CHAPTER XXII
The Great Conflict
It was _Monitor VII_, manned by the Chicagoans, which had the honor ofsighting the enemy. Just as the twilight of a bright May day was closingdown over the radio men at the Philadelphia airport, the static detectormarked an unusual disturbance, then two quick shocks, which must havecome from the patrol's bow beam. In quick succession, the other five,standing ready on their starting ramps, took in their crews, and roaredup and away in a torrent of explosions at a thousand miles an hour.
Soaring to fifty thousand feet above the earth, the squadron ofrocket-ships made its way north, _Monitor II_ in the lead.
"Well, here we go," called Gloria, gaily, from her seat behind thesearchlight. "Hope they don't give us the run-around this time."
"They won't have the chance," said Ben. "That is, provided thoseChicago boys have sense enough to remember their instructions and letthem alone till we all get there. With six of these ships we ought to beable to rough 'em up a little bit."
At a speed of over a thousand miles an hour, thanks to the thinness ofthe atmosphere through which they were traveling, it was only a fewminutes' hop from Philadelphia to the Catskill city of the elephant-men.Ben had hardly finished speaking before Sherman called from the controlseat, "There they are!"
Far beneath, half revealed, half-hidden by the few tiny clouds of fleecethat hung at the lower altitudes, they could see the naked scar in thehills that marked the Lassan headquarters. Around it floated half adozen of the huge green balls they had encountered on the last occasion.As they swept by, another one, looking like a grape at the immensedistance, trundled slowly out from the enormous door, swung to and frofor a second or two and then swam up to join those already in the sky._Monitor VII_ was to the north and above them--as she perceived theAmerican fleet she swept down to join the formation, falling into herprearranged place.
"Do we go now?" asked Sherman.
"Not yet," said Ben. "Give them all a chance to get out. The more themerrier. I'd like to finish the job this time. We can't get in thatdoor, and if we did the rocket-ships would be no use to us in thosepassages, and they're the best we've got. Besides they're playing snootytoo, and aren't paying a bit of attention to us. I hope they intend tofight it out to a finish this time."
They turned north, giving the Lassans time to assemble their fleet."What's the arrangement?" asked Gloria. "Do we all go for them at once?"
"No. We dive in first and the rest follow behind, pulling up before theyget in range. If anything happens to us, they'll rescue us--if they can.You see we don't know what they've got any more than they know whatwe've got, and I thought it would be a good idea to try the first attackwith only one ship. In a pinch the rest can get away--if the Lassanshaven't developed a lot of speed on those green eggs of theirs."
"How many now?" asked Sherman, from the controls, as the squadron swungback southward and the scarred mountain swam over the horizon again.
"Two--five--nine--eleven--oh, I can't count them all," said Gloria,"they keep changing formation so. There's a lot of them and they'recoming up toward us, but slowly. They haven't got that blue beam at thebase any more, either--you know the one that globe we got after wasriding on."
As they approached it was indeed evident that the green globes wererising slowly through the twilight in some kind of loose formation. Itwas too complex for the American observers to follow in the briefglimpses they were vouchsafed as they swept past at hurricane speed.There seemed to be dozens of the Lassan globes; as though they expectedto overwhelm opposition by mere force of numbers. Nearer and nearer camethe rocket-ships, nearer and nearer loomed the sinister Lassan globes,betraying no signs of life, silent and ominous.
"Go?" called Sherman from his seat at the controls.
"Go!" said Ben.
The _Monitor II_ dived; and as she dived, Gloria Rutherford switched onthe deadly beam of the searchlight which would carry the gravity-beamagainst their enemies. For a moment it sought the green globes; thencaught one fairly. Ben Ruby threw the switch; and down the light beamleaped the terrible stream of the broken atoms like a wave of death.Leaped--and failed!
* * * * *
For as it struck the green globe, instead of the rending explosion andthe succeeding collapse, there came only a bright handful of stars, acoruscating display of white fire that dashed itself around the Lassanship like foam on some coast-rock. It reeled backward, driven from itsposition under the tremendous shock of the sundered atoms, but itremained intact.
"Well, I'm a son-of-a-gun!" declared Sherman, as he put the _Monitor_into a spiral climb at nine hundred miles an hour to avoid anycounter-attack. "If they haven't found a gravity screen! I didn't thinkit was possible. Goes to show you you never can tell, especially withLassans. Look out folks, here comes the gaff, I'm going to loop!"
For as he spoke the formation of green globes had opened out--swiftly byordinary standards, though slowly in comparison with the frantic speedof the American rocket-vessel. From half a dozen of them the rackingyellow ray of infra-sound leaped forth to seek the audacious ship thathad attacked them single-handed. All round her they stabbed theatmosphere, striking the few clouds and driving them apart in a finespray of rain, but missing the _Monitor_ as she twisted and heaved atfrantic speed.
Twenty miles away and high in the air they pulled up to recoverthemselves.
"And _that_," Sherman went on with his interrupted observation,"explains why they aren't using those blue beams for support any more.Of course a gravity screen that would work against our beam would workagainst the gravity of the earth just as well. They must have some wayof varying its effect, though. They aren't rising very fast and haven'tgot much speed."
"Probably the Lassans can't stand the acceleration," suggested Murray.
"Probably you're right. They can't have less than one Lassan in eachglobe.... Of course, they might control them by radio, with thethought-helmets and have the crews all robots, but that wouldn't be aLassan way of doing things. And I doubt if they'd think radio safe,anyhow, even if they know about it, of which I'm not sure. We'reshedding any amount of static around, and would play merry hell withmost any radio. Wish I knew how they worked that gravity screen, though.I'll bet a boat-load of Monitors against a thought-helmet that it'smagnetic."
"Wish we had some way to signal the rest of the fleet," said Ben, asthey swung into their position at the head of the formation again. "Idon't want them pushing in there with the gravity-beam if it isn't goingto do any good."
Murray laughed. "They'll find it out soon enough. I think we've gotplenty speed to beat those infra-sound rays, too. If that's as strong asthey come, we've got 'em licked."
"Don't crow yet, boy friend," said Gloria. "You don't know what thosebabies have up their sleeves--excuse me, their trunks."
As the American fleet formed for a mass attack, the Lassan globes hadbeen rising, and now they were a bare five thousand feet below therocket-cruisers, swinging along at a height of 25,000 feet above theearth in the last rays of the setting sun. As the green globes rose theytook their places in a formation like an enormous crescent, the ends ofwhich were extended as each new globe came up to join it.
"Looks like they want to get us in the middle and pop us from alldirections at once," observed Sherman. "Well, here goes. Pick the end ofthe line; that's our best chance. How's your potential, Gloria?"
"O. K., chief," she answered. "Lightning this time?"
He nodded. The rockets of the _Monitor II_ roared; its prow dippedforward, and at an incredible speed it swept down on the line of Lassanwarships, followed by the rest of the American fleet. But it was nosurprise this time. As the monitors plunged in, from every green globethat could bring them to bear, the long yellow rays shot forth. Rightthrough them the _Monitor II_ plunged; the grate of it, even throughtheir double coating of armor and the vacuum chambers, set their teethon edge; then the rocket-ship was pointing directly down at one of theLassans and Gloria snapped t
he key that released the artificiallightning.
A jagged beam of flame, intenser than the hottest furnace, leapedthrough the air, struck the green globe, and sought the earth in athousand tiny rivulets of light. For just a second the globe seemedunharmed; then slowly, and almost majestically, it began to dissolve inmid-air, spouting flames at every pore. Fully ten miles down and beyond,the _Monitor_ turned again, and not till then did the sound of theexplosion reach them, a terrific, rending thunder-clap.
"See that?" cried Sherman. "That formation of theirs isn't so dumb.They've got it all ranged out; none of our ships can get at them withoutcoming through at least one of those yellow rays, and if we stay in themtoo long--blooie!"
They peered through the windows at the formation. Off at one side, theycould make out the forms of two more rocket-ships, outlined against thesky, while behind and above them pursued by the searching yellow beams,came the rest. As they turned, they saw the gravity-beam shoot from oneof the American ships, crumple uselessly against a green globe. Thenthey plunged in, again, firing the gravity beam earthward to work up thepotential for another lightning discharge.
* * * * *
The hills below rocked and roared to the repeated shock. Trees fell incrashing ruin as lightning-bolt or infra-sound shivered them to bits;great cars of burned earth and molten rock marked the spots where thegravity-beam struck the ground. All round was a maze of yellow rays,lightning flashes, and green globes that reeled, rose, fell, sometimesblowing up, sometimes giving ground, but always fighting back sternlyand vigorously and always rising through the clear spring evening.
Murray Lee, at the rear of the ship, was the only one to see an Americanrocket-ship, caught and held for a few fatal moments by two yellow rays,slowly divest itself of its outer armor, then of its inner, and gowhirling to the earth, dissolved into its ultimate fragments by thoseirresistible pennons of sound.
Gloria Rutherford at the prow was the only one to see another caughtbow-on in a yellow ray, reply by firing its gravity-beam right down theray and into the green globe through the port from which the ray hadissued. The ray went out--a spreading spot of flame appeared at the portand the great green globe crumpled into a little ball of flame beforeher eyes. But such events as these were the merest flashes in theclose-locked combat. For the most part they had time to do nothing buthandle the controls, throw switches to and fro, shoot forth gravity-beamand lightning-flash in endless alternation at the Lassan ships of whichthere always appeared to be one more right before them as Shermantwisted and turned the _Monitor_ with a skill that was almost uncanny.
Suddenly he pulled out; the four looked round. They were miles high;below half hidden in the dusk, were the red and brown roofs of a city.Far away on the horizon the battle still roared; a rolling cloud ofsmoke now, shot with the vivid fires of the American lightning flashes.The wings of their ship were spread; they were soaring gently earthwardwithout the application of the rocket power.
"Had to get away for a minute," Sherman explained. "We were heating upfrom the speed. My God, but we're high up; at least 45,000 feet!"
"Yes, and getting higher," Ben pointed out. "Those green globes must beheaded for the moon."
"Do you know, I wouldn't be a bit surprised but what you're right,"replied Sherman, "I'll bet an oil-ball against the whole Lassan citythat they think we can't navigate space and they're trying to get aboveus and then hang around and pop us when we have to land. Well, come ongang, let's get back."
He shot the wings in again, worked the controls, and they headed backtoward the conflict.
It was less of a turmoil now, more of an ordered swing, charge, pass andcharge again against the diminishing number of the Lassan globes. Of theAmerican rocket-ships Gloria could now count but two beside their own.One she had seen break up; whether the others, badly damaged, had hauledout for repairs, or whether, riven by the deadly yellow ray, they hadgone crashing to the earth, there was no way of knowing. But the Lassanswere not escaping unharmed; there were hardly a third as many as at thebeginning and even as they approached another one disappeared in thevivid flash of the rocket's lightnings. Still the rest rose steadily on,going straight up as though they indeed hoped to escape their tormentorsby rising to the moon.
They dived in: Gloria pressed the lightning key and another Lassan globeblew up; then they were climbing again. Beneath them the night had come.The earth was a dark mass, far down, and from that enormous distancelooked slightly dished out at the edges. But though the earth was dark,at that ultimate height of the atmosphere the sun had not yet set. Stillthe strange fight went on, higher and higher. The roar of the exhaustexplosions died away behind them and Murray looked questioningly atSherman.
"Out this far, there isn't much air," he said. "Takes air to conductsound. Wonder what they're up to, anyway. All right, Gloria."
He dived at another Lassan and she pressed the lightning ray; but thistime there was no flash, no flaming Lassan ship falling in ruins to theground.
"Who'd have thought it!" said Sherman, as he swung the _Monitor_ roundafter the charge. "Of course--we're up so high that we've made a sparkgap that even lightning won't jump. But I don't get their idea; thosesound rays won't be any good out here, either."