craters, force it through ventilatingducts into every room and recess of the city, and exhaust it into theshaft of a quiescent volcano, in whose gaseous outflow any trace of ouractivities is, of course, imperceptible. For obvious reasons no rocketsor combustion motors are used in the city proper."
* * * * *
Thus Captain Czuv explained to the Terrestrials his own mode of life,and received from them in turn full information concerning Earthly life,activity, and science. Long they talked, and it was almost time to slowdown for the journey's end when the Callistonian brought the conversationback to their immediate concerns.
"My lieutenant and I were upon a mission of some importance, but it ismore important to take you to Callisto, for there may be many thingsin which you can help us. Not in rays--we know all the vibrations youhave mentioned and several others. The enemy, however, is supremein that field, and until our scientists have succeeded in developingray-screens, such as are used by the hexans, it would be suicidal touse rays at all. Such screens necessitate the projection of pure, yetdirigible, forces--you do not have them upon your planet?"
"No, and so far as I know such screens are also unknown upon Mars andVenus, with whose inhabitants we are friendly."
"The inhabitants of all the planets should be friendly; the solarsystem should be linked together in intercourse for common advancement.But that is not to be. The hexans will eventually triumph here, and aJovian system peopled by hexans will have no intercourse with any humancivilization save that of internecine war. We, of Callisto, have onlyone hope--or is it really a hope? In the South Polar country of Jupiter,there dwells a race of beings implacably hostile to the hexans. Theyseem to invade the country of the hexans frequently, even though theyare apparently repulsed each time. Our emissaries to the South Polarcountry, however, have never returned--those beings, whatever theyare, if not actively inimical, certainly are not friendly toward us."
"You know nothing of their nature?"
"Nothing, since our electrical instruments are not sufficientlysensitive to give us more than a general idea of what is transpiringthere, and vision is practically useless in that eternal fog. We know,however, that they are far advanced in science, and we are thankfulindeed that none of their frightful flying fortresses have been launchedagainst us. They apparently are not interested in the satellites, and itis no doubt due to their unintentional assistance that we have survivedas long as we have."
In the cavern at last, the three men boarded the Callistonianspace-plane and were shot up the crater's shaft. The voyage toCallisto was uneventful, even uninteresting save at its termination.The _Bzarvk_, coated every inch as it was with a dull, dead black,completely absorptive outer coating, entered the thin layer ofCallisto's atmosphere in darkest night, with all rockets dead, with nota light showing, and with no apparatus of any kind functioning. Utterlyinvisible and undetectable, she dove downward, and not until she waswell below the crater's rim did the forward rockets burst into furiouslife. Then the Terrestrials understood another reason for the immensedepth of those shafts other than that of protection from the detectorsof the enemy--all that distance was necessary to overcome the velocityof their free fall without employing a negative acceleration greaterthan the frail Callistonian bodies could endure. From the cavern at thefoot of the shaft, a regulation tunnel extended to the Callistonian cityof Zbardk. Portal and city were very like Wruszk, upon distant Europa,and soon the terrestrial captain and pilot were in conference with theCouncil of Callisto.
* * * * *
Months of Earthly time dragged slowly past, months during which King andBreckenridge studied intensively the offensive and defensive systemsof Callisto without finding any particular in which they could improvethem to any considerable degree. Captain Czuv and his warplane stillsurvived, and it was while the Callistonian commander was visiting histerrestrial guests, that King voiced the discontent that had longaffected both men.
"We're both tired of doing nothing, Czuv. We have been of little realbenefit, and we have decided that your ideas of us are all wrong. We areconvinced that our personal horsepower can be of vastly more use to youthan our brain-power, which doesn't amount to much. Your whole presentpolicy is one of hiding and sniping. I think that I know why, but I wantto be sure. Your vessels carry lots of fuel--why can the hexans outrunyou?" Thus did King put his problem.
"They can stand enormously higher accelerations than we can. The verystrongest of us loses consciousness at an acceleration of twenty-fivemeters per second per second, no matter how he is braced, and thatis only a little greater than the normal gravity of our enemies uponJupiter. Their vessels at highest power develop an acceleration ofthirty-five meters, and the hexans themselves can stand much more thaneven that high figure," replied Czuv.
"I thought so. Assume that you traveled at forty-five. Would it disableyou permanently, or would you recover as
soon as it was lowered?"
"We would recover promptly, unless the exposure had been undulyprolonged. Why?"
"Because," said King, "I can stand an acceleration of fifty-four metersfor two hours, and Breckenridge here tests fifty two meters. I cannavigate anything, and Breckenridge can observe as well as any of yourown men. Build a plane to accelerate at forty-five meters and we willblow those hexans out of the ether. You will have to revive and do theshooting, however--your gunnery is entirely beyond us."
"That is an idea of promise, and one that had not occurred to any ofus," Czuv replied and work was begun at once upon the new flyer.
When the super-plane was ready for its maiden voyage, its crew of threestudied it as it lay in the catapult at the portal. Dead black as wereall the warplanes, its body was twice as large as that of the ordinaryvessel, its wings were even more stubby, and its accommodations had beencut to a minimum to make room for the enormous stores of fuel necessaryto drive the greatly increased battery of rocket motors and for theextra supply of torpedoes carried. Waving to the group of soldiers andcitizens gathered to witness the take-off of the new dreadnought ofspace, the three men entered the cramped operating compartment, strappedthemselves into their seats, and were shot away. As usual the drivingrockets were cut off well below the rim of the shaft, and the vesselrose in a long and graceful curve, invisible in the night. Such was itsinitial velocity and so slight was the force of gravity of the satellitethat they were many hundreds of miles from the exit before they began todescend, and Breckenridge studied his screens narrowly for signs ofhexan activity.
"Do you want to try one of your long-range shots when we find one ofthem?" the pilot asked Czuv.
"No, it would be useless. Between deflection by air-currents and thedodging of the enemy vessels, our effective range is shortened to a fewkilometers, and their beams are deadly at that distance. No, our bestcourse is to follow the original plan--to lure them out into space atuniform acceleration, where we can destroy them easily."
"Right," and Breckenridge turned to King, who was frowning at hiscontrols. "How does she work on a dead stick, Chief?"
"Maneuverability about minus ten at this speed and in this air.She'd have to have at least fifteen hundred kilometers an hour to beresponsive out here. See anything yet?"
"Not yet ... wait a minute! Yes, there's one now--P-12 on area five.Give us all the X10 and W27 you can, without using power--we want toedge over close enough so that she can't help but see us when we startthe rockets."
"Be sure and stay well out of range. I'm giving her all she'll take, butshe won't take much. With these wings she has the gliding angle of akitchen sink."
"All x--I'm watching the range, close. Wish we had instruments likethese on the IPV's. We'll have to install some when we get back. All x!Give her the gun--level and dead ahead!"
Half the battery of rockets burst into their stuttering, explosive roarof power and the vessel darted away in headlong flight.
"He sees us and is after us--turn her straight up!"
A searing, coruscating finger of flame leaped toward them, but theircalculations had been sound--the hexan was harmless at that extremerange. King, under the pilot's direction, kept the plane at a safedistance from the sphere while the satellite grew smaller and smallerbehind them and Czuv lapsed quietly into unconsciousness.
"He's been out for quite a while. Far enough?" asked King.
"All x now, I guess--don't believe they can see the flash from here.Cut!"
The rockets died abruptly and a blast from the side ports threwthe plane out of the beam--and once out of it, beyond range of theelectromagnetic detectors as they were their coating of absolute blackrendered the craft safe from observation. One dirigible rocket remainedin action, its exhaust hidden from the enemy by the body of the vessel,and Captain Czuv soon recovered his senses.
"Wonderful, gentlemen!" he exclaimed, as he manipulated the delicatecontrols of his gunnery panel. "This is the first time in history thata Callistonian vessel has escaped from a hexan by speed alone."
An instantaneously extinguished flare of incandescence marked thepassing of the hexan sphere into nothingness, and the cruiser shot backtoward Callisto in search of more prey. It was all too plentiful, andtwenty times the drama was reenacted before approaching day made itnecessary for Czuv to take the controls and dive the vessel into thewestermost landing-shaft of Zbardk. A rousing and enthusiastic welcomeawaited them, and joy spread rapidly when their success became known.
"Now we know what to do, and we had better do it immediately, beforethey get our system figured out and increase their own power." Kingreported to the Council. "You might send a couple of ships to Europa andbring back as many of the Tellurian officers as want to come and can bespared from the work there. They all test above forty-five meters, andthey can learn this stuff in short order. While they're coming, yourengineers can be building more ships like this one."
The new vessel did not make another voyage until nine sister shipswere ready and manned, each with two Terrestrial officers and oneCallistonian gunner. All ten took to the ether at once, and the hexanfleet melted away like frost-crystals before a summer sun. A few weeksof carnage and destruction and not a hexan was within range of thedetectors of Callisto--they were gone!
"This is the first time in years that Callisto's air has been free ofthe hexans," Czuv said, thoughtfully. "With your help we have reducedtheir strength to a fraction of what it was, but they have not given up.They will return, with a higher acceleration than even you Terrestrials,powerful as you are, can stand."
"Certainly they will, but you will be no worse off than you werebefore--you can return to your own highly effective tactics."
"We are infinitely better off for your help. You have given us a newlease on life...."
He broke off as a flaring light sprang into being upon the portal boardand the observer of Exit One made his report--there was a hexan vesselin the air, location 425 over VJ-42.
"There's one left! Let us get him! No, he's ours!" Confused shouts arosefrom the bull-pen; but the original superplane was at the top of thecall-board and accordingly King, Breckenridge, and Czuv embarked uponan expedition more hazardous far than they had supposed--an expeditionwhose every feature was relayed to those in the portal by the automaticlookouts upon the rims and which was ended before a single supportingCallistonian plane could be launched.
For the enemy vessel was not the last of the low-powered hexan vessels,as everyone had supposed--it was the first of the high-powered craft,arriving long before its appearance was expected. Before its terrificacceleration and savage onslaught, the superplane might as well havebeen stationary and unarmed. After his long dive downward, King couldnot even leave the atmosphere--the hexan was upon them within a fewseconds, even though the stupendous battery of rockets, full driven,had roared almost instantly into desperate action. Bomb after bombBreckenridge hurled, with full radio control, fighting with everyresource at his command, but in vain. The frightful torpedoes wereannihilated in mid-flight; and nose, tail-assembly, and wings weresheared neatly from the warplane by a sizzling plane of force. Siderockets and torpedo tubes were likewise sliced away and the helplessbody of the Callistonian cruiser, falling like a plummet, was caught andheld by a tractor ray. Captor and captive settled toward the ground.
"This is a signal honor," observed Captain Czuv when he had revived. "Ithas been many, many cycles since they have taken Callistonians captive.They kill us at every opportunity. Is it your custom to destroyyourselves in a situation such as this?"
"It is not. While we live there is hope."
"Not ours. Unless they have made enormous strides in psychologicalmechanisms, they cannot tear from our minds any secrets we really wishto keep. That is useless," he went on, as King lifted a hand-weapon."You will have no opportunity whatever to use it," and he was right.
A searing beam of energy drove them out of the vessel, thenelectromagnetic waves burned every metallic object out of theirpossession. B
urning rays herded them into the hexan sphere and intoa small room, whose door clanged shut behind them.
"Ah, two are humans of a strange breed!" a snarling voice barkedfrom the wall, in the Callistonian language. "Our deductions wereaccurate, as usual--it is to the humans of Planet Three, whose bodiesare a trifle less puny than those of the humanity of the satellites,that we owe our recent reverses. However, those reverses were merelytemporary--humanity, no matter what its breed, shall very shortlydisappear from the satellites. Now, you scum of the Solar System, youshall be permitted to witness an entrancing spectacle on the way to ourheadquarters, where all your knowledge is to be taken from you beforeyou die, lingeringly and horribly. There is a strange space-vesselnearing us probably searching for the one we took and which you dogs ofCallisto must have been fortunate enough to take from us before we couldstudy and kill its human cargo. Watch its destruction and cringe--andknow, in your suffering, that the more you suffer, the greater shall beour enjoyment."
"I believe that," King acknowledged. As all three prisoners stared atthe wall-screen, upon which was pictured a huge football of scarred greysteel, Czuv was amazed to see the faces of Breckenridge and King lightup with fierce smiles of pleasure and anticipation.
"You dissemble well," remarked the Callistonian. "That will rob them ofmuch pleasure."
"They'll get robbed of more than that," King returned. "This is toogood to keep, and since they cannot understand English, I'll tell yousomething. I told you about Stevens. He apparently wasn't killed, aswe thought. He must have escaped, and there is the result. That shipthere is far from innocent--her being so far out of range of any of ourpower-plants proves that. That vessel is the _Sirius_--the researchlaboratory of the IPC--the Inter-Planetary Corporation! It carries thegreatest scientific minds of three of the inner planets, and it isloaded with pure poison or it wouldn't be here. Oh, you hexans, what youhave got coming to you!"
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