Chapter XVIII
EARTH'S DEFENSES
"I am sorry, Arcot. I did not know, for I see I might have helped, butto me, with my ideas of horror, it was as you said, amusement," saidTorlos. They were sitting now in Arcot's study at the cottage; Arcot,his father, Morey, Wade, Torlos, the three Ortolians and the Talsonian.
"I know, Torlos. You see, where I made my mistake, as I have said, wasin forgetting that in doing as I did, picturing horror, like a snowballrolling, it would grow greater. The idea of horror, started, my mindpictured one, and it inspired greater horror, which in turn reacted onmy all too reactive apparatus. As you said, the things changed as youwatched, molding themselves constantly as my mind changed them, underits own initiative and the concentrated thoughts of all those others. Itwas a very foolish thing to do, for that last Thing--well, remember it_was_, it existed, and the idea of hate and lust it portrayed was causedby my mind, but my mind could picture what it would do, if such were itsemotions, and it would do them because my mind pictured them! And_nothing_ could resist it!" Arcot's face was white once more as hethought of the danger he had run, of the terrible consequences possibleof that 'amusement.'
"I think we had best start on the ship. I'll go get some sleep now, andthen we can go."
Arcot led the way to the ship, while Torlos, Morey and Wade and StelFelso Theu accompanied him. The Ortolians were to work on Earth, aidingin the detection of attacks by means of their mental investigation ofthe enemy.
"Well--good-bye, Dad. Don't know when I'll be back. Maybe twenty-fivethousand years from now, or twenty-five thousand years ago. But we'llget back somehow. And we'll clean out the Thessians!"
He entered the ship, and rose into space.
"Where are you going, Arcot?" asked Morey.
"Eros," replied Arcot laconically.
"Not if my mind is working right," cried Wade suddenly. All the otherswere tense, listening for inaudible sounds.
"I quite agree," replied Arcot. The ship turned about, and dived towardNew York, a hundred thousand miles behind now, at a speed many timesthat of light as Arcot snapped into time. Across the void, ZezdonFentes' call had come--New York was to be attacked by the Thessians, NewYork and Chicago next. New York because the orbits of their two fortswere converging over that city in a few minutes!
They were in the atmosphere, screaming through it as their relux glowedinstantaneously in the Heaviside layer, then was through before damagecould be done. The screen was up.
Scarcely a minute after they passed, the entire heavens blazed intolight, the roar of tremendous thunders crashing above them, greatlightning bolts rent the upper air for miles as enormous energiesclashed.
"Ah--they are sending everything they have against that screen, and it'shot. We have ten of our biggest tube stations working on it, and morecoming in, to our total of thirty, but they have two forts, and Lordknows how many ships.
"I think me I'm going to cause them some worrying."
Arcot turned the ship, and drove up again, now at a speed very low tothem but as they had the time-field up, very great. They passed thescreen, and a tremendous bolt struck the ship. Everything in it wasshielded, but the static was still great enough to cause them sometrouble as the time-field and electric field fought. But the time-field,because of its very nature, could work faster, and they won throughundamaged, though the enormous current seemed flowing for many minutesas they drifted slowly past it. Slowly--at fifty miles a second.
Out in space, free of the atmosphere, Arcot shot out to the point wherethe Thessians were congregating. The shining dots of their ships and thediscs of the forts were visible from Earth save for the air'sdistortion.
They seemed a miniature Milky Way, their deadly beams concentrated onEarth.
Then the Thessians discovered that the terrestrial fleet was in action.A ship glowed with the ray, the opalescence of relux under molecularsvisible on its walls. It simply searched for its opponent while itsrelux slowly yielded. It found it in time, and the terrestrial ship putup its screen.
The terrestrial fleet set to work, everything they had flying at theThessian giants, but the Thessians had heavier ships, and heavier tubes.More power was winning for them. Inevitably, when the Sun's interferencesomewhat weakened the ray shield--
About that time Arcot arrived. The nearest fort dived toward the furtherwith an acceleration that smashed it against no less than ten of its ownships before they could so much as move.
When the way was clear to the other fort--and that fort had moved, theberserk fort started off a new tack--and garnered six more wrecks on itsside.
Then Thett's emissaries located Arcot. The screen was up, and theNegrian attractive ray apparatus which Arcot had used was workingthrough it. The screen flashed here and there and collapsed under thefull barrage of half the Thessian fleet, as Arcot had suspected itwould. But the same force that made it collapse operated a relay thatturned on the space control, and Thett's molecular ray energy steamedoff to outer space.
"We worried them, then dug our hole and dragged it in after us, asusual, but damn it, we can't hurt them!" said Arcot disgustedly. "All wecan do is tease them, then go hide where it's perfectly safe, inartificial--" Arcot stopped in amazement. The ship had been held undersuch space control that space was shut in about them, and they weremotionless. The dials had reached a steady point, the current flow hadbecome zero, and they hung there with only the very slow drain of theSun's gravitational field and that of the planet's field pulling on theship. Suddenly the current had leaped, and the dials giving the chargein the various coil banks had moved them down toward zero.
"Hey--they've got a wedge in here and are breaking out our hole. Turn onall the generators, Morey." Arcot was all action now. Somehow,inconceivable though it was, the Thessians had spotted them, and gotsome means of attacking them, despite their invulnerable position inanother space!
The generators were on, pouring enormous power into the coils, and thedials surged, stopped, and climbed ever so slowly. They should havejumped back under that charge, ordinarily dangerously heavy. For perhapsthirty seconds they climbed, then they started down at full speed!
Arcot's hand darted to the time field, and switched it on full. The dialjerked, swung, then swung back, and started falling in unison with thedials, stopped, and climbed. All climbed swiftly, gaining ever morerapidly. With what seemed a jerk, the time dial flew over, and back, asArcot opened the switch. They were free, and the dial on the spacecontrol coils was climbing normally now.
"By the Nine Planets, did they drink out our energy! The energy of sixtons of lead just like that!"
"How'd they do it?" asked Wade.
Torlos kept silent, and helped Morey replace the coils of lead wire withothers from stock.
"Same way we tickled them," replied Arcot, carefully studying thecontrol instruments, "with the gravity ray! We knew all along thatgravitational fields drank out the energy--they simply pulled it outfaster than we could pump it in, and used four different rays on usdoing it. Which speaks well for a little ship! But they burned off therelux on one room here, and it's a wreck. The molecs hit everything init. Looks like something bad," called Arcot. The room was Morey's, buthe'd find that out himself. "In the meantime, see if you can tell wherewe are. I got loose from their rays by going on both the high speedtime-field and the space control at full, with all generators going fullblast. Man, they had a stranglehold on us that time! But wait till weget that new ship turned out!"
With the telectroscope they could see what was happening. The terrificbombardment of rays was continuing, and the fleets were locked now in astruggle, the combined fleets of Earth and Venus and of Nansal, faracross the void. Many of the terrestrian, or better, Solarian ships,were equipped with space distortion apparatus, now, and had some measureof safety in that the attractive rays of the Thessians could not be soconcentrated on them. In numbers was safety; Arcot had been endangeredbecause he was practically alone at the time they attacked.
But it was o
bvious that the Solarian fleet was losing. They could notcompete with the heavier ships, and now the frequent flaming bursts oflight that told of a ship caught in the new deadly ray showed anotherdanger.
"I think Earth is lost if you cannot aid it soon, Arcot, for otherThessian ships are coming," said Stel Felso Theu softly.
From out of the plane of the planetary orbits they were coming, acrossspace from some other world, a fleet of dozens of them. They werevisible as one after another leapt into normal time-rates.
"Why don't they fight in advanced time?" asked Morey, half aloud.
"Because the genius that designed that apparatus didn't think of it.Remember, Morey, those ships have their time apparatus connected withtheir power apparatus so that the power has to feed the timecontinuously. They have no coils like ours. When they advance theirtime, they're weakened every other way.
"We need that new ship. Are we going to make it?" demanded Arcot.
"Take weeks at best. What chance?" asked Morey.
"Plenty; watch." As he spoke, Arcot pulled open the time controls, andspun the ship about. They headed off toward a tiny point of light farbeyond. It rushed toward them, grew with the swiftness of an explodingbomb, and was suddenly a great, rough fragment of a planet hangingbefore them, miles in extent.
"Eros," explained Wade laconically to Torlos. "Part of an ancient planetthat was destroyed before the time of man, or life on Earth. The planetgot too near the sun when its orbit was irregular, and old Sol pulled itto pieces. This is one of the pieces. The other asteroids are the rest.All planetary surfaces are made up of great blocks; they aren'tcontinuous, you know. Like blocks of concrete in a building, they canslide a bit on each other, but friction holds them till they slip with ajar and we have earthquakes. This is one of the planetary blocks. We seeEros from Earth intermittently, for when this thing turns broadside itreflects a lot of light; edge on it does not reflect so much."
It was a desolate bit of rock. Bare, airless, waterless rock, ofenormous extent. It was contorted and twisted, but there were no greatcracks in it for it was a single planetary block.
Arcot dropped the ship to the barren surface, and anchored it with anattractive ray at low concentration. There was no gravity of consequenceon this bit of rock.
"Come on, get to work. Space suits, and rush all the apparatus out,"snapped Arcot. He was on his feet, the power of the ship in neutral now.Only the attractor was on. In the shortest possible time they got intotheir suits, and under Arcot's direction set up the apparatus on therocky soil as fast as it was brought out. In all, less than fifteenminutes were needed, yet Arcot was hurrying them more and more. Torlos'tremendous strength helped, even on this gravitationless world, for hecould accelerate more quickly with his burdens.
At last it was up for operation. The artificial matter apparatus wasoperated by cosmic power, and controlled by mental operation, or bymathematical formula as they pleased. Immediately Arcot set to work. Agiant hollow cylinder drilled a great hole completely through the thin,curved surface of the ancient planetary block, through twelve miles ofsolid rock--a cylinder of artificial matter created on a scale possibleonly to cosmic power. The cylinder, half a mile across, contained a hugeplug of matter. Then the artificial matter contracted swiftly,compressing the matter, and simultaneously treating it with thetremendous fields that changed its energy form. In seconds it was atremendous mass of cosmium.
A second smaller cylinder bored a plug from the rock, and worked on it.A huge mass of relux resulted. Now other artificial matter tools set towork at Arcot's bidding, and cut pieces from his huge masses of rawmaterials, and literally, quick as thought, built a great framework ofthem, anchored in the solid rock of the planetoid.
Then a tremendous plane of matter formed, and neatly bisected theplanetoid, two great flat pieces of rock were left where one hadbeen--miles across, miles thick--planetary chips.
On the great framework that had been constructed, four tall shafts ofcosmium appeared, and each was a hollow tube, up the center of which rana huge cable of relux. At the peak of each mile-high shaft was a greatglobe. Now in the framework below things were materializing as Arcot'sflying thoughts arranged them--great tubes of cosmium with reluxelement--huge coils of relux conductors, insulated with microscopic butimpenetrable layers of cosmium.
Still, for all his swiftness of mind and accuracy of thought, he had tocorrect two mistakes in all his work. It was nearly an hour before thething was finished. Then, two hundred feet long, a hundred wide, andfifty in height, the great mechanism was completed, the tall columnsrising from four corners of the greater framework that supported it.
Then, into it, Arcot turned the powers of the cosmos. The stars in theairless space wavered and danced as though seen through a thickatmosphere. Tingling power ran through them as it flowed into thetremendous coils. For thirty seconds--then the heavens were as before.
At last Arcot spoke. Through the radio communicators, and through thethought-channels, his ideas came as he took off the headpiece. "It'sdone now, and we can rest." There was a tremendous crash from within theapparatus. The heavens reeled before them, and shifted, then were still,but the stars were changed. The sun shone weirdly, and the stars werealtered.
"That is a time shifting apparatus on a slightly larger scale," repliedArcot to Torlos' question, "and is designed to give us a chance to work.Come on, let's sleep. A week here should be a few minutes of Earthtime."
"You sleep, Arcot. I'll prepare the materials for you," suggested Morey.So Arcot and Wade went to sleep, while Morey and the Talsonian andTorlos worked. First Morey bound the _Ancient Mariner_ to the frame ofthe time apparatus, safely away from the four luminous balls,broadcasters of the time field. Then he shut off the attractive ray, andbound himself in the operator's seat of the apparatus of the artificialmatter machine.
A plane of artificial matter formed, and a stretch of rock rose underits lift as it cleft the rock apart. A great cleared, level spaceresulted. Other artificial matter enclosed the rock, and the fragmentscut free were treated under tremendous pressure. In a few moments asecond enormous mass of cosmium was formed.
For three hours Morey worked steadily, building a tremendous reserve ofmaterials. Lux metal he did not make, but relux, the infusible, perfectconductor, and cosmium in tremendous masses, he did make. And he madesome great blocks of oxygen from the rock, transmuting the atoms, andstored it frozen on the plane, with liquid hydrogen in huge tanks, andsome metals that would be needed. Then he slept while they waited forArcot.
Eight hours after he had lain down, Arcot was up, and ate his breakfast.He set to work at once with the machine. It didn't suit him, it seemed,and first he made a new tool, a small ship that could move about,propelled by a piece of artificial matter, and the entire ship was atremendously greater artificial matter machine, with a greater powerthan before!
His thoughts, far faster than hands could move, built up the gigantichull of the new ship, and put in the rooms, and the brace members inless than twelve hours. A titanic shell of eight-inch cosmium, a space,with braces of the same nonconductor of heat, cosmium, and a two inchinner hull. A tiny space in the gigantic hull, a space less than onethousand cubic feet in dimension was the control and living quarters.
It was held now on great cosmium springs, but Arcot was not by any meansthrough. One man must do all the work, for one brain must design it, andthough he received the constant advice and help of Morey and the others,it was his brain that pictured the thing that was built.
At last the hull was completed. A single, glistening tube, of enormousbulk, a mile in length, a thousand feet in diameter. Yet nearly all ofthat great bulk would be used immediately. Some room would be left foradditional apparatus they might care to install. Spare parts they didnot have to carry--they could make their own from the energy aboundingin space.
The enormous, shining hull was a thing of beauty through stark grandeurnow, but obviously incomplete. The ray projectors were not mounted, butthey were to be ray projectors
of a type never before possible. Space isthe transmitter of all rays, and it is in space that those energy formsexist. Arcot had merely to transfer the enormously high energy level ofthe space-curvature to any form of energy he wanted, and now, with thecomplete statistics on it, he was able to do that directly. No tubes, nogenerators, only fields that changed the energy already there--theimmeasurable energy available!
The next period of work he started the space distortion apparatus. Thatmust go at the exact center of the ship. One tremendous coil, big enoughfor the _Ancient Mariner_ to lie in easily! Minutes, and flying thoughtshad made it--then came thousands of the individual coils, by thinking ofone, and picturing it many times! In ranks, rows, and columns they werepiled into a great block, for power must be stored for use of thistremendous machine, while in the artificial space when its normal powerwas not available, and that power source must be tremendous.
Then the time apparatus, and after that the driving apparatus. Not themolecular drive now, but an attraction ray focused on their own ship,with projectors scattered about the ship that it might move effortlesslyin every direction. And provision was made for a force-drive by means ofartificial matter, planes of it pushing the ship where it was wanted.But with the attraction-drive they would be able to land safely, withoutfear of being crushed by their own weight on Thett, for all its enormousgravity.
The control was now suspended finally, with a series of attractiondrives about it, locking it immovably in place, while smaller attractiondevices stimulated gravity for the occupants.
Then finally the main apparatus--the power plant--was installed. Theenormous coils which handled, or better, caused space to handle as theydirected, powers so great that whole suns could be blastedinstantaneously, were put in place, and the field generators that wouldmake and direct their rays, their ray screen if need be, and handletheir artificial matter. Everything was installed, and all but a rathersmall space was occupied.
It had been six weeks of continuous work for them, for the mind of eachwas aiding in this work, indirectly or directly, and it nearedcompletion now.
"But, we need one more thing, Arcot. That could never land on any planetsmaller than Jupiter. What is its mass?" suggested Morey.
"Don't know, I'm sure, but it is of the order of a billion tons. I knowyou are right. What are we going to do?"
"Put on a tender."
"Why not the _Ancient Mariner_?" asked Wade.
"It isn't fitting. It was designed for individual use anyway," repliedMorey. "I suggest something more like this on a small scale. We won'thave much work on that, merely think of every detail of the big ship ona small scale, with the exception of the control cube furnishings.Instead of the numerous decks, swimming pool and so forth, have a large,single room."
"Good enough," replied Arcot.
As if by magic, a machine appeared, a "small" machine oftwo-hundred-foot length, modified slightly in some parts, its bottomflattened, and equipped with an attractor anchor. Then they were ready.
"We will leave the _Mariner_ here, and get it later. This apparatuswon't be needed any longer, and we don't want the enemy to get it. Ourtrial trip will be a fight!" called Arcot as he leaped from his seat.The mass of the giant ship pulled him, and he fell slowly toward it.
Into its open port he flew, the others behind him, their suits still on.The door shut behind them as Arcot, at the controls, closed it. As yetthey had not released the air supplies. It was airless.
Now the hiss of air, and the quickening of heat crept through it. Thewater in the tanks thawed as the heat came, soaking through from thegreat heaters. In minutes the air and heat were normal throughout thegreat bulk. There was air in power compartments, though no one wasexpected to go there, for the control room alone need be occupied;vision-screens here viewed every part of the ship, and all about it.
The eyes of the new ship were set in recesses of the tremendously strongcosmium wall, and over them, protecting them, was an infinitely thin,but infinitely strong wall of artificial matter, permanently maintained.It was opaque to all forms of radiation known from the longest Hertzianto the shortest cosmics, save for the very narrow band of visible light.Whether this protection would stop the Thessian beam that was so deadlyto lux and relux was not, of course, known. But Arcot hoped it would,and, if that beam was radiant energy, or material particles, it would.
"We'll destroy our station here now, and leave the _Ancient Mariner_where it is. Of course we are a long way out of the orbit this planetoidfollowed, due to the effect of the time apparatus, but we can note whereit is, and we'll be able to find it when we want it," said Arcot, seatedat the great control board now. There were no buttons now, or visiblecontrols; all was mental.
A tiny sphere of artificial matter formed, and shot toward the controlboard of the time machine outside. It depressed the main switch, andspace about them shifted, twisted, and returned to normal. The timeapparatus was off for the first time in six weeks.
"Can't fuse that, and we can't crush it. It's made of cosmium, andtrying to crush it against the rock would just drive it into it. We'llsee what we can do though," muttered Arcot. A plane of artificial matterformed just beneath it, and sheared it from its bed on the planetoid,cutting through the heavy cosmium anchors. The framework lifted, and theapparatus with it. A series of planes, a gigantic honeycomb formed, andthe apparatus was cut across again and again, till only small fragmentswere left of it. Then these were rolled into a ball, and crushed by asphere of artificial matter beyond all repair. The enemy would neverlearn their secret.
A huge cylinder of artificial matter cut a great gouge from the planethat was left where the apparatus had been, and a clamp of the samematerial picked up the _Ancient Mariner_, deposited it there, thencovered it with rubble and broken rock. A cosmic flashed on the rock foran instant, and it was glowing, incandescent lava. The _Ancient Mariner_was buried under a hundred feet of rapidly solidifying rock, but rockwhich could be fused away from its infusible walls when the time came.
"We're ready to go now--get to work with the radio, Morey, when we getto Earth."
The gravity seemed normal here as they walked about, no accelerationsaffected them as the ship darted forward, for all its inconceivablygreat mass, like an arrow, then flashed forward under time control. Thesun was far distant now, for six weeks they had been traveling with thesection of Eros under time control. But with their tremendous timecontrol plant, and the space control, they reached the solar system invery little time.
It seemed impossible to them that that battle could still be waging, butit was. The ships of Earth and Venus, battling now as a last, hopelessstand, over Chicago, were attempting to stop the press of a greatThessian fleet. Thin, long Negrian, or Sirian ships had joined them inthe hour of Earth time that the men had been working. Still, despite thereinforcements, they were falling back.