CHAPTER XVIII
The Invasion
The pulsating air and the chattering sounders were giving the same direwarning, the alarm extraordinary of invasion, of imminent andcatastrophic danger from the air.
"Don't try to reach the palace. Everyone on the ground will have timeenough to hide in the deep, arenak-protected pits beneath the buildings,and you would be killed by the invaders long before you could reach thepalace. If we can repel the enemy and keep them from landing, the womenwill be perfectly safe, even though the whole city is destroyed. If theyeffect a landing we are lost."
"They'll not land, then," Seaton answered grimly, as he sprang into theSkylark and took his place at the board. As Crane took out his wireless,Seaton cautioned him.
"Send in English, and tell the girls not to answer, as these devils canlocate the calls within a foot and will be able to attack the rightspot. Just tell them we're safe in the Skylark. Tell them to sit tightwhile we wipe out this gang that is coming, and that we'll call them,once in a while, when we have time, during the battle."
Before Crane had finished sending the message the crescendo whine ofenormous propellers was heard. Simultaneously there was a deafeningconcussion and one entire wing of the palace disappeared in a cloud ofdust, in the midst of which could be discerned a few flying fragments.The air was filled with Mardonalian warships. They were huge vessels,each mounting hundreds of guns, and the rain of high-explosive shellswas rapidly reducing the great city to a wide-spread heap of debris.
Seaton's hand was upon the lever which would hurl the Skylark upwardinto the fray. Crane and DuQuesne, each hard of eye and grim of jaw,were stationed at their machine-guns.
"Something's up!" exclaimed Seaton. "Look at the Kondal!"
Something had happened indeed. Dunark sat at the board, his hand uponthe power lever, and each of his crew was in place, grasping his weapon,but every man was writhing in agony, unable to control his movements. Asthey stared, momentarily spellbound, the entire crew ceased theiragonized struggles and hung, apparently lifeless, from their supports.
"They've got to 'em some way--let's go!" yelled Seaton.
As his hand tightened upon the lever, a succession of shells burst uponthe dock, wrecking it completely, all three men fancied that the worldhad come to an end as the stream of high explosive was directed againsttheir vessel. But the four-foot shell of arenak was impregnable, andSeaton shot the Skylark upward into the midst of the enemy fleet. Thetwo gunners fired as fast as they could sight their weapons, and witheach shot one of the great warships was blown into fragments. TheMardonalians then concentrated the fire of their entire fleet upon theirtiny opponent.
From every point of the compass, from above and below, the enemy gunnersdirected streams of shells against the dodging vessel. The noise wasmore than deafening, it was one continuous, shattering explosion, andthe Earth-men were surrounded by such a blaze of fire from the explodingshells that they could not see the enemy vessels. Seaton sought to dodgethe shells by a long dive toward one side, only to find that dozens ofnew opponents had been launched against them--the deadlyairplane-torpedoes of Osnome. Steered by wireless and carrying no crews,they were simply winged bombs carrying thousands of pounds of terrificelectrical explosive--enough to kill the men inside the vessel by theconcussion of the explosion, even should the arenak armor be strongenough to withstand the blow. Though much faster than the Osnomianvessels, they were slow beside the Skylark, and Seaton could have dodgeda few of them with ease. As he dodged, however, they followedrelentlessly, and in spite of those which were blown up by the gunners,their number constantly increased until Seaton thought of the repellers.
"'Nobody Holme' is right!" he exclaimed, as he threw on the poweractuating the copper bands which encircled the hull in all directions.Instantly the torpedoes were hurled backward, exploding as the forcestruck them, and even the shells were ineffective, exploding harmlessly,as they encountered the zone of force. The noise of the awfuldetonations lessened markedly.
"Why the silence, I wonder?" asked Seaton, while the futile shells ofthe enemy continued to waste their force some hundreds of feet distantfrom their goal, and while Crane and DuQuesne were methodicallydestroying the huge vessels as fast as they could aim and fire. At everyreport one of the monster warships disappeared--its shattered fragmentsand the bodies of its crew hurtling to the ground. His voice could notbe heard in even the lessened tumult, but he continued:
"It must be that our repellers have set up a partial vacuum by repellingeven the air!"
* * * * *
Suddenly the shelling ceased and the Skylark was enveloped by a blindingglare from hundreds of great reflectors; an intense, searching,bluish-violet light that burned the flesh and seared through eyelids andeyeballs into the very brain.
"Ultra-violet!" yelled Seaton at the first glimpse of the light, as hethrew on the power. "Shut your eyes! Turn your heads down!"
Out in space, far beyond reach of the deadly rays, the men held a shortconference, then donned heavy leather-and-canvas suits, which theysmeared liberally with thick red paint, and replaced the plain glassesof their helmets with heavy lenses of deep ruby glass.
"This'll stop any ultra-violet ray ever produced," exulted Seaton, as heagain threw the vessel into the Mardonalian fleet. A score of the greatvessels met their fate before the Skylark was located, and, although theterrible rays were again focused upon the intruder in all theirintensity, the carnage continued.
In a few minutes, however, the men heard, or rather felt, a low, intensevibration, like a silent wave of sound--a vibration which smote upon theeardrums as no possible sound could smite, a vibration which racked thejoints and tortured the nerves as though the whole body weredisintegrating. So sudden and terrible was the effect that Seatonuttered an involuntary yelp of surprise and pain as he once more fledinto the safety of space.
"What the devil was that?" demanded DuQuesne. "Was it infra-sound? Ididn't suppose such waves could be produced."
"Infra-sound is right. They produce most anything here," replied Seaton,and Crane added:
"Well, about three fur suits apiece, with cotton in our ears, ought tokill any wave propagated through air."
The fur suits were donned forthwith, Seaton whispering in Crane's ear:
"I've found out something else, too. The repellers repel even the air.I'm going to shoot enough juice through them to set up a perfect vacuumoutside. That'll kill those air-waves."
Scarcely were they back within range of the fleet when DuQuesne,reaching for his gun to fire the first shot, leaped backward with ayell.
"Beat it!"
Once more at a safe distance, DuQuesne explained.
"It's lucky I'm so used to handling hot stuff that from force of habit Inever make close contact with anything at the first touch. That guncarried thousands of volts, with lots of amperage behind them, and if Ihad had a good hold on it I couldn't have let go. We'll block that gamequick enough, though. Thick, dry gloves covered with rubber are all thatis necessary. It's a good thing for all of us that you have those fancycondensite handles on your levers, Seaton."
"That was how they got Dunark, undoubtedly," said Crane, as he sent abrief message to the girls, assuring them that all was well, as he hadbeen doing at every respite. "But why were we not overcome at the sametime?"
"They must have had the current tuned to iridium, and had to experimentuntil they found the right wave for steel," Seaton explained.
"I should think our bar would have exploded, with all that current. Theymust have hit the copper range, too?"
Seaton frowned in thought before he answered.
"Maybe because it's induced current, and not a steady battery impulse.Anyway, it didn't. Let's go!"
"Just a minute," put in Crane. "What are they going to do next, Dick?"
"Search me. I'm not used to my new Osnomian mind yet. I recognize thingsall right after they happen, but I can't seem to figure ahead--it's likea dimly-remembered
something that flashes up as soon as mentioned. I gettoo many and too new ideas at once. I know, though, that the Osnomianshave defenses against all these things except this last stunt of thecharged guns. That must be the new one that Mardonale stole from Kondal.The defenses are, however, purely Osnomian in character and material. Aswe haven't got the stuff to set them up as the Osnomians do, we'll haveto do it our own way. We may be able to dope out the next one, though.Let's see, what have they given us so far?"
"We've got to hand it to them," responded DuQuesne, admiringly. "They'regiving us the whole range of wave-lengths, one at a time. They've givenus light, both ultra-violet and visible, sound, infra-sound, andelectricity--I don't know what's left unless they give us a new kind ofX-rays, or Hertzian, or infra-red heat waves, or...."
"That's it, heat!" exclaimed Seaton. "They produce heat by means ofpowerful wave-generators and by setting up heavy induced currents in thearmor. They can melt arenak that way."
"Do you suppose we can handle the heat with our refrigerators?" askedCrane.
"Probably. We have a lot of power, and the new arenak cylinders of ourcompressors will stand anything. The only trouble will be in cooling thecondensers. We'll run as long as we have any water in our tanks, then godive into the ocean to cool off. We'll try it a whirl, anyway."
* * * * *
Soon the Skylark was again dealing out death and destruction in thethick of the enemy vessels, who again turned from the devastation of thehelpless city to destroy this troublesome antagonist. But in spite ofthe utmost efforts of light-waves, sound-waves, and high-tensionelectricity, the space-car continued to take its terrible toll. AsSeaton had foretold, the armor of the Skylark began to grow hot, and heturned on the full power of the refrigerating system. In spite of thecooling apparatus, however, the outer walls finally began to glow redly,and, although the interior was comfortably cool, the ends of therifle-barrels, which were set flush with the surface of the revolvingarenak globes which held them, softened, rendering the guns useless. Thecopper repellers melted and dripped off in flaming balls of moltenmetal, so that shells once more began to crash against the armor.DuQuesne, with no thought of quitting apparent in voice or manner, saidcalmly:
"Well, it looks as though they had us stopped for a few minutes. Let'sgo back into space and dope out something else."
Seaton, thinking intensely, saw a vast fleet of enemy reinforcementsapproaching, and at the same time received a wireless call directed toDunark. It was from the grand fleet of Kondal, hastening from thebordering ocean to the defense of the city. Using Dunark's private code,Seaton told the Karbix, who was in charge of the fleet, that the enemyhad a new invention which would wipe them out utterly without a chanceto fight, and that he and his vessel were in control of the situation;and ordered him to see that no Kondalian ship came within battle rangeof a Mardonalian. He then turned to Crane and DuQuesne, his face grimand his fighting jaw set.
"I've got it doped right now. Give the Lark speed enough and she's somebullet herself. We've got four feet of arenak, they've got only an inch,and arenak doesn't even begin to soften until far above a blinding whitetemperature. Strap yourselves in solid, for it's going to be a roughparty from now on."
They buckled their belts firmly, and Seaton, holding the bar towardtheir nearest antagonist, applied twenty notches of power. The Skylarkdarted forward and crashed completely through the great airship. Tornwide open by the forty-foot projectile, its engines wrecked and itshelicopter-screws and propellers completely disabled, the helpless hulkplunged through two miles of empty air, a mass of wreckage.
The Skylark darted forward and crashed completely throughthe great airship.... She was an embodied thunderbolt; a huge,irresistible, indestructible projectile, directed by a keen braininside....]
Darting hither and thither, the space-car tore through vessel aftervessel of the Mardonalian fleet. She was an embodied thunderbolt; ahuge, irresistible, indestructible projectile, directed by a keen braininside it--the brain of Richard Seaton, roused to his highest fightingpitch and fighting for everything that man holds dear. Tortured by theterrible silent waves, which, now that the protecting vacuum had beendestroyed, were only partially stopped by the fur suits; shaken andbattered by the terrific impacts and the even greater shocks occurringevery second as the direction of the vessel was changed; made sick anddizzy by the nauseating swings and lurches as the Skylark spun about thecentral chamber; Seaton's wonderful physique and his nerves of steelstood him in good stead in this, the supreme battle of his life, as withteeth tight-locked and eyes gray and hard as the fracture of high-carbonsteel, he urged the Skylark on to greater and greater efforts.
Though it was impossible for the eye to follow the flight of thespace-car, the mechanical sighting devices of the Mardonalian vesselskept her in as perfect focus as though she were stationary, and thegreat generators continued to hurl into her the full power of theirdeath-dealing waves. The enemy guns were still spitting forth theirstreams of high-explosive shells, but unlike the waves, the shells movedso slowly compared to their target that only a few found their mark, andmany of the vessels fell to the ground, riddled by the shells of theirsister-ships.
* * * * *
With anxious eyes Seaton watched the hull of his animated cannon-ballchange in color. From dull red it became cherry, and as the cherry redgave place to bright red heat, Seaton threw even more power into the baras he muttered through his set teeth:
"Well, Seaton, old top, you've got to cut out this loafing on the joband get busy!"
In spite of his utmost exertions and in spite of the powerful ammoniaplant, now exerting its full capacity, but sadly handicapped by the factthat its cooling-water was now boiling, Seaton saw the arenak shellcontinue to heat. The bright red was succeeded by orange, which slowlychanged, first to yellow, then to light yellow, and finally to adazzling white; through which, with the aid of his heavy red lenses, hecould still see the enemy ships. After a time he noted that the colorhad gone down to yellow and he thrilled with exultation, knowing that hehad so reduced the numbers of the enemy fleet that their wave-generatorscould no longer overcome his refrigerators. After a few minutes more ofthe awful carnage there remained only a small fraction of the proudfleet which, thousands strong, had invaded Kondal--a remnant that soughtsafety in flight. But even in flight, they still fought with all theirweapons, and the streams of bombs dropped from their keel-batteries uponthe country beneath marked the path of their retreat with a wide swathof destruction. Half inclined to let the few remaining vessels escape,Seaton's mind changed instantly as he saw the bombs spreadingdevastation upon the countryside, and not until the last of theMardonalian vessels had been destroyed did he drop the Skylark into thearea of ruins which had once been the palace grounds, beside the Kondal,which was still lying as it had fallen.
After several attempts to steady their whirling senses, the three menfinally were able to walk, and, opening a door, they leaped out throughthe opening in the still glowing wall. Seaton's first act was towireless the news to Dorothy, who replied that they were coming as fastas they could. The men then removed their helmets, revealing faces paleand drawn, and turned to the helpless space-car.
"There's no way of getting into this thing from the outside...." Seatonbegan, when he saw that the Kofedix and his party were beginning torevive. Soon Dunark opened the door and stumbled out.
"I have to thank you for more than my life this time," he said, hisvoice shaken by uncontrollable emotion as he grasped the hands of allthree men. "Though unable to move, I was conscious and saw all thathappened--you kept them so busy that they didn't have a chance to giveus enough to kill us outright. You have saved the lives of millions ofour nation and have saved Kondal itself from annihilation."
"Oh, it's not that bad," answered Seaton, uncomfortably. "Both nationshave been invaded before."
"Yes--once when we developed the ultra-violet ray, once when Mardonaleperfected the machine for produci
ng the silent sound-wave, and againwhen we harnessed the heat-wave. But this would have been the mostcomplete disaster in history. The other inventions were not so deadly aswas this one, and there were terrible battles, from which the victorsemerged so crippled that they could not completely exterminate thevanquished, who were able to re-establish themselves in the course oftime. If it had not been for you, this would have been the end, as not aKondalian soldier could move--any person touching iridium was helplessand would have been killed."
He ceased speaking and saluted as the Karfedix and his party rounded aheap of boulders. Dorothy and Margaret screamed in unison as they sawthe haggard faces of their husbands, and saw their suits, dripping witha thick substance which they knew to be red, in spite of itspurplish-black color. Seaton dodged nimbly as Dorothy sought to take himin her arms, and tore off his suit.
"Nothing but red paint to stop their light-rays," he reassured her as helifted her clear from the ground in a soul-satisfying embrace. Out ofthe corner of his eye he saw the Kondalians staring in open-mouthedamazement at the Skylark. Wheeling swiftly, he laughed as he saw agigantic ball of frost and snow! Again donning his fur suit, he shut offthe refrigerators and returned to his party, where the Karfedix gave himthanks in measured terms. As he fell silent, Dunark added:
"Thanks to you, the Mardonalian forces, instead of wiping us out, arethemselves destroyed, while only a handful of our vessels have beenlost, since the grand fleet could not arrive until the battle was over,and since the vessels that would have thrown themselves away were savedby your orders, which I heard. Thanks to you, we are not even crippled,though our capital is destroyed and the lives of some unfortunates, whocould not reach the pits in time, have probably been lost.
"Thanks to you," he continued in a ringing voice, "and to the salt andthe new source of power you have given us, Mardonale shall now bedestroyed utterly!"
After sending out ships to relieve the suffering of the few wounded andthe many homeless, Dunark summoned a corps of mechanics, who banded onnew repellers and repaired the fused barrels of the machine-guns, allthat was necessary to restore the Skylark to perfect condition.
* * * * *
Facing the party from Earth, the Karfedix stood in the ruins of hismagnificent palace. Back of him were the nobles of Kondal, and stillfurther back, in order of rank, stood a multitude of people.
"Is it permitted, oh noble Karfedo, that I reward your captive for hisshare in the victory?" he asked.
"It is," acquiesced Seaton and Crane, and Roban stepped up to DuQuesneand placed in his hand a weighty leather bag. He then fastened about hisleft wrist the Order of Kondal, the highest order of the nation.
He then clasped about Crane's wrist a heavily-jeweled,peculiarly-ornamented disk wrought of a deep ruby-red metal, supportedby a heavy bracelet of the same material, the most precious metal ofOsnome. At sight of the disk the nobles saluted and Seaton barelyconcealed a start of surprise, for it bore the royal emblem anddelegated to its bearer power second only to that of the Karfedixhimself.
"I bestow upon you this symbol, Karfedix Crane, in recognition of whatyou have this day done for Kondal. Wherever you may be upon KondalianOsnome, which from this day henceforth shall be all Osnome, you havepower as my personal representative, as my eldest son."
He drew forth a second bracelet, similar to the first except that itbore seven disks, each differently designed, which he snapped uponSeaton's wrist as the nobles knelt and the people back of them threwthemselves upon their faces.
"No language spoken by man possesses words sufficiently weighty toexpress our indebtedness to you, Karfedix Seaton, our guest and oursavior. The First Cause has willed that you should be the instrumentthrough which Kondal is this day made supreme upon Osnome.
In small and partial recognition of that instrumentality, I bestow uponyou these symbols, which proclaim you our overlord, the ultimateauthority of Osnome.
While this is not the way in which I had thought to bid you farewell,the obligations which you have heaped upon us render all smaller thingsinsignificant. When you return, as I hope and trust you soon will, thecity shall be built anew and we can welcome you as befits your station."
Lifting both arms above his head he continued:
"May the great First Cause smile upon you in all your endeavors untilyou solve the Mystery: may your descendants soon reach the UltimateGoal. Goodbye."
Seaton uttered a few heartfelt words in response and the party steppedbackward toward the Skylark. As they reached the vessel the standingKarfedix and the ranks of kneeling nobles snapped into the doublesalute--truly a rare demonstration in Kondal.
"What'll we do now?" whispered Seaton.
"Bow, of course," answered Dorothy.
They bowed, deeply and slowly, and entered their vessel. As the Skylarkshot into the air with the greatest acceleration that would permit itspassengers to move about, the grand fleet of Kondalian warship fired adeafening salute.
* * * * *
It had been planned before the start that each person was to worksixteen hours out of the twenty-four. Seaton was to drive the vesselduring the first two eight-hour periods of each day. Crane was toobserve the stars during the second and to drive during the third.DuQuesne was to act as observer during the first and third periods.Margaret had volunteered to assist the observer in taking his notesduring her waking hours, and Dorothy appointed herself cook andhousehold manager.
As soon as the Skylark had left Osnome, Crane told DuQuesne that he andhis wife would work in the observation room until four o'clock in theafternoon, at which time the prearranged system of relief would begin,and DuQuesne retired to his room.
Crane and Margaret made their way to the darkened room which housed theinstruments and seated themselves, watching intently and making noeffort to conceal their emotion as first the persons beneath them, thenthe giant war-vessels, and finally the ruined city itself, were lost toview. Osnome slowly assumed the proportions of a large moon, grewsmaller, and as it disappeared Crane began to take notes. For a fewhours the seventeen suns of this strange solar system shone upon theflying space-car, after which they assumed the aspect of awidely-separated cluster of enormous stars, slowly growing smaller andsmaller and shrinking closer and closer together.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Washington time, DuQuesne relievedCrane, who made his way to the engine room.
"It is time to change shifts, Dick. You have not had your sixteen hours,but everything will be regular from now on. You two had better get somerest."
"All right," replied Seaton, as he relinquished the controls to Crane,and after bidding the new helmsman goodnight he and Dorothy went belowto their cabin.
Standing at a window with their arms around each other they stared downwith misty eyes at the very faint green star, which was rapidlydecreasing in brilliance as the Skylark increased its alreadyinconceivable velocity. Finally, as it disappeared altogether, Seatonturned to his wife and tenderly, lovingly, took her in his arms.
"Littlest Girl.... Sweetheart...." he whispered, and paused, overcome bythe intensity of his feelings.
"I know, husband mine," she answered, while tears dimmed her gloriouseyes. "It is too deep. With nothing but words, we can't say a singlething."