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The Sword and the Atopen
By TAYLOR H. GREENFIELD
_The conversion of light into electricity by spectrum is an interesting possibility. The idea of using foreign proteins on the human system to repel enemies, is also interesting. Do you get it? We didn't either until we read the story. Read the yarn and you'll get it too._
Although Divine intervention in human affairs passed into the realm ofthe mythical toward the end of the twentieth or at the dawn of thetwenty-first century, one is almost inclined to give thanks to theSupernatural for the marvelous efficacy of Dr. Rutledge's discovery andstratagem which so recently freed us from the Oriental menace.
A year ago only the Mississippi and the most severe winter in manygenerations was staying the complete invasion of the United States. Inan unbelievably secret manner our enemies had for five decades beendeveloping a scientific offensive against which our laboratories couldnot in a short interval protect us. The vast and fundamental discoveriesmade during the past hundred years by the Orientals (and now theheritage of the whole world) can only be compared to the IndustrialRevolution of the nineteenth century. Without warning, through thediscovery of the cause of gravitation, the Mongols practically liftedtheir Nangsi metal transports (which were built of a material combiningthe lightness of aluminum with the strength and hardness of steel) outof the sea; and in five days skimmed across the surface of the Pacific.The whole West lay at their mercy, though we know with what gallantrytheir forces were held in check from summer until winter, when the enemyhad reached the Mississippi.
They were planning details of the final campaign.]
Of course, one of the surprises which the Orientals had not counted onwas the providential inspiration of Dr. Mernick of the Hopkins, whodevised the now famous Mernickian transformer by which light from thesun, received through a series of grates, is stepped from thewavelengths of light into those of electricity. This gave us a suddenlimitless source of power on which the enemy had not counted. Itvirtually lifted our forces off the ground and made them almost theequal of an enemy who had succeeded in neutralizing the gravitationaldrag.
The final and most disastrous card our subtle enemies played was dealton the prairies in Nebraska. They themselves were afraid of their weaponand wanted plenty of space to try it in. I was personally present at itsdebut, being at the time in General Sanford's stationary observinghelicopter which, through the agency of the power supplied by aMernickian transformer, hung motionless as a bee fifteen thousand feetin the air. Only the treble hum of the air turbine could be heardfaintly through the transparent walls of the observatory constructed ofthe annealed clersite, which has taken the place of the unsatisfactoryglass used by our forefathers. The toughness and tensile strength ofthis element, comparable to the best chrome steels, combined with itscrystal clarity, made an ideal warfare observation unit. It waspractically invisible and likewise quite bullet proof. The greatstrength of the material in our machine, and the rapidity with which wecould rise and fall, indeed made us difficult prey. In addition to thiswe were hanging behind the great electric field that the Radio DefensiveCorps had spread like a screen before our forces, greatly to theembarrassment of the enemy in the use of his anti-gravitationalmachines.
As we stood at our posts, we saw the great degravitated bombs hurtledagainst our lines suddenly come into contact with the fan-like electricfield, somersault a few times and fall. At the edge of the electricscreen the ground was excavated to an enormous depth by the bursting ofthese intercepted degravitated bombs, most of which had been projectedfrom stationary batteries three or four hundred miles behind the enemylines. The local batteries bombarding with the old fashioned Sangsisteel shell were still effective. On the whole, however, from our ownobservation of the local front and from the television reports we wereconstantly receiving, we judged that the American and Allied Caucasianforces were more than holding their own.
General Sanford, the Chief of the Signal Corps, who stood by my side,grasped my arm, and pointed to the west. Everyone crowded to our side inexcitement. Before we could gasp our amazement, the incandescent spotwhich our Chief had mutely indicated on the distant horizon, zoomed in ablazing arc across our zenith and plunged into the terrain of theEnglish forces which were occupying the little town of Ogallala aboutsix miles to our south. We held our breath. What next?
Only a faint throbbing seemed to pulse in the air above the spot wherethe missile sank. I was about to pronounce the diagnosis of "a dud,"when someone cried, "My God, General, they've turned hell loose thistime!" The whole atmosphere for a quarter of a mile radius about thefatal bomb quivered as over a heated griddle. Even as we remarked this,the area began to glow cherry red. A deafening thunder assaulted ourears when to our horror the earth on which had stood the now burningtown of Ogallala, rose a gigantic incandescent ball and shot like ameteor into the heavens. Our car was a feather tossed in the ensuinghurricane, but even while we bobbed back and forth there was anear-splitting explosion as the land that was once an American villageburst into a blinding blue flare of hydrogen flame twenty-five milesabove us.
The swaying of the car gradually subsided in the tortured atmosphere,and a gentle rain began to fall. Ogallala had been chemically "steppeddown" into the most primitive element, combined with the oxygen aboveand was condensing back to earth again as a few globules of H{2}O. Thatday was a sort of crisis; the enemy had discovered and turned upon usthe power of atomic degeneration! And I, as assistant chief chemist ofthe American Army, felt my heart become heavy within me as I soared backto the Central Laboratory.
* * * * *
Even as I watched the advent of the electronic detonator two dayspreviously the inspiration had come to me. What had happened to thedoomed Nebraskan town had been so obvious. Through some unexplainedagency discovered by the Orientals, the electronic restraint of thenormally stable elements had been removed. In a brief time Ogallala haddegenerated through all the steps of the periodic table until it becamehydrogen, at which point, owing to the terrific air current andincandescent heat, it had recombined with the oxygen of the air assimple molecules of water.
I thought I had a clue as to how it had been accomplished. The CentralChemical Laboratory was the focus of feverish excitement. The air wastense with the expectancy of tremendous things. Every scientist therefelt that we were on the verge of discovering the principle of theMongols' new weapon. "Give us time!" "Time" was the plea we sent dailyto the Defense Headquarters. "Only six weeks more, only a month," webegged, "and then we'll make a boomerang out of the enemy's invention."Anderson, Mahaffey, Dr. Spritz--all the great physicists and chemists ofthe present age--labored at my side endeavoring to trick Nature intogiving us that saving secret.
The television 'phone called my name. I immediately hurried to the boothand saw General Loomis, the Commander-in-Chief of the American andCaucasian Armies, standing in his helicopter headquarters. He seemedhaggard and worn. "How much longer, Johnson?" he asked. "The enemy haspretty well eaten out the country and with the advent of winter and lackof food, are bending all their efforts to crush us. Besides, we cannottell just how long it will be before they begin turning out their newbomb in other than experimental quantities. Two weeks, I shouldestimate, is about all the longer I can hold them."
"If that is the case, General Loomis," I replied, "we may as well giveup. Two months will see us ready. But two weeks--!"
I felt a hand laid on my shoulder. Dr. Rutledge, my science chief, hadstepped into the booth behind me and overheard the conversation.
"General Loomis," Dr. Rutledge spoke, looking for al
l the world like apatriarch of olden times, "until five minutes ago what Johnson has justsaid would have sealed our fate. But now, I think, I believe, we haveone more card to play. I have only this moment completed a series ofreactions which have resulted (as I calculated they should) in theproduction of a new protein, similar in appearance to flour. It should,although of course I have not yet had time to verify this statement, bea practical substitute for flour; and indeed, it is my belief that itwill easily be mistaken for that substance. Its particles are laminatedsimilar to starch, of an identical size, and the nutritive factor shouldbe greater than that of bread. It is, in short, a new, a foreign proteinnever before found in this world of men!"
"Very interesting, I am sure," replied General Loomis, with a trace ofbitterness and sarcasm in his voice. "Your noble efforts will result infeeding the yellow devils an