Chapter III
A QUARTER OF A MILLION LIGHT YEARS
"Our civilization," continued Zezdon Afthen, "is built largely on theknowledge of the mind. We cannot have criminals, for the man who plotsevil is surely found out by his thoughts. We cannot have lyingpoliticians and unjust rulers.
"It is a peaceful civilization. The Ancient Masters feared and hated Warwith a mighty aversion. But they did not make our race cowards, merelypeaceful intelligence. Now we must fight for our homes, and my race willfight mightily. But we need weapons.
"But my story has little to do with our race. I will tell the story ofour civilization and of the Ancient Ones later when the time is moreauspicious.
"Four months ago, our mental vibration instruments detected powerfulemanations from space. That could only mean that a new, highlyintelligent race had suddenly appeared within a billion miles of ourworld. The directional devices quickly spotted it as emanating from thethird planet of our system. Zezdon Fentes, with my aid, set up somespecial apparatus, which would pick up strong thoughts and make themvisible. We had used this before to see not only what an enemylooked upon, but also what he saw in that curious thing, the eyeof the mind, the vision of the past and the future. But while thethought-amplification device was powerful, the new emanations were hardto separate from each other.
"It was done finally, when all but one man slept. That one we wereenable to tune sharply to. After that we could reach him at any time. Hewas the commander. We saw him operate the ship, we saw the ship, saw itglide over the barren, rocky surface of that world. We saw other mencome in and go out. They were strange men. Short, squat, bulky men.Their arms were short and stocky. But their strength was enormous,unbelievable. We saw them bend solid bars of steel as thick as my arm.With perfect ease!
"Their brains were tremendously active, but they were evil, selfishlyevil. Nothing that did not benefit them counted. At one time ourinstruments went dead, and we feared that the commander had detected us,but we saw what happened a little later. The second in command hadkilled him.
"We saw them examine the world, working their way across it, wearingheavy suits, yet, for all the terrific gravity of that world, bouncingabout like rubber balls, leaping and jumping where they wanted. Theirlegs would drive out like pistons, and they soared up and through theair.
"They were tired while they made those examinations, and slept heavilyat night.
"Then one night there was a conference. We saw then what they intended.Before we had tried desperately to signal them. Now we were glad that wehad failed.
"We saw their ship rise (in the thoughts of the second in command) andsail out into space, and rush toward our world. The world grew larger,but it was imperfectly sketched in, for they did not know our worldwell. Their telescopes did not have great power as your electrictelescopes have.
"We saw them investigate the planet. We saw them plan to destroy anypeople they found with a ray which was as follows: 'the ray which makesall parts move as one.' We could not understand and could not interpret.Thoughts beyond our knowledge have, of course, no meaning, even when ourmental amplifiers get them, and bring them to us."
"The Molecular ray!" gasped Morey in surprise. "They will be an enemy."
"You know it! It is familiar to you! You have it? You can fight it?"asked Zezdon Afthen excitedly.
"We know it, and can fight it, if that is all they have."
"They have more--much more I fear," replied Zezdon Afthen. "At any rate,we saw what they intended. If our world was inhabited, they woulddestroy every one on it, and then other men of their race were to floatin on their great ships, and settle on that largest of our worlds.
"We had to stop them so we did what we could. We had powerful machines,which would amplify and broadcast our thoughts. So we broadcast ourthought-waves, and implanted in the mind of their leader that it wouldbe wise to land, and learn the extent of the civilization, and theweapons to be met. Also, as the ship drew nearer, we made him decide ona certain spot we had prepared for him.
"He never guessed that the thoughts were not his own. Only the ideascame to him, seeming to spring from his own mind.
"He landed--and we used our one weapon. It was a thing left to one groupof rulers when the Ancient Masters left us to care for ourselves. Whatit was, we never knew; we had never used it in the fifteen thousandyears since the Great Masters had passed--never had to. But now it wasbrought out, and concealed behind great piles of rock in a deep canyonwhere the ship of the enemy would land. When it landed, we turned thebeam of the machine on it, and the apparatus rotated it swiftly, and acone of the beam's ray was formed as the beam was swung through a smallcircle in the vertical plane. The machine leaped backward, and though itwas so massive that a tremendous amount of labor had been required tobring it there, the push of the pencil of force we sent out hurled itback against a rocky cliff behind it as though it were some child's toy.It continued to operate for perhaps a second, perhaps two. In that timetwo great holes had been cut in the enemy ship, holes fifteen feetacross, that ran completely through the hull as though a die had cutthrough the metal of the ship, cutting out a disc of metal.
"There was a terrific concussion, and a roar as the air blasted out ofthe ship. It did not take us long to discover that the enemy were dead.Their terrible, bloated corpses lay everywhere in the ship. Most of themen we were able to recognize, having seen them in the mentovisor. Butthe colors were distorted, and their forms were peculiar. Indeed, thewhole ship seemed strange. The only time that things ever did seemnormal about that strange thing, when the angles of it seemed what theywere, when the machines did not seem out of proportion, out of shape,twisted, was when on a trial trip we ventured very close to our sun."
Arcot whistled softly and looked at Morey. Morey nodded. "Probablyright. Don't interrupt."
"That you thought something, I understood, but the thoughts themselveswere hopelessly unintelligible to me. You know the explanation?" askedZezdon Afthen eagerly.
"We think so. The ship was evidently made on a world of huge size. Thosemen, their stocky, block legs and arms, their entire build and theirdesire for the largest of your planets, would indicate that. Their ownworld was probably even larger--they were forced to wear pressure suitseven on that large world, and could jump all over, you said. On so hugea sphere as their native world seems to be, the gravity would be sointense as to distort space. Geometry, such as yours seems to be, andsuch as ours was, could never be developed, for you assume the existenceof a straight line, and of an absolute plane surface. These thingscannot exist in space, but on small worlds, far from the central sun'smass, the conditions approach that without sufficient discrepency tomake the error obvious. On so huge a globe as their world the space isso curved that it is at once obvious that no straight line exists, andthat no plane exists. Their geometry would never be like ours. When youwent close to your sun, the attraction was sufficient to curve spaceinto a semblance of the natural conditions on their home planet, thenyour senses and the ship met a compromise condition which made it seemmore or less normal, not so obviously strange to you.
"But continue." Arcot looked at Afthen interestedly.
"There were none left in their ship now, and we had been careful inlocating the first hole, that it should not damage the propulsivemachinery. The second hole was accidental, due to the shift of themachine. The machine itself was wrecked now, crushed by its ownreaction. We forgot that any pencil of force powerful enough to do whatwe wanted, would tear the machine from its moorings unless fastened withgreat steel bolts into the solid rock.
"The second hole had been far to the rear, and had, by ill-luck, cut outa portion of the driving apparatus. We could not repair that, though wedid succeed at last in lifting the great discs into place. We attemptedto cut them, and put them back in sections. Our finest saws and machinesdid not nick them. Their weight was unbelievable, and yet we finallysucceeded in lifting the things into the wall of the ship. The actualmissing material did not represent more th
an a tiny cut, perhaps as wideas one of your credit-discs. You could slip the thin piece of metal inbetween them, but not so much as your finger.
"Those slots we welded tight with our best steel, letting a flap hangover on each side of the cut, and as the hot metal cooled, it was drawnagainst the shining walls with terrific force. The joints were perfectlyairtight.
"The machines proper were repaired to the greatest possible extent. Itwas a heartbreaking task, for we must only guess at what machines shouldbe connected together. Much damage had been done by the rushing air asit left, for it filled the machines, too, and they were not designed toresist the terrific air pressure that was on them when the pressure inthe ship escaped. Many of the machines had been burst open, and these wecould repair when we had the necessary elements and knew theirconstruction from the remnants, or could find unbroken duplicates in thestock rooms.
"Once we connected the wrong things. This will show you what we dealtwith. They were the wrong poles--two generators, connected together inthe wrong way. There was a terrific crash when the switch was thrown,and huge sheets of electric flame leaped from one of them. Two men werekilled, incinerated in an instant, even the odors one might expect werekilled in that flash of heat. Everything save the shining metal andclear glass within ten feet of it was instantly wiped out. And there wasa fuse link that gave. The generator was ruined. One was left, andseveral small auxiliary generators.
"Eventually, we did the job. We made the machine work. And we are here.
"We have come to warn you, and to ask aid. Your system also has a largeplanet, slightly smaller than the largest of our system, but yetattractive. There are approximately 50,000 planetary systems in thisuniverse, according to the records of the Invaders. Their world is notof this system. It is the World Thett, sun Antseck, Universe Venone.Where that is, or even what it means, we do not know. Perhaps youunderstand.
"But they investigated your world, and its address, according to theirrecords, was World 3769-8482730-3. This, I believe, means, Universe3769, sun 8482730, world 3. They have been investigating this system nowfor nearly three centuries. It was close to 200 years ago that theyvisited your world--two hundred years of your time."
"This is 2129--which makes it about the year 1929-30 that they floatedaround here investigating. Why haven't they done anything?" Arcot askedhim.
"They waited for an auspicious time. They are afraid now, for recentlythey visited your world, and were utterly amazed to find theunbelievable progress your people have made. They intend to make animmediate attack on all worlds known to be intelligently populated. Theyhad made the mistake of letting one race learn too much; they cannotafford to let it happen again.
"There are only twenty-one inhabited worlds known, and their thousandsof scouts have already investigated nearly all the central mass of thisuniverse, and much of the outer rings. They have established a base inthis universe. Where I do not know. That, alone, was never mentioned inthe records. But of all peoples, they feared only your world.
"There is one race in the universe far older than yours, but they are asleeping people. Long ago their culture decayed. Still, now they are notfar from you, and perhaps it will be worth the few days needed to learnmore about them. We have their location and can take you there. Theirworld circles a dead star--"
"Not any more," laughed Morey grimly. "That's another surprise for theenemy. They had a little jog, and they certainly are wide awake now.They are headed for big things, and they are going to do a lot."
"But how do you know these things? You have ships that can go fromplanet to planet, I know, but the records of the enemy said you couldnot leave the system of your sun. They alone knew that secret."
"Another surprise for them," said Morey. "We can--and we can move fasterthan your ship, if not faster than they. The people of the dead starhave moved to a very live star--Sirius, the brightest in our heavens.And they are as much alive now as their new sun. They can move fasterthan light, also. We had a little misunderstanding a while back, whentheir star passed close to ours. They came off second best, and wehaven't spoken to them since. But I think we can make valuable alliesthere."
For all Morey's jocular manner, he realized the terrible import of thisannouncement. A race which had been able to cross the vast gulf ofintergalactic space in the days when Terrestrians were still developingthe airplane--and already they had mapped Jupiter, and planned theircolonies! What developments had come? They had molecular rays, cosmicrays, the energy of matter, then--what else had they now? Lux and Relux,the two artificial metals, made of solidified light, far stronger thananything of molecular structure in nature, absolutely infusible, totallyinert chemically, one a perfect conductor of light and of all radiationin space, the other a perfect reflector of all radiations--savemolecular rays. Made into the condition of reflection by the action ofspecial frequencies in its formation from light, molecular frequencieswere, unfortunately, able to convert it into perfectly transparent luxmetal, when the protective value was gone.
They had that. All Earth had, perhaps.
"There was one other race of some importance, the others weresemi-civilized. They rated us in a position between these races and thehigh races--yours, those of the dead star, and those of world3769-37:478:326:894-6. Our science had been investigated two hundred orso years ago.
"This other race was at a great distance from us, greater than yours,and apparently not feared as greatly as yours. They cannot cross toother worlds, save in small ships driven solely by fire, which theThessians have called a 'hopelessly inefficient and laughably awkwardthing to ride in.'"
"Rockets," grinned Morey. "Our first ship was part rocket."
Zezdon Fentes smiled. "But that is all. We have brought you warning, andour plea. Can you help us?"
"We cannot answer that. The Interplanetary Council must act. But I amafraid that it will be all we can do to protect our own world if thisenemy attacks soon, and I fear they will. Since they have a base in thisuniverse, it is impossible to believe that all ships did not report backto the home world at stated intervals. That one is missing will soon bediscovered, and it will be sought. War will start at once. Three monthsit took you to reach us--they should come soon.
"Those men who left will be on their way back from the home world fromwhich they came. What do you call your planet, friend?"
"Ortol is our home," replied Zezdon Inthel.
"At any rate, I can only assure you that your world will be givenweapons that will permit your people to defend themselves and I will getyou to your home within twenty-four hours. Your ship--is it in thesystem?"
"It waits on the second satellite of the fourth planet," replied ZezdonAfthen.
"Signal them, and tell them to land where a beacon of intense light,alternating red and blue, reaches up from--this point on the map." Arcotpointed out the spot in Vermont where their private lake and laboratorywere.
He turned to the others, and in rapid-fire English, explained his plans."We need the help of these people as much as they need ours. I thinkZezdon Fentes will stay here and help you. The others will go with us totheir world. There we shall have plenty of work to do, but on the way weare going to stop at Mars and pick up that valuable ship of theirs andmake a careful examination for possible new weapons, their system ofspeed-drive, and their regular space-drive. I'm willing to make a betright now, that I can guess both. Their regular drive is a moleculardrive with lead disintegration apparatus for the energy, cosmic rayabsorbers for the heating, and a drive much like ours. Their speed driveis a time distortion apparatus, I'll wager. Time distinction offers aneasy solution of speed. All speed is relative--relative to other bodies,but also to time-speed. But we'll see.
"I'm going to hustle some workmen to installing the biggest spare powerboard I can get into the storerooms of the _Ancient Mariner_, and packin a ray-screen. It will be useful. Let's move."
"Our ship," said Zezdon Afthen, "will land in three of your hours."