_Beginning a thrilling New Serial of Interplanetary Life and Travel byEdward E. Smith, Ph. D. _

_Author of "Skylark of Space" and "Skylark Three"_

Spacehounds of IPC

 _A good many of us, who are now certain beyond a doubt that space travel will forever remain in the realm of the impossible, probably would, if a rocket that were shot to the moon, for instance, did arrive, and perhaps return to give proof of its safe arrival on our satellite, accept the phenomenon in a perfectly blasé, twentieth century manner. Dr. Smith, that phenomenal writer of classic scientific fiction, seems to have become so thoroughly convinced of the advent of interplanetary travel that it is difficult for the reader to feel, after finishing "Spacehounds of IPC, " that travel in the great spaces is not already an established fact. Dr. Smith, as a professional chemist, is kept fairly busy. As a writer, he is satisfied with nothing less than perfection. For that reason, a masterpiece from his pen has become almost an annual event. We know you will like "Spacehounds" even better than the "Skylark" series. _

Illustrated by WESSO

CHAPTER I

The IPV _Arcturus_ Sets Out for Mars

A narrow football of steel, the Interplanetary Vessel _Arcturus_ stoodupright in her berth in the dock like an egg in its cup. A hundred feetacross and a hundred and seventy feet deep was that gigantic bowl, itswalls supported by the structural steel and concrete of the dock andlined with hard-packed bumper-layers of hemp and fibre. High into theair extended the upper half of the ship of space--a sullen gray expanseof fifty-inch hardened steel armor, curving smoothly upward to a needleprow. Countless hundred of fine vertical scratches marred every inchof her surface, and here and there the stubborn metal was grooved andscored to a depth of inches--each scratch and score the record of anattempt of some wandering cosmic body to argue the right-of-way withthe stupendous mass of that man-made cruiser of the void. 

A burly young man made his way through the throng about the entrance, nodded unconcernedly to the gatekeeper, and joined the stream ofpassengers flowing through the triple doors of the double air-lockand down a corridor to the center of the vessel. However, instead ofentering one of the elevators which were whisking the passengers up totheir staterooms in the upper half of the enormous football, he in someway caused an opening to appear in an apparently blank steel wall andstepped through it into the control room. 

"Hi, Breck!" the burly one called, as he strode up to the instrument-deskof the chief pilot and tossed his bag carelessly into a corner. "Beholdyour computer in the flesh! What's all this howl and fuss about poorcomputation?"

"Hello, Steve!" The chief pilot smiled as he shook hands cordially. "Glad to see you again--but don't try to kid the old man. I'm simpleenough to believe almost anything, but some things just aren't beingdone. We have been yelling, and yelling hard, for trained computersever since they started riding us about every one centimeter change inacceleration, but I know that you're no more an I-P computer than I ama Digger Indian. They don't shoot sparrows with coast-defense guns!"

[Illustration]

"Thanks for the compliment, Breck, but I'm your computer for this trip, anyway. Newton, the good old egg, knows what you fellows are up againstand is going to do something about it, if he has to lick all the rest ofthe directors to do it. He knew that I was loose for a couple of weeksand asked me to come along this trip to see what I could see. I'm tocheck the observatory data--they don't know I'm aboard--take the peaksand valleys off your acceleration curve, if possible, and report toNewton just what I find out and what I think should be done about it. How early am I?" While the newcomer was talking, he had stripped thecovers from a precise scale model of the solar system and from a largeand complicated calculating machine and had set to work without a wastedmotion or instant--scaling off upon the model the positions of thevarious check-stations and setting up long and involved integrals andequations upon the calculator. 

The older man studied the broad back of the younger, bent over hiscomputations, and a tender, almost fatherly smile came over his carewornface as he replied:

"Early? You? Just like you always were--plus fifteen seconds on thedeadline. The final dope is due right now. " He plugged the automaticrecorder and speaker into a circuit marked "Observatory, " waited untila tiny light above the plug flashed green, and spoke. 

"IPV _Arcturus_; Breckenridge, Chief Pilot; trip number forty-threetwenty-nine. Ready for final supplementary route and flight data, Tellusto Mars. "

"Meteoric swarms still too numerous for safe travel along the scheduledroute, " came promptly from the speaker. "You must stay further away fromthe plane of the ecliptic. The ether will be clear for you along routeE2-P6-W41-K3-R19-S7-M14. You will hold a constant acceleration of 981. 27centimeters between initial and final check stations. Your take-offwill be practically unobstructed, but you will have to use the utmostcaution in landing upon Mars, because in order to avoid a weightlessdetour and a loss of thirty-one minutes, you must pass very closeto both the Martian satellites. To do so safely you must pass thelast meteorological station, M14, on schedule time plus or minus fiveseconds, at scheduled velocity plus or minus ten meters, with exactlythe given negative acceleration of 981. 27 centimeters, and exactly uponthe pilot ray M14 will have set for you. "

"All x. " Breckenridge studied his triplex chronometer intently, thenunplugged and glanced around the control room, in various parts of whichhalf a dozen assistants were loafing at their stations. 

"Control and power check-out--Hipe!" he barked. "Driving converters andprojectors!"

The first assistant scanned his meters narrowly as he swung amulti-point switch in a flashing arc. "Converter efficiency 100, projector reactivity 100; on each of numbers one to forty-fiveinclusive. All x. "

"Dirigible projectors!"

 * * * * *

Two more gleaming switches leaped from point to point. "Converterefficiency 100, projector reactivity 100, dirigibility 100, on each ofnumbers one to thirty-two, inclusive, of upper band; and numbers one tothirty-two, inclusive, of lower band. All x. "

"Gyroscopes!"

"35, 000. Drivers in equilibrium at ten degrees plus. All x. "

"Upper lights and lookout plates!"

The second assistant was galvanized into activity, and upon a screenbefore him there appeared a view as though he were looking directlyupward from the prow of the great vessel. The air above them was full ofaircraft of all shapes and sizes, and occasionally the image of one ofthat flying horde flared into violet splendor upon the screen as it wascaught in the mighty, roving beam of one of the twelve ultra-lightprojectors under test. 

"Upper lights and lookout plates--all x, " the second assistant reported, and other assistants came to attention as the check-out went on. 

"Lower lights and lookout plates!"

"All x, " was the report, after each of the twelve ultra-lights of thestern had swung around in its supporting brackets, illuminating everyrecess of the dark depths of the bottom well of the berth and throwingthe picture upon another screen in lurid violet relief. 

"Lateral and vertical detectors!"

"Laterals XP2710--all x. Verticals AJ4290--all x. "

"Receptors!"

"15, 270 kilofranks--all x. "

"Accumulators!"

"700, 000 kilofrank-hours--all x. "

Having thus checked and tested every function of his department, Breckenridge plugged into "Captain, " and when the green light went on:

"Chief pilot check-out--all x, " he reported briefly. 

"All x, " acknowledged the speaker, and the chief pilot unplugged. Fifteen minutes remained, during which time one department head afteranother would report to the captain of the liner that everything in hischarge was ready for the stupendous flight. 

"All x, Steve?" Breckenridge turned to the computer. "How do you checkacceleration and power with the observatory?"

"Not so good, old bean, " the younger man frowned in thought. "Theyfigure like astronomers, not navigators. They've made no allowances foranything, not even the reversal--and I figure four thousands for thatand for minor detours. Then there's check station errors.... "

"Check-station errors! Why, they're always right--that's what they'refor!"

"Don't fool yourself--they've got troubles of their own, the same asanybody else. In fact, from a study of the charts of the last few weeks, I'm pretty sure that E2 is at least four thousand kilometers this sideof where he thinks he is, that W41 is ten or twelve thousand beyond hisstation, and that they've both got a lateral displacement that's simplyfierce. I'm going to check up, and argue with them about it as we pass. Then there's another thing--they figure to only two places, and we'vegot to have the third place almost solid if we expect to get a smoothcurve. A hundredth of a centimeter of acceleration means a lot on a longtrip when they're holding us as close as they are doing now. We'll ridethis trip on 981. 286 centimeters--with our scheduled mass, that meansthirty six points of four seven kilofranks _plus_ equilibrium power. Allset to go, " the computer stated, as he changed, by fractions of arc, thecourse-plotters of the automatic integrating goniometer. 

"You're the doctor--but I'm glad it's you that'll have to explain to theobservatory, " and Breckenridge set his exceedingly delicate excess powerpotentiometer exactly upon the indicated figure. "Well, we've got a fewminutes left for a chin-chin before we lift her off. "

"What's all this commotion about? Dish out the low-down. "

"Well, it's like this, Steve. We pilots are having one sweettime--we're being growled at on every trip. The management squawks ifwe're thirty seconds plus or minus at the terminals, and the passengerdepartment squalls if we change acceleration five centimeters total enroute--claims it upsets the dainty customers and loses business forthe road. They're tightening up on us all the time. A couple of yearsago, you remember, it didn't make any difference what we did with theacceleration as long as we checked in somewhere near zero time--we usedto spin 'em dizzy when we reversed at the half-way station--but thatkind of stuff doesn't go any more. We've got to hold the accelerationconstant and close to normal, got to hold our schedule on zero, _plus_or _minus_ ten seconds, and yet we've got to make any detours theytell us to, such as this seven-million kilometer thing they handedus just now. To make things worse, we've got to take orders at everycheck-station, and yet _we_ get the blame for everything that happensas a consequence of obeying those orders! Of course, I know as wellas you do that it's rotten technique to change acceleration at everycheck-station; but we've told 'em over and over that we can't do anybetter until they put a real computer on every ship and tell thecheck-stations to report meteorites and other obstructions to us andthen to let us alone. So you'd better recommend us some computers!"

"You're getting rotten computation, that's a sure thing, and I don'tblame you pilots for yelling, but I don't believe that you've got theright answer. I can't help but think that the astronomers are lying downon the job. They are so sure that you pilots are to blame that it hasn'toccurred to them to check up on themselves very carefully. However, we'll know pretty quick, and then we'll take steps. "

"I hope so--but say, Steve, I'm worried about using that much plusequilibrium power. Remember, we've got to hit M14 in absolutely goodshape, or plenty heads will drop. "

"I'll say they will. I know just how the passengers will howl if wehold them weightless for half an hour, waiting for those two moons to getout of the way, and I know just what the manager will do if we check inminus thirty-one minutes. Wow! He'll swell up and bust, sure. But don'tworry, Breck--if we don't check in all right, anybody can have my headthat wants it, and I'm taking full responsibility, you know. "

"You're welcome to it. " Breckenridge shrugged and turned theconversation into a lighter vein. "Speaking of weightlessness, it's funny how many weight-fiends there are in the world, isn'tit? You'd think the passengers would enjoy a little weightlessnessoccasionally--especially the fat ones--but they don't. But say, whileI think of it, how come you were here and loose to make this check-up?I thought you were out with the other two of the Big Three, solvingall the mysteries of the Universe?"

"Had to stay in this last trip--been doing some work on the ether, force-field theory, and other advanced stuff that I had to go to Marsand Venus to get. Just got back last week. As for solving mysteries, laugh while you can, old hyena. You and a lot of other dim bulbs thinkthat Roeser's Rays are the last word--that there's nothing left todiscover--are going to get jarred loose from your hinges one of thesedays. When I came in nine months ago they were hot on the trail ofsomething big, and I'll bet they bring it in.... "

Out upon the dock an insistent siren blared a crescendo and diminuendoblast of sound, and two minutes remained. In every stateroom and inevery lounge and saloon speakers sounded a warning:

"For a short time, while we are pulling clear of the gravitational fieldof the Earth, walking will be somewhat difficult, as everything on boardwill apparently increase in weight by about one-fifth of its presentamount. Please remain seated, or move about with caution. In about anhour weight will gradually return to normal. We start in one minute. "

"Hipe!" barked the chief pilot as a flaring purple light sprang intobeing upon his board, and the assistants came to attention at theirstations. "Seconds! Four! Three! Two! One! LIFT!" He touched abutton and a set of plunger switches drove home, releasing into theforty-five enormous driving projectors the equilibrium power--thefifteen-thousand-and-odd kilofranks of energy that exactlycounterbalanced the pull of gravity upon the mass of the cruiser. Simultaneously there was added from the potentiometer, already setto the exact figure given by the computer, the _plus_-equilibriumpower--which would not be changed throughout the journey if the idealacceleration curve were to be registered upon the recorders--and theimmense mass of the cruiser of the void wafted vertically upward at alow and constant velocity. The bellowing, shrieking siren had clearedthe air magically of the swarm of aircraft in her path, and quietly, calmly, majestically, the _Arcturus_ floated upward. 

 * * * * *

Breckenridge, sixty seconds after the initial lift, actuated the systemof magnetic relays which would gradually cut in the precisely measured"starting power, " which it would be necessary to employ for sixty-nineminutes--for, without the acceleration given by this additional power, they would lose many precious hours of time in covering merely thefew thousands of miles during which Earth's attraction would operatepowerfully against their progress. 

Faster and faster the great cruiser shot upward as more and more of thestarting power was released, and heavier and heavier the passengersfelt themselves become. Soon the full calculated power was on and theacceleration became constant. Weight no longer increased, but remainedconstant at a value of plus twenty three and six-tenths percent. For afew moments there had been uneasy stomachs among the passengers--perhapsa few of the first-trippers had been made ill--but it was not much worsethan riding in a high-speed elevator, particularly since there was nochange from positive to negative acceleration such as is experienced inexpress elevators. 

The computer, his calculations complete, watched the pilot withinterest, for, accustomed as he was to traversing the depths of space, there was a never-failing thrill to his scientific mind in the delicacyand precision of the work which Breckenridge was doing--work which couldbe done only by a man who had had long training in the profession andwho was possessed of instantaneous nervous reaction and of the highestdegree of manual dexterity and control. Under his right and left handswere the double-series potentiometers actuating the variable-speeddrives of the flight-angle directors in the hour and declination ranges;before his eyes was the finely marked micrometer screen upon which theguiding goniometer threw its needle-point of light; powerful opticalsystems of prisms and lenses revealed to his sight the director-angles, down to fractional seconds of arc. It was the task of the chief pilotto hold the screened image of the cross-hairs of the two directors insuch position relative to the ever-moving point of light as to hold themighty vessel precisely upon its course, in spite of the complex systemof forces acting upon it. 

For almost an hour Breckenridge sat motionless, his eyes flashing frommicrometer screen to signal panel, his sensitive fingers moving thepotentiometers through minute arcs because of what he saw upon thescreen and in instantaneous response to the flashing, multi-coloredlights and tinkling signals of his board. Finally, far from earth, themoon's attraction and other perturbing forces comparatively slight, thesignals no longer sounded and the point of light ceased its irregularmotion, becoming almost stationary. The chief pilot brought bothcross-hairs directly upon the brilliant point, which for some time theyhad been approaching more and more nearly, adjusted the photo-cellsand amplifiers which would hold them immovably upon it, and at thecalculated second of time, cut out the starting power by means ofanother set of automatically timed relays. When only the regular drivingpower was left, and the acceleration had been checked and found to beexactly the designated value of 981. 286 centimeters, he stood up andheaved a profound sigh of relief. 

"Well, Steve, that's over with--we're on our way. I'm always glad whenthis part of it is done. "

"It's a ticklish job, no fooling--even for an expert, " the mathematicianagreed. "No wonder the astronomers think you birds are the ones who aregumming up their dope. Well, it's about time to plug in on E2. Here'swhere the fireworks start!" He closed the connections which transferredthe central portion of the upper lookout screen to a small micrometerscreen at Breckenridge's desk and plugged it into the firstcheck-station. Instantly a point of red light, surrounded by a vividorange circle, appeared upon the screen, low down and to the left ofcenter, and the timing galvanometer showed a wide positive deflection. 

"Hashed again!" growled Breckenridge. "I must be losing my grip, I guess. I put everything I had on that sight, and missed it tendivisions. I think I'll turn in my badge--I've cocked our perfect curvealready, before we got to the first check-station!" His hands movedtoward the controls, to correct their course and acceleration. 

"As you were--hold everything! Lay off those controls!" snapped thecomputer. "There's something screwy, just as I thought--and it isn'tyou, either. I'm no pilot, of course, but I do know good compensationwhen I see it, and if you weren't compensating that point I never saw itdone. Besides, with your skill and my figures I know darn well that wearen't off more than a tenth of one division. He's cuckoo! Don't callhim--let him start it, and refer him to me. "

"All x--I'll be only too glad to pass the buck. But I still think, Steve, that you're playing with dynamite. Who ever heard of anastronomer being wrong?"

"You'd be surprised, " grinned the physicist, "Since this fuss hasjust started, nobody has tried to find out whether they were wrongor not.... "

"IPV _Arcturus_, attention!" came from the speaker curtly. 

"IPV _Arcturus_, Breckenridge, " from the chief pilot. 

"You have been on my ray almost a minute. Why are you not correctingcourse and acceleration?"

"Doctor Stevens is computing us and has full control of course andacceleration, " replied Breckenridge. "He will answer you. "

"I am changing neither course nor acceleration because you are notin position, " declared Stevens, crisply, "Please give me your presentsupposed location, and your latest precision goniometer bearings on thesun, the moon, Mars, Venus, and your Tellurian reference limb, withexact time of observations, gyroscope zero-planes, and goniometerfactors!"

"Correct at once or I shall report you to the Observatory, " E2 answeredloftily, paying no attention to the demand for proof of position. 

"Be sure you do that, guy--and while you're at it report that yourstation hasn't taken a precision bearing in a month. Report that you'vebeen muddling along on radio loop bearings, and that you don't knowwhere you are, within seven thousand kilometers. And speaking ofreporting--I know already that a lot of you astronomical guessershave only the faintest possible idea of where you really are, _plus_, _minus_, or lateral; and if you don't get yourselves straightened outbefore we get to W41, I'm going to make a report on my own account thatwill jar some of you birds loose from your upper teeth!" He unpluggedwith a vicious jerk, and turned to the pilot with a grin. 

"Guess that'll hold him for a while, won't it?"

"He'll report us, sure, " remonstrated Breckenridge. The older man wasplainly ill at ease at this open defiance of the supposedly infalliblecheck-stations. 

"Not that baby, " returned the computer confidently. "I'll bet you asmall farm against a plugged nickel that right now he's working hisgoniometer so hard that it's pivots are getting hot. He'll sneak backinto position as soon as he can calculate his results, and pretend he'salways been there. "

"The others will be all right, then, probably, by the time we get tothem?"

"Gosh, no--you're unusually dumb today, Breck. He won't tell anybodyanything--he doesn't want to be the only goat, does he?"

"Oh, I see. How could you dope this out, with only the recorder charts?"

"Because I know the kind of stuff you pilots are--and those humps arealtogether too big to be accounted for by anything I know about you. Another thing--the next station, P6, I think is keeping himself all x. If so, when you corrected for E2, which was wrong, it'd throw you alloff on P6, which was right, and so on--a bad hump at almost everycheck-station. See?"

 * * * * *

True to prediction, the pilot ray of P6 came in almost upon the exactcenter of the micrometer screen, and Breckenridge smiled in relief as hebegan really to enjoy the trip. 

"How do we check on chronometers?" asked P6 when Stevens had beenintroduced. "By my time you seem to be about two and a half seconds_plus_?"

"All x--two points four seconds plus--we're riding on 981. 286centimeters, to allow for the reversal and for minor detours. Bye. "

"All this may have been coincidence, Breck, but we'll find out prettyquick now, " the computer remarked when the flying vessel was nearingthe third check-station. "Unless I'm all out of control we'll check inalmost fourteen seconds minus on W41, and we may not even find him onthe center block of the screen. "

When he plugged in W41 was on the block, but was in the extreme upperright corner. They checked in thirteen and eight-tenths seconds minus onthe station, and a fiery dialogue ensued when the computer questionedthe accuracy of the location of the station and refused point-blank tocorrect his course. 

"Well, Breck, old onion, that tears it, " Stevens declared as heunplugged. "No use going any further on these bum reference points. I'm going to report to Newton--he'll rock the Observatory on itsfoundations!" He plugged into the telegraph room. "Have you got a freehigh-power wave?... Please put me on Newton, in the main office. "

Moving lights flashed and flickered for an instant upon the communicatorscreen, settling down into a white glow which soon resolved itself intothe likeness of a keen-eyed, gray-haired man, seated at his desk in theremote office of the Interplanetary Corporation. Newton smiled as herecognized the likeness of Stevens upon his own screen, and greeted himcordially. 

"Have you started your investigation, Doctor Stevens?"

"Started it? I've finished it!" and Stevens tersely reported what hehad learned, concluding: "So you see, you don't need special computerson these ships any more than a hen needs teeth. You've got all thecomputers you need, in the observatories--all you've got to do is makethem work at their trade. "

"The piloting was all x, then?"

"Absolutely--our curve so far is exactly flat ever since we cutoff the starting power. Of course, all the pilots can't be as good asBreckenridge, but give them good computation and good check points andyou shouldn't get any humps higher than about half a centimeter. "

"They'll get both, from now on, " the director assured him. "Thanks. Ifyour work for the trip is done, you might show my little girl, Nadia, around the _Arcturus_. She's never been out before, and will beinterested. Would you mind?"

"Glad to, Mr. Newton--I'll be a regular uncle to her. "

"Thanks again, Operator, I'll speak to Captain King, please. "

"Pipe down that guff, you unlicked cub, or I'll crown you with aproof-bar!" the chief pilot growled, as soon as Stevens had unplugged. 

"You and who else?" retorted the computer, cheerfully. "Pipe downyourself, guy--if you weren't so darn dumb and didn't have such acomplex, you'd know that you're the crack pilot of the outfit andwouldn't care who else knew it. " Stevens carefully covered and put awaythe calculating machine and other apparatus he had been using and turnedagain to the pilot. 

"I didn't know Newton had any kids, especially little ones, or I'd havegot acquainted with them long ago. Of course I don't know him very well, since I never was around the office much, but the old tiger goes overbig with me. "

"Hm--m. Think you'll enjoy playing nursemaid all the rest of the trip?"Breckenridge asked caustically, but with an enigmatic smile. 

"Think so? I _know_ so!" replied Stevens, positively. "I always didlike kids, and they always did like me--we fall for each other like tenthousand bricks falling down a well. Why, a kid--_any_ kid--and I teamup just like grace and poise.... What's gnawing on you anyway, to makeyou turn Cheshire cat all of a sudden? By the looks of that grin I'dsay you had swallowed a canary of mine some way or other; but darned ifI know that I've lost any, " and he stared at his friend suspiciously. 

"To borrow your own phrase, Steve, 'You'd be surprised, '" andBreckenridge, though making no effort to conceal his amusement, wouldsay no more. 

In a few minutes the door opened, and through it there stepped agrizzled four-striper. Almost hidden behind his massive form there wasa girl, who ran up to Breckenridge and seized both his hands, her eyessparkling. 

"Hi, Breckie, you old darling! I knew that if we both kept afterhim long enough Dad would let me ride with you sometime. Isn't this_gorgeous_?"

Stevens was glad indeed that the girl's enthusiastic greeting of thepilot was giving him time to recover from his shock, for DirectorNewton's "little girl, Nadia" was not precisely what he had led himselfto expect. Little she might be, particularly when compared with thegiant frame of Captain King, or with Steve's own five-feet-eleven ofstature and the hundred and ninety pounds of rawhide and whalebone thatwas his body, but child she certainly was not. Her thick, fair hair, cut in the square bob that was the mode of the moment, indicated thatNature had intended her to be a creamy blonde, but as she turned to beintroduced to him, Stevens received another surprise--for she was oneof those rare, but exceedingly attractive beings, a natural blonde withbrown eyes and black eyebrows. Sun and wind had tanned her satin skinto a smooth and even shade of brown, and every movement of her lithe andsupple body bespoke to the discerning mind a rigidly-trained physique. 

"Doctor Stevens, you haven't met Miss Newton, I hear, " the captainintroduced them informally. "All the officers who are not actually tieddown at their posts are anxious to do the honors of the vessel, but asI have received direct orders from the owners, I am turning her over toyou--you are to show her around. "

"Thanks, Captain, I won't mutiny a bit against such an order. I'm mightyglad to know you, Miss Newton. "

"I've heard a lot about you, Doctor. Dad and Breckie here are alwaystalking about the Big Three--what you have done and what you are goingto do. I want to meet Doctor Brandon and Doctor Westfall, too, " and herhand met his in a firm and friendly clasp. She turned to the captain, and Stevens, noticing that the pilot, with a quizzical expression, wasabout to say something, silenced him with a fierce aside. 

"Clam it, ape, or I'll climb up you like a squirrel!" he hissed, and thegrinning Breckenridge nodded assent to this demand for silenceconcerning children and nursemaids. 

"Since you've never been out, Miss Newton, you'll want to see the wholeworks, " Stevens addressed the girl. "Where do you want to begin? Shallwe start at the top and work down?"

"All right with me, " she agreed, and fell into step beside him. She wasdressed in dove-gray from head to foot--toque, blouse, breeches, heavystockings, and shoes were of the one shade of smooth, lustrous silk; andas they strolled together down the passage-way, the effortless ease andperfect poise of her carriage called aloud to every hard-schooled fibreof his own highly-trained being. 

"We're a lot alike you and I--do you know it?" he asked, abruptly andunconventionally. 

"Yes, I've felt it, too, " she replied frankly, and studied him withoutaffectation. "It has just come to me what it is. We're both in finecondition and in hard training. You're an athlete of some kind, and I'msure you're a star--I ought to recognize you, but I'm ashamed to say Idon't. What do you do?"

"Swim. "

"Oh, of course--Stevens, the great Olympic high and fancy diver! I would_never_ have connected our own Doctor Stevens, the eminent mathematicalphysicist, with the King of the Springboard. Say, ever since I quitbeing afraid of the water I've had a yen to do that two-and-a-half twistof yours, but I never met anybody who knew it well enough to teach itto me, and I've almost broken my back forty times trying to learn italone!"

"I've got you, now, too--American and British Womens' golf champion. Shake!" and the two shook hands vigorously, in mutual congratulation. "Tell you what--I'll give you some pointers on diving, and you can showme how to make a golf ball behave. Next to Norman Brandon, I've gotthe most vicious hook in captivity--and Norm can't help himself. He'sleft-handed, you know, and, being a southpaw, he's naturally wild. Heslices all his woods and hooks all his irons. I'm consistent, anyway--Ihook everything, even my putts. "

"It's a bargain! What do you shoot?"

"Pretty dubby. Usually in the middle eighties--none of us play much, being out in space most of the time, you know--sometimes, when my hookis going particularly well, I go up into the nineties. "

"We'll lick that hook, " she promised, as they entered an elevator andwere borne upward, toward the prow of the great interplanetary cruiser. 

CHAPTER II

----But Does Not Arrive

"All out--we climb the rest of the way on foot, " Stevens told hiscompanion, as the elevator stopped at the uppermost passenger floor. They walked across the small circular hall and the guard on duty cameto attention and saluted as they approached him. 

"I have orders to pass you and Miss Newton, sir. Do you know all thecombinations?"

"I know this good old tub better than the men that built her--I helpedcalculate her, " Stevens replied, as he stepped up to an apparently blankwall of steel and deftly manipulated an almost invisible dial set flushwith its surface. "This is to keep the passengers where they belong, " heexplained, as a section of the wall swung backward in a short arc andslid smoothly aside. "We will now proceed to see what makes it tick. "

Ladder after ladder of steel they climbed, and bulkhead after bulkheadopened at Stevens's knowing touch. At each floor the mathematicianexplained to the girl the operation of the machinery there automaticallyat work--devices for heating and cooling, devices for circulating, maintaining, and purifying the air and the water--in short, all thecomplex mechanism necessary for the comfort and convenience of the humancargo of the liner. 

Soon they entered the conical top compartment, a room scarcely fifteenfeet in diameter, tapering sharply upward to a hollow point sometwenty feet above them. The true shape of the room, however, was notimmediately apparent, because of the enormous latticed beams andgirders which braced the walls in every direction. The air glowedwith the violet light of the twelve great ultra-light projectors, likesearchlights with three-foot lenses, which lined the wall. The floorbeneath their feet was not a level steel platform, but seemed to becomposed of many lenticular sections of dull blue alloy. 

"We are standing upon the upper lookout lenses, aren't we?" asked thegirl. "Is that perfectly all right?"

"Sure. They're so hard that nothing can scratch them, and of courseRoeser's Rays go right through our bodies, or any ordinary substance, like a bullet through a hole in a Swiss cheese. Even those lenseswouldn't deflect them if they weren't solid fields of force. "

As he spoke, one of the ultra-lights flashed around in a short, quickarc, and the girl saw that instead of the fierce glare she had expected, it emitted only a soft violet light. Nevertheless she dodgedinvoluntarily and Stevens touched her arm reassuringly. 

"All x, Miss Newton--they're as harmless as mice. They hardly ever haveto swing past the vertical, and even if one shines right through you youcan look it right in the eye as long as you want to--it can't hurt youa bit. "

"No ultra-violet at all?"

"None whatever. Just a color--one of the many remaining crudities of ourultra-light vision. A lot of good men are studying this thing of directvision, though, and it won't be long before we have a system that willreally work. "

"I think it's all perfectly wonderful!" she breathed. "Just think oftraveling in comfort through empty space, and of actually seeing throughseamless steel walls, without even a sign of a window! How can suchthings be possible?"

"I'll have to go pretty well back, " he warned, "and any adequateexplanation is bound to be fairly deep wading in spots. How technicalcan you stand it?"

"I can go down with you middling deep--I took a lot of general science, and physics through advanced mechanics. Of course, I didn't get into anysuch highly specialized stuff as sub-electronics or Roeser's Rays, butif you start drowning me, I'll yell. "

"That's fine--you can get the idea all x, with that to go on. Let's sitdown here on this girder. Roeser didn't do it all, by any means, eventhough he got credit for it--he merely helped the Martians do it. Thewhole thing started, of course, when Goddard shot his first rocket tothe moon, and was intensified when Roeser so perfected his short wavesthat signals were exchanged with Mars--signals that neither side couldmake any sense out of. Goddard's pupils and followers made bigger andbetter rockets, and finally got one that could land safely upon Mars. Roeser, who was a mighty keen bird, was one of the first voyagers, andhe didn't come back--he stayed there, living in a space-suit for threeor four years, and got a brand-new education. Martian science alwayswas hot, you know, but they were impractical. They were desperatelyhard up for water and air, and while they had a lot of wonderfulideas and theories, they couldn't overcome the practical technicaldifficulties in the way of making their ideas work. Now putting otherpeoples' ideas to work was Roeser's long suit--don't think that I'mbelittling Roeser at all, either, for he was a brave and far-sightedman, was no mean scientist, and was certainly one of the best organizersand synchronizers the world has ever known--and since Martian andTellurian science complemented each other, so that one filled in thegaps of the other, it wasn't long until fleets of space-freighters werebringing in air and water from Venus, which had more of both than sheneeded or wanted. 

"Having done all he could for the Martians and having learned most ofthe stuff he wanted to know, Roeser came back to Tellus and organizedInterplanetary, with scientists and engineers on all three planets, and set to work to improve the whole system, for the vessels they usedthen were dangerous--regular mankillers, in fact. At about this sametime Roeser and the Interplanetary Corporation had a big part in theunification of the world into one nation, so that wars could no longerinterfere with progress. "

 * * * * *

"With this introduction I can get down to fundamentals. Molecules areparticles of the first order, and vibrations of the first order includesound, light, heat, electricity, radio, and so on. Second order, atoms--extremely short vibrations, such as hard X-rays. Third order, electrons and protons, with their accompanying Millikan, or cosmic, rays. Fourth order, sub-electrons and sub-protons. These, in thematerial aspect, are supposed to be the particles of the fourth order, and in the energy aspect they are known as Roeser's Rays. That is, thesefourth-order rays and particles seem to partake of the nature of bothenergy and matter. Following me?"

"Right behind you, " she assured him. She had been listening intently, her wide-spaced brown eyes fastened upon his face. 

"Since these Roeser's Rays, or particles or rays of the fourth order, seem to be both matter and energy, and since the rays can be convertedinto what is supposed to be the particles, they have been thought to bethe things from which both electrons and protons were built. Therefore, everybody except Norman Brandon has supposed them the ultimate units ofcreation, so that it would be useless to try to go any further.... "

"Why, we were taught that they _are_ the ultimate units!" she protested. 

"I know you were--but we really don't know anything, except what wehave learned empirically, even about our driving forces. What is calledthe fourth-order particle is absolutely unknown, since nobody has beenable to detect it, to say nothing of determining its velocity or otherproperties. It has been assumed to have the velocity of light onlybecause that hypothesis does not conflict with observational data. I'mgoing to give you the generally accepted idea, since we have nothingdefinite to offer in its place, but I warn you that that idea is veryprobably wrong. There's a lot of deep stuff down there hasn't been dugup yet. In fact, Brandon thinks that the product of conversion isn'twhat we think it is, at all--that the actual fundamental unit and theprimary mechanism of the transformation lie somewhere below the fourthorder, and possibly even below the level of the ether--but we haven'tbeen able to find a point of attack yet that will let us get inanywhere. However, I'm getting 'way ahead of our subject. To get back toit, energy can be converted into something that acts like matter throughRoeser's Rays, and that is the empirical fact underlying the drive ofour space-ships, as well as that of almost all other vehicles on allthree planets. Power is generated by the great waterfalls of Tellus andVenus--water's mighty scarce on Mars, of course, so most of our plantsthere use fuel--and is transmitted on light beams, by means of powerfulfields of force to the receptors, wherever they may be. The individualtransmitting fields and receptors are really simply matched-frequencyunits, each matching the electrical characteristics of some particularand unique beam of force. This beam is composed of Roeser's Rays, intheir energy aspect. It took a long time to work out this tight-beamtransmission of power, but it was fairly simple after they got it. "

He took out a voluminous notebook, at the sight of which Nadia smiled. 

"A computer might forget to dress, but you'd never catch one without afull magazine pencil and a lot of blank paper, " he grinned in reply andwent on, writing as he talked. 

"For any given frequency, _f_, and phase angle, _theta_, you integrate, between limits zero and _pi_ divided by two, sine theta d.... "

"Hold it--I'm sinking!" Nadia exclaimed. "I don't integrate at allunless it is absolutely necessary. As long as you stick to generalscience, I'm right on your heels, but please lay off of integrationsand all that--most especially stay away from those terrible electricalintegrations. I always did think that they were the most poisonous kindknown. I want only a general idea--that's all that I can understand, anyway. "

"Sure, I forgot--guess I was getting in deeper than is necessary, especially since this whole thing of beam transmission is pretty crudeyet and is bound to change a lot before long. There is so much lossthat when we get more than a few hundred million kilometers away froma power-plant we lose reception entirely. But to get going again, the receptors receive the beam and from them the power is sent to theaccumulators, where it is stored. These accumulators are an outgrowthof the storage battery. The theory of the accumulator is.... "

"Lay off the theory, please!" the listener interrupted. "I understandperfectly without it. Energy is stored in the accumulators--you put itin and take it out. That's all that is necessary. "

 * * * * *

"I'd like to give you some of the theory--but, after all, it wouldn'tadd much to your understanding of the working of things, and it mightmix you up, as some of it is pretty deep stuff. Then, too, it wouldtake a lot of time, and the rest of your friends would squawk if Ikept you here indefinitely. From the accumulators, then, the poweris fed to the converters, each of which is backed by a projector. The converters simply change the aspect of the rays, from theenergy aspect to the material aspect. As soon as this is done, thehighly-charged particles--or whatever they are--thus formed arerepelled by the terrific stationary force maintained in the projectorbacking the converter. Each particle departs with a velocity supposedto be that of light, and the recoil upon the projector drives thevessel, or car, or whatever it is attached to. Still with me?"

"Struggling a little, but my nose is still above the surface. Theseparticles, being so infinitesimally small that they cannot even bedetected, go right through any substance without any effect--they arenot even harmful. "

"Exactly. Now we are in position to go ahead with the lights, detectors, and so on. The energy aspect of the rays you can best understand assimply a vibration in the ether--an extremely high frequency one. While not rigidly scientific, that is close enough for you and me. Nobody knows what the stuff really is, and it cannot be explained ordemonstrated by any model or concept in three-dimensional space. Itsphysical-mathematical interpretation, the only way in which it can begrasped at all, requires sixteen coordinates in four dimensions, andI don't suppose you'd care to go into that. "

"I'll say I wouldn't!" she exclaimed, feelingly. 

"Well, anyway, by the use of suitable fields of force it can be usedas a carrier wave. Most of this stuff of the fields of force--how tocarry the modulation up and down through all the frequency changesnecessary--was figured out by the Martians ages ago. Used as a purecarrier wave, with a sender and a receiver at each end, it isn't sobad--that's why our communicator and radio systems work as well as theydo. They are pretty good, really, but the ultra-light vision systemis something else again. Sending the heterodyned wave through steelis easy, but breaking it up, so as to view an object and return theimpulses, was an awful job and one that isn't half done yet. We seethings, after a fashion and at a distance of a few kilometers, bysending an almost parallel wave from a twin-projector to disintegrateand double back the viewing wave. That's the way the lookout plates andlenses work, all over the ship--from the master-screens in the controlroom to the plates of the staterooms and lifeboats and the viewing-areasof the promenades. But the whole system is a rotten makeshift, and.... "

"Just a minute!" exclaimed the girl. "I and everybody else have beenthinking that everything is absolutely perfect; and yet every singlething you have talked about, you have ended up by describing as'unknown, ' 'rudimentary, ' 'temporary, ' or a 'makeshift. ' You speak asthough the entire system were a poor thing that will have to do untilsomething better has been found, and that nobody knows anything aboutanything! How do you get that way?"

"By working with Brandon and Westfall. Those birds have got real brainsand they're on the track of something that will, in all probability, beas far ahead of Roeser's Rays as our present system is ahead of thescience of the seventeenth century. "

"Really?" she looked at him in astonishment. "Tell me about it. "

"Can't be done, " he refused. "I don't know much about it--even theydidn't know any too much about some of it when I had to come in. Andwhat little I do know I can't tell, because it isn't mine. "

"But you're working with them, aren't you?"

"Yes, in the sense that a small boy helps his father build a house. They're the brains--I simply do some figuring that they don't want towaste time doing. "

Nadia, having no belief whatever in his modest disclaimer, but in secretgreatly pleased by his attitude, replied:

"Of course you couldn't say anything about an unfinished project--Ishouldn't have asked. Where do we go from here?"

"Down the lining of the hull, outside the passengers' quarters to theupper dirigible projectors, " and he led the way down a series of steepsteel stairways, through bulkheads and partitions of steel. "One thingI forgot to tell you about--the detectors. They're worked on the sameprinciple as the lights, and are just about as efficient. Instead, oflight, though, they send out cones of electro-magnetic waves, which setup induced currents in any conductor encountered beyond our own shell. Since all dangerous meteorites have been shown to contain conductingmaterial, that is enough to locate them, for radio finders automaticallydetermine the direction, distance, and magnitude of the disturbance, andswing a light on it. That was what happened when that light swung towardus, back there in the prow. "

"Are there any of those life-boats, that I've heard discussed so muchlately, near here?" asked the girl. 

"Lots of 'em--here's one right here, " and at the next landing he openeda vacuum-insulated steel door, snapped on a light, and waved his hand. "You can't see much of it from here, but it's a complete space-shipin itself, capable of maintaining a dozen or fifteen persons duringa two-weeks' cruise in space. "

"Why isn't it a good idea to retain them? Accidents are still possible, are they not?"

"Of course, and there is no question of doing away with them entirely. Modern ships, however, have only enough of them to take care of thelargest number of persons ever to be carried by the vessel. "

"Has the _Arcturus_ more than she needs?"

"I'll say she has, and more of everything else, except room forpay-load. "

"I've heard them talking about junking her. I think it's a shame. "

"So do I, in a way--you see, I helped design her and her sister-ship, the _Sirius_, which Brandon and Westfall are using as a floatinglaboratory. But times change, and the inefficient must go. She's a goodold tub, but she was built when everybody was afraid of space, and wehad to put every safety factor into her that we could think of. As aresult, she is four times as heavy as she should be, and that takes alot of extra power. Her skin is too thick. She has too many batteries ofaccumulators, too many life-boats, too many bulkheads and air-breaks, too many and too much of everything. She is so built that if she shouldbreak up out in space, nobody would die if they lived through theshock--there are so many bulkheads, air-breaks, and life-boats thatno matter how many pieces she broke up into, the survivors would findthemselves in something able to navigate. That excessive constructionis no longer necessary. Modern ships carry ten times the pay-load onone-quarter of the power that this old battle-wagon uses. Even thoughshe's only four years old, she's a relic of the days when we used toslam through on the ecliptic route, right through all the meteoricstuff that is always there--trusting to heavy armor to ward offanything too small for the observers and detectors to locate. Now, withthe observatories and check-stations out in space, fairly light armoris sufficient, as we route ourselves well away from the ecliptic and somiss all the heavy stuff. So, badly as I hate to see her go there, theold tub is bound for the junk-yard. "

 * * * * *

A few more flights of stairs brought them to the upper band of dirigibleprojectors, which encircled the hull outside the passengers' quarters, some sixty feet below the prow. They were heavy, search-light-likeaffairs mounted upon massive universal bearings, free to turn in anydirection, and each having its converter nestling inside its prodigiousfield of force. Stevens explained that these projectors were used inturning the vessel and in dodging meteorites when necessary, and theywent on through another almost invisible door into a hall and took anelevator down to the main corridor. 

"Well, you've seen it, Miss Newton, " Stevens said regretfully, as heled her toward the captain's office. "The lower half is full of heavystuff--accumulators, machinery, driving projectors, and such junk, sothat the center of gravity is below the center of action of the drivingprojectors. That makes stable flight possible. It's all more or lesslike what we've just seen, and I don't suppose you want to miss thedance--anyway, a lot of people want to dance with you. "

"Wouldn't you just as soon show me through the lower half as dance?"

"Rather, lots!"

"So would I. I can dance any time, and I want to see everything. Let's go!"

Down they went, past battery after battery of accumulators; climbingover and around the ever-increasing number of huge steel girders andbracers; through mazes of heavily insulated wiring and conduits; pastmass after mass of automatic machinery which Stevens explained to hiseager listener. They inspected one of the great driving projectors, which, built rigidly parallel to the axis of the ship and held immovablyin place by enormous trusses of steel, revealed neither to the eye norto the ear any sign of the terrific force it was exerting. Still lowerthey went, until the girl had been shown everything, even down to thebottom ultra-lights and stern braces. 

"Tired?" Stevens asked, as the inspection was completed. 

"Not very. It's been quite a climb, but I've had a wonderful time. "

"So have I, " he declared, positively. "I know what--we'll crawl up intoone of these stern lifeboats and make us a cup of coffee before we climbback. With me?"

"'Way ahead of you!" Nadia accepted the invitation enthusiastically, and they made their way to the nearest of the miniature space-cruisers. Here, although no emergency had been encountered in all the four yearsof the vessel's life, they found everything in readiness, and the twosoon had prepared and eaten a hearty luncheon. 

"Well, I can't think of any more excuses for monopolizing you, MissNewton, so I suppose I'll have to take you back. Believe me, I'veenjoyed this more than you can realize--I've.... "

He broke off and listened, every nerve taut. "What was that?" heexclaimed. 

"What was what? I didn't hear anything?"

"Something screwy somewhere! I felt a vibration, and anything that'dmake this mountain of steel even quiver must have given us onegosh-awful nudge. There's another!"

The girl, painfully tense, felt only a barely perceptible tremor, butthe computer, knowing far better than she the inconceivable strength andmass of that enormous structure of solidly braced hardened steel, spranginto action. Leaping to the small dirigible look-out plate, he turned onthe power and swung it upward. 

 * * * * *

"Great suffering snakes!" he ejaculated, then stood mute, for theplate revealed a terrible sight. The entire nose of the gigantic crafthad been sheared off in two immense slices as though clipped off by agigantic sword, and even as they stared, fascinated, at the sight, thesevered slices were drifting slowly away. Swinging the view along theplane of cleavage, Stevens made out a relatively tiny ball of metal, only fifty feet or so in diameter, at a distance of perhaps a mile. From this ball there shot a blinding plane of light, and the _Arcturus_fell apart at the midsection, the lower half separating clean fromthe upper portion, which held the passengers. Leaving the upper halfintact, the attacker began slicing the lower, driving half into thin, disk-shaped sections. As that incandescent plane of destruction madeits first flashing cut through the body of the _Arcturus_, accompaniedby an additional pyrotechnic display of severed and short-circuitedhigh-tension leads, Stevens and Nadia suddenly found themselves floatingweightless in the air of the room. Still gripping the controls of thelook-out plate, Stevens caught the white-faced girl with one hand, drewher down beside him, and held her motionless while his keen mind flashedover all the possibilities of the situation and planned his courseof action. 

"They're apparently slicing us pretty evenly, and by the looks ofthings, one cut is coming right about here, " he explained rapidly, ashe found a flashlight and drew his companion through the door and alonga narrow passage. Soon he opened another door and led her into a tinycompartment so low that they could not stand upright--a mere cubicle ofsteel. Carefully closing the door, he fingered dials upon each of thewalls of the cell, then folded himself up into a comfortable position, instructed Nadia to do the same, and snapped off the light. 

"Please leave it on, " the shaken girl asked. "It's so ghastly!"

"We'd better save it, Nadia, " he advised, pressing her arm reassuringly, "it's the only light we've got, and we may need it worse later on--itslife is limited, you know. "

"Later on? Do you think we'll need anything--later on?"

"Sure! Of course they may get us, Nadia, but this little tertiaryair-break is a mighty small target for them to hit. And if they miss us, as I think they will, there's a larger room opening off each wall ofthis one--at least one of which will certainly be left intact. From anyone of those rooms we can reach a life-boat. Of course, it's a littletoo much to expect that any one of the life-boats will be left whole, but they're bulkheaded, too, you know, so that we can be sure of findingsomething able to navigate--providing we can make our get-away. Believeme, ace, I'm sure glad we're aboard the old _Arcturus_ right now, withall her safety-devices, instead of on one of the modern liners. We'd besunk right. "

"I felt sunk enough for a minute--I'm feeling better now, though, sinceyou are taking it so calmly. "

"Sure--why not? A man's not dead until his heart stops beating, youknow--our turn'll come next, when they let up a little. "

"But suppose they change the width of their slices, and hit this cubby, small as it is?"

"It'd be just too bad, " he shrugged. "In that case, we'd never knowwhat hit us, so it's no good worrying about it. But say, we might dosomething at that, if they didn't hit us square. I can move fairly fast, and might be able to get a door open before the loss of pressure sealsit. We'll light the flash ... Here, you hold it, so that I can have bothhands free. Put both arms around me, just under the arms, and stick tome like a porous plaster, because if I have to move at all, I'll haveto jump like chain lightning. Shine the beam right over there, so it'llreflect and light up all the dials at once. There ... Hold on tight!Here they come!"

As he spoke, a jarring shudder shook one side of their hiding-place, then, a moment later, the phenomenon was repeated, but with much lessforce, upon the other side. Stevens sighed with relief, took the light, and extinguished it. 

"Missed us clean!" he exulted. "Now, if they don't find us, we're allset. "

"How can they possibly find us? I seem to be always worried about thewrong things, but I should think that their finding us would be theleast of our troubles. "

"Don't judge their vision system by ours--they've got everything, apparently. However, their apparatus may not be delicate enough to spotus in a space this small when their projectors flash through it, as theyprobably will. Then, too, there's a couple of other big items in ourfavor--nobody else is in the entire lower half, since all this machinerydown here is either automatic or else controlled from up above, so theywon't be expecting to see anybody when they get down this far; and wearen't at all conspicuous. We're both dressed in gray--your clothes inparticular are almost exactly the color of this armor-plate--soaltogether we stand a good chance of being missed. "

"What shall we do now?"

"Nothing whatever--wish we could sleep for a couple of hours, but ofcourse there's no hope of that. Stretch out here, like that--you can'trest folded up like an accordion--and I'll lie down diagonally acrossthe room. There's just room for me that way. That's one advantage ofweightlessness--you can lie down standing on your head, and go to sleepand like it. But I forgot--you've never been weightless before, haveyou? Does it make you sick?"

"Not so much, now, except that I feel awfully weird inside. I washorribly dizzy and nauseated at first, but it's going away. "

 * * * * *

"That's good--it makes lots of people pretty sick. In fact, some folksget awfully sick and can't seem to get used to it at all. It's thecanals in the inner ear that do most of it, you know. However, if you'reas well as that already, you'll be a regular spacehound in half an hour. I've been weightless for weeks at a stretch, out in the _Sirius_, andnow I've got so I really like it. Here, we'd better keep in touch. "He found her hand and tucked it under his arm. "Stabilize our positionsmore, besides keeping us from getting too lonesome, here in the dark, "he concluded, in a matter-of-fact voice. 

"Thanks for saying 'us'--but you would, wouldn't you?" and a wave ofadmiration went through her for the real and chivalrous manhood of theman with whom she had been forced by circumstances to cast her lot. "How long must we stay here?"

"As long as the air lasts, and I'd like to stay here longer than that. We don't want to move around any more than we absolutely have to untiltheir rays are off of us, and we have no way of knowing how long thatwill be. Also, we'd better keep still. I don't know what kind of anaudio system they've got, but there's no use taking unnecessarychances. "

"All x--I'm an oyster's little sister, " and for many minutes thetwo remained motionless and silent. Now and then Nadia twitched andstarted at some vague real or imaginary sound--now and then her fingerstightened upon his biceps--and he pressed her hand with his great arm inreassurance and understanding. Once a wall of their cell resounded underthe impact of a fierce blow and Stevens instantly threw his arm aroundthe girl, twisting himself between her and the threatened wall, readyfor any emergency. But nothing more happened; the door remained closed, the cell stayed bottle-tight, and time wore slowly on. All too soon theunmistakable symptoms of breathing an unfit atmosphere made themselvesapparent and Stevens, after testing each of the doors, drew the girlinto a larger room, where they breathed deeply of the fresh, cool air. 

"How did you know that this room was whole?" asked Nadia. "We might havestepped out into space, mightn't we?"

"No; if this room had lost its tightness, the door wouldn't have opened. They won't open if there's a difference of one kilogram pressure on thetwo sides. That's how I knew that the room we were in at first was cutin two--the door into that air-break wouldn't move. "

"What comes next?"

"I don't know exactly what to do--we'd better hold a little council ofwar. They may have gone... " Stevens broke off as the structure beganto move, and they settled down upon what had been one of the side-walls. Greater and greater became the acceleration, until their apparent weightwas almost as much as it would have been upon the Earth, at which pointit became constant. "... But they haven't, " he continued the interruptedsentence. "This seems to be a capture and seizure, as well as an attack, so we'll have to take the risk of looking at them. Besides, it's gettingcold in here. One or two of the adjoining cells have apparently beenruptured and we're radiating our heat out into space, so we'll have toget into a life-boat or freeze. I'll go pick out the best one. Wonderif I'd better take you with me, or hide you and come back after you?"

"Don't worry about that--I'm coming with you, " Nadia declared, positively. 

"Just as well, probably, " he assented, and they set out. A thoroughexploration of all the tight connecting cells revealed that not alifeboat within their reach remained intact, but that habitable andnavigable portions of three such craft were available. Selecting themost completely equipped of these, they took up their residence thereinby entering it and closing the massive insulating door. Stevensdisconnected all the lights save one, and so shielded that one beforeturning it on that it merely lightened the utter darkness into asemi-permeable gloom. He then stepped up to the lookout plate, and withhis hand upon the control, pondered long the possible consequences ofwhat he wished to do. 

"What harm would it do to take just a little peek?"

"I don't know--that's the dickens of it. Maybe none, and then again, maybe a lot. You see, we don't know who or what we are up against. Theonly thing we know is that they've got us beat a hundred ways, and we'vegot to act accordingly. We've got to chance it sometime, though, if wecan ever get away, so we might as well do it now. I'll put it on veryshort range first, and see what we can see. By the small number of cellswe've got here I'm afraid they've split us up lengthwise, too--so thatinstead of having a whole slice of the old watermelon to live in, we'vegot only about a sixth of one--shaped about like a piece of restaurantpie. One thing I can do, though. I'll turn on the communicator receiverand put it on full coverage--maybe we can hear something useful. "

Putting a little power upon the visiray plate, he moved the point ofprojection a short distance from their hiding-place, so that the plateshowed a view of the wreckage. The upper half of the vessel was stillintact, the lower half a jumble of sharply-cut fragments. From each ofthe larger pieces a brilliant ray of tangible force stretched outward. Suddenly their receiver sounded behind them, as the high-poweredtransmitter in the telegraph room tried to notify headquarters oftheir plight. 

"_Arcturus_ attacked and cut up being taken tow.... "

Rapidly as the message was uttered the transmitter died with a rattlein the middle of a word, and Nadia looked at Stevens with foreboding inher eyes. 

"They've got something, that's one thing sure, to be able to neutralizeour communicator beams that way, " he admitted. "Not so good--we'll haveto play this close to our vests, girl!"

"Are you just trying to cheer me up, or do you really think we have achance?" she demanded. "I want to know just where we stand. "

"I'm coming clean with you, no kidding. If we can get away, we'll be allx, because I'll bet a farm that by this time Brandon's got everythingthose birds have, and maybe more. They beat us to it, that's all. I'mkind of afraid, though, that getting away isn't going to be quite assimple as shooting fish down a well. "

 * * * * *

Far ahead of them a port opened, a lifeboat shot out at its full power, and again their receiver tried to burst into sound, but it was a vainattempt. The sound died before one complete word could be uttered, andthe lifeboat, its power completely neutralized by the rays of the tinycraft of the enemy, floated gently back toward the mass of its parentand accompanied it in its headlong flight. Several more lifeboats madethe attempt, as the courageous officers of the _Arcturus_, some ofwhom had apparently succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the captors, launched the little shells from various ports; but as each boat issued, its power was neutralized and it found itself dragged helplessly alongin the grip of one of those mysterious, brilliant rays of force. Atleast one hidden officer must have been watching the fruitless efforts, for the next lifeboat to issue made no attempt, either to talk or toflee, but from it there flamed out into space a concentrated beam ofdestruction--the terrible ray of annihilation, against which no knownsubstance could endure for a moment; the ray which had definitelyoutlawed war. But even that frightful weapon was useless--it spentits force harmlessly upon an impalpable, invisible barrier, a hundredyards from its source, and the bold lifeboat disappeared in one blindingexplosion of incandescence as the captor showed its real power inretaliation. Stevens, jaw hard-set, leaped from the screen, then broughthimself up so quickly that he skated across the smooth steel floor. Shutting off the lookout plate, he led the half-fainting girl acrossthe room to a comfortable seat and sat down beside her--raging, butthoughtful. Nadia soon recovered. 

"Why are you acting so contrary to your nature--is it because of _me_?"she demanded. "A dozen times I've seen you start to do something andthen change your mind. I _will not_ be a load on you nor hinder you inanything you want to do. "

"I told your father I'd look after you, and I'm going to do it, " hereplied, indirectly. "I would do it anyway, of course--even if you areten or twelve years older than I thought you were. "

"Yes, Dad never has realized that I'm more than eight years old. Isee--you were going out there and be slaughtered?" He flushed, but madeno reply. "In that case I'm glad I'm here--that would have been silly. I think we'd better hold that council of war you mentioned a while ago, don't you?"

"I need a smoke--do you indulge?"

"No thanks. I tried it a few times at school, but never liked it. "

He searched his pockets, bringing to light an unopened package and atattered remnant which proved to contain one dilapidated cigarette. He studied it thoughtfully. "I'll smoke this wreck, " he decided, "whileit's still smokable. We'll save the rest of them--I'm afraid it'll bea long time between smokes. Well, let's confer!"

"This will have to be a one-sided conference. I don't imagine that anyof my ideas will prove particularly helpful. You talk and I'll listen. 

"You can't tell what ideas may be useful--chip in any time you feel theurge. Here's the dope, as I see it. They're highly intelligent creaturesand are in all probability neither Martians nor Venerians. If any ofthem had any such stuff as that, some of us would have known about itand, besides, I don't believe they would have used it in just that way. Mercury is not habitable, at least for organic beings; and we have neverseen any sign of any other kind of inhabitants who could work withmetals and rays. They're probably from Jupiter, although possibly fromfurther away. I say Jupiter, because I would think, judging from thesmall size of the ship, that it may still be in the experimental stage, so that they probably didn't come from any further away than Jupiter. Then, too, if they were very numerous, somebody would have sighted onebefore. I'd give my left leg and four fingers for one good look at theinside of that ship. "

"Why didn't you take it, then? You never even looked toward it, afterthat one first glimpse. "

"I'll say I didn't--the reason being that they may have automaticdetectors, and as I have suggested before, our system of vision is socrude that its use could be detected with a clothesline or a basketfull of scrap iron. But to resume: Their aim is to capture, not destroy, since they haven't killed anybody except the one crew that attackedthem. Apparently they want to study us or something. However, they don'tintend that any of us shall get away, nor even send out a word of whathas happened to us. Therefore it looks as though our best bet is to hidenow, and try to sneak away on them after a while--direct methods won'twork. Right?"

"You sound lucid. Is there any possibility of getting back, though, ifwe got anywhere near Jupiter? It's so far away!"

"It's a long stretch from Jupiter to any of the planets where we havepower-plants, all right--particularly now, when Mars and Tellus aresubtending an angle of something more than ninety degrees at the sun, and Venus is between the two, while Jupiter is clear across the sun fromall three of them. Even when Jupiter is in mean opposition to Mars, itis still some five hundred and fifty million kilometers away, so youcan form some idea as to how far it is from our nearest planet now. No, if we expect to get back under our own power, we've got to break awaypretty quick--these lifeboats have very little accumulator capacity, andthe receptors are useless above about three hundred millionkilometers.... "

"But it'll take us a long time to go that far, won't it?"

"Not very. Our own ships, using only the acceleration of gravity, andboth plus and minus at that, make the better than four hundred millionkilometers of the long route to Mars in five days. These birds are usingalmost that much acceleration, and I don't see how they do it. They musthave a tractor ray. Brandon claimed that such a thing was theoreticallypossible, but Westfall and I couldn't see it. We ragged him about it alot--and he was right. I thought, of course, they'd drift with us, butthey are using power steadily. They've got _some_ system!"

"Suppose they could be using intra-atomic energy? We were taught that itwas impossible, but you've shattered a lot of my knowledge today. "

"I wouldn't want to say definitely that it is absolutely impossible, but the deeper we go into that line, the more unlikely intra-atomicenergy power-plants become. No, they've got a real power-transmissionsystem--one that can hold a tight beam together a lot farther thananything we have been able to develop, that's all. Well, we've giventhem quite a lot of time to get over any suspicion of us, let's seeif we can sneak away from them. "

 * * * * *

By short and infrequent applications of power to the dirigibleprojectors of the life-boat, Stevens slowly shifted the position ofthe fragment which bore their craft until it was well clear of theother components of the mass of wreckage. He then exerted a very smallretarding force, so that their bit would lag behind the procession, asthough it had accidently been separated. But the crew of the captor wasalert, and no sooner did a clear space show itself between them and themass than a ray picked them up and herded them back into place. Stevensthen nudged other pieces so that they fell out, only to see them alsorounded up. Hour after hour he kept trying--doing nothing sufficientlyenergetic to create any suspicion, but attempting everything he couldthink of that offered any chance of escape from the clutches of theircaptors. Immovable at the plate, his hands upon the controls, heperformed every insidious maneuver his agile brain could devise, buthe could not succeed in separating their vehicle from its fellows. Finally, after a last attempt, which was foiled as easily as were itspredecessors, he shut off his controls and turned to his companionwith a grin. 

"I didn't think I could get away with it--they're keen, that gang--butI had to keep at it as long as it would have done us any good. "

"Wouldn't it do us any good now?"

"Not a bit--we're going so fast that we couldn't stop--we're out of evenradio range of our closest power-plant. We'll have to put off any moreattempts until they slow us down. They're fairly close to at least oneof the moons of Jupiter, we'll have our best chance--so good, in fact, that I really think we can make it. "

"But what good would that do us, if we couldn't get back?" Direforeboding showed in her glorious eyes. 

"Lots of things not tried yet, girl, and we'll try them all. First, weget away. Second, we try to get in touch with Norman Brandon.... "

"How? No known radio will carry half that far. "

"No, but I think that a radio as yet unknown may be able to--and thereis a bare possibility that I'll be able to communicate. "

"Oh wonderful--that lifts a frightful load off my mind, " she breathed. 

"But just a minute--I said I'd come clean with you, and I will. The oddsare all against us, no matter what we do. If that unknown radio won'twork--and it probably won't--there are several other things we can try, but they're all pretty slim chances. Even if we get away, it'll probablybe about the same thing as though you were to be marooned on a desertisland without any tools, and with your rescue depending upon yourability to build a high-powered radio station with which to call toa mainland for help. However, if we don't try to get away, our onlyalternative is letting them know we're here, and joining our friendsin captivity. "

"And then what?"

"You know as much as I do. Imprisonment and restraint, certain; death, possible; return to Earth, almost certainly impossible--life as guests, highly improbable. "

"I'm with you, Steve, all the way. "

"Well, it's time to spring off--we've both been awake better than fiftyhours. Personally, I'm all in, and you're so near dead that you're aphysical wreck. We'll get us a bite of supper and turn in. "

An appetizing supper was prepared from the abundant stores and eachate a heartier meal than either would have believed possible. Stevensconsidered his unopened package of cigarettes, then regretfully put itback into his pocket still unopened and turned to Nadia. 

"Well, little fellow, it's time to shove off, and then some. You mightas well sleep here, and I'll go in there. If anything scares you, yell. Good-night, old trapper!"

"Wait a minute, Steve. " Nadia flushed, and her brown eyes and blackeyebrows, in comparison with her golden-blond hair, lent her face aquizzical, elfin expression that far belied her feelings as she staredstraight into his eyes. "I've never even been away from the Earthbefore, and with all this happening I'm simply scared to death. I'vebeen trying to hide it, but I couldn't stand it alone, and we're goingto be together too long and too close for senseless conventions toaffect us. There's two bunks over there--why don't you sleep in oneof them?"

He returned her steadfast gaze for a moment in silence. 

"All x with me, Nadia, " he answered, keeping out of his voice allsigns of the tenderness he felt for her, and of his very real admirationfor her straightforward conduct in a terrifying situation. "You trustme, then?"

"_Trust_ you! Don't be silly--I know you! I know you, and I know Brandonand Westfall--I know what you've done, and exactly the kind of men youare. _Trust_ you!"

"Thanks, old golf-shootist, " and promises were made and receivedin a clasp from which Nadia's right hand, strong as it was, emergedslightly damaged. 

"By the way, what is your first name, fellow-traveller?" she asked inlighter vein. "Nobody, not even Dad or Breckie, ever seems to call youanything but 'Steve' when they talk about you. " She was amazed at theeffect of her innocent question, for Stevens flushed to his hair andspluttered. 

"It's _Percy_!" He finally, snorted. "Percival Van Schravendyck Stevens. Wouldn't that tear it?"

"Why, I think Percival's a real nice name!"

"Silence!" he hissed in burlesque style. "Young woman, I have revealedto you a secret known to but few living creatures. On your life, keepit inviolate!"

"Oh, very well, if you insist. Good-night--Steve!" and she gave him aradiant and honest smile: the first smile he had seen since the momentof the attack. 

CHAPTER III

Castaways Upon Ganymede

Upon awakening, the man's first care was to instruct the girl in theoperation of the projectors, so that she could keep the heavily-armorededge of their small section, which she had promptly christened "TheForlorn Hope, " between them and the grinding, clashing mass of wreckage, and thus, if it should become necessary, protect the relatively frailinner portions of their craft from damage. 

"Keep an eye on things for a while, Nadia, " he instructed, as soon asshe could handle the controls, "and don't use any more power than isabsolutely necessary. We'll need it all, and besides, they can probablydetect anything we can use. There's probably enough leakage from theruptured accumulator cells to mask quite a little emission, but don'tuse much. I'm going to see what I can do about making this whole wedgenavigable. "

"Why not just launch what's left of this lifeboat? It's space-worthy, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it's too small. Two or three of the big dirigible projectorsof the lower band are on the rim of this piece-of-pie-shaped sectionwe're riding, I think. If so, and if enough batteries of accumulatorsare left intact to give them anywhere nearly full power, we can get anacceleration that will make a lifeboat look sick. Those main dirigibles, you know, are able to swing the whole mass of the _Arcturus_, and whatthey'll do to this one chunk of it--we've got only a few thousand tonsof mass in this piece--will be something pretty. Also, having the metalmay save us months of time in mining it. "

He found the projectors, repaired or cut out the damaged accumulatorcells, and reconnected them through the controls of the lifeboat. He moved into the "engine-room" the airtanks, stores, and equipmentfrom all the other fragments which, by means of a space-suit, he couldreach without too much difficulty. From the battery rooms of thosefragments--open shelves, after being sliced open by the shearing ray--hehelped himself to banks of accumulator cells from the enormous drivingbatteries of the ill-fated _Arcturus_, bolting them down and connectingthem solidly until almost every compartment of their craft was one massof stored-up energy. 

Days fled like hours, so furiously busy were they in preparing theirpeculiar vessel for a cruise of indefinite duration. Stevens cut himselfshort on sleep and snatched his meals in passing; and Nadia, when notbusy at her own tasks of observing, housekeeping, and doing what littlepiloting was required, was rapidly learning to wield most effectivelythe spanner and pliers of the mechanic and electrician. 

"I'm afraid our time is getting short, Steve, " she announced, aftermaking an observation. "It looks as though we're getting wherever itis we're going. "

"Well, I've got only two more jobs to do, but they're the hardest of thelot. It is Jupiter, or can you tell yet?"

"Jupiter or one of its satellites, I think, from the point where theyreversed their power. Here's the observation you told me to take. "

"Looks like Jupiter, " he agreed, after he had rapidly checked herfigures. "We'll pass very close to one of those two satellites--probablyGanymede--which is fine for our scheme. All four of the major satelliteshave water and atmosphere, but Ganymede, being largest, is best for ourpurposes. We've got a couple of days yet--just about time to finish up. Let's get going--you know what to do. "

"Steve, I'm afraid of it. It's too dangerous--isn't there some otherway?"

"None that I can see. The close watch they're keeping on every bit ofthis junk makes it our only chance for a get-away. I'm pretty sure Ican do it--but if I should happen to get nipped, just use enough powerto let them know you're here, and you won't be any worse off than ifI hadn't tried to pull off this stunt. "

He donned a space-suit, filled a looped belt with tools, picked up aportable power-drill, and stepped into the tiny air-lock. Nadia deftlyguided their segment against one of the larger fragments and held itthere with a gentle, steady pressure, while Stevens, a light cablepaying out behind him, clambered carefully over the wreckage, broughthis drill into play, and disappeared inside the huge wedge. In less thanan hour he returned without mishap and reported to the glowing girl. 

"Just like shooting fish down a well! Most of the accumulator cells weretight, and installing the relays wasn't a bad job at all. Believe me, girl, there'll be junk filling all the space between here and Saturnwhen we touch them off!"

"Wonderful, Steve!" Nadia exclaimed. "It won't be so bad seeing you gointo the others, now that you have this one all rigged up. "

 * * * * *

Around and around the mass of wreckage they crept, and in each of thelarger sections Stevens connected up the enormous fixed or dirigibleprojectors to whatever accumulator cells were available throughsensitive relays, all of which he could close by means of one radioimpulse. The long and dangerous task done, he stood at the lookoutplate, studying the huge disk which had been the upper portion of thelower half of the _Arcturus_ and frowning in thought. Nadia reached overhis shoulder and switched off the plate. 

"Nix on that second job, big fellow!" she declared. "They aren't reallynecessary, and you're altogether too apt to be killed trying to getthem. It's too ghastly--I won't stand for your trying it, so thatends it. "

"We ought to have them, really, " he protested. "With those specialtools, cutting torches, and all the stuff, we'd be sitting pretty. We'll lose weeks of time by not having them. "

"We'll just have to lose it, then. You can't get 'em, any more thana baby can get the moon, so stop crying about it, " she went over thefamiliar argument for the twentieth time. "That stuff up there is allgrinding together like cakes of ice in a floe; the particular sectionyou want is in plain sight of whoever is on watch; and those tools andthings are altogether too heavy to handle. You're a husky brute, I know, but even you couldn't begin to handle them, even if you had good going. I couldn't help you very much, even if you'd let me try; and the factthat you so positively refuse to let me come along shows how dangerousyou know the attempt is bound to be. You'd probably never even get upthere alive, to say nothing of getting back here. No, Steve, that's outlike a light. "

"I sure wish they'd left us weightless for a while, sometime, if onlyfor an hour or two, " he mourned. 

"But they didn't!" she retorted, practically. "So we're just out of luckto that extent. Our time is about up, too. It's time you worked us backto the tail end of this procession--or rather, the head end, since we'retraveling 'down' now. "

Stevens took the controls and slowly worked along the outer edge of themass, down toward its extremity. Nadia put one hand upon his shoulderand he glanced around. 

"Thanks, Steve. We have a perfectly wonderful chance as it is, and we'vegone so far with our scheme together that it would be a crying shame notto be able to go through with it. I'd hate like sin to have to surrenderto them now, and that's all I could do if anything should become of you. Besides... " her voice died away into silence. 

"Sure, you're right, " he hastily replied, dodging the implication ofthat unfinished sentence. "I couldn't figure out anything that lookedparticularly feasible anyway--that's why I didn't try it. We'll passit up. "

Soon they arrived at their objective and maintained a position well inthe van, but not sufficiently far ahead of the rest to call forth arestraining ray from their captors. Already strongly affected by thegravitational pull of the mass of the satellite, many of the smallerportions of the wreck, not directly held by the tractors, began toseparate from the main mass. As each bit left its place another beamleaped out, until it became apparent that no more were available, andStevens strapped the girl and himself down before two lookout plates. 

"Now for it, Nadia!" he exclaimed, and simultaneously threw on the powerof his own projectors and sent out the radio impulse which closed therelays he had so carefully set. They were thrown against the restrainingstraps savagely and held there by an enormous weight as the giganticdirigible projectors shot their fragment of the wreck away from thecomparatively slight force which had been acting upon it, but theybraced themselves and strained their muscles in order to watch whatwas happening. As the relays in the various fragments closed, themassed power of the accumulators was shorted dead across the convertersand projectors instead of being fed into them gradually through thecontrols of the pilot, with a result comparable to that of the explosionof an ammunition dump. Most of the masses, whose projectors were fedby comparatively few accumulator cells, darted away entirely with astupendous acceleration. A few of them, however, received the unimpededflow of complete batteries. Those projectors tore loose from eventheir massive supports and crashed through anything opposing them likea huge, armor-piercing projectile. It was a spectacle to stagger theimagination, and Stevens grinned as he turned to the girl, who wasstaring in wide-eyed amazement. 

"Well, ace, I think they're busy enough now so that it'll be safeto take that long-wanted look at their controls, " and he flashedthe twin beams of his lookout light out beyond the upper half of the_Arcturus_--only to see them stop abruptly in mid-space. Even theextremely short carrier-wave of Roeser's Rays could not go through theinvisible barrier thrown out by the tiny, but powerful globe of space. 

"No penetration?" Nadia asked. 

"Flattened them out cold. 'However, ' as the fox once remarked about thegrapes, 'I'll bet they're sour, anyway. ' We'll have some stuff of ourown, one of these days. I sure hope the fireworks we started back therekeep those birds amused until we get out of sight, because if I use muchmore power on these projectors we may not have juice enough left to stopwith. "

"You're using enough now to suit me--I'm so heavy I can hardly lifta finger!"

"You'd better lift 'em! You must watch what's going on back there whileI navigate around this moon. "

"All x, chief.... They've got their hands full, apparently. Those raysare shooting around all over the sky. It looks as though they weretrying to capture four or five things at once with each one. "

"Good! Tell me when the moon cuts them off. "

 * * * * *

At the awful acceleration they were using, which constantly increasedthe terrific velocity with which they had been traveling when they madegood their escape, it was not long until they had placed the satellitebetween them and the enemy; then Stevens cut down and reversed hispower. Such was their speed, however, that a long detour was necessaryin order to reduce it to a safe landing rate. As soon as this could bedone, Stevens headed for the morning zone and dropped the "Hope" rapidlytoward the surface of that new, strange world. Details could not bedistinguished at first because of an all-enshrouding layer of cloud, butthe rising sun dispelled the mist, and when they had descended to withina few thousand feet of the surface, their vision was unobstructed. Immediately below them the terrain was mountainous and heavily wooded;while far to the east the rays of a small, pale sun glinted upon a vastbody of water. No signs of habitation were visible as far as the eyecould reach. 

"Now to pick out a location for our power-plant. We must have awaterfall for power, a good place to hide our ship from observation, andI'd like to have a little seam of coal. We can use wood if we have to, but I think we can find some coal. This is all sedimentary rock--itlooks a lot like the country along the North Fork of the Flathead, inMontana. There are a lot of coal outcrops, usually, in such topographyas this is. "

"We want to hide in a hurry, though, don't we?"

"Not particularly, I think. If they had missed us at all, they wouldhave had us long ago, and with all the damage we did with thoseprojectors they won't be surprised at one piece being missing--I imaginethey lost a good many. "

"But they'll know that somebody caused all that disturbance. Won't theyhunt for us?"

"Maybe, and maybe not--no telling what they'll do. However, by the timethey can land and get checked up and ready to hunt for us, we'll be amighty small needle, well hidden in a good big haystack. "

For several hours they roamed over the mountainous region at highvelocity, seeking the best possible location, and finally they foundone that was almost ideal--a narrow canyon overhung with heavy trees, opening into a wide, deep gorge upon a level with its floor. A mightywaterfall cascaded into the gorge just above the canyon, and hereand there could be seen black outcrops which Stevens, after a closescrutiny, declared to be coal. He deftly guided their cumbersome wedgeof steel into the retreat, allowed it to settle gently to the ground, and shut off the power. 

"Well, little fellow-conspirator against the peace and dignity of theJovians, I don't know just where we are, but wherever it is, we're here. We got away clean, and as long as we don't use any high-tension stuff oranything else that they can trace, I think we're as safe as money in abank. "

"I suppose that I ought to be scared to death, Steve, but I'm not--I'mjust too thrilled for words, " Nadia answered, and the eager sparkle inher eyes bore out her words. "Can we go out now? How about air? Shall wewear suits or go out as we are? Have you got a weapon of any kind? Hurryup--let's do something!"

"Pipe down, ace! Remember that we don't know any more about anythingaround here than a pig does about Sunday, and conduct yourselfaccordingly. Take it easy. I'm surprised at the gravity here. This iscertainly Ganymede, and it has a diameter of only about fifty sevenhundred kilometers. If I remember correctly, Damoiseau estimated itsmass at about three one-hundredths that of the Earth, which would makeits surface gravity about one-sixth. However, it is actually almost ahalf, as you see by this spring-balance here. Therefore it is quite alittle more massive than has been.... "

"What of it? Let's go places and do things!"

"Calm yourself, Ginger, you've got lots of time--we'll be here for quitea while, I'm afraid. We can't go out until we analyze the air--we'resure lucky there's as much as there is. I'm not exactly the world'sforemost chemist, but fortunately an air-analysis isn't much of a jobwith the apparatus we carry. "

While Nadia controlled her impatience as best she could, Stevensmanipulated the bulbs and pipettes of the gas apparatus. 

"Pressure, fifty-two centimeters--more than I dared hope for--andanalysis all x, I believe. Oxygen concentration a little high, butnot much. "

"We won't have to wear the space-suits, then?"

"Not unless I missed something in the analysis. The pressure correspondsto our own at a height of about three thousand meters, which we can getused to without too much trouble. Good thing, too. I brought along allthe air I could get hold of, but as I told you back there, if we had todepend on it altogether, we might be out of luck. I'm going to pump someof our air back into a cylinder to equalize our pressure--don't wantto waste any of it until we're sure the outside air suits us withouttreatment. "

 * * * * *

When the pressure inside had been gradually reduced to that outside andthey had become accustomed to breathing the rarefied medium, Stevensopened the airlock and the outside doors, and for some time cautiouslysniffed the atmosphere of the satellite. He could detect nothing harmfulor unusual in it--it was apparently the same as earthly air--and hebecame jubilant. 

"All x, Nadia--luck is perched right on our banner. Freedom, air, water, power, and coal! Now as you suggested, we'll go places and do things!"

"Suppose it's safe?" Her first eagerness to explore their surroundingshad abated noticeably. "You aren't armed, are you?"

"No, and I don't believe that there was a gun of any kind aboard the_Arcturus_. That kind of thing went out quite a while ago, you know. We'll take a look, anyway--we've got to find out about that coal beforewe decide to settle down here. Remember this half-gravity stuff, andcontrol your leg-muscles accordingly. "

Leaping lightly to the ground, they saw that the severed section offifty-inch armor, which was the rim of their conveyance, almost blockedthe entrance to the narrow canyon which they had selected for theirretreat. Upon one side that wall of steel actually touched the almostperpendicular wall or rock; upon the other side there was left only anarrow passage. They stepped through it, so that they could see thewaterfall and the gorge, and stopped silent. The sun, now fairly high, was in no sense the familiar orb of day, but was a pale, insipid thing, only one-fifth the diameter of the sun to which they were accustomed, and which could almost be studied with the unshielded eye. From theirfeet a grassy meadow a few hundred feet wide sloped gently down to theriver, from whose farther bank a precipice sprang upward for perhapsa thousand feet--merging into towering hills whose rugged grandeur wasreminiscent of the topography of the moon. At their backs the wall ofthe gorge was steep, but not precipitous, and was covered with shrubsand trees--some of which leaned out over the little canyon, completelyscreening it, and among whose branches birds could now and then be seenflitting about. In that direction no mountains were visible, indicatingthat upon their side of the river there was an upland plateau or bench. To their right the river, the gorge, and the strip of meadow extendedfor a mile or more, then curved away and were lost to sight. To theirleft, almost too close for comfort, was the stupendous cataract, towering above them to a terror-inspiring height. Nadia studied itwith awe, which changed to puzzled wonder. 

"What's the matter with it, Steve? It looks like a picture in slowmotion, like the kind they take of your dives--or am I seeing things?"

"No, it's really slow, compared to what we're used to. Remember thatone-half gravity stuff!"

"Oh, that's right, but it certainly does look funny. It gives me thecreeps. "

"You'll get used to it pretty quick--just as you'll get used to all therest of the things having only half their earthly weight and fallingonly half as fast as they ought to when you drop them. Well, I don't seeanything that looks dangerous yet--let's go up toward the falls a fewmeters and prospect that outcrop. "

With a few brisk strokes of an improvised shovel he cleared the outcropof detritus and broke off several samples of the black substance, withwhich they went back to the "Forlorn Hope. "

"It's real coal, " Stevens announced after a series of tests. "I've seenbetter, but on the other hand, there's lots worse. It'll make good gas, and a kind of a coke. Not so hot, but it'll do. Now we'd better getorganized old partner, for a long campaign. "

"Go ahead and organize--I'm only the cheap help in this enterprise. "

"Cheap help! You're apt to be the life of the party. Can you make andshoot a bow and arrow?"

"I'll say I can--I've belonged to an archery club for five years. "

"What did I tell you? You're a life saver! Here's the dope--we've gotto save our own supplies as much as possible until we know exactly whatwe're up against, and to do that, we've got to live off the country. I'll fake up something to knock over some of those birds and small game, then we can make real bow-strings and feathered arrows and I'll forgesome steel arrow-heads while you're making yourself a real bow. We'dbetter make me about a hundred-pound war bow, too.... "

"A _hundred_!" interrupted Nadia. "That's a lot of bow, big boy--thinkyou can bend it?"

"You'd be surprised, " he grinned. "I'm not quite like Robin Hood--I'vebeen known to miss a finger-thick wand at a hundred paces--but I'm notexactly a beginner. "

"Oh, of course--I should have known by your language that you're anarcher, otherwise you'd never have used such an old-fashioned word as'pounds. ' I shoot a thirty-five-pound bow ordinarily, but for game Ishould have the heaviest one I can hold accurately--about a forty-five, probably. "

"All x. And as soon as I can I'll make us a couple of suits of fairlyheavy steel armor, so that we'll have real protection if we should needit. You see, we don't know what we are apt to run up against out here. Then, with that much done, it'll be up to you to provide, since I'llhave to work tooth and nail at the forges. You'll have to bring home thebacon, do the cooking and so on, and see what you can find along theline of edible roots, grains, fruits, and what-not. Sort of reverse theIndian idea--you be the hunter and I'll keep the home fires burning. Can do?"

"What it takes to do that, I've got, " Nadia assured him, her eyessparkling. "Have you your job planned out as well and as fittingly asyou have mine?"

"And then some. We've got just two methods of getting away fromhere--one is to get in touch with Brandon, so that he'll come after us;the other is to recharge our accumulators and try to make it under ourown power. Either course will need power and lots of it.... "

"I never thought of going back in the 'Hope. ' Suppose we could?"

"About as doubtful as the radio--I think that I could build a pair ofmatched-frequency auto-dirigible transmitter and receptor units, such asare necessary for space-ships fed by stationary power-plants, but afterI got them built, they'd take us less than half way there. Then we'dhave only what power we can carry, and I hate even to think of whatprobably would happen to us. We'd certainly have to drift for monthsbefore we could get close enough to any of our plants to radio for help, and we'd be taking awful chances. You see, we'd have to take a verypeculiar orbit, and if we should miss connections passing the innerplanets, what the sun would do to us at the closest point and wherewhat's left of us would go on the back-swing, would be just too bad!Besides, if we can get hold of the _Sirius_, they'll come loaded forbear, and we may be able to do something about the rest of the folksout here. "

 * * * * *

"Oh!" breathed the girl. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could!I thought, of course, they'd all be.... " her voice died away. 

"Not necessarily--there's always a chance. That's why I'm trying theultra-radio first. However, either course will take lots of power, so the first thing I've got to do is to build a power plant. I'mgoing to run a penstock up those falls, and put in a turbine, drivinga high-tension alternator. Then, while I'm trying to build theultra-radio, I'll be charging our accumulators, so that no time willbe lost in case the radio fails. If it does fail--and remember I'm notcounting on its working--of course I'll tackle the transmission andreceptor units before we start out to drift it. "

"You say it easy, Steve, but how can you build all those things, withnothing to work with?"

"It's going to be a real job--I'm not try to kid you into thinking it'llbe either easy or quick. Here's the way everything will go. Before I caneven lay the first length of the penstock, I've got to have the pipe--tomake which I've got to have flat steel--to get which I'll have to cutsome of the partitions out of this ship of ours--to do which I'll haveto have a cutting torch--to make which I'll have to forge nozzles out ofblock metal and to run which I'll have to have gas--to get which I'llhave to mine coal and build a gas-plant--to do which.... "

"Good heavens, Steve, are you going back to the Stone Age? I neverthought of half those things. Why, it's impossible!"

"Not quite, guy. Things could be a lot worse--that's why I brought alongthe whole 'Forlorn Hope, ' instead of just the lifeboat. As it is, we'vegot several thousand tons of spare steel and lots of copper. We've gotordinary tools and a few light motors, blowers, and such stuff. Thatgives me a great big start--I won't have to mine the ores and smelt themetals, as would have been necessary otherwise. However, it'll be plentybad. I'll have to start out in a pretty crude fashion, and for some ofthe stuff I'll need I'll have to make, not only the machine that makesthe part I want, but also the machine that makes the machine thatmakes the machine that makes it--and so on, just how far down the line, I haven't dared to think. "

"You must be a regular jack-of-all-trades, to think you can get awaywith such a program as that?"

"I am--nothing else but. You see, while most of my school trainingwas in advanced physics and mathematics, I worked my way through bycomputing and designing, and I've done a lot of truck-horse labor ofvarious kinds besides. I can calculate and design almost anything, andI can make a pretty good stab at translating a design into fabricatedmaterial. I wouldn't wonder if Brandon's ultra-radio would stop me, since nobody had even started to build one when I saw him last--but Ihelped compute it, know the forces involved as well as he did at thattime, and it so happens that I know more about the design of coils andfields of force than I do about anything else. So I may be able to workit out eventually. It isn't going to be not knowing how that will holdme up--it'll be the lack of something that I can't build. "

"And that's where you will go back and back and back, as you said aboutbuilding the penstock?"

"Back and back is right, if I can find all the necessary rawmaterials--that's what's probably going to put a lot of monkey-wrenchesinto the machinery. " And Stevens went to work upon a weapon of offense, fashioning a crude, but powerful bow from a strip of spring steel strungwith heavy wire. 

"How about arrows? Shall I go see if I can hit a bird with a rock, forfeathers, and see if I can find something to make arrows out of?"

"Not yet--anyway, I'd bet on the birds! I'm going to use pieces of thislight brace-rod off the accumulator cells for arrows. They won't flytrue, of course, but with their mass I can give them enough projectileforce to kill any small animal they hit, no matter how they hit it. "

After many misses, he finally bagged a small animal, something likea rabbit and something like a kangaroo, and a couple of round-bodied, plump birds, almost as large as domestic hens. These they dressed, with considerable distaste and a noticeable lack of skill. 

"We'll get used to it pretty quick, Diana--also more expert, " he saidwhen the task was done. "We now have raw material for bow-strings andclothes, as well as food. "

"The word 'raw' being heavily accented, " Nadia declared, with a grimace. "But how do we know that they're good to eat?"

"We'll have to eat 'em and see, " he grinned. "I don't imagine that anyflesh is really poisonous, and we'll have to arrive at the ones we likebest by a process of trial and error. Well, here's your job--I'll getbusy on mine. Don't go more than a few hundred meters away and yell ifyou get into a jam. "

"There's a couple of questions I want to ask you. What makes it sowarm here, when the sun's so far away and Jupiter isn't supposed to beradiating any heat? And how about time? It's twelve hours by my watchsince sunrise this morning, and it's still shining. "

"As for heat, I've been wondering about that. It must be due to internalheat, because even though Jupiter may be warm, or even hot, it certainlyisn't radiating much, since it has a temperature of minus two hundred atthe visible surface, which, of course, is the top of the atmosphere. Ourheat here is probably caused by radioactivity--that's the most moderndope, I believe. As for time, it looks as though our days were somethingbetter than thirty hours long, instead of twenty-four. Of course I'llkeep the chronometer going on I-P time, since we'll probably need it inworking out observations; but we might as well let our watches run downand work, eat, and sleep by the sun--not much sense in trying to keepTellurian time here, as I see it. Check?"

"All x. I'll have supper ready for you at sunset. 'Bye!"

A few evenings later, when Stevens came in after his long day's work, he was surprised to see Nadia dressed in a suit of brown coveralls andhigh-laced moccasins. 

"How do I look?" she asked, pirouetting gayly. 

"Neat, but not gaudy, " he approved. "That's good mole-skin--smooth, soft, and tough. Where'd you make the raise? I didn't know we hadanything like that on board. What did you do for thread? You look likea million dollars--you sure did a good job of fitting. "

"I had to have something--what with all the thorns and brush, there wasalmost more of me exposed than covered, and I was getting scratched upsomething fierce. So I ripped up one of the space-suits, and found outthat there's enough cloth, fur, and leather in one of them to make sixordinary suits, and thread by the kilometer. I was awfully glad to seeall that thread--I had an idea that I'd have to unravel my stockings orsomething, but I didn't. Your clothes are getting pretty tacky, too, andyou're getting all burned with those hot coals and things. I'm going tobuild you a suit out of leather for your blacksmithing activities. "

"Fine business, ace! Then we can save what's left of our civilizedclothes for the return trip. What do we eat?"

"The eternal question of the hungry laboring man! I've got a roastedbongo, a fried filamaloo bird, and a boiled warple for the meat dishes. For vegetables, mashed hikoderms and pimola greens. Neocorn bread. "

"Translate that, please, into terms of food. "

"Translate it yourself, after you eat it. I changed the system on youtoday. I've named all the things, so it'll be easier to keep track ofthose we like and the ones we don't. "

With appetites sharp-set by long hours of hard labor they ate heartily;then, in the deepening twilight, they sat and talked in comradelyfashion while Stevens smoked one precious cigarette. 

 * * * * *

It was not long until Nadia had her work well in hand. Game wasplentiful, and the fertile valley and the neighboring upland yieldedpeculiar, but savory vegetable foods in variety and abundance; so thatsoon she was able to spend some time with Stevens, helping him as muchas she could. Thus she came to realize the true magnitude of the task hefaced and the real seriousness of their position. 

As Stevens had admitted before the work was started, he had known thathe had set himself a gigantic task, but he had not permitted himself tofollow, step by step, the difficulties that he knew awaited him. Now, as the days stretched into weeks and on into months, he was forced totake every laborious step, and it was borne in upon him just how nearlyimpossible that Herculean labor was to prove--just how dependent anygiven earthly activity is upon a vast number of others. Here he wasalone--everything he needed must be manufactured by his own hands, fromits original sources. He had known that progress would be slow and hehad been prepared for that; but he had not pictured, even to himself, half of the maddening setbacks which occurred time after time becauseof the crudity of the tools and equipment he was forced to use. All toooften a machine or part, the product of many hours of grueling labor, would fail because of the lack of some insignificant thing--some itemso common as to be taken for granted in all terrestrial shops, butimpossible of fabrication with the means at his disposal. At such timeshe would set his grim jaw a trifle harder, go back one step farthertoward the Stone Age, and begin all over again--to find the necessaryraw material or a possible substitute, and then to build the apparatusand machinery necessary to produce the part he required. Thus theheart-breaking task progressed, and Nadia watched her co-laborer becomeleaner and harder and more desperate day by day, unable in any way tolighten his fearful load. 

In the brief period of rest following a noonday meal, Stevens lay proneupon the warm, fragrant grass beside the "Forlorn Hope, " but it wasevident to Nadia that he was not resting. His burned and blistered handswere locked savagely behind his head, his eyes were closed too tightly, and every tense line of his body was eloquent of a strain even moremental than physical. She studied him for minutes, her fine eyesclouded, then sat down beside him and put her hand upon his shoulder. 

"I want to talk to you a minute, Steve, " she said gently. 

"All x, little fellow--but it might be just as well if you didn't touchme. You see, I'm getting so rabid that I can't trust myself. "

"That's exactly what I want to talk to you about. " A fiery blush burnedthrough her deep tan, but her low, clear voice did not falter and hereyes held his unflinchingly. "I know you better than you know yourself, as I've said before. You are killing yourself, but it isn't the work, frightfully hard and disheartening as it is, that is doing it--it'syour anxiety for me and the uncertainty of everything. You haven't beenable to rest because you have been raging and fuming so at unavoidableconditions--you have been fighting _facts_. And it's all _so_ useless, Steve, between you and me--everything would check out on zero if we'djust come out into the open. "

The man's gaunt frame seemed to stiffen even more rigidly. 

"You've said altogether too much or else only half enough, Nadia. Youknow, of course, that I've loved you ever since I got really to knowyou--and that didn't take long. You know that I love you and you knowhow I love you--with the real love that a man can feel for only onewoman and only once in his life; and you know exactly what we're upagainst. Now that _does_ tear it--wide open!" he finished bitterly. 

"No, it doesn't, at all, " she replied, steadily. "Of course I know thatyou love me, and I glory in it; and since you don't seem to realizethat I love you in exactly the same way, I'll tell you so. Love you!Good heavens, Steve, I never dreamed that such a man as you are reallyexisted! But you're fighting too many things at once, and they'rekilling you. And they're mostly imaginary, at that. Can't you see thatthere's no need of uncertainty between you and me? That there is no needof you driving yourself to desperation on my account? Whatever must beis all x with me, Steve. If you can build everything you need, all welland good. We'll be engaged until then, and our love will be open andsweet. If worst comes to worst, so that we can neither communicate withBrandon and Westfall nor leave here under our own power--even that isnothing to kill ourselves about. And yes, I do know exactly what weare facing. I have been prepared for it ever since I first saw what aperfectly impossible thing you are attempting. You are trying to go fromalmost the Age of Bronze clear up to year-after-next in a month or two. Not one man in a million could have done as much in his lifetime as youhave done in the last few weeks, and I do not see how even you, withwhat little you have to work with, can possibly build such things aspower-plants, transmitters, and ultra-radio stations. But what ofit? For the day that it becomes clear that we are to remain hereindefinitely; that day we will marry each other here, before God. Look around at this beautiful country. Could there be a finer worldupon which to found a new race? When we decided to cut loose from the_Arcturus_ I told you that I was with you all the way, and now I'llrepeat it, with a lot more meaning. No matter what it's like, Steve, nomatter where it leads to, I'm with you--_to--the--end--of--the--road_. Here or upon Earth or anywhere in the Universe. I am yours for life andfor eternity. "

 * * * * *

While she was speaking, the grim, strained lines upon Stevens' facehad disappeared, and as she fell silent he straightened up and gently, tenderly, reverently he took her lithe body into his arms. 

"You're right, sweetheart--everything _will_ check out on zero, tonineteen decimals. " He was a man transfigured. "I've been fightingwindmills and I've been scared sick--but how was I to think that awonder-girl like you could ever love a mutt like me? You certainly arethe gamest little partner a man ever had You're the world's straightestshooter, ace--you're a square brick if there ever was one. Your sheernerve in being willing to go the whole route makes me love you more thanever, if such a thing can be possible, and it certainly puts a new faceon the whole cock-eyed Universe for me. However, I don't believe itwill come to that. After what you've just said, I sure will lick thatjob, regardless of how many different factories it takes to make onearmature--I'll show that mess of scrap-iron what kind of trees makeshingles!"

The girl still in his arms, he rose to his feet and released her slowly, reluctantly, unwilling ever to let her go. Then he shook himself, asthough an overwhelming burden had been lifted from his shoulders, andlaughed happily. 

"See this cigarette?" he went on lightly. "The Last of the Mohicans. I'm going to smoke it in honor of our engagement. " He drew the fragrantsmoke deep into his lungs and frowned at her in mock seriousness. 

"This would be a nice world to live on, of course, but the jobs hereare too darn steady. It also seems to be somewhat lacking in modernconveniences, such as steel-mills and machine tools. Then, too, it isjust a trifle too far from the Royal and Ancient for you really to enjoyliving here permanently, and besides, I can't get my favorite brandof cigarettes around here. Therefore, after due deliberation, I don'tbelieve we'll take the place--we'll go back to Tellus. Kiss me just oncemore ace, and I'll make that job think a cyclone has struck it right onthe center of impact. Like Samuel Weller, or whoever it was, I'm clearfull of 'wigor, wim, and witality'!"

The specified kiss and several others duly delivered he strode blithelyaway, and the little canyon resounded with the blows of his heavy sledgeas he attacked with renewed spirit the great forging, white-hot from hissoak-pit, which was to become the shaft of his turbo-alternator. Nadiawatched him for a moment, her very heart in her eyes, then picked up herspanner and went after more steel, breathing a long and tremulous, butsupremely happy sigh. 

CHAPTER IV

Ganymedean Life

Slow, hard, and disheartening as the work had been at first, Stevenshad never slackened his pace, and after a time, as his facilitiesincreased, the exasperating setbacks decreased in number and severityand his progress became faster and faster. Large as the "Forlorn Hope"was, space was soon at a premium, for their peculiarly-shaped craftbecame a veritable factory, housing a variety of machinery andequipment unknown in any single earthly industrial plant. Nothingwas ornamental--everything was stripped to its barest fundamentalnecessities--but every working part functioned with a smooth precisionto delight the senses of any good mechanic. 

In a cavern under the falls was the great turbine, to be full-fed by thecrude but tight penstock which clung to the wall of the gorge, anglingup to the brink of that stupendous cataract. Bedded down upon solidrock there was a high-tension alternator capable of absorbing the entireoutput of the mighty turbine. This turbo-alternator was connected toa set of converters from which the energy would flow along three greatcopper cables--the receptors of the lifeboats being altogether too smallto carry the load--to the now completely exhausted accumulators of the"Forlorn Hope. " All high-tension apparatus was shielded and grounded, so that no stray impulses could reveal to the possible detectors ofthe Jovians the presence of this foreign power plant. Housings, frames, spiders, all stationary parts were rough, crude and massive; butbearings, shafts, armatures, all moving parts, were of a polishedand finished accuracy and balance that promised months and years oftrouble-free operation. Everything ready for the test, Stevens took offhis frayed and torn leather coveralls and moccasins and climbed nimblyup the penstock. He never walked down. Opening the head-gate, he poisedsharply upon its extremity and took off in a perfect swan-dive; floatingunconcernedly down toward that boiling maelstrom two hundred feel below. He struck the water with a sharp, smooth "slup!" and raced ashore, seizing his suit as he ran toward the turbo-alternator. It was runningsmoothly, and, knowing that everything was tight at the receiving end, he lingered about the power plant until he was assured that nothingwould go wrong and that his home manufactured lubricating oil and greasewould keep those massive bearings cool. 

Hunger assailed him, and glancing at the sun, he noted that it was wellpast dinner-time. 

"Wow!" he exclaimed aloud. "The boss just loves to wait meals--she'llburn me up for this!"

He ran lightly toward "home, " eager to tell his sweetheart that thelong awaited moment had arrived--that power was now flowing into theiraccumulators. 

"Hi, Diana of the silver bow!" he called. "How come you no blow thedinner bell? Power's on--come give it a look!"

There was no answer to his hail, and Stevens paused in shockedamazement. He knew that never of her own volition would she be out solate--Nadia was gone! A rapid tour of inspection quickly confirmed thatwhich he already knew only too well. Forgotten was his hunger, forgottenthe power plant, forgotten everything except the fact that his Nadia, the buoyant spirit in whom centered his Universe, was lost or ... Hecould not complete the thought, even to himself. 

Swiftly he came to a decision and threw off his suit, revealing thebody of a Hercules--a body ready for any demand he could put upon it. Always in hard training, months of grinding physical labor and of heavyeating had built him up to a point at which he would scarcely haverecognized himself, could he have glanced into a mirror. Mighty butpliable muscles writhed and swelled under his clear skin as he dartedhere and there, selecting equipment for what lay ahead of him. He donnedthe heavily armored space-suit which they had prepared months before, while they were still suspicious of possible attack. It was covered withheavy steel at every point, and the lenses of the helmet, already ofunbreakable glass, had been re-enforced with thick steel bars. Tank andvalves supplied air at normal pressure, so that his powerful body couldfunction at full efficiency, not handicapped by the lighter atmosphereof Ganymede. The sleeves terminated in steel-protected rubber wristletswhich left his hands free, yet sheltered from attack--wristlets tightenough to maintain the difference in pressure, yet not tight enoughto cut off the circulation. He took up his mighty war-bow and the fullquiver of heavy arrows--full-feathered and pointed with savagely barbed, tearing heads of forged steel--and slipped into their sheaths the longand heavy razor-sharp sword and the double-edged dirk, which he hadmade and ground long since for he knew not what emergency, and whosebell-shaped hilts of steel further protected his hands and wrists. Thus equipped, he had approximately his normal earthly weight; a factwhich would operate to his advantage, rather than otherwise, in caseof possible combat. With one last look around the "Forlorn Hope, " whoseevery fitting spoke to him of the beloved mistress who was gone, hefilled a container with water and cooked food and opened the door. 

 * * * * *

"It won't be long now; now it won't be long. " Nadia caroled happily, buckling on her pack straps and taking up bow and arrows for her dailyhunt. "I never thought that he could do it, but what it takes to dothings, he's got lots of, " she continued to improvise the song as sheleft the "Hope" with its multitudinous devices whose very variety wasa never-failing delight to her; showing as it did the sheer ability ofthe man, whose brain and hands had almost finished a next-to-impossibletask. 

Through the canyon and up a well-worn trail she climbed, and soon cameout upon the sparsely timbered bench that was her hunting grounds. Uponthis day, however, she was full of happy anticipation and her mind waseverywhere except upon her work. She was thinking of Stevens, of theirlove, of the power which he might turn on that very day, and of thepossible rescue for which she had hitherto scarcely dared to hope. Thus it was that she walked miles beyond her usual limits withouthaving loosed an arrow, and she was surprised when she glanced up atthe sun to see that half the morning was gone and that she was almostto the foothills, beyond which rose a towering range of mountains. 

"Snap out of it, girl!" she reprimanded herself. "Go on wool-gatheringlike this and your man will go hungry--and he'll break you right offat the ankles!" She became again the huntress, and soon saw an animalbrowsing steadily along the base of a hill. It was a six-legged, deer-like creature, much larger than anything she had as yet seen. Butit was meat and her time was short, therefore she crept within rangeand loosed an arrow with the full power of her hunting bow. Unfamiliaras she was with the anatomy of the peculiar creature, the arrow didnot kill. The "hexaped, " as she instantly named it, sped away and sheleaped after it. She, like her companion, had developed amazingly inmusculature, and few indeed were the denizens of Ganymede, who couldequal her speed upon that small globe, with its feeble gravitationalforce. 

Up the foothills it darted. Beyond the hills and deep into a valleybetween two towering peaks the chase continued before Nadia's thirdarrow brought the animal down. Bending over the game, she becameconscious of a strange but wonderful sweet perfume and glanced up, to see something which she certainly had not noticed when the hexapedhad fallen. It was an enormous flower, at least a foot in diameter andindescribably beautiful in its crimson and golden splendor. Almost levelwith her head the gorgeous blossom waved upon its heavy stem; basedby a massive cluster of enormous, smooth, dark green leaves. Entrancedby this unexpected and marvelous floral display, Nadia breathed deeplyof the inviting fragrance--and collapsed senseless upon the ground. Thereupon the weird plant moved over toward her, and the thick leavesbegan to enfold her knees. This carnivorous thing, however, did not likethe heavy cloth of her suit and turned to the hexaped. It thrust severalof its leaves into the wounds upon the carcass and fed, while two otherleaves rasped together, sending out a piercing call. 

In answer to the sound the underbrush crackled, and through it and uponthe scene there crashed a vegetable-animal nightmare--the parent of therelatively tiny thing whose perfume had disabled the girl. 

Its huge and gorgeous blossom was supported by a long, flexible, writhing stem, and its base was composed of many and highly specializedleaves. There were saws and spears and mighty, but sinuous tendrils;there were slender shoots which seemed to possess some sense ofperception; there was the massive tractor base composed of extensibleleaves which by their contraction and expansion propelled the mass alongthe ground. Parent and child fell upon the hexaped and soon bones andhair were all that remained The slender shoots then wandered about theunconscious girl in her strange covering, and as a couple of powerfultendrils coiled about her and raised her into the air over the monstrousbase of the thing, its rudimentary brain could almost be perceivedworking as it sluggishly realized that, now full fed, it should carrythis other victim along, to feed its other offspring when they shouldreturn to its side. 

 * * * * *

Barely outside the door of the "Forlorn Hope" Stevens whirled aboutwith a bitter imprecation. He had already lost time needlessly--with alookout plate he could cover more ground in ten minutes than he couldcover afoot in a week. He flipped on the power and shot the violet beamout over the plateau to the district where he knew Nadia was wont tohunt. Not finding her there, he swung the beam in an ever wideningcircle around that district. Finally he saw a few freshly broken twigs, and scanned the scene with care. He soon found the trail of freshblood which marked the path of the flight of the hexaped, and with thepeculiar maneuverability of the device he was using, it was not longuntil he was studying the scene where the encounter had taken place. He gasped when he saw the bones and perceived three of Nadia's arrows, but soon saw that the skeleton was not human and was reassured. Castingabout in every direction, he found Nadia's bow, and saw a peculiar, freshly trampled path leading from the kill, past the bow, down thevalley. He could not understand the spoor, but it was easily followed, and he shot the beam along it at headlong speed until he came up withthe monstrous creature that was making it--until he saw what burden thatorganism was carrying. 

He leaped to the controls of the lifeboat, then dropped his hand. Whilethe stream of power now flowing was ample to operate the lookout plates, yet it would be many hours before the accumulator cells would be incondition to drive the craft even that short distance. 

"It'll take over an hour to get there--here's hoping I can check in allx, " he muttered savagely, as he took careful note of the location anddirection of the creature's trail and set off at a fast jog-trot. 

The carnivorous flower's first warning that all was not well wasreceived when Stevens' steel-shod feet landed squarely upon its baseand one sweeping cut of his sword lopped off the malignant blossom andsevered the two tendrils that still held the unconscious Nadia. With aquick heave of his shoulder, he tossed her lightly backward into thesmooth-beaten track the creature had made and tried to leap away--butthe instant he had consumed in rescuing the girl had been enough for thething to seize him, and he found himself battling for his very life. Nosoft-leaved infant this, but a full-grown monster, well equipped withmighty weapons of offense and defense. Well it was for the strugglingman that he was encased in armor steel as those saw-edged, hard-spikedleaves drove against him with crushing force; well it was for him thathe had his own independent air supply, so that that deadly perfumeeddied ineffective about his helmeted head! Hard and fiercely driven asthose terrible thorns were, they could do no more than dent his heavyarmor. His powerful left arm, driving the double-razor-edged dirk inshort, resistless arcs, managed to keep the snaky tendrils from coilingabout his right arm, which was wielding the heavy, trenchant sword. Every time that mighty blade descended it cleaved its length throughsnapping spikes and impotently grinding leaves; but more than oncea flailing tendril coiled about his neck armor and held his helmetimmovable as though in a vise, while those frightful, grinding sawssought to rip their way through the glass to the living creature insidethe peculiar metal housing. Dirk and saber and magnificent physiquefinally triumphed, but it was not until each leaf was literally severedfrom every other leaf that the outlandish organism gave up the ghost. 

 * * * * *

Nadia had been tossed out into pure air, beyond the zone of thestupefying perfume, and she recovered her senses in time to see thefinish of the battle. Stevens, assured that his foe was _hors ducombat_, turned toward the spot where he had thrown Nadia's body. He sawthat she was unharmed, and sprang toward her in relief. He was surprisedbeyond measure, however, to see her run away at a pace he could not hopeto equal, encumbered as he was; motioning frantically at him the whileto keep away from her. He stopped, astounded, and started to unscrew hishelmet, whereupon she dashed back toward him, signaling him emphaticallyto leave his armor exactly as it was. He stood still and stared at her, an exasperated question large upon his face, until she made clear tohim that he was to follow her at a safe distance, then she set off at arapid walk. She led him back to where the hexaped had fallen, where sheretrieved her bow and arrows; then, keeping a sharp lookout upon allsides, she went on to a small stream of water. She made the dumbfoundedman go out into the middle of the creek and lie down and roll overin the water, approaching him sniffing cautiously between immersions. She made him continue the bathing until she could detect not even theslightest trace of the sweet, but noxious fragrance of that peculiarlyterrible form of Ganymedean life. Only then did she allow him to removehis helmet, so that she could give him the greeting for which they bothhad longed and tell him what it was all about. 

"So that's it, ace!" he exclaimed, still holding her tightly in his ironembrace. "Great balls of fire! I thought maybe you were still a littlecuckoo. Anaesthetic perfume, huh? Hot stuff, I'd say--no wonder youbit--I would, too. It's lucky for us I was air-tight--we'd both befee.... "

"Stop it!" she interrupted him sharply, "Forget it--don't ever eventhink of it!"

"All x, ace. It's out like the well known light. What to do? It'sgetting darker than a hat, and we're a long way from home. Don't knowwhether I could find my way back in the dark or not; and just betweenyou and me, I'm not particularly keen on night travel in these partsafter what's just happened. Are you?"

"Anything else but, " she assured him, fervently. "I'd lots rather stayhungry until tomorrow. "

"No need of that--I've brought along enough supper for both of us. I'mhungry as a wolf, too, now that I have time to think of it. We'll eatand den up somewhere--or climb a tree. Those wampuses probably can'tclimb trees!"

"There's a nice little cave back there about a hundred meters. We'llpretend it's the Ritz, " and they soon had a merry fire blazing in frontof the retreat. There they ate of the provisions Stevens had brought. Then, while the man rolled up boulders before the narrow entrance ofthe cave, Nadia gathered leaves and made a soft bed upon its warm, dry floor. 

"Good night, lover, " and the girl, untroubled and secure now thatStevens was at her side, was almost instantly asleep; but the man wasnot sleepy. He thought of the power plant, even now sending its terrificstream of energy into his accumulators. He thought of the ultraradio--where could he get all the materials needed? He thought of hisfriends, wondering whether or not they would receive his message. Hethought of Breckenridge and the other human beings who had been aboardthe _Arcturus_, wondering poignantly as to their fate. He thought ofNewton and of his own people, who had certainly given them up for deadlong since. 

But above all he thought of the beautiful, steel-true companion lyingthere asleep at his mailed feet, and he gazed down at her, his heart inhis eyes. The firelight shone through the chinks between the boulders, casting a flickering ruddy light throughout the little cavern. Nadia laythere her head pillowed upon one strong, brown little hand. Her lipswere red and sweetly curved, her cheek was smooth and firm as so muchbrown velvet. She was literally aglow with sheer beauty and with perfecthealth; and the man reflected, as he studied her hungrily, that thiswild life certainly had agreed with her--she was becoming moresurpassingly beautiful with every passing day. 

"You little trump--you wonderful, lovely, square little brick!" hebreathed silently, and bent over to touch her cheek lightly with hislips. Slight as the caress was, it disturbed her, and even in her sleepher subconscious mind sent out an exploring hand, to touch her Steve andthus be reassured. He pressed her hand and she settled back comfortably, with a long, deep breath; and he stretched his iron-clad length besideher and closed his eyes, firmly resolved not to waste a minute of thiswonderful night in sleep. 

When he opened them an instant later, it was broad daylight, theboulders had been rolled away, the fragrance of roasting meat permeatedthe atmosphere, and Nadia was making a deafening clamor, beating hissteel breastplate lustily with the flat of his huge saber. 

"Daylight in the swamp, you sleeper!" she exclaimed. "Roll out or rollup! Come and get it, before I throw it away!"

"I must have been kind of tired, " he said sheepishly, when he saw thatshe had shot a bird and had cooked breakfast for them both while he hadbeen buried in oblivion. 

"Peculiar, too, isn't it?" Nadia asked, pointedly. "You only didabout ten days' work yesterday in ten minutes, swinging this frightfulsnickersnee of yours. Why, you played with it as though it were aknitting-needle, and when I wanted to wake you up with it, I couldhardly lift it. "

"Thought you didn't want that subject even mentioned?" he tried to steerthe talk away from his prowess with the broadsword. 

"That was yesterday, " airily. "Besides, I don't mind talking aboutyou--it's thinking about us being ... You know ... That I can't stand. "

"All x, ace. I get you right. Let's eat. "

 * * * * *

Breakfast over, they started down the valley, Stevens carrying hishelmet under his arm. Hardly had they started however, than Nadia's keeneyes saw a movement through the trees, and, she stopped and pointed. Stevens looked once, then hand in hand they dashed back to their cave. 

"We'll pile up some of the boulders and you lie low, " he instructed heras he screwed on his helmet. She snapped open his face-plate. 

"But what about you? Aren't you coming in, too?" she demanded. 

"Can't--they'd surround us and starve us out. I'm safe in thisarmor--thank Heaven we made it as solid as we did--and I'll fight 'em inthe open. I'll show 'em what the bear did to the buckwheat!"

"All right, I guess, but I wish I had my armor, too, " she mourned as hesnapped shut his plate and walled her into the cave with the same greatrocks he had used the night before. Then, Nadia safe from attack, hedrew his quiver of war-arrows into position over his shoulder, placedone at the ready on his bow-string and turned to face the horde ofthings rushing up the valley toward him. Wild animals he had supposedthem, but as he stood firm and raised his weapon shrill whistlessounded in the throng, and he gasped as he realized that those frightfulcreatures must be intelligent beings, for not only did they signalto each other, but he saw that they were armed with bows and arrows, spears, and slings!

Six-limbed creatures they were, of a purplish-red color, with huge, tricornigerous heads and with staring, green, phosphorescent eyes. Twoof the six limbs were always legs, two always arms; the intermediatetwo, due to a mid-section jointing of the six-foot-long, almostcylindrical body, could be used at will as either legs or arms. Now, outof range, as they supposed, they halted and gathered about one who wasapparently their leader; some standing erect and waving four hands whileshaking their horns savagely in Stevens' direction, others trottingaround on four legs, busily gathering stones of suitable size for theirvicious slings. 

Too far away to use their own weapons and facing only one smallfour-limbed creature, they considered their game already in the bag, butthey had no comprehension of earthly muscles, nor any understanding ofthe power and range of a hundred-pound bow driving a steel-headed wararrow. Thus, while they were arguing, Stevens took the offensive, anda cruelly barbed steel war-head tore completely through the body oftheir leader and mortally wounded the creature next beyond him. Thoughsurprised, they were not to be frightened off, but with wild, shrillscreams rushed to the attack. Stevens had no ammunition to waste, andevery time that mighty bow twanged a yard-long arrow transfixed at leastone of the red horde--and a body through which had torn one of thoseghastly, hand-forged arrow-heads was of very little use thereafter. Accurately-sped arrows splintered harmlessly against the re-enforcedwindows of his helmet and against the steel guards protecting his hands. He was almost deafened by the din as the stone missiles of the slingersrebounded from his reverberating shell of steel, but he fired carefully, steadily, and powerfully until his last arrow had been loosed. Then, the wicked dirk in his left hand and the long and heavy saber weavinga circular path of brilliance in the sun, he stepped forward a coupleof paces to meet the attackers. For a few moments nothing could standbefore that fiercely driven blade--severed heads, limbs, and fragmentsof torsos literally filled the air, but sheer weight of numbersbore him down. As he fell, he saw the white shaft of one of Nadia'shunting-arrows flash past his helmet and bury itself to the flock inthe body of one of the horde above him. Nadia knew that her arrows couldnot harm her lover, and through a chink between two boulders she wasshooting into the thickest of the mob speeding her light arrows withthe full power of her bow. 

Though down, the savages soon discovered that Stevens was not out. Insuch close quarters he could not use his sword, but the fourteen-inchblade of the dirk, needle-pointed as it was and with two razor-sharp, serrated cutting edges, was itself no mean weapon, and time after timehe drove it deep, taking life at every thrust. Four more red monstersthrew themselves upon the prostrate man, but not sufficiently versed inarmor to seek out its joints, their fierce short spear thrusts did nodamage. Presently four more corpses lay still and Stevens, with his, to them incredible, earthly strength, was once more upon his feet inspite of their utmost efforts to pinion his mighty limbs, and was againswinging his devastating weapon. Half their force lying upon the field, wiped out by a small, but invincible and apparently invulnerable being, the remainder broke and ran, pursued by Stevens to the point where thered monsters had first halted. He recovered his arrows and returned tothe cave, opening his face-plate as he came. 

"All x, sweetheart?" he asked, rolling away the boulders. "Didn't getanything through to you, did they?"

"No, they didn't even realize that I was taking part in the battle, Iguess. Did they hurt you while they had you down? I was scared to deathfor a minute. "

"No, the old armor held. One of them must have gnawed on my anklesome, between the greave and the heel-plate, but he couldn't quite getthrough. 'Sa darn small opening there, too--must have bent my foot'way around to get in at all. Have to tighten that joint up a little, I guess. I'll bet I've got a black spot and blue spot there the size ofmy hand--maybe it's only the size of yours, though. "

"You won't die of that, probably. Heavens, Steve, that cleaver of yoursis a frightful thing in action! Suppose it's safe for us to go home?"

"Absolutely--right now is the best chance we'll ever have, and somethingtells me that we'd better make it snappy. They'll be back, and next timethey won't be so easy to take. "

"All x, then--hold me, Steve, I can't stand the sight of that---letalone wade through it. I'm going to faint or something, sure. "

"As you were!" he snapped. "You aren't going to pass out now that it'sall over! It's a pretty ghastly mess, I know, but shut your eyes andI'll carry you out of sight. "

"Aren't we out of sight of that place yet?" she demanded after a time. 

"I have been for quite a while, " he confessed, "but you're sittingpretty, aren't you? And you aren't very heavy--not here on Ganymede, anyway!"

 * * * * *

"Put me down!" she commanded. "After that crack I won't play with youany more at all--I'll pick up my marbles and go home!"

He released her and they hurried hack toward their waterfall, keepingwary eyes sharp-set for danger in any form, animal or vegetable. On theway back across the foothills Stevens shot another hexaped, and upon theplateau above the river Nadia bagged several birds and small animals, but it was not until they were actually in their own little canyon thattheir rapid pace slackened and their vigilance relaxed. 

"After this, ace, we hunt together and we go back to wearing armor whilewe're hunting. It scared me out of a year's growth when you checkedup missing. "

"We sure do, Steve, " she concurred emphatically. "I'm not going to getmore than a meter away from you from now on. What do you suppose thosehorrible things are?"

"Which?"

"Both. "

"Those flowers aren't like anything Tellus ever saw, so we have no basisof comparison. They may be a development of a flycatching plant, or theymay be a link between the animal and the vegetable kingdom. However, we don't intend to study 'em, so let's forget 'em. Those animals wereundoubtedly intelligent beings; they probably are a race of savages ofthis satellite. "

"Then the really civilized races are probably.... "

"Not necessarily--there may well be different types, each strugglingtoward civilization. They certainly are on Venus, and they once were onMars. "

"Why haven't we seen anything like that before, in all these months?Things have been so calm and peaceful that we thought we had the wholeworld to ourselves, as far as danger or men were concerned. "

"We never saw them before because we never went where they lived--youwere a long ways from your usual stamping-grounds, you know. Thatanimal-vegetable flower is probably a high-altitude organism, livingin the mountains and never coming as low as we are down here. As forthe savages--whatever they are--they probably never come within fivekilometers of the falls. Many primitive peoples think that waterfallsare inhabited by demons, and maybe these folks are afflicted the sameway. "

"We don't know much about our new world yet, do we?"

"We sure don't--and I'm not particularly keen on finding out much moreabout it until we get organized for trouble, either. Well, here weare--just like getting back home to see the 'Hope, ' isn't it?"

"It _is_ home, and will be until we get one of our own on earth, " andafter Stevens had read his meters, learning with satisfaction that thefull current was still flowing into the accumulators, he began to cutup the meat. 

"Now that you've got the power-plant running at last, what next?" askedNadia, piling the cuts in the freezer. 

"Brandon's ultra-radio comes next, but it's got more angles to it thana cubist's picture of a set of prisms; so many that I don't know whereto begin. There, that job's done--let's sit down and I'll talk at youawhile. Maybe between us we can figure out where to start. I've goteverything to build it lined up except for the tube, but that's got mestopped cold. You see, fields of force are all right in most places, butI've got to have one tube, and it's got to have the hardest possiblevacuum. That means a mercury-vapor super pump. Mercury is absolutelythe only thing that will do the trick and the mercury is one thingthat is conspicuous by it's absence in these parts. So are tungsten forfilaments, tantalum for plates, and platinum for leads; and I haven'tfound anything that I can use as a getter, either--a metal, you know, toflash inside the tube to clean up the last traces of atmosphere in it. "

"I didn't suppose that such a simple thing as a radio tube could holdyou up, after the perfectly unbelievable things that you have donealready--but I see now how it could. Of course, the tubes in ourreceiver over there are too small?"

"Yes, they are only receiver and communicator tubes, and I need ahigh-power transmitting tube--a fifty-kilowatter, at least. I'd givemy left leg to the knee joint for one of those big water-cooled, sixty-kilowatt ten-nineteens right now--it would save us a lot ofgrief. "

"Maybe you could break up those tubes and use the plates and so on?"

"I thought of that, but it won't work--there isn't half enough metalin the lot, and the filaments in particular are so tiny that I couldn'tpossibly work them over into a big one. Then, too, we haven't gotmany spare tubes, and if I smash the ones we're using, I put ourcommunicators out of business for good, so that we can't yell for helpif we have to drift home--and I still don't get any mercury. "

"Do you mean to tell me there's no mercury on this whole planet?"

"Not exactly; but I do mean that I haven't been able to find any, andthat it's probably darned scarce. And since all the other metals I wantworst are also very dense and of high atomic weight, they're probablymighty scarce here, too. Why? Because we're on a satellite, and nomatter what hypothesis you accept for the origin of satellites, you cometo the same conclusion--that heavy metals are either absent or mostawfully scarce and buried deep down toward the center. There are lots ofheavy metals in Jupiter somewhere, but we probably couldn't find them. Jupiter's atmosphere is one mass of fog, and we couldn't see, since wehaven't got an infra-red transformer. I could build one, in time, butit would take quite a while--and we couldn't work on Jupiter, anyway, because of its gravity and probably because of its atmosphere. And evenif we could work there, we don't want to spend the rest of our livesprospecting for mercury. " Stevens fell silent, brow wrinkled in thought. 

"You mean, dear, that we're... " Nadia broke off, the sentenceunfinished. 

"Gosh, no! There's lots of things not tried yet, and we can always setout to drift it. I was thinking only of building the tube. And I'mtrying to think ... Say, Nadia, what do you know about Cantrell'sComet?"

"Not a thing, except that I remember reading in the newspapers that itwas peculiar for something or other. But what has Cantrell's Comet gotto do with the high cost of living--or with radio tubes? Have you gonecuckoo all of a sudden?"

"You'll be surprised!" Stevens grinned at her puzzled expression. "Cantrell's Comet is one of Jupiter's comet family and is peculiar inbeing the most massive one known to science. It was hardly known untilafter they built those thousand-foot reflectors on the Moon, where theseeing is always perfect, but it has been studied a lot since then. Its nucleus is small, but extremely heavy--it seems to have an averagedensity of somewhere around sixteen. There's platinum and everythingelse that's heavy there, girl! They ought to be there in such quantitythat even such a volunteer chemist as I am could find them!"

 * * * * *

"Heavens, Steve!" A look of alarm flashed over Nadia's face, thendisappeared as rapidly as it had come into being. "But of course, cometsaren't really dangerous. "

"Sure not. A comet's tail, which so many people are afraid of as beingpoison gas, is almost a perfect vacuum, even at its thickest, and we'dhave to wear space-suits anyway. And speaking of vacuum ... Whoopee!We don't need mercury any more than a goldfish needs a gas-mask. Whenwe get Mr. Tube done, we'll take him out into space, leaving his mouthopen, and very shortly he'll be as empty as a flapper's skull. Thenwe'll seal him up, flash him out, come back here, and start spillingour troubles into Brandon's shell-like ear!"

"Wonderful, Steve! You do get an idea occasionally, don't you? But howdo we get out there? Where is this Cantrell's Comet?"

"I don't know, exactly--there's one rub. Another is that I haven'teven started the transmitter and receptor units. But we've got somefield-generators here on board that I can use, so it won't be so bad. And our comet is in this part of the solar system somewhere fairlyclose. Wish we had an Ephemeris, a couple of I-P solar charts, anda real telescope. "

"You can't do much without an Ephemeris, I should think. It's a goodthing you kept the chronometers going. You know the I-P time, day, anddates, anyway. "

"I'll have to do without some things, that's all, " and the man staredabsently at the steel wall. "I remember something about its orbit, sinceit is one thing that all I-P vessels have to steer clear of. Think I canfigure it close enough so that we'll be able to find it in our littletelescope, or even on our plate, since we'll be out of this atmosphere. And it might not be a bad idea for us to get away, anyway. I'm afraid ofthose folks on that space-ship, whoever they were, and they must livearound here somewhere. Cantrell's Comet swings about fifty millionkilometers outside Jupiter's orbit at aphelion--close enough for us toreach, and yet probably too far for them to find us easily. By the timewe get back here, they probably will have quit looking for us, if theylook at all. Then too, I expect these savages to follow us up. What say, little ace--do we try it or do we stay here?"

"You know best, Steve. As I said before, I'm with you from now on, inwhatever you think best to do. I know that you think it best to go outthere. Therefore, so do I. "

"Well, " he said, finally, "I'd better get busy, then--there's a lot todo before we can start. The radio doesn't come next, after all--thetransmitter and receptor units come ahead of it. They won't meanwasted labor, in any event, since we'll have to have them in case theradio fails. You'd better lay in a lot of supplies while I'm workingon that stuff, but don't go out of sight, and yell like fury ifyou see anything. We'd both better wear full armor every time we goout-of-doors--unless I'm all out of control we aren't done with thosesavages yet. Even though they may be afraid of the demons of the falls, I think they'll have at least one more try at us. "

While Nadia brought in meat and vegetables and stored them away, Stevens attacked the problem of constructing the pair of tight-beam, auto-dirigible transmitter and receptor units which would connect hisgreat turbo-alternator to the accumulators of their craft, wherever itmight be in space. From the force-field generators of the "Forlorn Hope"he selected the two most suitable for his purpose, tuned them to theexact frequency he required, and around them built a complex system ofcondensers and coils. 

Day after day passed. Their larder was full, the receptor was finished, and the beam transmitter was almost ready to attach to theturbo-alternator before the calm was broken. 

"Steve!" Nadia shrieked. Glancing idly into the communicator plate, shehad been perfunctorily surveying the surrounding territory. "They'recoming! Thousands of them! They're all over the bench up there, and justsimply pouring down the hills and up the valley!"

"Wish they'd waited a few hours longer--we'd have been gone. However, we're just about ready for them, " he commented grimly, as he stared overher shoulder into the communicator plate. "We'll make a lot of thoseIndians wish that they had stayed at home with their papooses. "

"Have you got all those rays and things fixed up?"

"Not as many as I'd like to have. You see, I don't know the compositionof the I-P ray, since it is outlawed to everybody except the police. Of course I could have found out from Brandon, but never paid anyattention to it. I've got some nice ultra-violet, though, and a short-waveoscillatory that'll cook an elephant to a cinder in about eight seconds. We'll keep them amused, no fooling! Glad we had time to cover our opensides, and it looks as though that meteorite armor we put over theprojectors may be mighty useful, too. "

On and on the savages came, massed in formations showing some signs ofrude discipline. This time there was neither shrieking nor yelling; theweird creatures advanced silently and methodically. Here and there weremassed groups of hundreds, dragging behind them engines which Stevensstudied with interest. 

"Hm ... M ... M. Catapults, " he mused. "You were right, girl of mydreams--armor and bows and arrows wouldn't help us much right now. They're going to throw rocks at us that'll have both mass and momentum. With those things they can cave in our side-armor, and might even dentour roof. When one of those projectiles hits, we want to know where itain't, that's all. "

Stevens cast off the heavily-insulated plug connecting the power plantleads to his now almost fully charged accumulators, strapped himself andNadia into place at the controls, and waited, staring into the plate. Catapult after catapult was dragged to the lip of the little canyon, until six of them bore upon the target. The huge stranded springs ofhair, fiber, and sinew were wound up to the limit, and enormous massesof rock were toilsomely rolled upon the platforms. Each "gunner" seizedhis trip, and as the leader shrieked his signal the six ponderous massesof metalliferous rock heaved into the air as one. But they did notstrike their objective, for as the signal was given, Stevens shotpower into his projectors. The "Forlorn Hope" leaped out of the canyonand high into the air over the open meadow, just as the six greatprojectiles crashed into the ground upon the spot which, an instantbefore, she had occupied. 

 * * * * *

Rudimentary discipline forgotten, the horde rushed down into the canyonand the valley, in full clamor of their barbaric urgings. Horns andarms tossed fiercely, savage noises rent the air, and arrows splinteredharmlessly upon steel plate an the mystified and maddened warriors uponthe plain below gave vent to their outraged feelings. 

"Look, Nadia! A whole gang of them are smelling around that power plug. Pretty soon somebody's going to touch a hot spot, and when he does, we'll cut loose on the rest of them. "

The huge insulating plug, housing the ends of the three great cablesleading to the converters of the turbo-alternator, lay innocently uponthe ground, its three yawning holes invitingly open to savage arms. Thechief, who had been inspecting the power-plant, walked along the triplexlead and joined his followers at its terminus. Pointing with his horns, he jabbered orders and three red monsters, one at each cable, bent tolift the plug, while the leader himself thrust an arm into each of thethree contact holes. There was a flash of searing flame and the reekingsmoke of burning flesh--those three arms had taken the terrific no-loadvoltage of the three-phase converter system, and the full power of thealternator had been shorted directly to ground through the comparativelysmall resistance of his body. 

Stevens had poised the "Forlorn Hope" edgewise in mid-air, so thatthe gleaming, heavily armored parabolic reflectors of his projectors, mounted upon the leading edge of the fortress, covered the scene below. As the charred corpse of the savage chieftain dropped to the ground, it seemed to the six-limbed creatures that the demons of the falls hadindeed been annoyed beyond endurance by their intrusion; for, as if inresponse to the flash of fire from the power plug, that structure sopeculiarly and so stolidly hanging in the air came plunging down towardthem. From it there reached down twin fans of death and destruction: oneflaming and almost invisibly incandescent violet which tore at the eyesand excruciatingly disintegrated brain and nervous tissues; the otherdully glowing an equally invisible red, at the touch of which bodytemperature soared to lethal heights and foliage burst cracklingly intospontaneous flame. 

In their massed hundreds, the savages dropped where they stood, liferived away by the torturing ultra-violet, burned away by the blastof pure heat, or consumed by the conflagrations that raged instantlywherever that wide-sweeping fan encountered combustible material. In the face of power supernatural they lost all thought of attack or ofconquest, and sought only and madly to escape. Weapons were thrown away, the catapults were abandoned, and, every man for himself, the mob fledin wildest disorder, each striving to put as much distance as possiblebetween himself and that place of dread mystery, the waterfall. 

"Well, I guess that'll hold 'em for a while, " Stevens dropped theircraft back into its original quarters in the canyon. "Whether they everbelieved before that this falls was inhabited by devils or not, theythink so now. I'll bet that it will be six hundred Jovian years beforeany of them ever come within a hundred kilometers of it again. I'm gladof it, too, because they'll let our power plant alone now. Well, let'sget going--we've got to make things hum for a while!"

"Why all the rush? You just said that we have scared them away forgood. "

"The savages, yes, but not those others. We've just turned loose enoughradiation to affect detectors all over the system, and it's up to us toget this beam projector set up, get away from here, and get our powershut off before they can trace us. Snap it up, ace!"

The transmitter unit was installed at the converters, the cable was tornout, and, having broken the last material link between it and Ganymede, Stevens hurled the "Forlorn Hope" out into space, using the highestacceleration Nadia could endure. Hour after hour the massive wedge ofsteel bored outward, away from Jupiter; hour after hour Stevens' anxiouseyes scanned his instruments; hour after hour hope mounted and relieftook the place of anxiety as the screens remained blank throughout everyinquiring thrust into the empty ether. But they knew they would have tokeep sharp vigilance. 

 * * * * *

_Continuing a Thrilling New Serial of Interplanetary Life and Travelby Edward E. Smith, Ph. D. _

_Author of "Skylark of Space, " and "Skylark Three"_

PART II

Spacehounds of IPC

 _One of the most fascinating mysteries of the heavens is the comet. It goes through space, gets near enough to the earth to be seen, and then goes off and disappears in celestial distance. Often it has a hyperbolic orbit, which would make it impossible to come back. Yet it may return--apparently contradicting the geometry of conic sections. This only goes to prove once more that it is risky to say anything is impossible--even that our hero of this story manages beautifully, with the aid of Cantrell's Comet, to avoid complete annihilation while stranded in interstellar space. _

 _Read "what went before" and then continue the second instalment. _

What Went Before:

 The Interplanetary Vessel Arcturus sets out for Mars, with Breckenridge as chief pilot, carrying on board, besides its regular crew and some passengers, the famous Dr. Stevens, designer of space ships and computer. He checks computations made by astronomers stationed in floating observatories, and after he has located any trouble and suggests a plan for minimizing the hazards of the trip from the earth to Mars, he reports his findings and suggestions to Mr. Newton, chief of the Interplanetary Corporation. 

 Stevens then takes Nadia, Mr. Newton's beautiful young daughter, on a specially conducted sight-seeing tour of the Arcturus and thoroughly explains to her all of the works of the vessel. Nadia has herself had a good science education. While they are down at the bottom of the ship--nearing the end of their tour--Stevens feels a barely perceptible movement of the vessel from its course. When he turns on the visiplate, he is horrified to find that a mysterious ray of unparalleled power has neatly sliced the Arcturus in several places. 

 Nadia and Stevens are completely separated from the rest of the crew and passengers of the ship, so they get into a lifeboat, which is equipped for a limited amount of space travel. Despite the strict and apparently effective vigilance of the enemy destroyer, Stevens and Nadia make their getaway in the lifeboat, which they aptly call "Forlorn Hope, " and finally make a safe landing on Ganymede, where Stevens plans to build a power-plant and a radio transmitter, to enable him to communicate with the earth or with the IPV Sirius, which is used by Westfall and Brandon (two of the world's best scientists) as a floating laboratory. 

 With the very scant apparatus and material available, Stevens sets to work on his power plant. Just as they have it completed and ready to start for Cantrell's Comet, where Stevens believes he can obtain the necessary metal for his giant transmitting tube, they experience a close call with carnivorous plants on the satellite and later with savage inhabitants, which precipitates their trip to the comet. 

CHAPTER V

Cantrell's Comet

Far out in space, Jupiter, a tiny moon and its satellites merepin-points of light, Stevens turned to his companion with a grin. 

"Well, Nadia, old golf-shootist, here's where we turn spacehounds again. Hope you like it better this time, because I'm afraid that we'll have tostay weightless for quite a while. " He slowly throttled down the mightyflow of power, and watched the conflicting emotions play over Nadia'sface in her purely personal battle against the sickening sensationscaused by the decrease in their acceleration. 

"I'm sorry as the dickens, sweetheart, " he went on, tenderly, and thegrin disappeared. "Wish I could take it for you, but.... "

"But there are times when we've got to fight our own battles and buryour own dead, " she interrupted, gamely. "Cut off the rest of that power!I'm _not_ going to be sick--I _won't_ be a--what do you spacehounds callus poor earth-bound dubs who can't stand weightlessness--weight-fiends, isn't it?"

"Yes; but you aren't.... "

"I know I'm not, and I'm not going to be one, either! I'm all x, Steve--it's not so bad now, really. I held myself together that time, anyway, and I feel lots better now. Have you found Cantrell's Comet yet?And why so sure all of a sudden that they can't find us? That power beamstill connects us to Ganymede, doesn't it? Maybe they can trace it. "

"At-a-girl, ace!" he cheered. "I'll tell the world you're noweight-fiend--you're a spacehound right. Most first-trippers, at thisstage of the game, wouldn't be caring a whoop whether school kept ornot, and here you're taking an interest in all kinds of things already. You'll do, girl of my heart--no fooling!"

"Maybe, and maybe you're trying to kid somebody, " she returned, eyeinghim intently. "Or maybe you just don't want to answer those questionsI asked you a minute ago. "

[Illustration: _At the bottom of a shaft a section of the rocky wallswung aside, revealing the yawning black mouth of a horizontal tunnel. At intervals upon its roof there winked into being almost invisiblepoints of light. Along that line of lights the life-boats felt theirway, coming finally into a huge cavern.... _]

"No, that's straight data, right on zero across the panel, " he assuredher. "And as for your questions, they're easy. No, I haven't looked forthe comet yet, because we'll have to drift for a couple of days beforewe'll be anywhere near where I think it is. No, they can't trace us, because there is now nothing to trace, unless they can detect theslight power we are using in our lights and so on--which possibility isvanishingly small. Potentially, our beam still exists, but since we aredrawing no power, it has no actual present existence. See?"

"Uh-uh, " she dissented. "I can't say that I can quite understand howa beam can exist potentially and yet not be there actually enough totrace. Why, a thing has to be actual or not exist at all--you can'tpossibly have something that is nothing. It doesn't make sense. Butlay off those integrations of yours, please, " as now armed with aslate-pencil, Stevens began to draw a diagram upon a four-foot sheet ofsmooth slate. "You know that your brand of math is over my head like acircus tent, so we'll let it lie. I'll take your word for it. Steve--ifyou're satisfied, it's all x with me. "

"I think I can straighten you out a little, by analogy. Here's a roughsketch of a cylinder, with shade and shadow. You've had descriptivegeometry, of course, and so know that a shadow, being simply aprojection of a material object upon a plane, is a two-dimensionalthing--or rather, a two-dimensional concept. Now take the shade, whichis, of course, this entire figure here, between the cylinder castingthe shadow and the plane of projection. You simply imagine that thereis a point source of light at your point of projection: it isn't reallythere. The shade, then, of which I am drawing a picture, has only apotential existence. You know exactly where it is, you can draw it, youcan define it, compute it, and work with it--but still it doesn't exist;there is absolutely nothing to differentiate it from any other volume ofair, and it cannot be detected by any physical or mechanical means. If, however, you place a light at the point of projection, the shade becomesactual and can be detected optically. By a sufficient stretch of theimagination, you might compare our beam to that shade. When we turn ourpower on, the beam is actual; it is a stream of tangible force, and assuch can be detected electrically. When our switches here are open, however, it exists only potentially. There is no motion in the ether, nothing whatever to indicate that a beam had ever actually existedthere. With me?"

"Floundering pretty badly, but I see it after a fashion. You physicistsare peculiar freaks--where we ordinary mortals see actual, solid, heavy objects, you see only empty space with a few electrons and thingsfloating around in it; and yet where we see only empty space, you cansee things 'potentially' that may never exist at all. You'll be thedeath of me yet, Steve! But I'm wasting a lot of time. What do we donow?"

"We get busy on the big tube. You might warm up the annealing oven andmelt me that pot of glass, while I get busy on the filament supports, plate brackets, and so on. " Both fell to work with a will, and hourspassed rapidly and almost silently, so intent was each upon his owntasks. 

"All x, Steve. " Nadia broke the long silence. "The pyrometer's on thered, and the oven's hot, " and the man left his bench. Taking up a longpaddle and an even longer blowpipe, he skimmed the melt to a dazzlinglybright surface and deftly formed a bubble. 

"I just love to talk at you when you've got your mouth full of ablowpipe. " Nadia eyed him impishly and tucked her feet beneath her, poised weightless as she was. "I've got you foul now--I can say anythingI want to, and you can't talk back, because your bubble will lose itsshape if you do. Oh, isn't that a beauty! I never saw you blow anythingthat big before, " and she fell silent, watching intently. 

Slowly there was being drawn from the pot a huge, tapering bulb of hot, glistening glass, its cross-section at the molten surface varying asStevens changed the rate of draw or the volume of air blown through thepipe. Soon that section narrowed sharply. The glass-blower waved hishand and Nadia severed the form neatly with a glowing wire, just abovethe fluid surface of the glass remaining in the pot. Pendant from theblowpipe, the bulb was placed over the hot-bench, where Stevens, nowbegoggled, begloved, and armed with a welding torch, proceeded to fuseinto the still, almost plastic, glass sundry necks, side-tubes, supportsand other attachments of peculiar pattern. Finally the partiallyassembled tube was placed in the annealing oven, where it would remainat a high and constant temperature until its filaments, grids, andplates had been installed. Eventually, in that same oven, it would beallowed to cool slowly and uniformly over a period of days. 

 * * * * *

Thus were performed many other tasks which are ordinarily done eitherby automatic machinery or by highly skilled specialists in labor--forthese two, thrown upon their own resources, had long since learned howmuch specialization may be represented by the most commonplace article. Whenever they needed a thing they did not have--which happened everyday--they had either to make it or else, failing in that, to go back andbuild something that would enable them to manufacture the required item. Such setbacks had become so numerous as to be expected as part of theday's work; they no longer caused exasperation or annoyance. For twodays the two jacks-of-all-trades worked at many lines and with manymaterials before Stevens called a halt. 

"All x, Nadia. It's time for us to stop tinkering and turn intoastronomers. We've been out for fifty I-P hours, and we'd better beginlooking around for our heap of scrap metal, " and, the girl at thecommunicator plate and Stevens at their one small telescope, they beganto search the black, star-jeweled heavens for Cantrell's Comet. 

"According to my figures, it ought to be about four hours rightascension, and something like plus twenty degrees declination. Myfigures aren't accurate, though, since I'm working purely from memory, so we'd better cover everything from Aldebaran to the Pleiades. "

"But the directions will change as we go along, won't they?"

"Not unless we pass it, because we're heading pretty nearly straight atit, I think. "

"I don't see anything interesting thereabouts except stars. Will it havemuch tail?"

"Very little--it's close to aphelion, you know, and a comet doesn't havemuch of a tail so far away from the sun. Hope it's got some of its tailleft, though, or we may miss it entirely. "

Hours passed, during which the two observers peered intently into theirinstruments, then Stevens left the telescope and went over to his slate. 

"Looks bad, ace--we should have spotted it before this. Time to eat, too. You'd better.... "

"Oh, look here, quick!" Nadia interrupted. "Here's something! Yes, it_is_ a comet, and quite close--it's got a little bit of a dim tail. "

Stevens leaped to the communicator plate, and, blond head pressed closeto brown, the two wayfarers studied the faint image of the wanderer ofthe void. 

"That's it, I just _know_ it is!" Nadia declared. "Steve, as a computer, you're a blinding flash and a deafening report!"

"Yeah--missed it only about half a million kilometers or so, " hereplied, grinning, "and I'd fire a whole flock of I-P check stationsfor being four thousand off. However, I could have done worse--I couldeasily have forgotten all the data on it, instead of only half of it. "He applied a normal negative acceleration, and Nadia heaved a profoundsigh of relief as her weight returned to her and her body again becamemanageable by the ordinary automatic and involuntary muscles. 

"Guess I am a kind of a weight-fiend at that, Steve--this is muchbetter!" she exclaimed. 

"Nobody denies that weight is more convenient at times; but you're aspacehound just the same--you'll like it after a while, " he prophesied. 

Stevens took careful observations upon the celestial body, altered hiscourse sharply, then, after a measured time interval, again made carefulreadings. 

"That's it, all x, " he announced, after completing his calculations, andhe reduced their negative acceleration by a third. "There--we'll be justabout traveling with it when we get there, " he said. "Now, little K. P. Of my bosom, our supper's been on minus time for hours. What say weshake it up?"

"I check you to nineteen decimals, " and the two were soon attacking thesavory Ganymedean goulash which Nadia had put in the cooker many hoursbefore. 

"Should we both go to sleep, Steve, or should one of us watch it?"

"Sleep, by all means. There's no meteoric stuff out here, and we won'tarrive before ten o'clock tomorrow, I-P time, " and, tired out by theevents of the long day, man and maid sought their beds and plunged intodreamless slumber. 

While they slept, the "Forlorn Hope" drove on through the void at aterrific but constantly decreasing velocity; and far off to one side, plunging along a line making a sharp angle with their own course, thereloomed larger and larger the masses which made up the nucleus ofCantrell's Comet. 

Upon awakening, Stevens' first thought was for the comet, and heobserved it carefully before he aroused Nadia, who hurried into thecontrol room. Looming large in the shortened range of the plate, theirobjective hurtled onward in its eternal course, its enormous velocitybetrayed only by the rapidity with which it sped past the incrediblybrilliant background of infinitely distant stars. Apparently it wasa wild jumble of separate fragments; a conglomerate, heterogeneousaggregation of rough and jagged masses varying in size from grains ofsand up to enormous chunks, which upon Earth would have weighed millionsof tons. Pervading the whole nucleus, a slow, indefinite movement wasperceptible--a vague writhing and creeping of individual componentsworking and slipping past and around each other as they all rushedforward in obedience to the immutable cosmic law of gravitation. 

"Oh, isn't that wonderful!" Nadia breathed. "Think of actually going tovisit a comet! It sort of scares me, Steve--it's so creepy and crawlylooking. We're awfully close, aren't we?"

"Not so very. We'd probably have lots of time to eat breakfast. But justto be on the safe side, maybe I'd better camp here at the board, and youbring me over something to eat. "

"All x, Chief!" and Stevens ate, one eye upon the screen, watchingclosely the ever-increasing bulk of the comet. 

 * * * * *

For many minutes he swung the _Forlorn Hope_ in a wide curve approachingthe mountain of metal ever and ever more nearly, then turned to the girl. 

"Hold everything, Nadia--power's going off in a minute!" He shut off thebeam; then, noting that they were traveling a trifle faster than thecomet, he applied a small voltage to one dirigible projector. Dartingthe beam here and there, he so corrected their flight that they wereprecisely stationary in relation to the comet. He then opened hisswitches, and the _Forlorn Hope_ hurtled on. Apparently motionless, itwas now a part of Cantrell's Comet, traveling in a stupendous, elongatedellipse about the Master of our Solar System, the Sun. 

"There, ace, who said anything about weight-fiends? I was watching you, and you never turned a hair that time. "

"Why, that's right--I never even thought about it--I was so busystudying that thing out there! I suppose I've got used to it already?"

"Sure--you're one of us now. I knew you would be. Well, let's go placesand do things! You'd better put on a suit, too, so you can stand in theair-lock and handle the line. "

They donned the heavily insulated, heated suits, and Stevens snapped thelocking plugs of the drag line into their sockets upon the helmets. 

"Hear me?" he asked. "Sound-disks all x?"

"All x. "

"On the radio--all x?"

"All x. "

"I tested your tanks and heaters--they're all x. But you'll have totest.... "

"I know the ritual by heart, Steve. It's been in every show in thecountry for the last year, but I didn't know you had to go through itevery time you went out-of-doors! Halves, number one all x, two all x, three all x.... "

"Quit it!" he snapped. "You aren't testing those valves! That check-upis no joke, guy. These suits are complicated affairs, and some partsare apt to get out of order. You see, a thing to give you fresh air atnormal pressure and to keep you warm in absolute space can't be eithersimple or fool-proof. They've worked on them for years, but they'repretty crude yet. They're tricky, and if one goes sour on you, out inspace, it's just too bad--you're lucky to get back alive. A lot of menare still out there somewhere because of the sloppy check-ups. "

"'Scuse it, please--I'll be good, " and the careful checking and testingof every vital part of the space-suits went on. 

Satisfied at last that the armor was spaceworthy, Stevens picked up thecoils of drag-line, built of a non-metallic fiber which could retain itsflexibility and strength in the bitter cold of outer space, and led thegirl into the air-lock. 

"Heavens, Steve! It's perfectly stupendous, and grinding around worsethan the wreckage of the _Arcturus_ was when I wouldn't let you climbup it--why, I thought comets were _little_, and hardly massive at all!"exclaimed the girl. 

"This is little, compared to any regular planet or satellite or even tothe asteroids. There's only a few cubic kilometers of matter there, and, as I said before, it's a decidedly unusual comet. You know the game?"

"I've got it--and believe me, I'll yank you back here a lot faster thanyou can jump over there if any one of those lumps starts to fall on you!Is this drag line long enough?"

"Yes, I've got a hundred meters here, and it's only fifty meters overthere to where I'm going. So long, " and with a light thrust of his feet, he dove head foremost across the intervening space, a heavy pike heldout ahead of him. Straight as a bullet he floated toward his objective, a jagged chunk many yards in diameter, taking the shock of his landingby sliding along the pike-handle as its head struck the mass. 

Then, bracing his feet against one lump, he pushed against its neighbor, and under that steady pressure the enormous masses moved apart and kepton moving, grinding among their fellows. Over and around them Stevenssprang, always watching his line of retreat as well as that of hisadvance, until his exploring pike struck a lump of apparently solidmetal. Hooking the fragment toward him, he thrust savagely with hisweapon and was reassured--that object was not only metal, but it wasmetal so hard that his pike-head of space-tempered alloy steel did notmake an impression upon its surface. Turning on his helmet light heswung his heavy hammer repeatedly but could not break off even a smallfragment. 

"Found something, Steve?" Nadia's voice came clearly in his ears. 

"I'll say I have! A hunk of solid, non-magnetic metal about the size ofan office desk. I can't break off any of it, so I guess we'll have tograb the whole chunk. "

He hitched the end of his cable around the nugget, made sure that theloops would not slip, and then, as Nadia tightened the line, he shovedmightily. 

"All x, Nadia, she's coming! Pull in my drag line as I said over there, and I'll help you land her. "

Inside the _Forlorn Hope_ the mass of metal was urged into the shop, where Stevens clamped it immovably to the steel floor, before he tookoff his space-suit. 

"Why, it's getting covered with snow, and the whole room is gettingpositively _cold_!" Nadia exclaimed. 

"Sure. Anything that comes in from space is cold, even if it's been outonly a few minutes, and that hunk of stuff has been out for nobody knowshow many million years. It didn't get much heat from the sun exceptat perihelion, you know, so it's probably somewhere around minus twohundred and sixty degrees now. I'll have to throw a heater on it forhalf an hour before we can touch it. And since this is more or less newstuff to you, I'll caution you--don't try to touch anything that hasjust come in. That hammer or pike would freeze your hand instantly, eventhough they've been out only a little while. Before you touch anything, blow on it, like this, see? If your breath freezes solid on it, likethat, don't touch it--it's cold. "

 * * * * *

Under the infra-beams of the heater, the mass of the metal was broughtto room temperature and Stevens attacked it with his machine tools. Bit by bit the stubborn material was torn from the lump. Through heavygoggles he watched the incandescent mass in a refractory crucible, inthe heart of the induction furnace. 

"What do you think you've got--what you want?"

"I don't know. It wasn't iron--it wouldn't hold a magnet. It's royalmetal of some kind, I think. Base metals mostly melt at around fifteenhundred, and that crucible is still dry as a bone at better thanseventeen. "

"How are you going to separate out the tantalum and the others you wantfrom the ones that you don't want?"

"I'm afraid that I'm not going to, very well, " replied Stevens, with awry grimace. "What I don't know about metallurgy would fill a library, and I'm probably the world's worst chemist. However, by a series ofsuccessive liquations, I hope to separate out fractions that I canuse. Platinum melts somewhere around seventeen-fifty, tantalum abouttwenty-nine hundred, and tungsten not until 'way up around thirty-three, or four hundred--and that, by the way, means lots of grief. Of course, each fraction will probably be an alloy of one kind or another, butI think maybe I'll be able to make them do. "

"But mayn't that whole chunk be a pure metal?"

"It's conceivable, but not probable. There, she's beginning to separateat just below eighteen hundred! Platinum group coming out now, Ithink--platinum, rhodium, iridium, and that gang, you know. While I'mdoing this, you might be getting those five coils into exact resonance, if you want to. "

"Sure I want to, " and Nadia made her way across to the short-waveoscillator and set to work. 

After an hour or so, bent over her delicate task, she began to twitchuneasily, then shrugged her shoulders impatiently. 

"What's the idea of staring at me so?" she broke out suddenly. "How doyou expect me to tune these things up if you.... " She stopped abruptly, mouth open in amazement, as she turned toward Stevens. He had not beenlooking at her, but he turned a surprised face from his own task at thesound of her voice. "Excuse me, please, Steve. I don't know what's thematter with me--must be getting jumpy, I guess. "

"I wish that was all, but it isn't!" Face suddenly grim and hard, Stevens leaped to the communicator plate and shot the beam out intospace. "There's an answer, but that isn't it. You're a fine-tunedinstrument yourself, ace, and you've detected something.... I thoughtso! There's the answer--the guy that was looking at you!"

Plainly there was revealed upon the plate a small, spherical space-ship, very like the one that had attacked and destroyed the _Arcturus_. AfterNadia had taken one glance at it, Stevens shut off the power and leapedout into the shop. He closed all the bulkhead doors and air-breakopenings, then closed and secured the massive insulating door of thelifeboat in which they had made their headquarters. Then, after theyhad again put on the space-suits they had taken off such a short timebefore, he extinguished all the lights and hooded the communicatorscreen before he ventured again to glance out into the void. 

"If I had a brain in my head, instead of the pint of bean soup I've gotup there, we'd have worn these when they cut up the _Arcturus_, andsaved us a lot of mental wear and tear, " he remarked. "They were rightthere in the lockers all the time, and I knew it!"

"Well, we got away, anyway. You couldn't be expected to think ofeverything at once. We didn't have much time, you know. "

"No, but I should have thought of anything as obvious as that, anyway. Wonder how they found us? Did they detect us, or did they come outto this comet after metal, same as we did, and find us accidentally?However, it all works out the same--they're apparently out to get us. I'm afraid this is going to be a whole lot like a rabbit fighting backat a man with a gun; but we'll sure try to nibble us off a lunch whilethey're getting a square meal ... Here they come!"

The enemy sphere launched its flaming plane of force, and the _ForlornHope_ shuddered in every plate and member as its apex was severedcleanly under the impact. Instantly Stevens hurled his only weapons. Flaming ultra-violet and dully glowing infra-red, the twin beams lashedout; but their utmost force was of slight moment to the enormous powerdriving the enemy screens. Two circular spots of cherry red in spacewere the only results of Stevens' attack, and the next fierce cutsheared away the two projectors and, incidentally, a full half of thefifty-inch armor of the leading edge. 

"Then we're checking out now?" Nadia asked quietly, as the man's handsdropped from his useless controls. "I'm sorrier than I can say, lover. But at least, I'm glad that I can go out with you, " and her gloriouseyes were shining with unshed tears. 

"Maybe, but snap out of it, girl--our hearts are still beating! We'renot dead yet, and maybe we won't be. Perhaps they want to capture usalive, as they did before; if so, we may be able to hide out on themsomewhere and pull off another escape. Things don't look very bright, Iknow, but we're not checking out until our numbers are actually run up!"

He hooked a hand under her belt as the shocks came closer, and stoodtense and ready. The lancing plane cut through one end of their controlroom, and Stevens leaped with his companion toward the new-made opening;while the air shrieked outward into space and their suits bulgedsuddenly with the abrupt increase in pressure differential. While theywere in midflight, the frightful blade of destruction cleaved its waythrough the control board and through the spot upon which they had beenstanding a moment before. As they passed the severed edge, en route intoopen spare, Stevens seized a metal brace and clung there, every nervetaut. 

"Something funny here, Nadia, " he said after a little, in a low tone. "They should have made one more cut, to make us absolutely blind andhelpless. As it is, they've clipped off all our projectors, so we can'tmove, but I think we've got the whole control compartment of number twolifeboat untouched. If so, we can look around, anyway. Let's go!"

Floating without effort from fragment to fragment, they made their waytoward the section of their cruiser as yet undamaged. They found anairlock in working order, and were soon in the second lifeboat, whereStevens hastily turned on a communicator and peered out into space. 

"There they are! There's another stranger out there, too. They'refighting with her, now--that's probably why they didn't polish us off. "Steel-braced, clumsy helmets touching, the two Terrestrials staredspell-bound into the plate; watching while the insensately viciousintelligences within the sphere brought its every force to bear uponanother and larger sphere which was now so close as to be plainlyvisible. Like a gigantic drop of quicksilver this second globeappeared--its smooth and highly-polished surface one enormous, perfect, spherical mirror. Watching tensely, they saw flash out that frightfulplane of seething energy, with the effects of which they were all toofamiliar, and saw it strike full upon the dazzling ball. 

"This is awful, ace!" Stevens groaned. "They haven't got ray-screens, either, and without them they don't stand a chance. No possiblesubstance can stand up under that beam. When they get done and turn backto us, we'll have to dive back to where we were. "

 * * * * *

But that brilliant mirror was not as vulnerable as Stevens had supposed. The plane of force struck and clung, but could not penetrate it. Brokenup into myriads of scintillating crystals of light, intersecting, multi-colored rays, and cascading flares of sparkling energy, the beamwas reflected, thrown back, hurled away on all sides into space incoruscating, blinding torrents. And neither was the monster globeinoffensive. The straining watchers saw a port open suddenly, emit aflame-erupting something, and close as rapidly as it had opened. Thatsomething was a projectile, its propelling rockets fiercely aflame; assmoothly brilliant as its mother-ship and seemingly as impervious to thelethal beams of the common foe. Detected almost instantly as it was, itreceived the full power of the savage attack. The hitherto irresistibleplane of force beat upon it; ultra-violet, infra-red, and heat raysenveloped it; there were hurled against it all the forces known to thescientific minds within that fiendishly destructive sphere. 

Finally, only a scant few hundreds of yards from its goal, theprotective mirror was punctured and the freight of high explosive letgo, with a silent, but nevertheless terrific, detonation. But nowanother torpedo was on its way, and another, and another; boring onruthlessly toward the smaller sphere. Fighting simultaneously threetorpedos and the giant globe, the enemy began dodging, darting hitherand thither with a stupendous acceleration; but the tiny pursuers couldnot be shaken off. At every dodge and turn, steering rockets burst intofurious activity and the projectiles rushed ever nearer. Knowing thatshe had at last encountered a superior force, the sphere turned inmad flight; but, prodigious as was her acceleration, the torpedoeswere faster and all three of them struck her at once. There ensuedan explosion veritably space-racking in its intensity; a flash ofincandescent brilliance that seemed to fill all space, subsiding intoa vast volume of tenuous gas which, feebly glowing, flowed about andattached itself to Cantrell's Comet. And in the space where had beenthe enemy sphere, there was nothing. 

A slow-creeping pale blue rod of tangible force reached out from thegreat sphere, touched the wreckage of the _Forlorn Hope_, and pulled;gently, but with enormous power. 

"Tractor beams again!" exclaimed Stevens, still at the plate. "Everybody's got 'em but us, it seems. "

"And we can't fight a bit any more, can we?"

"Not a chance--bows and arrows wouldn't do us much good. However, we maynot need 'em. Since they fought that other crew, and haven't blown usup, they aren't active enemies of ours, and may be friendly. I haven'tany idea who or what they are, since even our communicator ray can't getthrough that mirror, but it looks as though our best bet is to actpeaceable and see if we can't talk to them in some way. Right?"

"Right. " They stepped out into the airlock, from which they saw thatthe great sphere had halted only a few yards from them, and that anindistinct figure stood in an open door, waving to them an unmistakableinvitation to enter the strange vessel. 

"Shall we, Steve?"

"Might as well. They've got us foul, and can take us if they want us. Anyway, we'll need at least a week to fix us up any kind of drivingpower, so we can't run--and we probably couldn't get away from thosefolks if we had all our power. They haven't blown us up, and they couldhave done it easily enough. Besides, they act friendly, so we'd bettermeet them half way. Dive!"

Floating toward the open doorway, they were met by another rod of force, brought gently into the airlock, and supported upright beside the beingwho had invited them to visit him. Apparently an empty space-suit stoodthere; a peculiarly-fitted suit of some partially transparent, flexible, glass-like material; towering fully a foot over the head of the tallTerrestrial. Closer inspection, however, revealed that there wassomething inside that suit--a shadowy, weirdly-transparent being, staring at them with large, black eyes. The door clanged shut behindthem; they heard the faint hiss of inrushing air, and the inner dooropened; but their enveloping suits remained stretched almost as tightlyas ever. They felt the floor lurch beneath their feet, and a littleweight was granted them as the space-ship got under way. Stevens wavedhis arms vigorously at the stranger, pointing backward toward where hesupposed their own craft to be. The latter waved an arm reassuringly, pressed a contact, and a section of the wall suddenly becametransparent. Through it Stevens saw with satisfaction that the _ForlornHope_ was not being abandoned; in the grip of powerful tractor beams, every fragment of the wreckage was following close behind them in theirflight through space. 

 * * * * *

Stevens and Nadia followed their guide along a corridor, through severaldoors, and into a large room, which at first glance seemed empty, butin which several of the peculiarly transparent people of the craft werelying about upon cushions. They were undoubtedly human--but what humans!Tall and reedy they were, with enormous barrel chests, topped by headswhich, though really large, appeared insignificant because of theprodigious chests and because of the huge, sail-like, flapping ears. Their skins were a strikingly, livid, pale blue, absolutely devoid ofhair; and their lidless eyes, without a sign of iris, were chillinglyhorrible in their stark contrast of enormous, glaring black pupil andghastly, transparent blue eyeball. 

As the two Terrestrials entered the room, the beings struggled to theirfeet and hurried laboriously away. Soon one of them returned, dressed inan insulating suit, and carrying three sets of head harnesses, connectedby multiplex cables to a large box which he placed upon the floor. He handed the headsets to the first officer, who in turn placed two ofthem at the feet of the Terrestrials, indicating to them that they wereto follow his example in placing them upon their heads, outside thehelmets. They did so, and even through the almost perfect insulation, and in spite of the powerful heaters of their suits, they felt a touchof frightful cold. The stranger turned a dial, and the two wanderersfrom Earth were instantly in full mental communication with Barkovis, the commander of a space-ship of Titan, the sixth satellite of Saturn!

"Well, I'll be ... Say, what is this, anyway?" Steve exclaimedinvoluntarily, and Nadia smiled as Barkovis answered with a thought, clearer than any spoken words. 

"It is a thought-exchanger. I do not know its fundamental mechanism, since we did not invent it and since I have had little time to studyit. The apparatus, practically as you see it here, was discovered but ashort time ago, in a small, rocket-propelled space-ship which we foundsome distance outside of the orbit of Jupiter. Its source of power hadbeen destroyed by the cold of outer space, but re-powering it was, ofcourse, a small matter. The crew of the vessel were all dead. Theywere, however, of human stock, and of a type adapted for life upona satellite. I deduce, from your compact structure, your enormousatmospheric pressure, and your, to us, unbelievably high bodytemperature, that you must be planet-dwellers. I suppose that youare natives of Jupiter?"

"Not quite. " Stevens had in a measure recovered from his stunnedsurprise. "We are from Tellus, the third planet, " and he revealedrapidly the events leading up to their present situation, concluding:"The people in the other sphere were, we believe, natives of Jupiter orof one of the satellites. We know nothing of them, since we could notlook through their screens. You rescued us from them; do you not knowthem?"

"No. Our visirays also were stopped by their screens of force--screensentirely foreign to our science. This is the first time that anyvessel from our Saturnian system has ever succeeded in reaching theneighborhood of Jupiter. We came in peace, but they attacked us at sightand we were obliged to destroy them. Now we must hurry back to Titan, for two reasons. First, because we are already at the extreme limitof our power range and Jupiter is getting further and further awayfrom Saturn. Second because our mirrors, which we had thought perfectreflectors of all frequencies possible of generation, are not perfect. Enough of those forces came through the mirrors to volatilize half ourcrew, and in a few minutes more none of us would have been left alive. Why, in some places our very atmosphere became almost hot enough to meltwater! If another of those vessels should attack us, in all probabilitywe should all be lost. Therefore we are leaving as rapidly as ispossible. "

"You are taking the pieces of our ship along--we do not want to encumberyou. "

"It is no encumbrance, since we have ample supplies of power. In fact, we are now employing the highest acceleration we Titanians can endurefor any length of time. "

Stevens pondered long, forgetting that his thoughts were plain as printto the Titanian commander. Thank Heaven these strangers had sense enoughto be friendly--all intelligent races should be friends, for mutualadvancement. But it was a mighty long stretch to Saturn and thisacceleration wasn't so much. How long would it take to get there? Couldthey get back? Wouldn't they save time by casting themselves adrift, making the repairs most urgently needed, and going back to Ganymedeunder their own power? But would they have enough power left in thewreck to get even that far? And how about the big tube? He wasinterrupted by an insistent thought from Barkovis. 

"You will save time, Stevens, by coming with us to Titan. There we shallaid you in repairing your vessel and in completing your transmittingtube, in which we shall be deeply interested. Our power plants shallsupply you with energy for your return journey until you are closeenough to Jupiter to recover your own beam. You are tired. I wouldsuggest that you rest--that you sleep long and peacefully. "

"You seem to be handling the _Forlorn Hope_ without any trouble--thepieces aren't grinding at all. We'd better live there, hadn't we?"

"Yes that would be best, for all of us. You could not live a minute herewithout your suits; and, efficiently insulated as those suits are, yetyour incandescent body temperature makes our rooms unbearably hot--sohot that any of us must wear a space-suit while in the same room withyou, to avoid being burned to death. "

"The incandescently hot" Terrestrials were wafted into the open airlockof their lifeboat upon a wand of force, and soon had prepared a longoverdue supper, over which Stevens cast his infectious, boyish grin atNadia. 

"Sweetheart, you are undoubtedly a 'warm number, ' and you have oftenremarked that I 'burn you up. ' Nevertheless I think that we were bothconsiderably surprised to discover that we are both hot enough actuallyto consume persons unfortunate enough to be confined in the same roomwith us!"

"You're funny, Steve--like a crutch, " she rebuked him, but smiled back, an elusive dimple playing in one lovely brown cheek. "Looking rightthrough anybody is too ghastly for words, but I think they're perfectlyall x, anyway, in spite of their being so hideous and so cold-blooded!"

CHAPTER VI

A Frigid Civilization

"Hi, Percival Van Schravendyck Stevens!" Nadia strode purposely intoStevens' room and seized him by the shoulder. "Are you going to sleepall the way to Saturn? You answered me when I pounded on the partitionwith a hammer, but I don't believe that you woke up at all. Get up, you--breakfast will be all spoiled directly!"

"Huh?" Stevens opened one sluggish eye; then, as the full force of theinsult penetrated his consciousness, he came wide awake. "Lay off thosenames, ace, or you'll find yourself walking back home!" he threatened. 

"All x by me!" she retorted. "I might as well go home if you're goingto sleep _all_ the time!" and she widened her expressive eyes at himimpishly as she danced blithely back into the control room. As she wentout she slammed his door with a resounding clang, and Stevens priedhimself out of his bunk one joint at a time, dressed, and made himselfpresentable. 

"Gosh!" he yawned mightily as he joined the girl at breakfast. "I don'tknow when I've had such a gorgeous sleep. How do you get by on solittle?"

"I don't. I sleep a lot, but I do it every night, instead of working forfour days and nights on end and then trying to make up all those fournights' sleep at once. I'm going to break you of that, too, Steve, ifit's the last thing I ever do. "

"There might be certain advantages in it, at that, " he conceded, "butsometimes you've got to do work when it's got to be done, instead ofjust between sleeps. However, I'll try to do better. Certainly it isa wonderful relief to get out of that mess, isn't it?"

"I'll say it is! But I wish that those folks were more like people. They're nice, I think, really, but they're so ... So ... Well, soghastly that it simply gives me the blue shivers just to look at oneof them!"

"They're pretty gruesome, no fooling, " he agreed, "but you get used tothings like that. I just about threw a fit the first time I ever sawa Martian, and the Venerians are even worse in some ways--they're soclammy and dead-looking--but now I've got real friends on both planets. One thing, though, gives me the pip. I read a story a while ago--thelatest best-seller thing of Thornton's named 'Interstellar Slush' orsome such tr.... "

"Cleophora--An Interstellar Romance, " she corrected him. "I thought itwas wonderful!"

"I didn't. It's fundamentally unsound. Look at our nearest neighbors, who probably came from the same original stock we did. A Telluriancan admire, respect, or like a Venerian, yes. But for _loving_ one ofthem--wow! Beauty is purely relative, you know. For instance, I thinkthat you are the most perfectly beautiful thing I ever saw; but noVenerian would think so. Far from it. Any Martian that hadn't seen manyof us would have to go rest his eyes after taking one good look atyou. Considering what love means, it doesn't stand to reason that anyTellurian woman could possibly fall in love with any man not of her ownbreed. Any writer is wrong who indulges in interplanetary love affairsand mad passions. They simply don't exist. They _can't_ exist--they'reagainst all human instincts. "

"Inter-planetary--in this solar system--yes. But the Dacrovos were justlike us, only nicer. "

"That's what gives me the pip. If our own cousins of the same solarsystem are so repulsive to us, how would we be affected by entirelyalien forms of intelligence?"

"May be you're right, of course--but you may be wrong, too, " sheinsisted. "The Universe is big enough, so that people like the Dacrovosmay possibly exist in it somewhere. May be the Big Three will discover ameans of interstellar travel--then I'll get to see them myself, perhaps. "

"Yes, and _if_ we do, and _if_ you ever see any such people, I'll betthat the sight of them will make your hair curl right up into a ball, too! But about Barkovis--remember how diplomatic the thoughts were thathe sent us? He described our structure as being 'compact, ' but I got theundertone of his real thoughts, as well. Didn't you?"

"Yes, now that you mention it, I did. He really thought that we werewhite-hot, under-sized, overpowered, warty, hairy, hideously opaque andgenerally repulsive little monstrosities--thoroughly unpleasant anddistasteful. But he was friendly, just the same. Heavens, Steve! Do yousuppose that he read our real thoughts, too?"

"Sure he did; but he is intelligent enough to make allowances, the sameas we are doing. He isn't any more insulted than we are. He knows thatsuch feelings are ingrained and cannot be changed. "

 * * * * *

Breakfast over, they experienced a new sensation. For the first time inmonths they had nothing to do! Used as they were to being surrounded bypressing tasks, they enjoyed their holiday immensely for a few hours. Sitting idly at the communicator plate, they scanned the sparklingheavens with keen interest. Beneath them Jupiter was a brilliantcrescent not far from the sun in appearance, which latter had alreadygrown perceptibly smaller and less bright. Above them, and to theirright, Saturn shone refulgently, his spectacular rings plainly visible. All about them were the glories of the firmament, which never fail toawe the most seasoned observer. But idleness soon became irksome tothose two active spirits, and Stevens prowled restlessly about theirnarrow quarters. 

"I'm going to go to work before I go dippy, " he soon declared. "They'vegot lots of power, and we can rig up a transmitter unit to send it overhere to our receptor. Then I can start welding the old _Hope_ togetherwithout waiting until we get to Titan to start it. Think I'll signalBarkovis to come over, and see what he thinks about it. "

The Titanian commander approved the idea, and the transmitting field wasquickly installed. Nadia insisted that she, too, needed to work, andthat she was altogether too good a mechanic to waste; therefore the twoagain labored mightily together, day after day. But the girl limitedrigidly their hours of work to those of the working day; and eveningafter evening Barkovis visited with them for hours. Dressed in his heavyspace-suit and supported by a tractor beam well out of range of whatseemed to him terrific heat radiated by the bodies of the Terrestrials, he floated along unconcernedly; while over the multiplex cable of thethought-exchanger he conversed with the man and woman seated just insidethe open outer door of their air-lock. The Titanian's appetite forinformation was insatiable--particularly did he relish everythingpertaining to the earth and to the other inner planets, forever barredto him and to his kind. In return Stevens and Nadia came gradually toknow the story of the humanity of Titan. 

"I am glad beyond measure to have known you, " Barkovis mused, one night. "Your existence proves that there is truth in mythology, as some ofus have always believed. Your visit to Titan will create a furor inscientific circles, for you are impossibility incarnate--personificationsof the preposterous. In you, wildest fancy had become commonplace. According to many of our scientists, it is utterly impossible for youto exist. Yet you say, and it must be, that there are millions uponmillions of similar beings. Think of it! Venerians, Tellurians, Martians, the satellite dwellers of the lost space-ship, and us--sosimilar mentally, yet physically how different!"

"But where does the mythology come in?" thought Nadia. 

"We have unthinkably ancient legends which say that once Titan wasextremely hot, and that our remote ancestors were beings of fire, inwhose veins ran molten water instead of blood. Since our recordedhistory goes back some tens of thousands of Saturnian years, and sincein that long period there has been no measurable change in us, fewof us have believed in the legends at all. They have been thought thesurviving figments of a barbarous, prehistoric worship of the sun. However, such a condition is not in conflict with the known facts ofcosmogony, and since there actually exists such a humanity as yours--ahumanity whose bodily tissues actually _are_ composed largely of moltenwater--those ancient legends must indeed have been based upon truth. 

"What an evolution! Century after century of slowly decreasingtemperature--one continuous struggle to adapt the physique to aconstantly changing environment. First they must have tried to maintaintheir high temperature by covering and heating their cities. --Then, as vegetation died, they must have bred into their plants the abilityto use as sap purely chemical liquids, such as our present naturalfluids--which also may have been partly synthetic then--instead of themolten water to which they had been accustomed. They must have modifiedsimilarly the outer atmosphere; must have made it more reactive, tocompensate for the lowered temperature at which metabolism must takeplace. As Titan grew colder and colder they probably dug their citiesdeeper and ever deeper; until humanity came finally to realize that itmust itself change completely or perish utterly. 

"Then we may picture them as aiding evolution in changing their bodychemistry. For thousands, and thousands of years there must have goneon the gradual adaptation of blood stream and tissue to more and morevolatile liquids, and to lower and still lower temperatures. This musthave continued until Titan arrived at the condition which has nowobtained for ages--a condition of thermal equilibrium with space uponone hand and upon the other the sun, which changes appreciably only inmillions upon millions of years. In equilibrium at last--with our bodilyand atmospheric temperatures finally constant at their present values, which seem as low to you as yours appear high to us. Truly, an evolutionastounding to contemplate!"

"But how about power?" asked Stevens. "You seem to have all you want, and yet it doesn't stand to reason that there could be very muchgenerated upon a satellite so old and so cold. "

"You are right. For ages there has been but little power producedupon Titan. Many cycles ago, however, our scientists had developedrocket-driven space-ships, with which they explored our neighboringsatellites, and even Saturn itself. It is from power plants upon Saturnthat we draw energy. Their construction was difficult in the extreme, since the pioneers had to work in braces because of the enormous forceof gravity. Then, too, they had to be protected from the overwhelmingpressure and poisonous qualities of the air, and insulated from atemperature far above the melting point of water. In such awful heat, of course, our customary building material, water, could not beemployed.... "

"But all our instruments have indicated that Saturn is _cold_!" Stevensinterrupted. 

"Its surface temperature, as read from afar, would be low, " concededBarkovis, "but the actual surface of the planet is extremely hot, andis highly volcanic. Practically none of its heat is radiated because ofthe great density and depth of its atmosphere, which extends for manyhundreds of your kilometers. It required many thousands of lives andmany years of time to build and install those automatic power plants, but once they were in operation, we were assured of power for many tensof thousands of years to come. "

"Our system of power transmission is more or less like yours, but wehaven't anything like your range. Suppose you'd be willing to teach methe computation of your fields?"

"Yes, we shall be glad to give you the formulae. Being an older race, itis perhaps natural that we should have developed certain refinements asyet unknown to you. But I am, I perceived, detaining you from your timeof rest--goodbye, " and Barkovis was wafted back toward his mirroredglobe. 

"What do you make of this chemical solution blood of theirs, Steve?"asked Nadia, watching the placidly floating form of the Titaniancaptain. 

"Not much. I may have mentioned before that there are one or two, orperhaps even three men who are better chemists than I am. I gatheredthat it is something like a polyhydric alcohol and something like asubstituted hydrocarbon, and yet different from either in that itcontains flourin in loose combination. I think it is something that ourTellurian chemists haven't got yet; but they've got so many organiccompounds now that they may have synthesized it, at that. You see, Titan's atmosphere isn't nearly as dense as ours, but what there isof it is pure dynamite. Ours is a little oxygen, mixed with a lot ofinert ingredients. Theirs is oxygen, heavily laced with flourin. It's_reactive_, no fooling! However, something pretty violent must benecessary to carry on body reactions at such a temperature as theirs. "

"Probably; but I know even less about that kind of thing than you do. Funny, isn't it, the way he thinks 'water' when he means ice, and alwaysthinks of our real water as being molten?"

"Reasonable enough when you think about it. Temperature differences arelogarithmic, you know, not arithmetic--the effective difference betweenhis body temperature and ours is perhaps even greater than that betweenours and that of melted iron. We never think of iron as being a liquid, you know. "

"That's right, too. Well, good night, Steve dear. "

"'Bye, little queen of space--see you at breakfast, " and the _ForlornHope_ became dark and silent. 

 * * * * *

Day after day the brilliant sphere flew toward distant Saturn, with thewreckage of the _Forlorn Hope_ in tow. Piece by piece that wreckage wasbrought together and held in place by the Titanian tractors; and slowlybut steadily, under Stevens' terrific welding projector, the stubbornsteel flowed together, once more to become a seamless, spaceworthystructure. And Nadia, the electrician, followed close behind the welder. Wielding torch, pliers and spanner with practised hand, she repaired orcut out of circuit the damaged accumulator cells and reunited the endsof each severed power lead. Understanding Nadia's work thoroughly, theTitanians were not particularly interested in it; but whenever Stevensmade his way along an outside seam, he had a large and thrillinglyhorrified gallery. Everyone who could possibly secure permission toleave the sphere did so, each upon his own pencil of force, and wentover to watch the welder. They did not come close to him--to venturewithin fifty feet of that slow moving spot of scintillating brilliance, even in a space-suit, meant death--but, poised around him in space, theywatched with shuddering, incredulous amazement, the monstrous humanbeing in whose veins ran molten water instead of blood; whose body wasalready so fiercely hot that it could exist unharmed while workingpractically without protection, upon _liquefied_ metal!

Finally the welding was done. The insulating space was evacuated andheld its vacuum--outer and inner shells were bottle-tight. The twomechanics heaved deep sighs of relief as they discarded their cumbersomearmor and began to repair what few of their machine tools had beendamaged by the slashing plane of force which had so neatly sliced the_Forlorn Hope_ into sections. 

"Say, big fellow, you're the guy that slings the ink, ain't you?" Nadiaextinguished her torch and swaggered up to Stevens, hands on hips, herwalk an exaggerated roll. "Write me out a long walk. This job's allplayed out, so I think I'll get me a good job on Titan. I said give memy time, you big stiff!"

"You didn't say nothing!" growled Stevens in his deepest bass, playingup to her lead as he always did. "Bounce back, cub, you've struck arubber fence! You signed on for duration and you'll stick--see?"

Arm in arm they went over to the nearest communicator plate. Flippingthe switch, Stevens turned the dial and Titan shone upon the screen; soclose, that it no longer resembled a moon, but was a world toward whichthey were falling with an immense velocity. 

"Not close enough to make out much detail yet--let's take anotherlook at Saturn, " and Stevens projected the visiray beam out toward themighty planet. It was now an enormous full moon, almost five degrees inapparent diameter, [1] its visible surface an expanse of what they knewto be billowing cloud, shining brilliantly white in the pale sunlight, broken only by a dark equatorial band. 

[Footnote 1: The moon subtends an angle of about one-half of a degree. ]

"Those rings were _such_ a gorgeous spectacle a little while ago!" Nadiamourned. "It's a shame that Titan has to be right in their plane, isn'tit? Think of living this close to one of the most wonderful sights inthe Solar System, and never being able to see it. Think they know whatthey're missing, Steve?"

"We'll have to ask Barkovis, " Stevens replied. He swung the communicatorbeam back toward Titan, and Nadia shuddered. 

"Oh, it's hideous!" she exclaimed. "I thought that it would improve aswe got closer, but the plainer we can see it, the worse it gets. Just tothink of human beings, even such cold-blooded ones as those over there, living upon such a horrible moon and _liking_ it, gives mi the blueshivers!"

"It's pretty bleak, no fooling, " he admitted, and peered through theeyepiece of the visiray telescope, studying minutely the forbiddingsurface of the satellite they were so rapidly approaching. 

Larger and larger it loomed, a cratered, jagged globe of desolationindescribable; of sheer, bitter cold incarnate and palpable; of stark, sharp contrasts. Gigantic craters, in whose yawning depths no spark ofwarmth had been generated for countless cycles of time, were surroundedby vast plains eroded to the dead level of a windless sea. Every loftyobject cast a sharply outlined shade of impenetrable blackness, besidewhich the weak light of the sun became a dazzling glare. The ground waseither a brilliant white or an intense black, unrelieved by half-tones. 

"I can't hand it much, either, Nadia, but it's all in the way you'vebeen brought up, you know. This is home to them, and just to look atTellus would give them the pip. Ha! Here's something you'll like, evenif it does look so cold that it makes me feel like hugging a couple ofheater coils. It's Barkovis' city the one we're heading for, I think. It's close enough now so that we can get it on the plate, " and he setthe communicator beam upon the metropolis of Titan. 

"Why, I don't see a thing, Steve--where and what is it?" They weredropping vertically downward toward the center of a vast plain of white, featureless and desolate; and Nadia stared in disappointment. 

"You'll see directly--it's too good to spoil by telling you what to lookfor or wh.... "

"Oh, there it is!" she cried. "It _is_ beautiful, Steve, but howfrightfully, utterly cold!"

 * * * * *

A flash of prismatic color had caught the girl's eye, and, onetransparent structure thus revealed to her sight, there had burst intoview a city of crystal. Low buildings of hexagonal shape, arrangedin irregularly variant hexagonal patterns, extended mile upon mile. From the roofs of the structures lacy spires soared heavenward;inter-connected by long, slim cantilever bridges whose prodigiousspans seemed out of all proportion to the gossamer delicacy of theirconstruction. Buildings, spires, and bridges formed fantasticgeometrical designs, at which Nadia exclaimed in delight. 

"I've just thought of what that reminds me of--it's snowflakes!"

"Sure--I knew it was something familiar. Snowflakes--no two are everexactly alike, and yet every one is symmetrical and hexagonal. We'regoing to land on the public square--see the crowds? Let's put on oursuits and go out. "

The _Forlorn Hope_ lay in a hexagonal park, and near it the Titanianglobe had also come to rest. All about the little plot towered theglittering buildings of crystal, and in its center played a fountain;a series of clear and sparkling cascades of liquid jewels. Under footthere spread a thick, soft carpet of whitely brilliant vegetation. Throngs of the grotesque citizens of Titania were massed to greet thespace-ships; throngs clustering close about the globular vessel, butmaintaining a respectful distance from the fiercely radiant Terrestrialwedge. All were shouting greetings and congratulations--shouts whichStevens found as intelligible as his own native tongue. 

"Why, I can understand every word they say, Steve!" Nadia exclaimed, insurprise. "How come, do you suppose?"

"I can, too. Don't know--must be from using that thought telephone oftheirs so much, I guess. Here comes Barkovis--I'll ask him. "

The Titanian commander had been in earnest conversation with a group offellow-creatures and was now walking toward the Terrestrials, carryingthe multiple headsets. Placing them upon the white sward, he backedaway, motioning the two visitors to pick them up. 

"It may not be necessary, Barkovis, " Stevens said, slowly and clearly. "We do not know why, but we can understand what your people are saying, and it may be that you can now understand us. "

"Oh, yes, I can understand your English perfectly. A surprisingdevelopment, but perhaps, after all, one that should have been expected, from the very nature of the device we have been using. I wanted to tellyou that I have just received grave news, which makes it impossible forus to help you immediately, as I promised. While we were gone, one ofour two power-plants upon Saturn failed. In consequence, Titan's powerhas been cut to a minimum, since maintaining our beam at that greatdistance required a large fraction of the output of the other plant. Because of this lack, the Sedlor walls were weakened to such a pointthat in spite of the Guardian's assurances, I think trouble isinevitable. At all events, it is of the utmost importance that we beginrepairing the damaged unit, for that is to be a task indeed. "

"Yes, it will take time, " agreed Stevens, remembering what theTitanian captain had told him concerning the construction of thoseplants--generators which had been in continuous and automatic operationfor thousands of Saturnian years. 

"It will take more than time--it will take lives, " replied Barkovis, gravely. "Scores, perhaps hundreds, of us will never again breathe theclear, pure air of Titan. In spite of all precaution and all possiblebracing and insulation, man after man after man will be crushed byhis own weight, volatilized by the awful heat, poisoned by the foulatmosphere, or will burst into unthinkable flames at the touch of someflying spark from the inconceivably hot metals with which we shall haveto work. A horrible fate, but we shall not lack for volunteers. "

"Sure not; and of course you yourself would go. And I never thought ofthe effect a spark would have on you--your tissues would probably bewildly inflammable. But say, I just had a thought. Just how hot is theair at those plants and just what is the actual pressure?"

"According to the records, the temperature is some forty of yourcentigrade degrees above the melting-point of water, and the pressureis not far short of two of your meters of mercury. I find it almostimpossible to think of mercury as a liquid, however. "

"You find it impossible, since you use it as a metal, for wires in coilsand so on. But plus forty, while pretty warm, isn't impossible, by anymeans; and we could stand double our air pressure for quite a while. Both my partner and I are pretty fair mechanics and we've got quite aline of machine tools, such as you could not possibly have here. We'llgive it a whirl, since we owe you something already. Lead us to it, ace--but wait a minute! We can't see through the fog, so couldn't findthe plants, and probably your wiring diagrams would explode if I touchedthem. "

"I never thought of your helping us, " mused Barkovis. "The idea of anyliving being existing in that inferno has always been unthinkable, butthe difficulties you mention are slight. We have already built in ourvessel communicators similar to yours, and radio sets. With these we canguide you and explain the plants to you as you work, and our tractorbeams will be of assistance to you in moving heavy objects, even at suchdistances from the surface as we Titanians shall have to maintain. Ifyou will set out a flask of your atmosphere, we will analyze it, for thethought has come to me that perhaps, being planet-dwellers yourselves, the air of Saturn might not be as poisonous to you as it is to us. "

"That's a thought, too, " and, the news broadcast, it was not long untilthe two ships leaped into the air, to the accompaniment of the cheersand plaudits of a watching multitude. 

 * * * * *

In a wide curve they sped toward Saturn. Passing so close to theenormous rings that the individual meteoric fragments could almost beseen with the unaided eye, they flashed on and on, slowing down longbefore they approached the upper surface of the envelope of cloud. The spherical space-ship stopped and Stevens, staring into his uselessscreen, drove the _Forlorn Hope_ downward mile after mile, solely underBarkovis' direction, changing course and power from time to time as theTitanian's voice came from the speaker at his elbow. Slower and slowerbecame the descent, until finally, almost upon the broad, flat roofof the power-plant, Stevens saw it in his plate. Breathing deeply inrelief, he dropped quickly down upon a flat pavement, neutralized hiscontrols, and turned to Nadia. 

"Well, old golf-shootist, we're here at last--now we'll go out and seewhat's gone screwy with the works. Remember that gravity is about doublenormal here, and conduct yourself accordingly. "

"But it's supposed to be only about nine-tenths, " she objected. 

"That's at the outer surface of the atmosphere, " he replied. "And it's_some_ atmosphere--not like the thin layer we've got on Tellus. "

They went into the airlock, and Stevens admitted air until theirsuits began to collapse. Then, face-plate valves cracked, he sniffedcautiously, finally opening his helmet wide. Nadia followed suit andthe man laughed as she wrinkled her nose in disgust as two faint, butunmistakable odors smote her olfactory nerves. 

"I never cared particularly for hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide, either, " he assured her, "but they aren't strong enough to hurt us inthe short time we'll be here. Those Titanian chemists know their stuff, though. "

He opened the outer valves slowly, then opened the door and they steppeddown upon the smooth, solid floor, which Stevens examined carefully. 

"I thought so, from his story. Solid platinum! This whole planet isbuilt of platinum, iridium, and noble alloys--the only substances knownthat will literally last forever. Believe me, ace of my bosom, I don'twonder that it cost them lives to build it--with their conditions, Idon't see how they ever got it built at all. "

Before them rose an immense, flat-topped cone of metal, upon the top ofwhich was situated the power plant. Twelve massive pillars supported aflat roof, but permitted the air to circulate freely throughout the onegreat room which housed the machinery. They climbed a flight of stairs, passed between two pillars, and stared about them. There was no noise, no motion--there was nothing that _could_ move. Twelve enormous massesof metallic checkerwork, covered with wide cooling fins, almost filledthe vast hall. From the center of each mass great leads extended outinto a clear space in the middle of the room, there uniting in mid-airto form one enormous bus-bar. This bar, thicker than a man's body, hadoriginally curved upward to the base of an immense parabolic structureof latticed bars. Now, however, it was broken in midspan and the twoends bent toward the floor. Above their heads, a jagged hole gaped inthe heavy metal of the roof, and a similar hole had been torn in thefloor. The bar had been broken and these holes had been made by someheavy body, probably a meteorite, falling with terrific velocity. 

"This is it, all right, " Stevens spoke to distant Barkovis. "Surethere's nothing on this beam? If it should be hot and I should shortcircuit or bridge it with my body, it would be just too bad. "

"We have made sure that nothing is connected to it, " the Titanianassured him. "Do you think you can do anything?"

"Absolutely. We've got jacks that'll bend heavier stuff than that, andafter we get it straightened the welding will be easy, but I'll haveto have some metal. Shall I cut a piece off the pavement outside?"

"That will not be necessary. You will find ample stores of space metalpiled at the base of each pillar. "

"All x. Now we'll get the jack, Nadia, " and they went back to theirvessel, finding that upon Saturn, their combined strength was barelysufficient to drag the heavy tool along the floor. 

"Stand aside, please. We will place it for you, " a calm voice sounded intheir ears, and a pale blue tractor beam picked the massive jack lightlyfrom the floor, and as lightly lifted it to its place beneath the brokenbus-bar and held it there while Stevens piled blocks and plates ofplatinum beneath its base. 

"Well, here's where I peel down as far as the law allows. This is goingto be real work, girl--no fooling. It'd help a lot if this outfit weresending out a few thousand kilo-franks instead of standing idle. "

"How would that help?"

"It's a heat-engine, you know--works by absorbing heat. The cold airsinks--I imagine it pretty nearly blows a gale down the side of thiscone when it's working--and hot air rushes in to take its place. I coulduse a little cool breeze right now, " and Stevens, stripped to the waist, bent to the lever of the powerful hydraulic jack. 

Beads of sweat gathered upon his broad back, uniting to form tinyrivulets, and the girl became highly concerned about him. 

"Let me help you, Steve--I'm pretty husky, too, you know. "

"Sure you are, ace, but this is a job for a truck-horse, not atenderly-nurtured maiden of the upper classes. You can help, though, bybreaking out that welding outfit and getting it ready while I'm doingthis bending to prepare for the welding. "

Under the urge of that mighty jack the ends of the broken bus-bar roseinto place, while far off in space the Titanians clustered about theirvisiray screens, watching, in almost unbelieving amazement, thesupernatural being who labored in that reeking inferno of heat andpoisonous vapor--who labored almost naked and entirely unprotected, refreshing himself from time to time with drafts of molten water!

"All x, Barkovis--that's high, I guess. " Stevens flipped perspirationfrom his hot forehead with a wet finger and straightened his weary back. "Now you can put this jack away where we had it. Then you might trundleme over enough of that spare metal to fill up this hole, and I'll put onmy suit and goggles and practice welding on this floor and the roof, toget the feel of the metal before I tackle the bar. "

The hole in the floor was filled with scrap and soon sparks were flyingwildly as the searing beam of Stevens' welding projector bit viciouslyinto the stubborn alloy of noble metals; fashioning a smooth, solidfloor where the yawning aperture had been. Then, lifted with his toolsand plates to the roof, the man repaired that hole also. 

"Now I know enough about it to do a good job on the bar, " he decided, and brick after brick of alloy was fused into the crack, until only asmoothly rounded bulge betrayed that a break had ever existed in thatmighty rod of metal. 

"Give 'em the signal to draw power, and see if that's all that was thematter, " Stevens instructed, as he relaxed in the grateful coolness oftheir control room. "Whew, that was a warm job, Nadia--and this air ofours does smell good!"

 * * * * *

"It was a horrible job, and I'm glad it's done, " she declared. "But say, Steve, that thing looks as little like a power-plant as anything I canimagine. How does it work? You said that it worked on heat, but I don'tquite see how. But don't draw diagrams and _please_ don't integrate!"

"No ordinary plant such as we use could run for centurieswithout attention, " he replied. "This is a highly advancedheat-engine--something like a thermo-couple, you know. This whole thingis simply the hot end, connected to the cold end on Titan by a beaminstead of wires. When it's working, this metal must cool off somethingfierce. That's what the checkerwork and fins are for--so that it canabsorb the maximum amount of heat from the current of hot, moist airI spoke about. It's a sweet system--we'll have to rig up one betweenTellus and the moon. Or even between the Equator and the Arctic Circlethere'd be enough thermal differential to give us a million kilofranks. We haven't got the all x signal yet, but it's working--look at it sweatas it cools down!"

"I'll say it's sweating--the water is simply streaming off it!" In theirplate they saw that moisture was already beginning to condense upon theheat-absorber: moisture running down the fins in streams and creepingover the dull metal floor in sluggish sheets; moisture which, turninginto ice in the colder interior of the checkerwork, again became fluidat the inrush of hot, wet Saturnian air. 

"There's the signal--all x, Barkovis? By the way it's condensing water, it seems to be functioning again. "

"Perfect!" came the Titanian's enthusiastic reply, "You twoplanet-dwellers have done more in three short hours than the entireforce of Titan could have accomplished in months. You have earned, andshall receive, the highest.... "

"As you were, ace!" Stevens interrupted, embarrassed. "This job was justlike shooting fish down a well, for us. Since you saved our lives, weowe you a lot yet. We're coming out--straight up!"

The _Forlorn Hope_ shot upward, through mile after mile of steaming fog, until at last she broke through into the light, clear outer atmosphere. Stevens located the Titanian space-ship, and the two vessels once morehurtling together through the ether toward Titan, he turned to hiscompanion. 

"Take the controls, will you, Nadia? Think I'll finish up the tube. Ibrought along a piece of platinum from the power plant, and somethingthat I think is tantalum from Barkovis' description of it. With thoseand the fractions we melted out, I think I can make everything we'llneed. "

Now that he had comparatively pure metal with which to work, drawingthe leads and filaments was relatively a simple task. Working overthe hot-bench with torch and welding projector, he made short work ofrunning the leads through the almost plastic glass of the great tube andof sealing them in place. The plates and grids presented more seriousproblems; but they were solved and, long before Titan was reached, thetube was out in space, supported by a Titanian tractor beam between thetwo vessels. Stevens came into the shop, holding a modified McLeod gaugewhich he had just taken from the interior of the tube. When it had cometo equilibrium, he read it carefully and yelled. 

"Eureka, little fellow! She's down to where I can't read it, even onthis big gauge--so hard that it won't need flashing--harder than anyvacuum I ever got on Tellus, even with a Rodebush-Michalek super-pump!"

"But how about occluded and absorbed gas in the filaments and so on whenthey heat up?" demanded Nadia, practically. 

"All gone, ace. I out-gassed 'em plenty out there--seven times, almostto fusion. There isn't enough gas left in the whole thing to make a deepbreath for a microbe. "

He took up his welding projector and a beam carried him back to thetube. There, in the practically absolute vacuum of space, the lastopenings in the glass were sealed, and man and great transmitting tubewere wafted lightly back into the Terrestrial cruiser. 

Hour after hour mirrored Titanian sphere and crude-fashioned terrestrialwedge bored serenely on through space, and it was not until Titan loomedlarge beneath them that the calm was broken by an insistent call fromTitan to the sphere. 

"Barkodar, attention! Barkodar, attention!" screamed from the speakers, and they heard Barkovis acknowledge the call. 

"The Sedlor have broken through and are marching upon Titania. The orderhas gone out for immediate mobilization of every unit. "

"There's that word 'Sedlor' again--what are they, anyway, Steve?"demanded Nadia. 

"I don't know. I was going to ask him when he sprung it on us first, buthe was pretty busy then and I haven't thought of it since. Somethingpretty serious, though--they've jumped their acceleration almost toTellurian gravity, and none of them can live through much of that. "

"Tellurians?" came the voice of Barkovis from the speaker. "We havejust.... "

"All x--we were on your wave and heard it, " interrupted Stevens. "We'rewith you. What are those Sedlor, anyway? Maybe we can help you dope outsomething. "

"Perhaps--but whatever you do, do not use your heat-projector. Thatwould start a conflagration raging over the whole country, and we shallhave enough to do without fighting fire. But it may be that you haveother weapons, of which we are ignorant, and I can use a little time inexplanation before we arrive. The Sedlor are a form of life, somethinglike your... " he paused, searching through his scanty store of Earthlyknowledge, then went on, doubtfully, "perhaps some thing like yourinsects. They developed a sort of intelligence, and because of theirfecundity, adapted themselves to their environment as readily as didman; and for ages they threatened man's supremacy upon Titan. Theydevoured vegetation, crops, animals, and mankind. After a world-widecampaign, however, they were finally exterminated, save in theneighborhood of one great volcanic crater, which they so honeycombedthat it is almost impregnable. All around that district we have erectedbarriers of force, maintained by a corps of men known as 'Guardians ofthe Sedlor. ' These barriers extend so far into the ground and so highinto the air that the Sedlor can neither burrow beneath them nor flyover them. They were being advanced as rapidly as possible, and in afew more years the insects would have been destroyed completely--butnow they are again at large. They have probably developed an armor ora natural resistance greater than the Guardians thought possible, sothat when the walls were weakened, they came through in their millions, underground and undetected. They are now attacking our nearest city--theone you know, and which you have called Titania. "

"What do you use--those high-explosive bombs?"

"The bombs were developed principally for use against them, but provedworse than useless, for we found that when a Sedlor was blown to pieces, each piece forthwith developed into a new, complete creature. Our mostefficient weapons are our heat rays--not yours remember--and poison gas. I must prepare our arms. "

"Would our heat-ray actually set them afire, Steve?" Nadia asked, as theplate went blank. 

"I'll say it would. I'll show you what heat means to them--showingyou will be plainer than any amount of explanation, " and he shot thevisiray beam down toward the city of Titania. Into a low-lying buildingit went, and Nadia saw a Titanian foundry in full operation. Men cladin asbestos armor were charging, tending, and tapping great electricfurnaces and crucibles; shrinking back and turning their armored headsaway as the hissing, smoking melt crackled into the molds from theirlong-handled ladles. Nadia studied the foundry for a moment, interested, but unimpressed. 

"Of course it's hot there--foundries always _are_ hot, " she argued. 

"Yes, but you haven't got the idea yet. " Stevens turned again to thecontrols, following the sphere toward what was evidently a line ofbattle. "That stuff that they are melting and casting and that is sohot, is not metal, but _ice!_ Remember that the vital fluid of all lifehere, animal and vegetable, corresponding to our water, is probablymore inflammable than gasoline. If they can't work on ice-water withoutwearing suits of five-ply asbestos, what would a real heat-ray do tothem? It'd be about like our taking a dive into the sun!"

"_Ice_!" she exclaimed. "Oh of course--but you couldn't really believea thing like that without seeing it, could you? Oh, Steve--how utterlyhorrible!"

 * * * * *

The "Barkodar" had dropped down into a line of sister ships, and hadgone into action in midair against a veritable swarm of foes. Wingedcentipedes they were--centipedes fully six feet long, hurling themselvesalong the ground and through the air in furious hordes. From the flyingglobes emanated pale beams of force, at the touch of which the Sedlordisappeared in puffs of vapor. Upon the ground huge tractors and trucks, manned by masked soldiery, mounted mighty reflectors projecting the samelethal beam. From globes and tanks there sounded a drumming roar andsmall capsules broke in thousands among the foe; emitting a red cloud ofgas in which the centipedes shriveled and died. But for each one thatwas destroyed two came up from holes in the ground and the battle-linefell back toward Titania, back toward a long line of derrick-likestructures which were sinking force-rods into the ground in furioushaste. 

Stevens flashed on his ultra-violet projector and swung it into thethickest ranks of the enemy. In the beam many of the monsters died, but the Terrestrial ray was impotent compared with the weapons of theTitanians, and Stevens, snapping off the beam with a bitter imprecation, shot the visiray out toward the bare, black cone of the extinct volcanoand studied it with care. 

"Barkovis, I've got a thought!" he snapped into the microphone. "Theirstronghold is in that mountain, and there's millions of them in thereyet, coming out along their tunnels. They've got all the vegetationeaten away for miles, so there's nothing much left there to spread afire if I go to work on that hill, and, I'll probably melt enough waterto put out most of the fires I start. Detail me a couple of ships todrop your fire-foam bombs on any little blazes that may spread, and I'llgive them so much to worry about at home, that they'll forget all aboutTitania. "

The _Forlorn Hope_ darted toward the crater, followed closely by two ofthe dazzling globes. They circled the mountain until Stevens found afavorable point of attack--a stupendous vertical cliff of mingled rockand crystal, upon the base of which he trained his terrific infra-redprojector. 

"I'm going to draw a lot of power, " he warned the Titanians then. "I'mgiving this gun everything she'll take. "

He drove the massive switches in, and as that dull red beam struck thecliff's base there was made evident the awful effect of a concentratedbeam of real and pure heat upon such an utterly frigid world. Vastcolumns of fire roared aloft, helping Stevens, melting and destroyingthe very ground as the bodies of the Sedlor in that gigantic ant-heapburst into flames. Clouds of superheated steam roared upward, condensinginto a hot rain which descended in destructive torrents upon thefastnesses of the centipedes. As the raging beam ate deeper and deeperinto the base of the cliff, the mountain itself began to disintegrate;block after gigantic block breaking off and crashing down into theflaming, boiling, seething cauldron which was the apex of that raveningbeam. 

Hour after hour Stevens drove his intolerable weapon into the greatmountain, teeming with Sedlorean life; and hour after hour a group ofTitanian spheres stood by, deluging the surrounding plain with a floodof heavy fumes, through which the holocaust could not spread for lack ofoxygen. Not until the mountain was gone--not until in its stead therelay a furiously boiling lake, its flaming surface hundreds of feet belowthe level of the plain--did Stevens open his power circuits and pointthe deformed prow of the _Forlorn Hope_ toward Titania. 

CHAPTER VII

The Return to Ganymede

"Must you you go back to Ganymede?" Barkovis asked, slowly andthoughtfully. He was sitting upon a crystal bench beside the fountain, talking with Stevens, who, dressed in his bulging space-suit, stood nearan airlock of the _Forlorn Hope_. "It seems a shame that you should faceagain those unknown, monstrous creatures who so inexcusably attacked usboth without provocation. "

"I'm not so keen on it myself, but I can't see any other way out of it, "the Terrestrial replied. "We left a lot of our equipment there, youknow; and even if I should build duplicates here, it wouldn't do us anygood. These ten-nineteens are the most powerful transmitting tubes knownwhen we left Tellus, but even their fields, dense as they are, can'thold an ultra-beam together much farther than about six astronomicalunits. So you see we can't possibly reach our friends from here withthis tube; and your system of beam transmission won't hold anythingtogether even that far, and won't work on any wave shorter than Roeser'sRays. We may run into some more of those little spheres, though, and Idon't like the prospect. I wonder if we couldn't plate a layer of thatmirror of yours upon the _Hope_ and carry along a few of those bombs? Bythe way, what is that explosive--or is it something beyond Tellurianchemistry?"

"Its structure should be clear to you, although you probably could notprepare it upon Tellus because of your high temperature. It is nothingbut nitrogen--twenty-six atoms of nitrogen combined to form one moleculeof what you would call--N-twenty-six?"

"Wow!" Stevens whistled. "Crystalline, pentavalent nitrogen--no wonderit's violent!"

"We could, of course, cover your vessel with the mirror, but I am afraidthat it would prove of little value. The plates are so hot that it wouldsoon volatilize. "

"Not necessarily, " argued Stevens. "We could live in number onelife-boat, and shut off the heat everywhere else. The life-boats areinsulated from the structure proper, and the inner and outer walls ofthe structure are insulated from each other. With only the headquarterslifeboat warm, the outer wall could be held pretty close to zeroabsolute. "

"That is true. The bombs, of course, are controlled by radio, andtherefore may be attached to the outer wall of your vessel. We shall beglad to do these small things for you. "

The heaters of the _Forlorn Hope_ were shut off, and as soon as theouter shell had cooled to Titanian temperature, a corps of mechanics setto work. A machine very like a concrete mixer was rolled up beside thesteel vessel, and into its capacious maw were dumped boxes and barrelsof dry ingredients and many cans of sparkling liquid. The resultantpaste was pumped upon the steel plating in a sluggish, viscid stream, which spread out into a thick and uniform coating beneath the flyingrollers of the skilled Titanian workmen. As it hardened, the pastesmoothed magically into the perfect mirror which covered thespace-vessels of the satellite; and a full dozen of the mirror explosivebombs of this strange people were hung in the racks already provided. 

"Once again I must caution you concerning those torpedoes, " Barkoviswarned Stevens. "If you use them all, very well, but do not try to takeeven one of them into any region where it is very hot, for it willexplode and demolish your vessel. If you do not use them, destroy thembefore you descend into the hot atmosphere of Ganymede. The mirror willvolatilize harmlessly at the temperature of melting mercury, but thetorpedoes must be destroyed. Once more, Tellurians, we thank you forwhat you have done, and wish you well. "

"Thanks a lot for _your_ help--we still owe you something, " repliedStevens. "If either of your power-plants go sour on you again, or ifyou need any more built, be sure to let us know--you can come closeenough to the inner planets now on your own beam to talk to us on theultra-communicator. We'll be glad to help you any way we can--and we maycall on you for help again. Goodbye, Barkovis--goodbye, all Titania!"

He made his way through the bitterly cold shop into the control-room oftheir lifeboat, and while he was divesting himself of his heavy suit, Nadia lifted the _Forlorn Hope_ into the blue-green sky of Titan, accompanied by an escort of the mirrored globes. Well clear of theatmosphere of the satellite, the terrestrial cruiser shot forward atnormal acceleration, while the Titanian vessels halted and wove apattern of blue and golden rays in salute to the departing guests. 

"Well, Nadia, we're off--on a long trek, too. "

"Said Wun Long Hop, the Chinese pee-lo, " Nadia agreed. "Sureeverything's all x, big boy?"

"To nineteen decimals, " he declared. "You couldn't squeeze another frankinto our accumulators with a proof-bar, and since they're sending us allthe power we want to draw, we won't need to touch our batteries or tapour own beam until we're almost to Jupiter. To cap the climax, what ittakes to make big medicine on those spherical friends of ours, we'vegot. We're not sitting on top of the world, ace--we've perched exactlyat the apex of the entire universe!"

"How long is it going to take?"

"Don't know. Haven't figured it yet, but it'll be _beaucoup_ days, " andthe two wanderers from far-distant Earth settled down to the routine ofa long and uneventful journey. 

They gave Saturn and his spectacular rings a wide berth and sped on, with ever-increasing velocity. Past the outer satellites, on and on, the good ship _Forlorn Hope_ flew into the black-and-brilliant depths ofinterplanetary space. Saturn was an ever-diminishing disk beneath them:above them was Jupiter's thin crescent, growing ever larger and morebright, and the Monarch of the Solar System, remaining almost stationaryday after day, increasing steadily in apparent diameter and inbrilliance. 

 * * * * *

Although the voyage from Titan to Ganymede was long, it was notmonotonous, for there was much work to be done in the designing andfabrication of the various units which were to comprise the ultra-radiotransmitting station. In the various compartments of the _Forlorn Hope_there were sundry small motors, blowers, coils, condensers, force-fieldgenerators, and other items which Stevens could use with little or noalteration; but for the most part he had to build everything himself. Thus it was that time passed quickly; so quickly that Jupiter loomedlarge and the Saturnian beam of power began to attenuate almost beforethe Terrestrials realized that their journey was drawing to an end. 

"Our beam's falling apart fast, " Stevens read his meters carefully, thenswung his communicator beam toward Jupiter. "We aren't getting quiteenough power to hold our acceleration at normal--think I'll cut now, while we're still drawing enough to let the Titanians know we're offtheir beam. We've got lots of power of our own now; and we're gettingpretty close to enemy territory, so they may locate that heavy beam. Have you found Ganymede yet?"

"Yes, it will be on the other side of Jupiter by the time we get there. Shall I detour, or put on a little more negative and wait for it to comearound to this side?"

"Better wait, I think. The farther away we stay from Jupiter and themajor satellites, the better. "

"All x--it's on. Suppose we'd better start standing watches, in casesome of them show up?"

"No use, " he dissented. "I've been afraid to put out ourelectro-magnetic detectors, as they could surely trace them in use. Without them, we couldn't spot an enemy ship even if we were lookingright at it, except by accident; since they won't be lighted up andit's awfully hard to see anything out here, anyway. We probably won'tknow they're within a million kilometers until they put a beam on us. Barkovis says that this mirror will reflect any beam they can use, andI've already got a set of photo-cells in circuit to ring an alarm atthe first flash off of our mirror plating. I'd like to get in the firstlicks myself, but I haven't been able to dope out any way of doing it. So you might as well sleep in your own room, as usual, and I'll camphere right under the panel until we get to Ganymede. There's a coupleof little things I just thought of, though, that may help some; andI'm going to do 'em right now. "

Putting on his space-suit, he picked up a power drill and went out intothe bitter cold of the outer structure. There he attacked the innerwall of their vessel, and the carefully established inter-wall vacuumdisappeared in a screaming hiss of air as the tempered point bit throughplate after plate. 

"What's the idea, Steve?" Nadia asked, when he had re-entered thecontrol room. "Now you'll have all that pumping to do over again. "

"Protection for the mirrors, " he explained. "You see, they aren'tperfect reflectors. There's a little absorption, so that some stuffcomes through. Not much, of course; but enough to kill some of thoseTitanians and almost enough to ruin their ship got through in about tenminutes, and only one enemy was dealing it out. We can stand more thanthey could, of course, but the mirror itself won't stand much more heatthan it was absorbing then. But with air in those spaces instead ofvacuum, and with the whole mass of the _Hope_, except this one lifeboat, as cold as it is, I figure that there'll be enough conduction andconvection through them to keep the outer wall and the mirror cold--coolenough, at least, to hold the mirror on for an hour. If only one shiptackles us, it won't be bad--but I figure that if there's only one, we're lucky. "

 * * * * *

Stevens' fears were only too well grounded, for during the "evening" ofthe following day, while he was carefully scanning the heavens for somesign of enemy craft, the alarm bell over his head burst into its brazenclamor. Instantly he shot out the detectors and ultra-lights and saw notone, but six of the deadly globes--almost upon them, at point-blankrange! One was already playing a beam of force upon the _Forlorn Hope_, and the other five went into action immediately upon feeling thedetector impulses and perceiving that the weapon of their sister shiphad encountered an unusual resistance in the material of that peculiarlymirrored wedge. As those terrific forces struck her, the terrestrialcruiser became a vast pyrotechnic set piece, a dazzling fountain ofcoruscant brilliance: for the mirror held. The enemy beams shot backupon themselves and rebounded in all directions, in the same spectacularexhibition of frenzied incandescence which had marked the resistance ofthe Titanian sphere to a similar attack. 

But Stevens was not idle. In the instant of launching his detectors, as fast as he could work the trips, four of the frightful nitrogenbombs of Titan--all that he could handle at once--shot out into space, their rocket-tubes flaring viciously. The enemy detectors of courselocated the flying torpedoes immediately, but, contemptuous of materialprojectiles, the spheres made no attempt to dodge, but merely lashed outupon them with their ravening rays. So close was the range that theyhad no time to avoid the radio-directed bombs after discovering thattheir beams were useless against the unknown protective covering ofthose mirrored shells. There were four practically simultaneousdetonations--silent, but terrific explosions as the pent-up internalenergy of solid pentavalent nitrogen was instantaneously released--andthe four insensately murderous spheres disappeared into jagged fragmentsof wreckage, flying wildly away from the centers of explosion. One greatmass of riven and twisted metal was blown directly upon the fifth globe, and Nadia stared in horrified fascination at the silent crash as theentire side of the ship crumpled inward like a shell of cardboard underthe awful impact. That vessel was probably out of action, but Stevenswas taking no chances. As soon as he had clamped a pale blue tractor rodupon the sixth and last of the enemy fleet, he drove a torpedo throughthe gaping wall and into the interior of the helpless war-vessel. Therehe exploded it, and the awful charge, detonated in that confined space, literally tore the globular space-ship to bits. 

"We'll show these jaspers what kind of trees make shingles!" he grittedbetween clenched teeth; and his eyes, hard now as gray iron, fairlyemitted sparks as he launched four torpedoes upon the sole remainingglobe of the squadron of the void. "I've had a lot of curiosity to knowjust what kind of unnatural monstrosities can possibly have suchfiendish dispositions as they've got--but beasts, men or devils, they'llfind they've grabbed something this time they can't let go of, " andfierce blasts of energy ripped from the exhausts as he drove hismissiles, at their highest possible acceleration, toward the captivesphere so savagely struggling at the extremity of his tractor beam. 

But that one remaining vessel was to prove no such easy victim as hadits sister ships. Being six to one, and supposedly invincible, thesquadron had been overconfident and had attacked carelessly, with onlyits crippling slicing beams instead of its more deadly weapons of totaldestruction; and so fierce and hard had been Stevens' counter-attackthat five of its numbers had been destroyed before they realized whatpowerful armament was mounted by that apparently crude, helpless, and innocuous wedge. The sixth, however, was fully warned, and everyresource at the command of its hellish crew was now being directedagainst the _Forlorn Hope_. 

Sheets, cones, and gigantic rods of force flashed and crackled. Spacewas filled with silent, devastating tongues of flame. The _ForlornHope_ was dragged about erratically as the sphere tried to dodge thosehurtling torpedoes; tried to break away from the hawser of energyanchoring her so solidly to her opponent. But the linkage held, andcloser and closer Stevens drove the fourfold menace of his frightfuldirigible bombs. Pressor beams beat upon them in vain. Hard driven asthose pushers were, they could find no footing, but were reflected atmany angles by that untouchable mirror and their utmost force scarcelyimpeded the progress of the rocket-propelled missiles. Comparativelysmall as the projectiles were, however, they soon felt the effects ofthe prodigious beams of heat enveloping them, and torpedo after torpedoexploded harmlessly in space as their mirrors warmed up and volatilized. But for each bomb that was lost, Stevens launched another, and each onecame closer to its objective than had its predecessor. 

Made desperate by the failure of his every beam, the enemy commanderthought to use material projectiles himself--weapons abandoned longsince by his race as antiquated and inefficient, but a few of which werestill carried by the older types of vessels. One such shell was foundand launched--but in the instant of its launching Stevens' foremost bombstruck its mark and exploded. So close were the other three bombs, thatthey also let go at the shock; and the warlike sphere, hemmed in by fourcenters of explosions, flew apart--literally pulverized. Its projectile, so barely discharged, did not explode--it was loaded with material whichcould be detonated only by the warhead upon impact or by a radio signal. It was, however, deflected markedly from its course by the force of theblast, so that instead of striking the _Forlorn Hope_ in direct centralimpact, its head merely touched the apex of the mirror-plated wedge. That touch was enough. There was another appalling concussion, anotherblinding glare, and the entire front quarter of the terrestrial vesselhad gone to join the shattered globes. 

Between the point of explosion and the lifeboats there had been manychannels of insulation, many bulkheads, many air-breaks, and compartmentafter compartment of accumulator cells. These had borne the brunt of theexplosion, so that the control room was unharmed, and Stevens swung hiscommunicator rapidly through the damaged portions of the vessels. 

"How badly are we hurt, Steve--can we make it to Ganymede?"

Nadia was quietly staring over his shoulder into the plate, studyingwith him the pictures of destruction there portrayed as he flashed theprojector from compartment to compartment. 

"We're hurt--no fooling--but it might have been a lot worse, " hereplied, as he completed the survey. "We've lost about all of ouraccumulators, but we can land on our own beam, and landing power is allwe want, I think. You see, we're drifting straight for where Ganymedewill be, and we'd better cut out every bit of power we're using, eventhe heaters, until we get there. This lifeboat will hold heat for quitea while, and I'd rather get pretty cold than meet any more of that gang. I figured eight hours just before they met us, and we were just aboutdrifting then. I think it is safe to say seven hours blind. "

"But can't they detect us anyway? They may have sent out a call, youknow. "

"If we aren't using any power for anything, their electr-omagnetics arethe only things we'll register on, and they're mighty short-rangefinders. Even if they should get that close to us, they'll probablythink we're meteoric, since we'll be dead to their other instruments. Luckily we've got lots of air, so the chemical purifiers can handle itwithout power. I'll shut off everything and we'll drift it. Couldn't domuch of anything, anyway--even our shop out there won't hold air. But wecan have light. We've got acetylene emergency lamps, you know, and wedon't need to economize on oxygen. "

"Perhaps we'd better run in the dark. Remember what you told me abouttheir possible visirays, and that you've got only two bombs left. "

"All x; that would be better. If I forget it, remind me to blow up thosebefore we hit the atmosphere of Ganymede, will you?" He opened all thepower switches, and, every source of ethereal vibrations cut off, the_Forlorn Hope_ drifted slowly on, now appearing forlorn indeed. 

 * * * * *

Seven hours dragged past: seven age-long hours during which the two sattense, expecting they knew not what, talking only at intervals and insubdued tones. Stevens then snapped on the communicator beam just longenough to take an observation upon Ganymede. Several such brief glimpseswere taken; then, after a warning word to his companion, he sent out andexploded the nitrogen bombs. He then threw on the power, and the vesselleaped toward the satellite under full acceleration. Close to theatmosphere it slanted downward in a screaming, fifteen-hundred-miledrive; and soon the mangled wedge dropped down into the little canyon, which for so long had been "home. "

"Well, colonel, home again!" Stevens exulted as he neutralized thecontrols. "There's that falls, our power plant, the catapults, 'n'everything. Now, unless something interrupts us again; we'll run upour radio tower and give Brandon the long yell. "

"How much more have you got to do before you can start sending?"

"Not an awful lot. Everything built--all I've got to do is assembleit. I should be able to do it easily in a week. Hope nothing elsehappens--if I drag you into any more such messes as those we've justbeen getting out of by the skin of our teeth, I'll begin to wish thatwe had started out at first to drift it back to Tellus in the _Hope_. Let's see how much time we've got. We should start shooting one dayafter an eclipse, so that we'll have five days to send. You see, wedon't want to point our beam too close to Jupiter or to any of the largesatellites, because the enemy might live there and might intercept it. We had an eclipse yesterday--so one week from today, at sunrise, Istart shooting. "

"But Earth's an evening star now; you can't see it in the morning. "

"I'm not going to aim at Tellus. I'm shooting at Brandon, and he's neverthere for more than a week or two at a stretch. They're prowling aroundout in space somewhere almost all the time. "

"Then how can you possibly hope to hit them?"

"It may be quite a job of hunting, but not as bad as you might think. They probably aren't much, if any, outside the orbit of Mars, andthey usually stay within a couple of million kilometers or so of theEcliptic, so we'll start at the sun and shoot our beam in a spiralto cover that field. We ought to be able to hit them inside of twelvehours, but if we don't, we'll widen our spiral and keep on trying untilwe do hit them. "

"Heavens, Steve! Are you planning on telegraphing steadily for days ata time?"

"Sure, but not by hand, of course--I'll have an automatic sender andautomatic pointers. "

Stevens had at his command a very complete machine-shop, he had an amplesupply of power, and all that remained for him to do was to assemble theparts which he had built during the long journey from Titan to Ganymede. Therefore, at sunrise of the designated day, he was ready, and, withNadia hanging breathless over his shoulder, he closed the switch, atoothed wheel engaged a delicate interrupter, and a light sounder beganits strident chatter. 

"Ganymede point oh four seven ganymede point oh four seven ganymedepoint oh four seven... " endlessly the message was poured out into theether, carried by a tight beam of ultra-vibrations and driven by forcessufficient to propel it well beyond the opposite limits of the orbitof Mars. 

"What does it say? I can't read code. "

Stevens translated the brief message, but Nadia remained unimpressed. 

"But it doesn't say anything!" she protested. "It isn't addressed toanybody, it isn't signed--it doesn't tell anybody anything aboutanything. "

"It's all there, ace. You see, since the beam is moving sidewise veryrapidly at that range and we're shooting at a small target, the messagehas to be very short or they won't get it all while the beam's on'em--it isn't as though we were broadcasting. It doesn't need anyaddress, because nobody but the _Sirius_ can receive it--except possiblythe Jovians. They'll know who's sending it without any signature. Ittells them that Ganymede wants to receive a message on the ultra-bandcentering on forty-seven thousandths. Isn't that enough?"

"Maybe. But suppose some of them live right here on Ganymede--you'llbe shooting right through the ground all night--or suppose that even ifthey don't live here, that they can find our beam some way? Or supposethat Brandon hasn't got his machine built yet, or suppose that it isn'tturned on when our beam passes them, or suppose they're asleep then?A lot of things might happen. "

"Not so many, ace--your first objection is the only one that hasn't gotmore holes in it than a sieve, so I'll take it first. Since our beam isonly a meter in diameter here and doesn't spread much in the first fewmillion kilometers, the chance of direct reception by the enemy, evenif they do live here on Ganymede, is infinitesimally small. But I don'tbelieve that they live here--at least, they certainly didn't land onthis satellite. As you suggest, however, it is conceivable that they mayhave detector screens delicate enough to locate our beam at a distance;but since in all probability that means a distance of hundreds ofthousands of kilometers, I think it highly improbable. We've got to takethe same risk anyway, no matter what we do, whenever we start to use anykind of driving power, so there's no use worrying about it. As for yourlast two objections, I know Brandon and I know Westfall. Brandon willhave receivers built that will take in any wave possible of propagation, and Westfall, the cautious old egg, will have them running twenty-fourhours a day, with automatic recorders, finders, and everything else thatBrandon can invent--and believe me, sweetheart, that's a lot of stuff!"

"It's wonderful, the way you three men are, " replied Nadia thoughtfully, reading between the lines of Stevens' utterance. "They knew that youwere on the _Arcturus_, of course--and they knew that if you were aliveyou'd manage in some way to get in touch with them. And you, away outhere after all this time, are superbly confident that they are expectinga call from you. That, I think, is one of the finest things I ever heardof. "

"They're two of the world's best--absolutely. " Nadia looked at him, surprised, for he had not seen anything complimentary to himself in herremark. "Wait until you meet them. They're men, Nadia--real men. Andspeaking of meeting them--please try to keep on loving me after you meetNorm Brandon, will you?"

"Don't be a simp!" her brown eyes met his steadily. "You didn't meanthat--you didn't even say it, did you?"

"Back it comes, sweetheart! But knowing myself and knowing thosetwo.... "

"Stop it! If Norman Brandon or Quincy Westfall had been here insteadof you, or both of them together, we'd have been here from now on--wewouldn't even have gotten away from the Jovians!"

 * * * * *

"Now it's your turn to back water, guy!"

"Well, maybe, a little--if both of them were here, they ought to equalyou in some things. Brandon says himself that he and Westfall togethermake one scientist--Dad says he says so. "

"You don't want to believe everything you hear. Neither of them willadmit that he knows anything or can do anything--that's the way theyare. "

"Dad has told me a lot about them--how they've always been togetherever since their undergraduate days. How they studied together all overthe world, even after they'd been given all the degrees loose. Howthey even went to the other planets to study--to Mars, where they hadto live in space-suits all the time, and to Venus, where they had totake ultra-violet treatments every day to keep alive. How they learnedeverything that everybody else knew and then went out into space to findout things that nobody else ever dreamed of. How you came to join them, and what you three have done since. They're fine, of course--but theyaren't _you_, " she concluded passionately. 

"No, thank Heaven! I know you love me, Nadia, just as I love you--youknow I never doubted it. But you'll like them, really. They're awonderful team. Brandon's a big brute, you know--fully five centimeterstaller than I am, and he weighs close to a hundred kilograms--and nolard, either. He's wild, impetuous, always jumping at conclusions andworking out theories that seem absolutely ridiculous, but they'reusually sound, even though impractical. Westfall's the practicalmember--he makes Norm pipe down, pins him down to facts, and makes itpossible to put his hunches and wild flashes of genius into workableform. Quince is a.... "

"Now _you_ pipe down! I've heard you rave _so_ much about those two--I'dlots rather rave about you, and with more reason. I wish that sounderwould start sounding. "

"Our first message hasn't gone half way yet. It takes about fortyminutes for the impulse to get to where I think they are, so that evenif they got the first one and answered it instantly, it would be eightyminutes before we'd get it. I sort of expect an answer late tonight, butI won't be disappointed if it takes a week to locate them. "

"I will!" declared the girl, and indeed, very little work was done thatday by either of the castaways. 

Slowly the day wore on, and the receiving sounder remained silent. Supper was eaten as the sun dropped low and disappeared, but they feltno desire to sleep. Instead, they went out in front of the steel wall, where Stevens built a small campfire. Leaning back against the wall oftheir vessel, they fell into companionable silence, which was suddenlybroken by Stevens. 

"Nadia, I just had a thought. I'll bet four dollars I've wasted a lot oftime. They'll certainly have automatic relays on Tellus, to save me thetrouble of hunting for them, but like an idiot I never thought of ituntil just this minute, in spite of the speech I made you about them. I'm going to change those directors right now. "

"That's quite a job, isn't it?"

"No, only a few minutes. "

"Do it in the morning; you've done enough for one day--maybe you've hitthem already, any way. "

They again became silent, watching Jupiter, an enormous moon some sevendegrees in apparent diameter. 

"Steve, I simply can't get used to such a prodigious moon! Look at thestripes, and look at that perfectly incredible.... "

A gong sounded and they both jumped to their feet and raced madly intothe _Hope_. The ultra-receiver had come to life and the sounder waschattering insanely--someone was sending with terrific speed, but withperfect definition and spacing. 

"That's Brandon's fist--I'd know his style anywhere, " Stevens shouted, as he seized notebook and pencil. 

"Tell me what it says, quick, Steve!" Nadia implored. 

"Can't talk--read it!" Stevens snapped. His hand was flying over thepaper, racing to keep up with the screaming sounder. 

"... Ymede all x stevens ganymede all x stevens ganymede all x placingand will keep sirius on plane between you and tellus circle fifteenforty north going tellus first send full data spreading beam tocover circle fifteen forty quince suggests possibility this messageintercepted and translated personally I think such translationimpossible and that he is wilder than a hawk but just in case theyshould be supernaturally intelligent.... "

Stevens stopped abruptly and stared at the vociferous sounder. 

"Don't stop to listen--keep on writing!" commanded Nadia. 

"Can't, " replied the puzzled mathematician. "It doesn't make sense. Itsounds intelligent--it's made up of real symbols of some kind or other, but they don't mean a thing to me. "

"Oh, I see--he's sending mush on purpose. Read the last phrase!"

"Oh, sure--'mush' is right, " and with no perceptible break the signalsagain became intelligible. 

"... If they can translate that they are better scholars than we aresigning off until hear from you brandon. "

 * * * * *

The sounder died abruptly into silence and Nadia sobbed convulsivelyas she threw herself into Stevens' arms. The long strain over, theterrible uncertainty at last dispelled, they were both incoherent fora minute--Nadia glorifying the exploits of her lover, Stevens creditingthe girl herself and his two fellow-scientists with whatever success hadbeen achieved. A measure of self-control regained, Stevens cut off hisautomatic sender, changed the adjustments of his directors and cut inhis manually operated sending key. 

"What waves are you using, anyway?" asked Nadia, curiously. "They mustbe even more penetrating than Roeser's Rays, to have such a range, andRoeser's Rays go right through a planet without even slowing up. "

"They're of the same order as Roeser's--that is, they're sub-electronicwaves of the fourth order--but they're very much shorter, and hence morepenetrating. In fact, they're the shortest waves yet known, so shortthat Roeser never even suspected their existence. "

"Suppose there's a Jovian space-ship out there somewhere that interceptsour beams. Couldn't they locate us from it?"

"Maybe, and maybe not--we'll just have to take a chance on that. Thatgoes right back to what we were talking about this morning. They mightbe anywhere, so the chance of hitting one is very small. It isn't likehitting the _Sirius_, because we knew within pretty narrow limits whereto look for her, and even at that we had to hunt for her for half a daybefore we hit her. We're probably safe, but even if they should havelocated us, we'll probably be able to hide somewhere until the _Sirius_gets here. Well, the quicker I get busy sending the dope, the soonerthey can get started. "

"Tell them to be sure and bring me all my clothes they can find, a gallon of perfume, a barrel of powder, and a carload of Delray'sFantasie chocolates--I've been a savage so long that I want to wallowin luxury for a while. "

"I'll do that--and I want some real cigarettes!"

Stevens first sent a terse, but complete account of everything that hadhappened to the _Arcturus_, and a brief summary of what he and Nadiahad done since the cutting up of the IPV. The narrative finished, helaunched into a prolonged and detailed scientific discussion of theenemy and their offensive and defensive weapons. He dwelt precisely andat length upon the functioning of everything he had seen. Though duringthe long months of their isolation he had been too busy to do any actualwork upon the weapons of the supposed Jovians, yet his keen mind hadevolved many mathematical and physical deductions, hypotheses, andtheories, and these he sent out to the _Sirius_, concluding:

"There's all the dope I can give you. Figure it out, and don't come atall until you can come loaded for bear; they're bad medicine. Call usoccasionally, to keep us informed as to when to expect you, but don'tcall too often. We don't want them locating you, and if they shouldlocate us through your ray or ours, it would be just too bad. So-long. Stevens and Newton. "

Nadia had insisted upon staying up and had been brewing pot after potof her substitutes for coffee while he sat at the key; and it wasalmost daylight when he finally shut off the power and arose, hisright arm practically paralyzed from the unaccustomed strain of hoursof telegraphing. 

"Well, sweetheart, that's that!" he exclaimed in relief. "Brandon andWestfall are on the job. Nothing to do now but wait, and study up on ourown account on those Jovians' rays. This has been one long day for us, though, little ace, and I suggest that we sleep for about a week!"

CHAPTER VIII

Callisto to the Rescue

All humanity of Callisto, the fourth major satellite of Jupiter, had for many years been waging a desperate and apparently hopelessdefense against invading hordes of six-limbed beings. Every city andtown had long since been reduced to level fields of lava by the raysof the invaders. Every building and every trace of human civilizationhad long since disappeared from the surface of the satellite. Farbelow the surface lay the city of Zbardk, the largest of the fewremaining strongholds of the human race. At one portal of the city atorpedo-shaped, stubby-winged rocket plane rested in the carriage of acatapult. Near it the captain addressed briefly the six men normallycomposing his crew. 

"Men, you already know that our cruise today is not an ordinary patrol. We are to go to One, there to destroy a base of the hexans. We haveperhaps one chance in ten thousand of returning. Therefore I am takingonly one man--barely enough to operate the plane. Volunteers step onepace forward. "

The six stepped forward as one man, and a smile came over the wornface of their leader as he watched them draw lots for the privilege ofaccompanying him to probable death. The two men entered the body of thetorpedo, sealed the openings and waited. 

"Free exits?" snapped the Captain of the Portal, and twelve keen-eyedobservers studied minutely screens and instrument panels connected tothe powerful automatic lookout stations beneath the rims of the widelyseparated volcanic craters from which their craft could issue intoCallisto's somber night. 

"No hexan radiation can be detected from Exit Eight, " came the report. The Captain of the Portal raised an arm in warning, threw in the guides, and the two passengers were hurled violently backward, deep into theircushioned seats, as the catapult shot their plane down the runway. Asthe catapult's force was spent automatic trips upon the undercarriageactuated the propelling rockets and mile after mile, with rapidlymounting velocity, the plane sped through the tube. As the exit wasapproached, the tunnel described a long vertical curve, so that when theopening into the shaft of the crater was reached and the undercarriagewas automatically detached, the vessel was projected almost verticallyupward. Such was its velocity and so powerful was the liquid propellantof its rocket motors, that the eye could not follow the flight of thewarship as it tore through the thin layer of the atmosphere and hurleditself out into the depths of space. 

"Did we get away?" asked the captain, hands upon his controls and eyesupon his moving chart of space. 

"I believe so, sir, " answered the other officer, at the screens of thesix periscopic devices which covered the full sphere of vision. "Noreports from the rim, and all screens blank. " Once more a vessel hadissued from the jealously secret city of Zbardk without betraying itsexistence to the hated and feared hexans. 

For a time the terrific rocket motors continued the deafening roar oftheir continuous explosions, then, the desired velocity having beenattained, they were cut out and for hours the good ship "Bzark" hurtledon through the void at an enormous but constant speed toward the distantworld of One, which it was destined never to reach. 

"Captain Czuv! Hexan radiation, coordinates twenty two, fourteen, areasix!" cried the observer, and the commander swung his own telescopicfinder into the indicated region. His hands played over course anddistance plotters for a brief minute, and he stared at his results inastonishment. 

"I never heard of a hexan traveling that way before, " he frowned. "Constant negative acceleration and in a straight line. He must thinkthat we have been cleared out of the ether. Almost parallel to us andnot much faster--even at this long range, it is an easy kill unlesshe starts dodging, as usual. "

As he spoke, he snapped a switch and from a port under the starboardwing there shot out into space a small package of concentrateddestruction--a rocket-propelled, radio-controlled torpedo. The rocketsof the tiny missile were flaming, but that flame was visible only fromthe rear and no radio beam was upon it. Czuv had given it precisely thedirection and acceleration necessary to make it meet the hexan spherein central impact, provided that sphere maintained its course andacceleration unchanged. 

"Shall I direct the torpedo in the case the hexan shifts?" asked theofficer. 

"I think not. They can, of course, detect any wave at almost anydistance, and at the first sign of radioactivity they would locate anddestroy the bomb. They also, in all probability, would destroy us. Iwould not hesitate to attack them on that account alone, but we mustremember that we are upon a more important mission than attacking onehexan ship. We are far out of range of their electro-magnetic detectors, and our torpedo will have such a velocity that they will have no time toprotect themselves against it after detection. Unless they shift in thenext few seconds, they are lost. This is the most perfect shot I everhad at one of them, but one shot is all I dare risk--we must not betrayourselves. "

 * * * * *

Course, lookout, and rank forgotten, the little crew of two staredinto the narrow field of vision, set at its maximum magnification. Theinstruments showed that the enemy vessel was staying upon its originalcourse. Very soon the torpedo came within range of the detectors of thehexans. But as Captain Czuv had foretold, the detection was a fractionof a second too late, rapidly as their screens responded, and the twomen of Zbardk uttered together a short, fierce cry of joy as a brilliantflash of light announced the annihilation of the hexan vessel. 

"But hold!" The observer stared into his screen. "Upon that same line, but now at constant velocity, there is still a very faint radiation, of a pattern I have never seen before. "

"I think ... I believe ... " the captain was studying the pattern, puzzled. "It must be low frequency, low-tension electricity, which isnever used, so far as I know. It may be some new engine of destruction, which the hexan was towing at such a distance that the explosion of ourtorpedo did not destroy it. Since there are no signs of hexan activityand since it will not take much fuel, we shall investigate thatradiation. "

Tail and port-side rockets burst into roaring activity and soon theplane was cautiously approaching the mass of wreckage, which had beenthe IPV _Arcturus_. 

"Human beings, although of some foreign species!" exclaimed the captain, as his vision-ray swept through the undamaged upper portion of the greatliner and came to rest upon Captain King at his desk. 

Although the upper ultra-lights of the Terrestrial vessel had beencut away by the hexan plane of force, jury lights had been rigged, and the two commanders were soon trying to communicate with eachother. Intelligible conversation was, of course, impossible, but Kingsoon realized that the visitors were not enemies. At their pantomimedsuggestion he put on a space-suit and wafted himself over to the airlockof the Callistonian warplane. Inside the central compartment, thestrangers placed over his helmet a heavily wired harness, and he foundhimself instantly in full mental communication with the Callistoniancommander. For several minutes they stood silent, exchanging thoughtswith a rapidity impossible in any language; then, dressed inspace-suits, both leaped lightly across the narrow gap into the stillopen outer lock of the terrestrial liner. King watched Czuv narrowlyafter the pressure began to collapse his suit, but the stranger madeno sign of distress. He had been right in his assurance that the extrapressure would scarcely inconvenience him. King tore off his helmet, issued a brief order, and soon every speaker in the _Arcturus_announced:

"All passengers and all members of the crew except lookouts on duty willassemble immediately in Saloon Three to discuss a possible immediaterescue. "

The subject being one of paramount interest, it was a matter of minutesuntil the full complement of two hundred men and women were in the mainsaloon, clinging to hastily rigged hand lines, closely packed before theraised platform upon which were King and Czuv, wired together with thepeculiar Callistonian harness. To most of the passengers, familiar withthe humanity of three planets, the appearance of the stranger broughtno surprise; but many of them stared in undisguised amazement at hischildish body, his pale, almost colorless skin, his small, weak legs andarms, and his massive head. 

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Captain King opened the meeting. "I introduce toyou Captain Czuv, of the scout cruiser _Bzarvk_, of the only human racenow living upon the fourth large satellite of Jupiter, which satellitewe know as Callisto. I am avoiding their own names as much as possible, because they are almost unpronounceable in English or Interplanetarian. This device that you see connecting us is a Callistonian thoughttransformer, by means of which any two intelligent beings can conversewithout language. Our situation is peculiar, and in order that you mayunderstand fully what lies ahead of us, the captain will now speak toyou, through me--that is, what follows will be spoken by Captain Czuv, of the _Bzarvk_, but he will be using my vocal organs. "

"Friends from distant Tellus, " King's voice went on, almost without abreak, "I greet you. I am glad, for your sake as well as our own, thatyour vessel was able to destroy the hexan ship holding you captive, andwhose crew would have killed you all as soon as they had landed yourvessel and had read your minds. I regret bitterly that we can do solittle for you, for only the representatives of a human civilizationbeing exterminated by a race of highly intelligent monsters can fullyrealize how desirable it is for all the various races of humanity toassist and support each other. In order that you may understand thesituation, it is necessary that I delve at some length into ancienthistory, but we have ample time. In about ... " he broke off, realizingthat the two races had no thought in common in the measure of time. 

"One-half time of rotation of Great Planet upon axis?" flashed fromCzuv's brain, and "About five hours, " King's mind flashed back. 

"It will be about five hours before any steps can be taken, so that Ifeel justified in using a brief period for explanation. In the evolutionof the various forms of life upon Callisto, two genera developedintelligence far ahead of all others. One genus was the human, as youand I; the other the hexan. This creature, happily unknown to you of theplanets nearer our common sun, is the product of an entirely differentevolution. It is a six-limbed animal, with a brain equal to our own--oneperhaps in some ways superior to our own. They have nothing in commonwith humanity, however; they have few of our traits and fewer of ourmental processes. Even we who have fought them so long can scarcelycomprehend the chambers of horror that are their minds. Even were I ableto paint a sufficiently vivid picture with words, you of Earth could notbegin to understand their utter ruthlessness and inhumanity, even amongthemselves. You would believe that I was lying, or that my viewpoint waswarped. I can say only that I hope most sincerely that none of you willever get better acquainted with them. "

 * * * * *

"Ages ago, then, the human and the hexan developed upon all four of themajor satellites of the Great Planet, which you know as Jupiter, andupon the north polar region of Jupiter itself. By what means the tworaces came into being upon worlds so widely separated in space we knownot--we only know it to be the fact. Human life, however, could not longendure upon Jupiter. The various human races, after many attempts tomeet conditions of life there by variations in type fell before thehexans; who, although very small in size upon the planet, thrived thereamazingly. Upon the three outer satellites humanity triumphed, and manyhundreds of cycles ago the hexans of those satellites were wiped out, save for an occasional tribe of savages of low intelligence who lived invarious undesirable portions of the three worlds. For ages then therewas peace upon Callisto. Here is the picture at that time--upon Jupiterthe hexans; upon Io hexans and humans, waging a ceaseless and relentlesswar of mutual extermination; upon the three outer satellites humanity inundisturbed and unthreatened peace. Five worlds, each ignorant of lifeupon any other. 

"As I have said, the hexans of Jupiter were, and are, diabolicallyintelligent. Driven probably by their desire to see what lay beyondtheir atmosphere of eternal cloud, to the penetration of which theireyesight was attuned, they developed the space-ship; and effected asafe landing, first upon the barren, airless moonlet nearest them, andthen upon fruitful Io. There they made common cause with the hexansagainst the humans, and in space of time Ionian humanity ceased to exist. Much traffic and interbreeding followed between the hexans of Jupiterand those of Io, resulting in time in a race intermediate in sizebetween the parent stocks and equally at home in the widely variant airpressures and gravities of planet and satellite. Soon their astronomicalinstruments revealed the cities of Europa to their gaze, and as soonas they discovered that the civilization of Europa was human, theydestroyed it utterly, with the insatiable blood lust that is theirheritage. 

"In the meantime the human civilizations of Ganymede and Callisto hadalso developed instruments of power. Observing the cities upon the othersatellites, many scientists studied intensively the problem of spacenavigation, and finally there was some commerce between the two outersatellites at favorable times. Finally, vessels were also sent to Ioand to Europa, but none of them returned. Knowing then what to expect, Ganymede and Callisto joined forces and prepared for war. But ourscience, so long attuned to the arts of peace, had fallen behindlamentably in the devising of more and ever more deadly instrumentsof destruction. Ganymede fell, and in her fall we read our own doom. Abandoning our cities, we built anew underground. Profiting from lessonslearned full bloodily upon Ganymede, we resolved to prolong theexistence of the human race as long as possible. 

"The hexans were, and are masters of the physical science. Theycommand the spectrum in a way undreamed of. Their detectors revealetheric disturbances at unbelievable distances, and they have at theirbeck and call forces of staggering magnitude. Therefore in our citiesis no electricity save that which is wired, shielded, and grounded;no broadcast radio; no source whatever of etheric disturbances savelight--and our walls are fields of force which we believe to beimpenetrable to any searching frequency capable of being generated. Now I am able to picture to you the present. 

"We are the last representatives of the human race in the Jovianplanetary system. Our every trace upon the surface has been obliterated. We are hiding in our holes in the ground, coming out at night by stealthso that our burrows shall not be revealed to the hexans. We are fightingfor time in which our scientists may learn the secrets of power--andfearing, each new day, that the enemy may have so perfected theirsystems of rays that they will be able to detect us and destroy us, evenin our underground and heavily shielded retreats, by means of forceseven more incomprehensible than those they are now employing. 

"Therefore, friends, you see how little we are able to do for you, wea race fighting for our very existence and doomed to extinction savefor a miracle. We cannot take you to Callisto, for it is besieged by thehexans and the driving forces of your lifeboats, practically broadcastas they are, would be detected and we should all be destroyed longbefore we could reach safety. Captain King and I have pondered long andhave been able to see only one course of action. We are drifting atconstant velocity, using no power, and with all save the most vitallynecessary machinery at rest. Thus only may we hope to avoid detectionduring the next two hours. 

"Our present course will take us very close to Europa, which the hexansbelieve to be like Ganymede, entirely devoid of civilized life. Itsoriginal humanity was totally destroyed, and all its civilized hexansare finding shelter from our torpedoes upon Jupiter until we of Callistoshall likewise have been annihilated. The temperature of Europa willsuit you. Its atmosphere, while less dense than that to which you areaccustomed, will adequately support your life. If we are not detectedin the course of the next few hours we can probably land upon Europa insafety, since its neighborhood is guarded but loosely. In fact, we havea city there, as yet unsuspected by the hexans, in which our scientistswill continue to labor after Callisto's civilization shall havedisappeared. We think that it will be safe to use your power for theshort time necessary to effect a landing. We shall land in a cavern, in a crater already in communication with our city. In that cavern, instructed and aided by some of us, you will build a rocket vessel--norays can be used because of the hexans--in which you will be able totravel to a region close enough to your earth so that you can call forhelp. You will not be able to carry enough fuel to land there--in fact, nearly all the journey will have to be made without power, travelingfreely in a highly elongated orbit around the sun--but if you escape thehexans, you should be able to reach home safely, in time. It is for theconsideration of this plan that this meeting has been called. "

 * * * * *

"Just one question, " Breckenridge spoke. "The hexans are intelligent. Why are they leaving Europa and Ganymede so unguarded that human beingscan move back there and that we can land there, all undetected?"

"I will answer that question myself, " replied King. "Captain Czuv didnot quite do justice to his own people. It is true that they are beingconquered, but for every human life that is taken, a thousand hexansdie, and for every human ship that is lost, twenty hexan vessels areannihilated in return. While the hexans are masters of rays, thehumans are equally masters of explosives and of mechanisms. They canhit a perfect score upon any target in free space whose course andacceleration can be determined, at any range up to five thousandkilometers, and they have explosives thousands of times as powerful asany known to us. Ray screens are effective only against rays, and thehexans cannot destroy anything they cannot see before it strikes them. So it is that all the hexan vessels except those necessary to protecttheir own strongholds, are being concentrated against Callisto. Theycannot spare vessels to guard uselessly the abandoned satellites. Because of the enormously high gravity of Jupiter the hexans there aresafe from human attack save for ineffectual long-range bombardment, butIo is being attacked constantly and it is probable that in a few moreyears Io also will be an abandoned world. Some of you may have receivedthe impressions that the hexans are to triumph immediately, but such anidea is wrong. The humans can, and will, hold out for a hundred years ormore unless the enemy perfects a destructive ray of the type referredto. Even then, I think that our human cousins will hold out a long time. They are able men, fighters all, and their underground cities arebeautifully protected. "

There was little argument. Most of the auditors could understand thatthe suggested course was the best one possible. The remainder wereso stunned by the unbelievable events of the attack that they had noinitiative, but were willing to follow wherever the more valiant spiritsled. It was decided that no attempt should be made to salvage anyportion of the _Arcturus_, since any such attempt would be fraught withdanger and since the wreckage would be of little value. The new vesselwas to be rocket driven and was to be built of Callistonian alloys. Personal belongings were moved into lifeboats, doors were closed, andthere ensued a painful period of waiting and suspense. 

The stated hour was reached without event--no hexan scout had comeclose enough to them to detect the low-tension radiation of the vitalmachinery of the _Arcturus_, cut as it was to the irreducible minimumand quite effectively grounded as it was by the enormous mass of hershielding armor. At a signal from Captain Czuv the pilot of eachlifeboat shot his tiny craft out into space and took his allotted placein the formation following closely behind the _Bzarvk_, flying towardEuropa, now so large in the field of vision that she resembled more aworld than a moon. Captain King, in the Callistonian vessel, transmittedto Breckenridge the route and flight data given him by the navigator ofthe winged craft. The chief pilot, flying "point, " in turn relayed moredetailed instructions to the less experienced pilots of the otherlifeboats. 

Soon the surface of Europa lay beneath them; a rugged, cratered, andtorn topography of mighty ranges of volcanic mountains. Most of thecraters were cold and lifeless; but here and there a plume of smokeand steam betrayed the presence of vast, quiescent forces. Straightdown one of those gigantic lifeless shafts the fleet of space craftdropped--straight down a full two miles before the landing signal wasgiven. At the bottom of the shaft a section of the rocky wall swungaside, revealing the yawning black mouth of a horizontal tunnel. Atintervals upon its roof there winked into being almost invisible pointsof light. Along that line of lights the lifeboats felt their way, comingfinally into a huge cavern, against one sheer metal wall of which theyparked in an orderly row. Roll was called, and the terrestrials walked, as well as they could in the feeble gravity of the satellite, across thevast chamber and into a conveyance somewhat resembling a railway coach, which darted away as soon as the doors were shut. For hundreds of milesthat strange tunnel extended, and as the car shot along door after doorof natural rock opened before it, and closed as soon as it had spedthrough. In spite of the high velocity of the vehicle, it requiredalmost two hours to complete the journey. Finally, however, it slowedto a halt and the Terrestrial visitors disembarked at a portal of theEuropean city of the Callistonians. 

"Attention!" barked Captain King. "The name of this city, as nearly asI can come to it in English, is _WRUZK_. 'Roosk' comes fairly close toit and is easier to pronounce. We must finish our trip in small cars, holding ten persons each. We shall assemble again in the building inwhich we have been assigned quarters. The driver of each car will leadhis passengers to the council room in which we shall meet. "

"Oh, what's the use--this is horrible, horrible--we might as well die!"a nervous woman shrieked, and fainted. 

"Such a feeling is, perhaps, natural, " King went on, after the woman hadbeen revived and quiet had been restored, "but please control it as muchas possible. We are alive and well, and will be able to return to Telluseventually. Please remember that these people are putting themselvesto much trouble and inconvenience to help us, desperate as their ownsituation is, and conduct yourselves accordingly. "

The rebuke had its effect, and with no further protest the companyboarded the small cars, which shot through an opening in the wall andinto a street of that strange subterranean city. Breckenridge, in thelast car to leave the portal, studied his surroundings with interest ashis conveyance darted through the gateway. More or less a fatalist bynature and an adventurer, of course, since no other type existed amongthe older spacehounds of the IPC, he was intensely interested in everynew phase of their experience, and was no whit dismayed or frightened. 

 * * * * *

He found himself seated in a narrow canoe of metal, immediately behindthe pilot, who sat at a small control panel in the bow. Propelled byelectro-magnetic fields above a single rail, upon lightly touching andnoiseless wheels, the terrestrial pilot saw with keen appreciation themanner in which switch after switch ahead of them obeyed the impulsessent ahead from the speeding car. The streets were narrow and filledwith monorails; pedestrians pursued their courses upon walks attachedto the walls of the buildings, far above the level of the streets. Thewalls were themselves peculiar, rising as they did stark, unbroken, windowless expanses of metal, merging into and supporting a massiveroof of the same silvery metal. Walls and roof alike reflected a soft, yet intense, white light. Soon a sliding switch ahead of them shot inand simultaneously an opening appeared in the blank metal wall of abuilding. Through the opening the street-car flew, and as the pilotslowed the canoe to a halt, the door slid smoothly shut behind them. Parking the car beside a row of its fellows, the Callistonian driverindicated that the Terrestrials were to follow him and led the way intoa large hall. There the others from the _Arcturus_ were assembled, facing Captain King, who was standing upon a table. 

"Fellow travelers, " King addressed them, "our course of action hasbeen decided. There are two hundred three of us. There will be twentysections of ten persons, each section being in charge of one of theofficers of the _Arcturus_. Doctor Penfield, our surgeon, a man whoseintelligence, fairness, and integrity are unquestioned, will be insupreme command. His power and authority will be absolute, limited onlyby the Callistonian Council. He will work in harmony with the engineer, who is to direct the entire project of building the new vessel. Each ofyou will be expected to do whatever he can--the work you will be askedto do will be well within your powers, and you will each have ampleleisure for recreation, study, and amusement, of all of which you willfind unsuspected stores in this underground community. You will eachbe registered and studied by physicians, surgeons, and psychologists;and each of you will have prescribed for him the exact diet that isnecessary for his best development. You will find this diet somewhatmonotonous, compared to our normal fare of natural products, since itis wholly synthetic; but that is one of the minor drawbacks that mustbe endured. Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I will not be with you. Insome small and partial recompense for what they are doing for us all, he and I are going with Captain Czuv to Callisto, there to see whetheror not we can aid them in any way in the fight against the hexans. Onelast word--Doctor Penfield's rulings will be the products of his ownwell-ordered mind after consultation and agreement with the Council ofthis city, and will be for the best good of all. I do not anticipate anyrefusal to cooperate with him. If, however, such refusal should occur, please remember that he is a despot with absolute power, and that anyoneobstructing the program by refusing to follow his suggestions will spendthe rest of his time here in confinement and will go back to Tellus inirons, if at all. In case Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I should not seeyou again, we bid you goodbye and wish you a safe voyage--but we expectto go back with you. "

Brief farewells were said and captain and pilot accompanied Czuv to oneof the little street-cars. Out of the building it dashed and down thecrowded but noiseless thoroughfare to the portal. Signal lights flashedbriefly there and they did not stop, but tore on through the portal andthe tunnel, with increasing speed. 

"Don't have to transfer to a big car, then?" asked Breckenridge. 

"No, " King made answer. "Small cars can travel these tubes as well asthe large ones, and on much less power. In the city the wheels touchthe rails lightly, not for support, but to make contacts through whichtraffic signals are sent and received. In the tunnels the wheels donot touch at all, as signaling is unnecessary--the tunnels being usedinfrequently and by but one vehicle at a time. No trolleys, tracks, orwires are visible, you notice. Everything is hidden from any possiblevisiray of the hexans. "

"How about their power?"

"I don't understand it very well--hardly at all, in fact. "

"It is quite simple. " To the surprise of both Terrestrials, Czuv wasspeaking English, but with a strong and very peculiar accent; slightingall the vowels and accenting heavily the consonant sounds. "The car nolonger requires my attention, so I am now free to converse. You aresurprised at my knowing your language? You will speak mine after a fewmore applications of the thought exchanger. I am speaking with a vileaccent, of course, but that is merely because my vocal organs arenot accustomed to making vowel sounds. Our power is obtained by thecombustion of gases in highly efficient turbines. It is transmitted andused as direct current, our generator and motors being so constructedthat they can produce no etheric disturbances capable of penetratingthe shielding walls of our city. The city was built close to depositsof coal, oil, and gas of sufficient amount to support our life forthousands of years; for from these deposits come power, food, clothing, and all the other necessities and luxuries of our lives. Strong fansdraw air from various extinct craters, force it through ventilatingducts into every room and recess of the city, and exhaust it into theshaft of a quiescent volcano, in whose gaseous outflow any trace of ouractivities is, of course, imperceptible. For obvious reasons no rocketsor combustion motors are used in the city proper. "

 * * * * *

Thus Captain Czuv explained to the Terrestrials his own mode of life, and received from them in turn full information concerning Earthly life, activity, and science. Long they talked, and it was almost time to slowdown for the journey's end when the Callistonian brought the conversationback to their immediate concerns. 

"My lieutenant and I were upon a mission of some importance, but it ismore important to take you to Callisto, for there may be many thingsin which you can help us. Not in rays--we know all the vibrations youhave mentioned and several others. The enemy, however, is supremein that field, and until our scientists have succeeded in developingray-screens, such as are used by the hexans, it would be suicidal touse rays at all. Such screens necessitate the projection of pure, yetdirigible, forces--you do not have them upon your planet?"

"No, and so far as I know such screens are also unknown upon Mars andVenus, with whose inhabitants we are friendly. "

"The inhabitants of all the planets should be friendly; the solarsystem should be linked together in intercourse for common advancement. But that is not to be. The hexans will eventually triumph here, and aJovian system peopled by hexans will have no intercourse with any humancivilization save that of internecine war. We, of Callisto, have onlyone hope--or is it really a hope? In the South Polar country of Jupiter, there dwells a race of beings implacably hostile to the hexans. Theyseem to invade the country of the hexans frequently, even though theyare apparently repulsed each time. Our emissaries to the South Polarcountry, however, have never returned--those beings, whatever theyare, if not actively inimical, certainly are not friendly toward us. "

"You know nothing of their nature?"

"Nothing, since our electrical instruments are not sufficientlysensitive to give us more than a general idea of what is transpiringthere, and vision is practically useless in that eternal fog. We know, however, that they are far advanced in science, and we are thankfulindeed that none of their frightful flying fortresses have been launchedagainst us. They apparently are not interested in the satellites, and itis no doubt due to their unintentional assistance that we have survivedas long as we have. "

In the cavern at last, the three men boarded the Callistonianspace-plane and were shot up the crater's shaft. The voyage toCallisto was uneventful, even uninteresting save at its termination. The _Bzarvk_, coated every inch as it was with a dull, dead black, completely absorptive outer coating, entered the thin layer ofCallisto's atmosphere in darkest night, with all rockets dead, with nota light showing, and with no apparatus of any kind functioning. Utterlyinvisible and undetectable, she dove downward, and not until she waswell below the crater's rim did the forward rockets burst into furiouslife. Then the Terrestrials understood another reason for the immensedepth of those shafts other than that of protection from the detectorsof the enemy--all that distance was necessary to overcome the velocityof their free fall without employing a negative acceleration greaterthan the frail Callistonian bodies could endure. From the cavern at thefoot of the shaft, a regulation tunnel extended to the Callistonian cityof Zbardk. Portal and city were very like Wruszk, upon distant Europa, and soon the terrestrial captain and pilot were in conference with theCouncil of Callisto. 

 * * * * *

Months of Earthly time dragged slowly past, months during which King andBreckenridge studied intensively the offensive and defensive systemsof Callisto without finding any particular in which they could improvethem to any considerable degree. Captain Czuv and his warplane stillsurvived, and it was while the Callistonian commander was visiting histerrestrial guests, that King voiced the discontent that had longaffected both men. 

"We're both tired of doing nothing, Czuv. We have been of little realbenefit, and we have decided that your ideas of us are all wrong. We areconvinced that our personal horsepower can be of vastly more use to youthan our brain-power, which doesn't amount to much. Your whole presentpolicy is one of hiding and sniping. I think that I know why, but I wantto be sure. Your vessels carry lots of fuel--why can the hexans outrunyou?" Thus did King put his problem. 

"They can stand enormously higher accelerations than we can. The verystrongest of us loses consciousness at an acceleration of twenty-fivemeters per second per second, no matter how he is braced, and thatis only a little greater than the normal gravity of our enemies uponJupiter. Their vessels at highest power develop an acceleration ofthirty-five meters, and the hexans themselves can stand much more thaneven that high figure, " replied Czuv. 

"I thought so. Assume that you traveled at forty-five. Would it disableyou permanently, or would you recover as soon as it was lowered?"

"We would recover promptly, unless the exposure had been undulyprolonged. Why?"

"Because, " said King, "I can stand an acceleration of fifty-four metersfor two hours, and Breckenridge here tests fifty two meters. I cannavigate anything, and Breckenridge can observe as well as any of yourown men. Build a plane to accelerate at forty-five meters and we willblow those hexans out of the ether. You will have to revive and do theshooting, however--your gunnery is entirely beyond us. "

"That is an idea of promise, and one that had not occurred to any ofus, " Czuv replied and work was begun at once upon the new flyer. 

When the super-plane was ready for its maiden voyage, its crew of threestudied it as it lay in the catapult at the portal. Dead black as wereall the warplanes, its body was twice as large as that of the ordinaryvessel, its wings were even more stubby, and its accommodations had beencut to a minimum to make room for the enormous stores of fuel necessaryto drive the greatly increased battery of rocket motors and for theextra supply of torpedoes carried. Waving to the group of soldiers andcitizens gathered to witness the take-off of the new dreadnought ofspace, the three men entered the cramped operating compartment, strappedthemselves into their seats, and were shot away. As usual the drivingrockets were cut off well below the rim of the shaft, and the vesselrose in a long and graceful curve, invisible in the night. Such was itsinitial velocity and so slight was the force of gravity of the satellitethat they were many hundreds of miles from the exit before they began todescend, and Breckenridge studied his screens narrowly for signs ofhexan activity. 

"Do you want to try one of your long-range shots when we find one ofthem?" the pilot asked Czuv. 

"No, it would be useless. Between deflection by air-currents and thedodging of the enemy vessels, our effective range is shortened to a fewkilometers, and their beams are deadly at that distance. No, our bestcourse is to follow the original plan--to lure them out into space atuniform acceleration, where we can destroy them easily. "

"Right, " and Breckenridge turned to King, who was frowning at hiscontrols. "How does she work on a dead stick, Chief?"

"Maneuverability about minus ten at this speed and in this air. She'd have to have at least fifteen hundred kilometers an hour to beresponsive out here. See anything yet?"

"Not yet ... Wait a minute! Yes, there's one now--P-12 on area five. Give us all the X10 and W27 you can, without using power--we want toedge over close enough so that she can't help but see us when we startthe rockets. "

"Be sure and stay well out of range. I'm giving her all she'll take, butshe won't take much. With these wings she has the gliding angle of akitchen sink. "

"All x--I'm watching the range, close. Wish we had instruments likethese on the IPV's. We'll have to install some when we get back. All x!Give her the gun--level and dead ahead!"

Half the battery of rockets burst into their stuttering, explosive roarof power and the vessel darted away in headlong flight. 

"He sees us and is after us--turn her straight up!"

A searing, coruscating finger of flame leaped toward them, but theircalculations had been sound--the hexan was harmless at that extremerange. King, under the pilot's direction, kept the plane at a safedistance from the sphere while the satellite grew smaller and smallerbehind them and Czuv lapsed quietly into unconsciousness. 

"He's been out for quite a while. Far enough?" asked King. 

"All x now, I guess--don't believe they can see the flash from here. Cut!"

The rockets died abruptly and a blast from the side ports threwthe plane out of the beam--and once out of it, beyond range of theelectro-magnetic detectors as they were their coating of absolute blackrendered the craft safe from observation. One dirigible rocket remainedin action, its exhaust hidden from the enemy by the body of the vessel, and Captain Czuv soon recovered his senses. 

"Wonderful, gentlemen!" he exclaimed, as he manipulated the delicatecontrols of his gunnery panel. "This is the first time in history thata Callistonian vessel has escaped from a hexan by speed alone. "

An instantaneously extinguished flare of incandescence marked thepassing of the hexan sphere into nothingness, and the cruiser shot backtoward Callisto in search of more prey. It was all too plentiful, andtwenty times the drama was reenacted before approaching day made itnecessary for Czuv to take the controls and dive the vessel into thewestermost landing-shaft of Zbardk. A rousing and enthusiastic welcomeawaited them, and joy spread rapidly when their success became known. 

"Now we know what to do, and we had better do it immediately, beforethey get our system figured out and increase their own power. " Kingreported to the Council. "You might send a couple of ships to Europa andbring back as many of the Tellurian officers as want to come and can bespared from the work there. They all test above forty-five meters, andthey can learn this stuff in short order. While they're coming, yourengineers can be building more ships like this one. "

The new vessel did not make another voyage until nine sister shipswere ready and manned, each with two Terrestrial officers and oneCallistonian gunner. All ten took to the ether at once, and the hexanfleet melted away like frost-crystals before a summer sun. A few weeksof carnage and destruction and not a hexan was within range of thedetectors of Callisto--they were gone!

"This is the first time in years that Callisto's air has been free ofthe hexans, " Czuv said, thoughtfully. "With your help we have reducedtheir strength to a fraction of what it was, but they have not given up. They will return, with a higher acceleration than even you Terrestrials, powerful as you are, can stand. "

"Certainly they will, but you will be no worse off than you werebefore--you can return to your own highly effective tactics. "

"We are infinitely better off for your help. You have given us a newlease on life.... "

He broke off as a flaring light sprang into being upon the portal boardand the observer of Exit One made his report--there was a hexan vesselin the air, location 425 over VJ-42. 

"There's one left! Let us get him! No, he's ours!" Confused shouts arosefrom the bull-pen; but the original superplane was at the top of thecall-board and accordingly King, Breckenridge, and Czuv embarked uponan expedition more hazardous far than they had supposed--an expeditionwhose every feature was relayed to those in the portal by the automaticlookouts upon the rims and which was ended before a single supportingCallistonian plane could be launched. 

For the enemy vessel was not the last of the low-powered hexan vessels, as everyone had supposed--it was the first of the high-powered craft, arriving long before its appearance was expected. Before its terrificacceleration and savage onslaught, the superplane might as well havebeen stationary and unarmed. After his long dive downward, King couldnot even leave the atmosphere--the hexan was upon them within a fewseconds, even though the stupendous battery of rockets, full driven, had roared almost instantly into desperate action. Bomb after bombBreckenridge hurled, with full radio control, fighting with everyresource at his command, but in vain. The frightful torpedoes wereannihilated in mid-flight; and nose, tail-assembly, and wings weresheared neatly from the warplane by a sizzling plane of force. Siderockets and torpedo tubes were likewise sliced away and the helplessbody of the Callistonian cruiser, falling like a plummet, was caught andheld by a tractor ray. Captor and captive settled toward the ground. 

"This is a signal honor, " observed Captain Czuv when he had revived. "Ithas been many, many cycles since they have taken Callistonians captive. They kill us at every opportunity. Is it your custom to destroyyourselves in a situation such as this?"

"It is not. While we live there is hope. "

"Not ours. Unless they have made enormous strides in psychologicalmechanisms, they cannot tear from our minds any secrets we really wishto keep. That is useless, " he went on, as King lifted a hand-weapon. "You will have no opportunity whatever to use it, " and he was right. 

A searing beam of energy drove them out of the vessel, thenelectro-magnetic waves burned every metallic object out of theirpossession. Burning rays herded them into the hexan sphere and intoa small room, whose door clanged shut behind them. 

"Ah, two are humans of a strange breed!" a snarling voice barkedfrom the wall, in the Callistonian language. "Our deductions wereaccurate, as usual--it is to the humans of Planet Three, whose bodiesare a trifle less puny than those of the humanity of the satellites, that we owe our recent reverses. However, those reverses were merelytemporary--humanity, no matter what its breed, shall very shortlydisappear from the satellites. Now, you scum of the Solar System, youshall be permitted to witness an entrancing spectacle on the way to ourheadquarters, where all your knowledge is to be taken from you beforeyou die, lingeringly and horribly. There is a strange space-vesselnearing us probably searching for the one we took and which you dogs ofCallisto must have been fortunate enough to take from us before we couldstudy and kill its human cargo. Watch its destruction and cringe--andknow, in your suffering, that the more you suffer, the greater shall beour enjoyment. "

"I believe that, " King acknowledged. As all three prisoners stared atthe wall-screen, upon which was pictured a huge football of scarred greysteel, Czuv was amazed to see the faces of Breckenridge and King lightup with fierce smiles of pleasure and anticipation. 

"You dissemble well, " remarked the Callistonian. "That will rob them ofmuch pleasure. "

"They'll get robbed of more than that, " King returned. "This is toogood to keep, and since they cannot understand English, I'll tell yousomething. I told you about Stevens. He apparently wasn't killed, aswe thought. He must have escaped, and there is the result. That shipthere is far from innocent--her being so far out of range of any of ourpower-plants proves that. That vessel is the _Sirius_--the researchlaboratory of the IPC--the Inter-Planetary Corporation! It carries thegreatest scientific minds of three of the inner planets, and it isloaded with pure poison or it wouldn't be here. Oh, you hexans, what youhave got coming to you!"

 * * * * *

_Concluding a Thrilling New Serial of Interplanetary Life and Travel byEdward E. Smith, Ph. D. _

_Author of "Skylark of Space, " and "Skylark Three"_

PART III

Spacehounds of IPC

 _The question of rays--their expanding power for good and evil--is receiving increasing attention from scientists. The x-ray has been found to be very beneficial, given in certain quantities, but extremely inimical to health, and even fatal, if too much exposure is given. The powers of the cosmic rays have not been fully discovered as yet. And there is no reason to doubt the theory that there may be found still more destructive and powerful rays. Even wars are becoming a more dangerous plaything for nations of our world--to say nothing of other possible enemies from other parts of our universe. Stevens and Nadia Newton meet with thrilling experiences galore in this concluding instalment. _

What Went Before:

 The Interplanetary Vessel _Arcturus_ sets out for Mars, with Breckenridge as chief pilot, carrying on board, besides its regular crew and some passengers, the famous Dr. Stevens, designer of space ships and computer. He checks computations made by astronomers stationed in floating observatories, and after he has located any trouble and suggests a plan for minimizing the hazards of the trip from the earth to Mars he reports his findings and suggestions to Mr. Newton, chief of the Interplanetary Corporation. 

 Stevens then takes Nadia, Mr. Newton's beautiful young daughter, on a specially conducted sight-seeing tour of the _Arcturus_ and thoroughly explains to her all of the works of the vessel. Nadia has herself had a good science education. While they are down at the bottom of the ship--nearing the end of their tour--Stevens feels a barely perceptible movement of the vessel from its course. When he turns on the visiplate, he is horrified to find that a mysterious ray of unparalleled power has neatly sliced the _Arcturus_ in several places. 

 Nadia and Stevens are completely separated from the rest of the crew and passengers of the ship, so they get into a lifeboat, which is equipped for a limited amount of space travel. Despite the strict and apparently effective vigilance of the enemy destroyer, Stevens and Nadia make their getaway in the lifeboat, which they aptly call "Forlorn Hope, " and finally make a safe landing on Ganymede, where Stevens almost completes a power-plant and a radio transmitter, to enable him to communicate with the earth or with the IPV _Sirius_, which is used by Westfall and Brandon (two of the world's best scientists) as a floating laboratory. 

 They start for Cantrell's Comet, where Stevens acquires the necessary material for his giant transmitting tube, heads back to Ganymede, when their ship is cut, top and bottom, by a strong ray-beam. Stevens and Nadia soon find that the other ship is manned by friendly beings from Saturn. Together they plan against their common foes--the Hexans--who are enemies of the universe. After helping the Saturnians to repair their power plant, they start back to Ganymede, aided by their new friends from the frigid civilization. Finally, however, Stevens succeeds in connecting, by radio, with the _Sirius_ and his scientist friends on board it, who rush to the aid of the two castaways. It is while the castaways are captives of the Hexans that help looms near. 

CHAPTER IX

The _Sirius_ Takes a Hand

The _Sirius_ loafed along through the ether at normal accelerationjust outside the orbit of Mars and a million miles north of theecliptic plane. In the control room, which had been transformed into abewilderingly complete laboratory, Norman Brandon strode up and down, waving his arms, his unruly black hair on end, addressing savagely hisfriend and fellow-scientist, who sat unmoved and at ease. 

"For cat's sake, Quince, let's get busy! They're outside somewhere, since the police have scoured every cubic kilometer within range ofthe power plants without finding a trace of them. We've got the powerquestion licked right now--with these fields we can draw sixty thousandkilofranks from cosmic radiation, which is lots more than we'll everneed. We haven't drawn a frank from a plant in a month, and we've had tocut our field strength down to a whisper to keep from burning out ouraccumulators. We can hunt as far as Neptune easy--we can go to AlphaCentauri if we want to. This thing of piffling and monkeying aroundhere's pulling my cork, and for the ten thousand four hundred and sixtyseventh time I say _let's prowl_ and _prowl now_! In fact, I'm gettingso sick of sticking around doing nothing that I'm going out anyway, ifI have to go alone in a lifeboat!"

[Illustration: _The flying fortresses were finally wrenched from theground and hurled upward. _]

Impetuous and violent as Brandon had always been, never before had hegone to such lengths as to suggest a disruption of the partnership;and Westfall, knowing that Brandon, in his most violent moments, neverthreatened idly, thought long before he replied. 

"You will not go alone, of course. If you insist upon going withoutfurther preparation I will go too, no matter how foolish I think sucha course to be. We have power, it is true, but in all other respects weare in no condition to meet an opponent having command of such resourcesas must certainly be possessed by those who attacked the _Arcturus_. Our detectors are inefficient, our system of vision is crude, to saythe least, and many other things are still in the experimental stage. We have not the slightest idea whom or what we may encounter. It is alltoo probable that we would simply be throwing away uselessly the lives ofmore good men. It is also foolish from a general viewpoint, for as youalready know, we and our assistants happen to be in better position tostudy these things than is any one else at the present time. However, I will compromise with you. We can learn much in a month if you willreally try, instead of wasting time in fuming around the ship andindulging in these idiotic tantrums. If you will buckle down and reallystudy the problems confronting us for thirty days, we will set out atthe end of that time, ready or not. "

"All x. I hate to do it, but we've been together too long to bust itup now, " and Brandon turned toward his bench. Scarcely had he reachedit when a series of dots and dashes roared from an amplifier. Both menleaped for the receiver which had so unexpectedly burst into sound, reaching it just as it relapsed into silence, and from the tape of therecorder they read the brief message. 

"... H four seven ganymede point oh four seve.... "

"That's Steve!" yelled Brandon. "Nobody else could build anultra-sender! Direction?"

"No need of calculating distance or direction. Ganymede is the thirdmajor satellite of Jupiter. "

"Sure. Of course, Quince--never thought of that. Dope enough--point ohfour seven. "

As Stevens had told Nadia, the message was completely informing to thosefor whom it was intended, and soon Brandon's answer was flying towardthe distant satellite. He then started to call the officers of theInter-planetary Corporation, but was restrained by his conservativefriend. 

"It would be better to wait a while, Norman. In a few hours we will knowwhat to tell them. "

At high acceleration the _Sirius_ drove toward the Jupiter-Earth-Northplane, and Brandon calculated from his own bearings and from the currentissue of the "Ephemeris" the time at which Stevens' reply should bereceived. Two minutes before that time he was pacing up and down infront of the ultra-receiver, and fifteen seconds after it he snapped:

"Come on, Perce, get busy! Shake a leg!"

"Oh, come, Norman; give him a few minutes' leeway, at least, " saidWestfall, with amused tolerance. "Even if your calculations are thataccurate--which of course they are, " he added hastily at a stormy glancefrom hot black eyes, "since we received that message direct, instead ofthrough one of our relay stations, Stevens probably has been throwingit around for hours or perhaps days, looking for us, and the shock ofhearing from us at last might well have put him out of control for aminute or two. "

The carrier wave hissed into the receiver, forestalling Brandon's fieryreply, followed closely by the code signals they had been expecting. Assoon as the story had been told, and while Brandon was absorbed in thescientific addenda of Stevens, Westfall thoughtfully called up Newton, Nadia's father. 

"Nadia is alive, free, safe, well, and happy, " he shot out withoutpreliminary or greeting, as soon as the now lined features of thedirector showed upon the communicator screen, and the careworncountenance smoothed magically into the keen face of the fighting Newtonof old, as Westfall recounted rapidly the tale of the castaways. 

"They apparently have not suffered in any way, " he concluded. "All thatStevens wants is some cigarettes, and your daughter's needs, whilesomewhat more numerous than his, seem to be only clothes, powder, perfume, and candy. Therefore we need not worry about them. The fate ofthe others is still unknown, but there seems to be a slight possibilitythat some of them may yet be rescued. You may release as much or aslittle of this story as may seem desirable. Stevens is still sendingdata of a highly technical nature. We shall arrive there at 21:32 nextTuesday. "

 * * * * *

In due time the message from Ganymede ended and Brandon, with many pagesof his notebook crammed with figures and equations, snapped off thepower of the receiver and turned to his bench. Gone was the storming, impetuous rebel; his body was ruled solely by the precise and insatiablebrain of the research scientist. 

"He's great, that kid Perce! When I see him, I'm going to kiss himon both cheeks. He's got enough dope on them to hang them higher thanFranklin's kite, and we'll nail those jaspers to the cross or I'm apolyp! He's crazier than a loon in most of his hunches, but he's filledfour of our biggest gaps. There is such a thing, as a ray-screen, youkill-joy, and there are also lifting or tractor rays--two things I'vebeen trying to dope out and that you've been giving me the Bronx cheeron. The Titanians have had a tractor ray for ages--he sent me completedope on it--and the Jovians have got them both. We'll have them in threedays, and it ought to be fairly simple to dope out the opposite of atractor, too--a pusher or presser beam. Say, round up the gang, willyou, while I'm licking some of this stuff into shape for you to tearapart? Where are Venus and Mars? Um ... M ... M. Tell Alcantro andFedanzo to come over here pronto--give 'em a special if necessary. We'llpick up Dol Kenor and Pyraz Amonar on the way--no, get them to Tellus, too. Then we'll get action quicker. Those four are all I want--getanybody else you want to come along. "

His hands playing over the keys of an enormous calculating machine, Brandon was instantly immersed in a profound mathematico-physicalproblem; deaf and blind to everything about him. Westfall, knowing wellthat far-reaching results would follow Brandon's characteristic attack, sat down at the controls of the communicator. He first called Mars, thehome planet of Alcantro and Fedanzo, the foremost force-field experts ofthree planets; and was assured in no uncertain terms that those rulersof rays were ready and anxious to follow wherever Brandon and Westfallmight lead. Thence to Venus, where Dol Kenor, the electrical wizard, and Pyraz Amonar, the master of mechanism, also readily agreed toaccompany the expedition. He then called the General-in-Chief of theInterplanetary Police, requesting a detail of two hundred picked menfor the hazardous venture. These most important calls out of the way, he was busy for over an hour giving long-distance instructions so thateverything would be in readiness for the servicing of the immensespace-cruiser the following Tuesday night. 

Having guarded against everything his cautious and far-seeing mindcould envisage, he went over to Brandon's desk and sat down, smokingcontemplatively until the idea had been roughed out in mathematicalterms. 

"Here's the rough draft of the ray screen, Quince. We generate a blanketfrequency, impressed upon the ultra carrier wave. That's old stuff, ofcourse. Here's the novelty, in equation 59. With two fields of force, set up from data 27 to 43, it will be possible actually to project apure force of such a nature that it will react to de-heterodyne theblanketing frequency at any predetermined distance. That, of course, sets up a barrier against any frequency of the blanketed band. Incidentally, an extension of the same idea will enable us to seeanywhere we want to look--calculate a retransmitting field. "

"One thing at a time, please. That screen may be possible, butthose fields will never generate it. Look at datum 31, in which yourassumptions are unsound. In order to make any solution at all possibleyou have assumed cosine squared theta negligible. Mathematically, it isof course vanishingly small compared to the first power of the cosine, but fields of that type must be _exact_, and your neglect of the squareis indefensible. Since you cannot integrate with the squared term inplace, your whole solution fails. "

"Not necessarily. We'll go back to 29, and put in sine squared thetaminus one equal to z sub four. That gives us a coversed sine in 30, and then we integrate.... "

Thus the argument raged, and all the assistants whose work was nottoo pressing gathered around unobtrusively, for it was from just suchfierce discussions as this that the ultra-radio and other epoch-makingdiscoveries had come into being. Yard after yard of calculator paperwas filled with equations and computations. Weirdly shaped curveswere drawn, with arguments at every point--arguments hot and violentfrom Brandon, from Westfall cold and precise, backed by lightningcalculations and with facts and diagrams culled from the many abstruseworks of reference, which by this time literally covered the bench andoverflowed upon the floor. 

It was in this work that the strikingly different temperaments andabilities of the two scientists were revealed. Brandon never stoodstill, but walked around jerkily, chewing savagely the stem of anancient and reeking pipe, gesticulating vigorously, the while his keenand agile mind was finding a way over, around, or through the apparentlyinsuperable obstacles which beset their path; by means of mathematicaland physical improvisations, which no one not inspired by sheer geniuscould have evolved. Westfall, seated quietly at the calculator, mercilessly shredded Brandon's theories to ribbons, pointing out theirmany flaws with his cold, incisive reasoning and with rapid calculationsof the many factors involved. Then Brandon would find a remedy for eachweakness in turn and, when Westfall could no longer find a single flawin the structure, they would toss the completed problem upon a tableand attack the next one with unabated zeal. Brandon, in his lightremark that the two made one real scientist, had far understatedthe case--those two brains, each so powerful and each so perfectlycomplementing the other, comprised the master-scientist who was torevolutionize science completely in a few short years. 

To such good purpose did they labor that the calculations werepractically finished by the time they reached the earth. There the shipwas serviced with a celerity that spoke volumes for the importance ofher mission--even the _Aldebaran_, the dazzlingly gold-plated queen ofthe fleet, waited unattended and disregarded on minus time while theentire force of the Interplanetary Corporation concentrated upon thebattle-scarred old hulk of the _Sirius_. Brandon was surprised when hesaw the two companies of police, but characteristically accepted withoutquestion the wisdom of any decision of his friend, and cordially greetedInspector-General Crowninshield, only a year or so older than himself, but already in charge of a Division. 

"Keen-looking bunch, Crown. Lot of different outfits--volunteers forspecial duty from the whole Tellurian force?"

"Yes. Everybody wanted to go, and there threatened to be trouble overthe selection, so we picked the highest ratings from the whole Service. If there ever was such a thing as a picked force, we shall have itwith us. "

"What d'you mean, 'us'? You aren't going, are you?"

"Try to keep me from it! The names of all five of us I-G's were put ina hat, and I was lucky. "

"Well, you may come in handy, at that, " Brandon conceded. "And here'sthe big boss himself. Hi, Chief!"

"Ho, Brandon! Ho, Westfall!" Newton, Chairman of the Board of Directorsof the IPC, shook hands with the two scientists. "Your Martians andVenerians are in Lounge Fifteen. I suppose that you have a lot of thingsto thrash out, so you may as well start now. Everything is beingattended to--I'll take charge now. "

"You going along, too?" asked Brandon. 

"Going along, _too_? I'm _running_ this cruise!" Newton declared. "I maytake advice from you on some things and from Crowninshield on others, but I am in charge!"

"All x--it's a relief, at that, " and Brandon and Westfall went to jointheir fellow-scientists in the designated room of the space-cruiser. 

 * * * * *

What a contrast was there as the representatives of three worldsmet! All six men were of the same original stock or of a similarevolution--science has not, even yet, decided the question definitely. Their minds were very much alike, but their respective environments hadso variantly developed their bodily structures that to outward seemingthey had but little in common. 

Through countless thousands of generations the Martians had becomeacclimated to a planet having little air, less water, and characterizedby abrupt transitions from searing heat to bitter cold: fromblinding light to almost impenetrable darkness. Eight feet talland correspondingly massive, they could barely stand against thegravitational force of the Earth, almost three times as great as thatof Mars, but the two Martian scientists struggled to their feet as theTerrestrials entered. 

"As you were, fellows--lie down again and take it easy. " Brandonsuggested in the common Interplanetarian tongue. "We'll be away fromhere very soon, then we can ease off. "

"We greet our friends standing as long as we can stand, " and, toweringa full two feet above Brandon's own six-feet-two, Alcantro and Fedanzoin turn engulfed his comparatively tiny hand in a thick-shelled pawand lifted briefly the inner lids of quadruply-shielded eyes. For theMartian skin is not like ours. It is of incredible thickness; dry, pliable, rubbery, and utterly without sensation: heavily lined withfat and filled throughout its volume with tiny air-cells which makeit an almost perfect non-conductor of heat and which prevent absolutelythe evaporation of the precious moisture of the body. For the samereasons their huge and cat-like eyes are never exposed, but lookthrough sealed, clear windows of membrane, over which may be drawn atwill one or all of four pairs of lids--lids transparent, insensible, non-freezable, air-spaced insulators. Even the air they exhale carriesfrom their bodies a minimum of the all-important heat and moisture, for the passages of their nostrils do not lead directly to the lungs, as do ours. They are merely the intakes for a tortuous system oftubes comprising a veritable heat-exchanger, so that the air finallyexpelled is in almost perfect equilibrium with the incoming supplyin temperature and in moisture content. A grayish tan in color, nakedand hairless--though now, out of deference to Terrestrial conventions, wearing light robes of silk--indifferent alike to any extreme of heat orcold, light or darkness: such were the two forbidding beings who aroseto greet their Terrestrial friends, then again reclined. 

"I suppose that you have been given to drink?" Westfall made sure thatthey had been tendered the highest hospitality of Mars. 

"We have drunk full deeply, thanks; and it was not really necessary, for we drank scarcely three weeks ago. "

Brandon and Westfall turned then and greeted the two Venerians, as different from the Martians as they were from the Terrestrials. Of earthly stature, form, and strength, yet each was encased in aspace-suit stretched like a drum-head, and would live therein or inthe special Venerian rooms of the vessel as long as the journey shouldendure. For the atmosphere of Venus is more than twice as dense as ours, is practically saturated with water-vapor, carries an extremely highconcentration of carbon dioxide, and in their suits and rooms is heldat a temperature of one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit. The lensesof their helmets were of heavy, yellowish-red composition, protectingtheir dead-white skins and red eyes from all actinic rays--for theVenerian lives upon the bottom of an everlasting sea of fog and histhin epidermis, utterly without pigmentation, burns and blisters asfrightfully at the least exposure to actinic light as does ours atthe touch of a red-hot iron. 

Out in space at last, cruising idly with the acceleration set at a pointbearable for the Martians, Westfall called the meeting to order andoutlined the situation facing them. Brandon then handed around folios ofpapers, upon which the Venerians turned the invisible infra-red beams ofthe illuminators upon their helmets, thus flooding them with the "light"to which their retinas were most responsive. 

"Here's the data, " Brandon began. "As you see from Sheet 1, we canalready draw any amount of power we shall need from cosmic radiationalone.... "

"Perpetual motion--ridiculous!" snapped from the sending disk upon thehelmet of the master of mechanism. 

"Not at all, Amonar, " put in his fellow Venerian, "any more thana turbo-generator at the foot of a waterfall is perpetual motion. Those radiations originate we know not where, probably as a resultof intra-atomic reactions. The fields of force of our hosts merelyintercept these radiations, as a water-driven turbine intercepts thewater. We merely use a portion of their energy before permittingthem to go on, to we know not what end. Truly you have made a notableachievement in science, Tellurian friends, and we congratulate you uponits accomplishment. Please proceed. "

"Upon the following sheets are described the forces employed by theJovians, as we shall call them until we find out who or what they reallyare. We will discuss these forces later. For each force we have alreadycalculated a screen, and we have also calculated various other forces ofour own, with which we hope to arm ourselves before we reach Ganymede. The problems facing us are complex, since there are some nine thousandforcebands of the order in which we are working, each differing from allthe others as much as torque differs from tension, or as much as reddiffers from green. Therefore we have appealed to you for help, knowingthat we could do but little alone. Alcantro and Fedanzo will supervisethe construction of the generators of the various fields from thesecalculations. Dol Kenor will correlate power and electricity to andwith the fields. Westfall and I will help work out the theoreticaldifficulties as they arise. Pyraz Amonar, who can devise and build amachine to perform any conceivable mechanical task, will help us allin the many mechanical difficulties we shall certainly encounter. Discussion of any point is now in order. "

 * * * * *

Step by step and equation after equation the calculations and planswere gone over, until every detail was clear in each mind. Then the menbent to their tasks; behind them not only the extraordinarily completefacilities of that gigantic workshop which was the _Sirius_; but alsothe full power of the detachment of police--the very cream of the youngmanhood of the planet. Week after toilsome week the unremitting laborwent on, and little by little the massive cruiser of the void becameendowed with an offensive and defensive armament incredible. An armamentconceived in the fertile and daring brain of a sheer genius, guided onlyby the knowledge that such things were already in existence somewhere;reduced to working theory by a precise, mathematical logician;translated into fields of force by the greatest known experts; poweredby the indefatigable efforts of an electrical wizard; made possible bythe artful mechanical devices of the greatest inventor that three worldshad ever known! Thus it was that they approached Ganymede, ready, withblanketing screens full out, save for one narrow working band, andwith a keen-eyed observer at every plate. When even the hyper-criticalWestfall was convinced that their preparations were as complete as theycould be made with the limited information at hand, Brandon directed abeam upon the satellite and tapped off a brief message:

"stevens ganymede will arrive in about ten hours direct carrier beamtoward sun we can detect it and will follow it to wherever you aresirius. "

"ipv sirius, " came the reply, "everything here, all x glad to see youthanks newton and stevens. "

Brandon, at the controls, scanning his screens narrowly, dropped thevessel down to within a mile or two of the point of origin of Stevens'carrier beam without incident; then spoke to Westfall, at his side, witha grin. 

"Nice layout the kid's got down there, Quince. It's too bad--don't looklike we're going to get any action for our money a-tall. 'Sa shame, too--what's the use of wasting it, now that we've got it all made?"

"We are not done yet, " cautioned Westfall, and even as he spoke an alarmbell burst into strident clamor--one of their far-flung detector screenswas telling the world that it had encountered a dangerous frequency. The new ultra-lights flared instantly along the line automatically laiddown by the detector, and upon the closely ruled micrometer screen ofBrandon's desk there glowed in natural color the image of a globularspace-ship, approaching them with terrific speed. 

"Men all stationed, of course, Crown?"

"Stationed and ready. " Crowninshield, phones at his ears and microphoneat his lips, was staring intently into his own plate. 

"Kinda think I'll do most of it from here, but you can't always tell. Ifthey get inside my guard you all know what to do. "

"All x. "

Expecting another such hollow victory as the other Hexan vessel had wonover the defenseless _Arcturus_, the small stranger flashed nearer andnearer that huge and featureless football of armor steel. Within range, she launched her flaming plane of energy, but this time that Joviansheet of force did not encounter unprotected and non-resisting steel. Upon the outer ray-screen, flaming white into incandescent defense, the furious bolt spent itself, and in the instant of the launching ofthe searing blade of flame, Brandon had gone into action. Switch afterswitch drove home, and one after another those frightful fields offorce, those products of the mightiest minds of three planets, werehurled out against the tiny Jovian sphere. Driven as they were by themillions upon millions of horsepower stored in the accumulators of the_Sirius_ they formed a coruscating spherical shell of intolerable energyall around the enemy vessel, but even their prodigious force was heldat bay by the powerful defensive screens of the smaller space-ship. But attack the Jovian could not, every resource at her command beingnecessary to fend off the terrific counter-attack of her intended prey, and she turned in flight. Small and agile as she was, the enormousmass of the _Sirius_ precluded any possibility of maneuvering withthe Jovian, but Brandon had no intention of maneuvering. Rapid asthe motions of the stranger were and frantic as was her dodging, theterrific forces of the tractor beams of the Interplanetary Vesselheld her in an unbreakable grip, and although she dragged the massive_Sirius_ hither and thither, she could not escape. 

"Hm ... M ... M, " mused Brandon. "We seem to be getting nowhere fast. How much power we using, Mac, and how much have we got coming in?"

"Output eighty-five thousand kilofranks, " replied MacDonald, the firstassistant. "Intake forty-nine thousand. "

"Not so good--can't hold out forever at that rate. Shove out thereceptor screens to the limit and drive 'em. They figure a top of sixtythousand, but we ought to pick up a little extra from that blaze outthere. Drive 'em full out or up to sixty-five, whichever comes first. Can't seem to crush his screens, so I guess we'll have to try somethingelse, " and a thoughtful expression came over his face as he slowlyextended his hand toward another switch, with a questioning glance atWestfall. 

"Better not do that yet, Norman. Use that only as a last resort, aftereverything else has failed. "

"Yeah--I'm scared to death of trying it, and it isn't necessary yet. Hemust have an open slit somewhere to work through, just as we have. I'llfeel around for it a while. "

"Is there any way of hetrodyning the new visiray upon the exploringfrequency?"

"Hm ... M.... Never thought of that--it would be nice, too.... I think we can do it, too. Watch 'em, Quince, and holler if they startanything. "

He abandoned his desk and established the necessary connections betweenthe visiray apparatus and the controls of his board. There was a fierceviolet-white glare from the plate as he closed the switch, and he leapedback with his hands over his eyes, temporarily blinded. 

"Wow, that's hot stuff!" he exclaimed. "It works, all x, to the queen'staste, " as he donned his heavy ray-goggles and resumed his place. 

After making certain that the visiray was precisely synchronized andphased with the searching frequency, he built up the power of thatbeam until it was using twenty thousand kilofranks. Then, by delicatelymanipulating the variable condensers and inductances of his sensitiveshunting relay circuits, he slowly shifted that frightful rod of energyfrom frequency to frequency, staring into the brilliant blankness of hismicrometer screen as he did so. After a few minutes of search the screendarkened somewhat, revealing the image of the Jovian globe. Brandoninstantly shifted into that one channel the entire power of his attack;steadying the controls to bring the sphere of the Jovians into thesharpest possible focus, knowing that he had found the open slit andthat through it there was pouring upon the enemy the full power of histerrible weapon. 

In the fraction of a second before the Jovians could detect the attackand close the slit, he saw a portion of the wall of their vessel flareinto white heat and literally explode outward in puffs and gouts offlaming, molten metal and of incandescent gases. But the thrust, savageas it was, had not been fatal and the enemy countered instantly. Nowthat the crushing force of the full-coverage attack was lessened for amoment, through another slit there poured a beam of energy equal to theTerrestrials' own--a beam of such intense power that the outer screenof the _Sirius_ flared from red through the spectrum, to and beyond theviolet, and went black in less than a second, and the inner screen hadalmost gone down before Brandon's lightning hands could restore thecomplete coverage that so effectively blanketed the forces of the enemy. 

"Well, we're back to the _status quo_, " announced Brandon, calmly. "It'sa good gag they didn't have time to locate our working slit--if they hadpushed that stuff through our open channel, we'd have gotten frizzled upsome around the edges. As it was, we got the edge on that exchange--takeit from your Uncle Dudley, Quince, that bird knows that he's beennudged!"

 * * * * *

Again he searched the entire band for an opening, but could find none. The enemy had apparently retired into a tightly closed shell of energy. The small vessel no longer struggled, nor even moved, but was merelyresisting passively. 

"Not an open channel, not even one for him to work through--he can'twiggle. Well, that won't get him anything. We're so much bigger thanhe is, that we can outlast him and will get him some time, since he'sbound to run out of power before we do. I don't believe he can receiveanything, sealed up as he is, and he can't have accumulators enough moreefficient than ours to make up the difference, can he, Quince?"

"It is quite possible. For instance, although we have never heard of anyprogress being made along such lines, it has been pointed out repeatedlythat synthesis of a radio-active element of very high atomic weightwould theoretically yield an almost perfect accumulator--one manythousands of times as efficient as ours in mass-to-energy ratio. Then, too, you realize, of course, that there is a bare possibility thatintra-atomic energy may not be absolutely impossible. "

"Nix on that, Quince. I'll stand for a lot, but not for that last idea!It's hard to say that anything's impossible, of course, except thingsmade so by definition or by being contrary to observational facts, butthe best work shows that intra-atomic energy is just about as impossibleas anything can well be. It has been shown pretty conclusively that allordinary matter is already in its most stable state, so that work mustbe done upon any ordinary atom to decompose it. Besides, if he hadeither radioactive accumulators or intra-atomic energy, he would havecut us up long ago. Nope, the answer is that he's probably yelled forhelp and is trying to hold out until it gets here, " was Brandon'srejoinder. 

"What can we do about it?" asked Quince. 

"Don't know yet. I do know, though, that we aren't half as ready fortrouble as I thought we were. There's a dozen things I want to do thatI can't because we haven't got the stuff. Don't say 'I told you so, 'either--I know you did! You're the champion ground-and-lofty thinker ofthe century. Alcantro!

"Here!"

"Round up the gang, will you, and figure me out a screen and a set ofmeters that will indicate an open band? We lose too much time feelingaround anyhow, and we're too apt to take one on the chin while we'redoing it. Also, you ought to make it so it'll shoot a jolt into theopening, while you're at it, " said Brandon. 

"We shall begin at once, " and the massive Martian as he replied, steppedover to the calculating machine. 

"Well, Quince, we can't do much to him this way--he's crawled into ahole and pulled the hole in after him. Gosh, I wish we had more stuff!"

"After all, we have everything whose necessity and practicability couldhave been foreseen in the light of our information. We can, of course, go further. "

"You chirped it! But we can't let things ride this way or we'll get ourhair singed. We'll have to decorate him with the grand slam, I guess. "

"Yes, it seems as though the time for emergency measures has arrived. "

"Put everything on the center of the band?"

"That is probably the best frequency to use in a case of this kind. "

"He can't control, so we'll push him down close to the ground beforewe go to work on him--so we don't have so far to fall if anything goesscrewy with the works. Here's hoping nothing gives away!"

The _Sirius_, almost against the flaming screens of the Jovian, and bothvessels very close to the surface of the satellite, Brandon tested thepower leads briefly, adjusted dials and coils, then touched the buttonwhich actuated the relays--relays which in turn drove home the giganticswitches that launched a fearsome and as yet untried weapon. Instantlyreleased, the full seven hundred thousand kilofranks of their stupendousbatteries of accumulators drove into the middle frequency of theattacking band, and Brandon's heart was in his mouth as he stared intothe plate to see what would happen. He saw! Everything in the _Sirius_held fast, and under the impact of the inconceivable plane of force, thescreens of the enemy vessel flared instantly into an even more intenseincandescence and in that same fleeting instant went down, and alldefenses vanished as the metal sphere fell apart into two halves, aswould an apple under the full blow of a broad-axe. 

Brandon quickly shut off his power and stared in relief into the centralcompartment of the globular ship of space, now laid open, and saw therefigures, one or two of which were moving weakly. As he looked, one ofthese feebly attempted to raise a peculiar, tubular something toward ahelplessly fettered body. Even as Brandon snatched away the threateningweapon with a beam of force, he recognized the captive. 

"Great Cat, there's Breckenridge!" he gasped, and directed a liftingbeam upon the bound and unconscious prisoner. Rapidly, but carefully, hewas brought through the double airlock and into the control room, wherehis shackles were cut away and where he soon revived under vigorous andskilful treatment. 

"Any more of you in there? Did I hit any of you with that beam?"demanded Brandon, intensely, as soon as Breckenridge showed signs ofunderstanding. 

"King's in there somewhere, and there's a Callistonian human being thatyou mustn't kill, " the chief pilot replied, weakly and with great effortin every word. "Don't believe that you hit anybody direct, but the shockwas pretty bad. " Having delivered his message, he lay back, exhausted. 

"All x. Crown, give me a squad.... "

"Not on your life!" barked the general. "This is my job and I'll do itmyself. Your job is fighting the _Sirius_--stay with it!"

"Not in seven thousand years--I'm in on this, too, " Brandon protested, but was decisively overruled by Newton. 

"You belong right here at this board, since no one else can handle itthe way you can. Stay here!" he commanded. 

"All right, " grudgingly assented the physicist, and held the _Sirius_upright, with her needle-sharp stern buried a few feet deep in theground. 

He watched the wreckage jealously while Crowninshield and forty helmetedmen issued from the service door in the lower ultra-light compartmentand advanced upon the two halves of the enemy vessel. As no hostiledemonstrations ensued, scaling ladders were quickly placed and withweapons at the alert the police boarded the hemispheres, manacled thestill helpless beings visible, and, after laying down a fog ofstupefying gas, vanished into compartments beyond the metal partitions. After a short time they reappeared and climbed down the scaling ladders, carrying several inert forms, and Brandon spoke into his transmitter. 

"King all x, Crowninshield?"

"I think so. Not being in the control room he was not as badly shockedby the passage of the beam as were Breckenridge and those you saw. Thethings in the other rooms were about ready to fight, so we gave them alittle whiff of tritylamin, but Captain King will be as good as ever ina few minutes. "

"Fine business!" The police entered the _Sirius_, the service doorsclanged shut, and Brandon turned to Westfall. 

"While they're coming up, I guess I'll pick up Perce and Miss Newton. We'd better get them aboard and beat it, while we're all in one piece!"

But even before he could send out the exploring beam of hiscommunicator, the voice of Stevens came from the receiver. 

"Hi, Brandon and Westfall! We've watched the whole show. Congratulations, fellows! Welcome to Ganymede! You are in ourvalley--we're upstream from you about three hundred meters; just belowthe falls, on the meadow side. "

"All x, " Brandon acknowledged. "We saw you. Come on out where we canpick you up. We've got to get away from here, and get away fast!"

"We'll carry off the pieces of that ship, too, Quince--we may be able toget a lot of pointers from it, " and Brandon swung mighty tractor beamsupon the severed halves of the Jovian vessel, then extended a couple ofsmaller rays to meet the two little figures racing across the smoothgreen meadow toward the _Sirius_. 

CHAPTER X

Among Friends at Last

The time for the landing of the _Sirius_ was drawing near, and thecastaways upon Ganymede had donned their only suits of earthly clothing, instead of the makeshifts of mole-skin, canvas, and leather they hadbeen wearing so long. Thorns and underbrush had pierced and torn theironce natty outing costumes, and sparks and flying drops of molten metalfrom Stevens' first crude forges had burned in them many gaping holes. 

"I did the best I could with them, Steve, but they look pretty crumby, "Nadia wrinkled her nose as she studied the anything but invisible seams, darns, and staring patches everywhere so evident, both in her ownapparel of gray silk and in the heavy whipcord clothing of hercompanion. 

"You did a great job, considering what you had to work with, " hereassured her. "Besides, who cares about a few patches? I feel a lotmore civilized in my own clothes, don't you?"

"Well ... Yes, " she admitted. "They're silk, anyway, even if they don'tlook like much, and I'm just reveling in the feel of them next to meafter the horrible, rough, scratchy things I've been wearing. Seeanything yet?"

"Not yet. " Stevens had been scanning the heavens with a pair ofbinoculars. "That doesn't mean much, though, as they'll be just about inthe sun and they'll be coming like a scared dog. Might as well put awaythese glasses--we probably won't be able to see them until they're righton top of us. "

"What shall we take with us?"

"Don't know--nothing, probably, since they must have a campaign alreadymapped out. I'd like to salvage a lot of this junk, but I'm afraid wewon't be able to. I'm going to take my bow and arrows, though, aren'tyou?"

"Absolutely! That's one thing that's better than anything I ever had onEarth. This bow of mine is perfect. "

"There they are! Three rousing cheers! Say, but that old hulk looks goodto me!"

"Doesn't she, though!" cried Nadia, vibrant with excitement. "You know, Steve. I've hardly dared really to believe it until this very minute. Ohlook! What's that?"

The _Sirius_ had stopped in midair and they could see, far in thedistance, the tiny sphere of the Jovians, rushing to the attack. 

"Oh, how horrible!" cried the girl, her voice breaking. "I'm afraid, Steve.... "

"You needn't be, ace. I've told you they won't go off half-cocked aslong as Westfall is on the job. They're ready for anything, or theywouldn't be here--but just the same I wish that they had that Titanianmirror and a couple of those bombs!"

In a moment more the Jovian plane of force was launched, the powerfulray-screens flared into white-hot, sparkling defense, and the battle wason. Held spell-bound as the castaways were by that spectacular duel, yetStevens' trained mind warned him of the perils of their position. 

"Grab your bow and we'll beat it!" and he rapidly led her away from thesteel structures to an open hillside, well away from any projection, tree, or sharp point of rock. "If that keeps up very long, we're goingto see some real fireworks, and I don't know whether there will beenough left of our plant here to salvage or not. Everything is grounded, of course, but I don't believe that ordinary grounds will amount to muchagainst what's coming. "

"What _are_ you talking about?" demanded Nadia. 

"Look!" he replied, pointing, and as he spoke, a terrific bolt oflightning launched itself from the incandescent screen of the Jovianvessel upon their slender ultra-radio tower, which subsided instantlyinto a confused mass of molten and twisted metal. 

 * * * * *

As the power of the beams was increased and as the combatants drewnearer and nearer the ground, the lightning display grew ever moreviolent. Well below the canyon as the warring vessels were, thepower-plant and penstock did not suffer at all and only a few dischargesstruck the _Forlorn Hope_--discharges which were carried easily toground by the enormous thickness of her armor--but every prominentobject for hundreds of yards below the _Hope_ was literally blasted outof existence. Radio tower, directors and fittings; trees, shrubs, sharppoints of rock--all were struck again and again; fused, destroyed, utterly obliterated by the inconceivable energy being dissipated bythose impregnable screens of force. Even almost flat upon the ground asthe spectators were, each individual hair upon their heads strovefiercely to stand erect, so heavily charged was the very air. Stevens'arm was blue for days, such was Nadia's grip upon it, and she herselfcould scarcely breathe in that mighty arm's constriction--but each wasconscious only of that incredibly violent struggle, of that duel to thedeath being waged there before their eyes with those frightful weapons, hitherto unknown to man. They saw the _Sirius_ triumphant, and Stevensled the dancing girl back into their dwelling of steel. 

"Danger's all over now. Radio's gone, but we should fret a lot aboutthat. It has done its stuff--we can use the communicators. And now, sweetheart, I'm going to kiss you--for the first time in sevenlifetimes. "

Locked in each other's arms, they watched the scene until Stevensthought it time to send his message. Then, running hand in hand towardthe huge space-cruiser, they were snatched apart and drawn up toward thedouble airlocks of the main entrance. Pressure gradually brought up tonormal, they were ushered into the control room, where Nadia glancedaround quickly and almost took her father off his feet by hertempestuous rush into his arms. 

"Oh, Daddy darling. I just knew you'd come along! I haven't seenyou for a million years!" she exclaimed, rapturously. "And Bill, too--wonderful!" as she fervently embraced a young man wearing theuniform of a lieutenant of Interplanetary Police. "Ouch, Bill--you'rebreaking all my ribs!"

"Well, you cracked three of mine. Maybe you don't know how husky youare, but you've got a squeeze like a full grown boa constrictor!" Heheld her off at arms' length and studied her with admiration. "Gee, it's fine to see you again, Sis. You're looking great, too--I thinkI'll bring my girl out here to live. You always were a knockout, butnow you're the loveliest thing I ever saw!"

He made his way through the group surrounding Stevens, while Nadia andher father talked earnestly. 

"I'm Bill Newton. Thanks, " he said, simply, holding out his hand, whichwas taken in a bone-crushing grip. 

"Bring him over here, Bill!" Nadia called before Stevens could finda reply. 

"I don't know how to say anything, Stevens, " the officer continued, inembarrassment, as the two men turned to obey the summons. "She's a goodkid, and we think a lot of her. We'd about given her up. We.... She.... Oh, rats, what's the use? You know what I mean. You're there, Stevens, like a.... "

"Clam it, ace!" Stevens interrupted. "I get you, to nineteen decimals. And you don't half know just what a good kid she really is. She's thereason we're here--we were down pretty close to bed-rock for a while, she stood up when I wilted. She's got everything. She.... "

"Clam it yourself, Steve! Don't believe a word of it, Dad and Bill. _Wilt_!" Nadia's voice dripped scorn. "Why, he di.... "

"Please!" Newton's voice was somewhat husky as he silenced the clamor ofthe three young people, all talking at once. "I will not embarrass youfurther by trying to say something that no words can express. You toldme that you would take care of her, and I learn that you have done so. "

"I did what I could, but most of the credit belongs to her, no matterwhat she says, " Stevens insisted. "Anyway, sir, here she is; alive, welland ... Unharmed, " and his eyes bore unflinchingly the piercing gaze ofthe older man, who was reassured and pleased by what he read therein. "One thing I want to say right now, though, that may make you feel likecanceling the welcome. I loved Nadia even before the _Arcturus_ wasattacked, and since then, coming to know her as I have, the feelinghasn't lessened any. "

"Nadia has already told me all about you two, " said her father, "and thewelcome stands. If you could take care of her as well as you have donesince you left the _Arcturus_, I have no doubt of your ability to takecare of her for life. We have been examining the work you have donehere, son, and the more I saw of it the more amazed I became that youcould have succeeded as you did. We are deeply indebted.... Just aminute! There's my call--I'm wanted in Fifteen. I'll see you againdirectly. "

"Hi, Norm!" Stevens further relieved the surcharged atmosphere. "As soon as you and Quince can leave those controls come over and see us, will you?"

"All x--coming up!" sounded Brandon's deep and pleasant bass, and thetwo rescuers, who had tactfully avoided the family reunion, came overand greeted the third of their triumvirate. 

"Ho, Perce--you look fit. " Brandon ran an expert hand over Stevens'arm and shoulder. "Looks as if he might last a round or two, doesn'the, Quince?"

"You are looking fine, Steve. Neither of you appear any the worse foryour experiences. So this is Nadia? We have heard of you, Miss Newton. "

"I believe that, knowing Dad, " she replied. "Thanks, both of you, fordigging us out. I've heard about you two, and I'm going to kiss youboth. "

Westfall, the silent and reserved, was taken aback, but Brandon met hermore than half-way. 

"All x, Nadia--payment in full received and hereby acknowledged, " helaughed, as he allowed her feet to return to the floor. "Even if it wassome stout lads from Mars and Venus that did all the work we'll take thereward--especially since Alcantro and Fedanzo couldn't feel even such ahigh-voltage salute as that one was, and I can't picture you kissing aVenerian even if you could get to him. Whenever you get lost again, besure to let us know, now that you've got our address. If I know Perce atall, you've heard of us 'til you're sick of it and us--it's a weaknessof his--talking too much. "

"Why, it's no such th.... " began Nadia, but broke off as an aide came upand saluted smartly. 

"Pardon me, but General Crowninshield requests that Doctor Brandon, Doctor Westfall, and Doctor Stevens join the council in Lounge Fifteenas soon as convenient. " He saluted again and turned away. 

"Yes, that's right, folks--we've got to take a lot of steps, fast--seeyou later, " and Brandon, taking each of the other two by an arm, marchedthem away toward the designated assembly room. 

 * * * * *

There, already seated at a long table, were Czuv, King, andBreckenridge, all fully recovered, engaged in earnest conversation withNewton and Crowninshield. Alcantro and Fedanzo, the Martian scientists, were listening intently, as were the two Venerians Dol Kenor and PyrazAmonar. The eyes of the three newcomers, however, did not linger uponthe group at the table, but were irresistibly drawn to one corner of theroom, where six creatures lay in the heaviest manacles afforded by thestores of the Interplanetary Police. Not only were they manacled, buteach was facing a ray-projector, held by a soldier whose expressionshowed plainly that he would rather press the lethal contact than not. 

"Oh--those the things we're fighting?" Brandon stopped at the thresholdand stared intently at the captive hexans. Goggling green eyes glaringvenomously, they were lying quiet, but tense; mighty muscles ready toburst into berserk activity should the attention of a guard waver fora single instant. 

But little more than half as large as the savage creatures with whomStevens had fought in the mountain glade upon Ganymede, the hexansresembled those aborigines only as civilized men might resemble giganticprimordial savages of our own Earth. Brandon's gaze went from short, powerful legs up a round, red body to the enormous, freakish double pairof shoulders, with its peculiar universal jointing. From the doubleshoulders sprang four limbs, the front pair of which were undoubtedlyarms, terminating in large, but fairly normal, hands. The intermediatelimbs were longer than the legs and were much more powerful than thearms, and ended in members that were very evidently feet and handscombined. What in a human being would be the back of the hand was thesole of the foot--when walking upon that foot the long and dexterousthumb and fingers were curled up, out of the way and protected frominjury, in the palm of the hand. From the monstrous shoulders thererose a rather long and very flexible, yet massive and columnar neck, supporting a head neither human nor bestial--a head utterly unknown toTerrestrial history or experience. The massive cranium bespoke a highlydeveloped and intelligent brain, as did the three large and expressive, peculiar, triangular eyes. The three sensitive ears were very long, erect, and sharply pointed. Each was set immediately above an eye, oneupon each side of the head and one in front. Each ear was independentlyand instantly movable in any direction, to catch the faintest sound. The head, like the body and limbs, was entirely devoid of hair. Thehorns, so prominent in the savages Stevens had seen, were in this highlyintelligent race but vestigial--three small, sharp, black protuberancesonly an inch in length, one surmounting each ear, outlining the loftyforehead. The nose occupied almost the whole middle of the face and wasnot really a nose--it developed into a small and active proboscis. Thechin was receding almost to the point of disappearance, so that themouth, with its multiple rows of small, sharp, gleaming-white teeth, wasalmost hidden under the face instead of being a part of it. Such werethe hexans, at whom the Big Three stared in undisguised amazement. 

"Attention, please!" Newton called the meeting to order. "We havelearned that all the passengers of the _Arcturus_, and all the crew savethree, are alive and safe for the time being. Most of them are upon thesatellite Europa. However, I understand that we are not yet sufficientlywell armed to withstand such an attack in force as will certainlydevelop when we move to rescue them. This seems to be a war of appliedphysics--Doctor Brandon, as spokesman for the Scientific forces of theexpedition, what are your suggestions?"

"Anticipating an attack in response to signals probably sent out by theenemy, " replied Brandon. "I headed directly south immediately. We arenow well south the ecliptic, and are traveling at considerably more thanfull Martian acceleration. Before making any suggestions, I should liketo hear from Captain Czuv, who is more familiar than we are with thecommon enemy. Are they apt to follow us: can they detect us if we shoulddrift at constant velocity; and can we search the brains of theprisoners with his Callistonian thought-exchanger, if he should buildone with our help?"

"If they are close enough to us to overtake us without too much losttime, they will certainly attack us, " Czuv answered at a nod fromNewton. "Ordinarily they would pursue us to the limits of the SolarSystem if necessary, but since they have suffered reverses of late andcannot spare any vessels, they will probably not pursue us far. Yes, they can detect us, even without the driving rays, since this vesseluses much low-tension, low-frequency electricity in its automaticmachinery, lights, and so on. No; our thought-transformer cannot takethoughts by force, and the hexans will exchange no ideas with us. Theyare implacable and deadly foes of all humanity, irrespective of planetor race. Mercy is to them unknown--they neither give nor take quarter. "

"I can bear him out in that, " Crowninshield interposed grimly. "Thefirst one to recover snapped our ordinary handcuffs like so much threadand literally tore four men to pieces before the rest of us could rayhim. Will you need me longer, Director Newton?"

"I think not. General. Captain Czuv, you have made no headway withthem?" asked the Director. 

"None whatever, as I foretold. They understand me thoroughly, since twoof them speak my own tongue, but nothing that they have said can everbe repeated here. I knew from the first that all such attempts would befruitless, but I have tried--and failed. I suggest what I suggested atfirst--put them to death, here and now, as they lie there, for mostassuredly they will in some way contrive to take toll of lives of yourown humanity if you allow them to live. "

"You may be right, " said Newton, "but neither the General nor myselfcan give the order for their death, since Interplanetary law does notcountenance such summary action. However, the guards are fully warned ofthe peril, and will ray every prisoner at the first sign of unruliness. General Crowninshield, you may remove the prisoners and deal with themin accordance with.... "

 * * * * *

Pandemonium reigned. At Crowninshield's signal for the guards to leavethe room with their captives, all six had strained furiously at theirbonds and three of them had broken free in a flash, throwing themselvesupon the guards with unthinkable ferocity. Stevens, seeing aray-projector in a hand of one of the prisoners, hurled his heavy chairinstantly and with terrific force. The projector flew into the air, shattered and useless, while the hexan was knocked into a corner by themomentum of the massive projectile and lay there, stunned and broken. Brandon, likewise reacting instantaneously, had bent over and seizeda leg of the table, bracing his knee against the corner. With a mightylunge of his powerful body he wrenched out the support and with acontinuation of the same motion, he brought the jagged oak head of histerrible club down full upon the crown of the second hexan, who hadalready torn one guard apart and was leaping toward Czuv, his hereditaryfoe. In midflight he was dashed to the floor, his head a shapeless, pulpy mass, and Brandon, bludgeon again aloft, strode deeper into thefray. For a brief moment searing lethal beams probed here and there, chains clanked and snapped, once more that ponderous and irresistibleoaken mace fell like the hammer of Thor, again spattering brains andblood abroad as it descended--then again came silence. The six erstwhileprisoners lay dead, but they had taken five of the guards withthem--literally dismembered, hideously torn limb from limb by thesuperhuman, incredible physical strength and utter ferocity of thehexans. 

By common consent the meeting was adjourned to another room, for thebusiness in hand could not be postponed. 

"Captain Czuv was right--we Tellurians could not believe in theexistence of such a race without the evidence of our own senses. " Newtonreopened the meeting. "From this time on we take no prisoners. DoctorBrandon, you may resume. "

"The detectors and lookouts will give ample warning of any attack, andDoctor Westfall has suggested that we should have all possible factsat hand before we try to decide upon a course of action. We should liketo hear the full reports of Captain King, Captain Czuv, Chief PilotBreckenridge, and Doctor Stevens. "

The four men told their stories tersely and rapidly, while the otherslistened in deep attention. As the last speaker sat down, Newton againturned to Brandon, who silently jerked his head at Westfall, knowing hisown inadequacy in such a situation--realizing that here was neededWestfall's cold and methodical thinking. 

"Director Newton and gentlemen, " Westfall spoke calmly and precisely. "We have much to do before we can meet the hexans upon equal terms. We have many new fields of force and rays to develop, of whose natureand necessity Doctor Brandon is already aware. Then, too, we mustrecalculate our visirays so that we can operate at greater range andefficiency. We must also examine the hexan space-ship which is towing, to do which it will be desirable to drift at constant velocity for atime. In it we may find instruments or devices as yet unknown to us. It also occurs to me that since this is an Interplanetary Police problemof the first magnitude, we should at once get in touch with PoliceHeadquarters, so that the Peace Fleet can be armed as we ourselves are, or shall be, armed; for a large and highly efficient fleet will benecessary to do that which must be done. It is, of course, a foregoneconclusion that Interplanetary humanity will support the humanity ofCallisto against the hexans. 

"It is also self-evident that we must stay here and rescue theTellurians now upon Europa and Callisto, but we are not yet in positionto decide just how that rescue is to be accomplished. Four courses areapparently open to us. First, to attempt it as soon as we shall havestrengthened our armament as much as is now possible. That would invitea massed attack, and in my opinion would be foolish--probably suicidal. Second, to stand by at a distance until the rocket-ship is launched, then to escort it back to the Earth. Third, to aid the Callistonians asmuch as possible while awaiting the completion of the rocket-vessel. Fourth, and perhaps the most feasible and quickest, it may be possiblefor the Callistonian rocket-ships to bring out fellow-Tellurians, a fewat a time, to us here out in space, since they are apparently able tocome and go at will. However, I would recommend that we make no plansfor the rescue as yet--there is little use in attempting to deal with anever-changing situation until we are ready to act forthwith. I suggestthat we strengthen our offensive and defensive armament first, thensecure information as to the exact status of affairs, both upon Callistoand upon Europa. Then, ready to act, we will do at once whatever seemscalled for by the situation then obtaining. "

"The program as outlined seems eminently sensible. Are there anycomments or suggestions?" None having been offered, Director Newtonadjourned the meeting and each man attacked his particular problem. 

True to Czuv's prediction the hexans did not deem it worthwhile topursue the Terrestrial vessel, so obviously and so earnestly fleeingfrom them, and shortly, the acceleration was cut off, to render possiblea thorough study of the two halves of the spherical warship of theenemy. Scientists donned space-suits and studied every feature ofthe strange vessel, while mechanics dismantled and transferred to the_Sirius_ every device and instrument of interest. One or two novel anduseful applications of rays and forces were found, their visirays andcommunicators in particular being of a high degree of efficiency; butupon the whole the science of the hexans was found to be inferior tothat now known to the scientists of Interplanetary's flying laboratory. Brandon studied the hexan power-system most carefully, and, everythingin readiness and after a long talk with Westfall, he called a generalconference in the control-room. 

"Gentlemen, we have done about everything we can do for the time being. By combining the best features of the visirays and communicators ofthe hexans with our own newly-perfected devices, we now have a reallyexcellent system of communication. Our friends from Mars and Venushave so altered and enlarged our force-controls that our offensiveand defensive fields, rays, and screens leave little to be desired. In power we are far ahead of the enemy. They apparently know nothingof the possibilities of cosmic radiation, but depend upon tight-beamtransmission from their own power-plants--which transmission they haveperfected to a point far beyond anything reached by us of the threeplanets. They do not use accumulators, and therefore their dissipationis limited to their maximum reception, which is about seventy thousandkilofranks. Since we can dissipate ten times that amount of energy, wecould withstand, for a short time, the simultaneous attacks of ten oftheir vessels. Eleven or more of them, however, would be able to crushour defensive screens--and Captain Czuv has seen as many as a hundred oftheir space-ships in one formation. Furthermore, since they have severaltimes our maximum acceleration, they could concentrate quickly upon anydesired point. We could not escape them by flight if they really set outto overtake us, which they certainly will do if we again venture intotheir territory. Therefore it is clear that we cannot subject ourselvesto any attack in force and it follows that we cannot do much of anythinguntil the police fleet of some five hundred vessels can be re-armed andcan join us near Callisto. This will require several months at best. As you already know, it has been decided that we should not return toany of the minor planets, as to do so might invite a hexan attack uponour police fleet which is as yet unprepared. We are now heading forUranus, in the hope that such a course will distract the attention ofthe hexans from Tellus, even though they probably already know that weare Tellurians. Our new communicator ray will reach any member of theJovian system from this point. It has been decided that it is safe touse it, since it employs an almost absolutely tight beam of very smalldiameter, and since we know that that one hexan vessel, at least, hadno apparatus sufficiently sensitive to detect a beam of that nature. We will therefore now get in touch with the Callistonians and with ourown people. "

 * * * * *

Brandon seated himself before the communicator screen, and while theothers packed themselves closely around his stool, he snapped on thevisiray and turned the dials which directed that invisible, immenselycomplex beam through space. The screen was apparently in itself a coignof vantage, flying through space with the velocity of light, and thewatchers gasped involuntarily and drew themselves together, as with thatunthinkable speed they flashed down toward the surface of Callisto. So realistic was the impression that they themselves were hurtlingthrough the void, that they could scarcely reason themselves intobelieving their positive knowledge that the impending collision wasnot an actual happening! Reducing the velocity of the projectionabruptly as it approached the satellite, Brandon flashed it down intoa crater indicated by Czuv, and along a tunnel to the city of Zbardk, where the Callistonian captain held a long conversation with the Councilof the nation. Frowning in thought, he turned to Newton and spokeseriously and slowly. 

"Immediately after the loss of our super-plane, with the supposed deathof King, Breckenridge, and myself, the other Tellurian officers werereturned to Europa, since even they could be of no assistance to usCallistonians in our struggle against the new, high-acceleration vesselsof the hexans. The present situation is much more serious than I wouldhave believed possible. The last vessel going to visit Wruszk, our cityupon Europa, was caught and destroyed by the hexans, and for many weeksno ship or message has come from there to Callisto. In spite of the factthat the hexan fleet is smaller than ever before, they are guardingEuropa very closely. It is feared that they may have found and destroyedour city there--an expedition is even now about to set out in adesperate attempt to learn the fate of our fellows. "

"Suppose the rays of the lifeboats were detected in landing?" askedBrandon. "That might have given them a clue. "

"Possibly; but it is equally possible that our own men became carelessin the operation of one of our own vessels. Having been unmolested solong, they might have relaxed their vigilance. We may never know. "

"Tell 'em to cancel the expedition--we'll shoot the visiray overthere right now and find out all about it. We'll let them know prettyquickly. Also, you might tell them that you've got complete plans andspecifications for all the weapons that the hexans have, and a couplebesides, and that the quicker they shoot a ship out here after you, thesooner they can get to building some stuff to blow those hexans clearout of space!"

It was the work of only a few moments to drive the visiray projectionto Europa, where Czuv, to the great relief of all, found that the hexanshad not yet discovered either Wruszk or the Terrestrial workings. All Europan humanity, fully aware of the hexan investment, wasexerting every possible precaution against discovery by the enemy. This information was duly flashed to the Council of Callisto, and theprojection was then hurled across the intervening reaches of space andinto the cavern in which was being built the enormous rocket-ship inwhich the Terrestrial refugees were to attempt the long voyage backto their own distant planet. 

It took some little time to convince Doctor Penfield that there hadbeen projected into the empty air of his little sanctum an absolutelyinvisible and impalpable structure of pure force capable of receivingand transmitting voice and vision. Once convinced of the reality of thephenomenon, however, the speaker beside Brandon's communicator screenfairly rattled under the fervor of his greeting, so great was hispleasure at the arrival of the expedition of relief and in knowing thatKing and Breckenridge, whom they had, of course, given up for dead, wereaboard the Interplanetary vessel. 

Penfield reported that the work upon the great rocket-ship wasprogressing satisfactorily, although slowly, since it was so much largerthan any vessel theretofore constructed by the Callistonians. Newton, in turn, informed the autocrat of the stranded Terrestrials as to the_status quo_ of the rescuing party. 

"Of course, because of the hexan blockade, you cannot take us off untilthey have been wiped out, which will be several months at best, " thesurgeon said, slowly, and a shadow came over his face as he spoke. "Well, what can't be cured.... "

"Trouble with the personnel?" King broke in sharply. 

"Personnel, yes; but not trouble in the sense you mean--we have hadnone of that. It is only that there are four more of us now than therewere.... "

"Huh? How come?" demanded Brandon, in astonishment. 

"Four babies have been born to us here so far, and several more arecoming. They are the ones I'm worried about. Most normal adults canstand it here without any serious effects, but this thin atmosphere andweak gravity are certain to result in abnormal development of children. However, there may be another way out of it. Are you using normalacceleration, or have you Martians aboard?"

"Both, " replied Brandon. "We are carrying two inhabitants of Mars, but Alcantro and Fedanzo are not ordinary Martians. They have been inconstant training ever since we left Tellus, and now they can stand ashigh an acceleration as a weak Tellurian. We're riding at normal. "

"Good! As you already know, there has been no communication of latebetween here and Callisto. It had already been decided, however, thatone more voyage must be risked, in order to bring back material whichis most urgently needed. Since the vessel will leave here light and islarge enough to carry about thirty passengers on a short trip with somecrowding, the Council will probably approve of having it carry some ofour passengers out to the _Sirius_--especially now, since a vessel mustvisit you, anyway, to get Captain Czuv and the specifications of the newarmament. All these things can be done with one vessel in one trip. "

"That sounds fine!" boomed King. "It will give me a chance to get backthere where I belong, too. Whom are you sending out?"

"The seven couples who either have babies already or who will have themin the next few months; and some of our young who aren't standing thegaff any too well. You won't be in the red very deeply on the deal, either--while two or three of the passengers I am sending you willcertainly be a nuisance; anybody could use, anywhere, such men asCommander Sanderson and Lieut... "

"Sanderson!" interrupted King. "Why, he wasn't--when did _he_ getmarried?"

"The day after we arrived here, " replied the surgeon. "His fiancee wasaboard the _Arcturus_, and when they found out how long we would haveto be here, they very sensibly decided not to wait. "

"Were there any others?" demanded Nadia, who, standing between Stevensand her father, had been an interested listener. 

"Plenty of them! Fourteen of our young women passengers have marriedhere upon Europa. A few married fellow-passengers, but most of thempicked out officers of the _Arcturus_. You'll find your staff made uppretty largely of benedicts now, King! We've been here a year, you know, and time will tell! Young Commander Sanderson's a fine baby--he'll be acredit to the IPC some day, if we can get him aboard the _Sirius_, wherehe can get a good start. We could give our babies normal air pressurehere by building special rooms, but we cannot give them the normalacceleration necessary to develop their muscles properly. "

"Well, we'd better snap over to Callisto and take this up with theCouncil, " Brandon put in. "I don't imagine that there will be anyobjections, so you might as well get your ship gassed up andloaded--we'll be back here with the okay in about a minute and a half. "

 * * * * *

With Brandon at the controls and with Czuv at the communicator plate, the projection flashed toward distant Callisto and the group meltedaway, each man going about his interrupted task. 

"Daddy, take us somewhere--I want to talk to you, " Nadia spoke to herfather, and the director led her and Stevens to his own room. 

"All x, daughter; out with it!" and he bent upon her a quizzical glance, under which a fiery blush burned from her throat to her forehead. 

"Dad, I've been thinking a lot since you rescued us, and what we've justheard has given me the nerve to say it. Steve, of course, wouldn't daresuggest such a thing until we're safely back on Earth, so I will. " Herdeep brown eyes held his steadily. "All those girls got married--why, some of them have babies already--and Steve and I have waited for eachother _so_ long, daddy! And _none_ of them love each other the way wedo. Do they, Steve?"

"I don't see how they could, sir; and that goes straight across thepanel, " and he bore unflinchingly the piercing gaze of the older manas his right arm encircled the girl and held her close. 

"Well, why not?" A sudden smile transformed Newton's stern visage. "There are three chaplains with the police--a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi. Also, we have on board twofull-fledged I-P captains, either of whom is authorized to tiematrimonial knots. The means are not lacking--if you're both sure ofyourselves?" and all levity disappeared as he studied the two youngfaces. 

"Yes, you are sure, " he continued after a moment "just as her mother andI were--and are. It is too bad that she cannot be here with you, but itmay be a long time before we can return to Tellus, and you have indeedwaited long. 

"Oh thanks, Daddy, you're just a perfectly wonderful old darling!" Nadiaexclaimed, as she threw her arms rapturously around his neck. "And thisisn't a warship at all--you know perfectly well that it's a researchlaboratory, and that as soon as the Navy gets here, you won't let itfight a bit more, because such scientists can't be allowed to riskthemselves! And also, you're forgetting that whole flock of women andbabies that are coming out here just as fast as they can get themselvesready. So get going, daddy old dear, and let's do things! Steve's aQuaker and we're Presbyterians, so none of the chaplains will do at all. Besides, I promised Captain King ages ago that he could marry me, so goget him and we'll do it now. Bill can be my bridesmaid, you'll give meaway, and Steve can have the other two of his Big Three for best men. I'm off to hunt up the flimsiest, fussiest white dress I can find in mytrunks. Let's go!"

"Mr. Newton. " Stevens spoke thoughtfully as Nadia darted away. "You saidsomething about her mother, I didn't want to say anything to raise falsehopes while she was here, but I've got an idea. Let's meet in Brandon'sroom instead of here. We can send code to Tellus easily enough on ourultrawave, and we may be able to fake up something on vision. "

A few minutes later the Big Three were in Brandon's private study;staring intently into a screen of ground glass upon which playedflickering, flashing lights, while the black-haired physicistmanipulated micrometer dials in infinitesimal arcs. 

"Once more, Mac, " Brandon directed. "Pretty nearly had them that time. We're stretching this projector about six hundred percent, but we've gotto make this connection. Can't you give me just a little more voltage onthose secondaries?"

"I can _not_!" the voice of the first assistant snapped from thespeaker. "I'm overloading now so badly that some of my plates aregetting hot--if I hold this voltage much longer, the whole secondarybank of tubes is going out. All x--you're on zero!"

"All x!" Flashing and waning, the lights upon the screen formedfleeting, shifting, nebulous images of a relay station upon distantEarth; but the utmost power of the transmitting fields could neithersteady the image nor hold it. 

"Back off, Mac, " Brandon instructed. "I'm afraid we can't hold 'emdirect--no use blowing a bank of tubes. We'll try relaying throughMars--we can hold them there, I think. It will muss up reception some, but it will probably be better than direct, at that. Point oh five threesix ... All x--shoot!"

Brandon's relay station upon Mars was finally raised and held, anda corps of keenly interested engineers there made short work of theEarth-Mars linkage. Soon the screen glowed with the picture of thetransmitter-room of the Terrestrial station, and while the three menwere waiting for Mrs. Newton to be called to her own television set, the door behind them opened. Nadia and her escorts entered the room--butStevens' eyes saw only the entrancing vision of loveliness that was hisbride. Dressed in a clinging white gown of shimmering silk, her hair agolden blond corona, sweetly curved lips slightly parted and wide eyeseloquent, she paused momentarily as Stevens came to his feet and staredat her, his very heart in his eyes. 

"You never saw me in a dress before--do you like me, Steve?"

"_Like_ you! You're beautiful!" and gray eyes and brown, deep withwonder and with love, met and held as, unheeding the presence of theirfriends, they went into each other's arms in a coalescence as inevitableand as final as Fate itself. 

"Hi, Nadia old dear!" and "Daughter, from what I can see of myson-in-law, I believe that he may do, " came together from the speaker. Nadia tore herself from Stevens' embrace, to see upon the lambent screenthe happily smiling faces of her mother and sister. 

"Mother! Claire! Oh, you three wonder-workers!" She addressedsimultaneously the distant Terrestrials and the scientists at her side, while broken exclamations, punctuated by ominous, crackling snaps, camefrom the laboring amplifier. 

"Sorry to interrupt, " MacDonald's voice broke in, "but you'll have tohurry it up. Alcantro and Fedanzo are doing their best, but every platein my secondary bank's red hot, and you could fry an egg on any one ofmy transformers. Even my primary tubes are running hot. She won't holdtogether five minutes longer!"

Captain King opened his book, and in that small steel room, unadornedsave for stack upon stack of bookcases, the brief but solemn ceremonyjoining two young lives was read--its solemnity only intensified by itsunique accompaniment. For from Brandon at the primary controls, throughthe power-room of the _Sirius_ and the relay-station upon Mars, to theimmense Interplanetary transmitter upon Earth, the greatest radio andtelevision engineers of two planets were fighting overdriven equipment, trying to hold an almost impossible connection, in order that NadiaNewton's mother and sister might be present at her wedding, hundreds ofmillions of miles distant in space!

"I pronounce you man and wife. Whom God hath joined, let no man putasunder. " The sacred old ritual ended and Captain King picked upthe bride in his great arms as though she were a baby, kissed hervigorously, and set her down in front of the transmitter. In the midstof the joyous confusion that ensued a tearing, rattling crash came fromthe speaker and the screen went blank. 

"There!" lamented MacDonald from the power room. "I knew they'd blow!There goes my whole secondary bank--eight perfectly good ten-nineteensall shot to.... "

"That's too bad, but it couldn't be helped; they went for a good cause, "interrupted Brandon. "I'll come down and help clean up the mess. "

 * * * * *

Leaving the bridal party, he made his way rapidly to the power room, where he found MacDonald and the two Martians inspecting the smokingremains of what had been the secondary bank of their powerfulultra-transmitter. Spare parts in abundance were on hand, and it wasnot long until the damaged section was apparently as good as new. 

"Now to try her out, " Brandon announced. "We want to give her a goodworkout, but there's no use trying the I-P stations any more--they'realtogether too hard to handle at this range. Czuv said something aboutan unknown race of monstrosities at the south pole of Jupiter--let's tryit on them for a while. "

He flung the field of force out into space, as responsive to his willas a well-trained horse, and guided it toward the southern limb of thatgigantic world. Down and down the projection plunged, through mile aftermile of reeking, steaming fog, impenetrable to earthly eyes. Finally itcame to rest upon the surface, hundreds of feet deep in a lush, dank, tropical jungle, and Brandon plugged into the Venerian room. 

"Kenor? We've got a lot of use for you, if you can come down here for awhile. Thanks a lot. " He turned to the Martians. "Luckily, we've got acouple of infra-red transformers aboard, so we won't have to build one. You fellows might break one out and shunt it onto this circuit while DolKenor is hunting up something for us to look at. 

"Hi, old Infra-Eyes!" he went on, as the Venerian scientist waddled intothe room in his bulging space-suit. "We've got something here that'sright down your alley. Want to see what you can see?"

"Ah, a beautiful scene!" exclaimed Dol Kenor, after one glance into theplate. "It is indeed a relief, after all this coldness and glare, tosee such a soft, warm landscape--even though I have never expected tobehold quite such a violent bit of jungle, " and under his guidance theprojection flashed over hundreds of miles of territory. To the eyes ofthe Terrestrials the screen revealed only a blank, amorphous grayness, through which at times there shot lines and masses of vague andmeaningless form; but the Venerian was very evidently seeing andenjoying many and diverse scenes. 

"There, I think, is what you wish to see first, " he announced, as hefinally steadied the controls, and Brandon cut in upon the shuntingscreen the infra-red transformer. This device, developed long before torender possible the use of Terrestrial eyes in the opaque atmosphere ofVenus, stepped up the fog-piercing long waves into the frequencies oflight capable of affecting the earthly retina. Instantly the dull grayblank of the shunting screen became transformed into a clear andcolorful picture of the great city of the Jovians of the South. 

"Great Cat!" Brandon exclaimed. "Flying fortresses is right! They're inwar formation, too, or I'm a polyp! We've got to watch this, Mac, allof it, and watch it close--it's apt to have a big bearing on what we'llhave to do, before they get done. Better we rig up another set, and puta relay of observers on this job!"

CHAPTER XI

The Vorkul-Hexan War

Vorkulia, the city of the Vorkuls, was an immense seven-pointedstar. At its center, directly upon the south pole of Jupiter, rose atremendous shaft--its cross-section likewise a tapering seven-pointedstar--which housed the directing intelligence of the nation. Radiatingfrom the seven cardinal points of the building were short lanes leadingto star-shaped open plots, from which in turn branched out ways to otherstellate areas; ways reaching, after many such steps, to the toweringinner walls of the metropolis. The outer walls, still loftier and evenmore massive ramparts of sullen gray-green metal, formed a seamless, jointless barrier against an utterly indescribable foe; a barrier whoseouter faces radiated constantly a searing, coruscating green emanation. Metal alone could not long have barred that voracious and implacablyrelentless enemy, but against that lethal green emanation even thatravening Jovian jungle could not prevail, but fell back, impotent. Writhing and crawling, loathesomely palpitant with an unspeakableexuberance of foul and repellent vigor, possible only to suchmeteorological conditions as obtained there, it threw its mosthideously prolific growths against that radiant wall in vain. 

The short, zig-zag lanes, the ways, and the seven-pointed areaswere paved with a greenish glass. This pavement was intended solelyto prevent vegetable growth and carried no traffic whatever, since fewindeed of the Vorkuls have ever been earth-bound and all traffic was inthe air. The principal purpose of the openings was to separate, andthus to render accessible by air, the mighty buildings which, levelupon level, towered upward, with airships hovering at or anchored todoorways and entrances at every level. Buildings, entrances, everythingvisible--all replicated, reiterated, repeated infinite variations inthe one theme, that of the septenate stelliform. 

Color ran riot; masses varied from immense blocks of awe-inspiringgrandeur to delicate tracery of sheerest gossamer; lights flamed andflared in wide bands and in narrow, flashing pencils--but in all, through all, over all, and dominating all was the Seven-Pointed Star. 

In and almost filling the space, at least a mile in width, between the inner and the outer walls were huge, seven-sidedstructures--featureless, squat, forbidding heptagons of dull greenmetal. No thing living was to be seen in that space. Its pavement wasof solid metal and immensely thick, and that metal, as well as that ofthe walls, was burned and blackened and seared as though by numberlessexposures to intolerable flame. In a lower compartment of one of theseenormous heptagons Vortel Kromodeor, First Projector Officer, restedbefore a gigantic and complex instrument board. He was at ease--his hugewings folded, his sinuous length coiled comfortably in slack loops abouttwo horizontal bars. But at least one enormous, extensible eye wasalways pointed toward the board, always was at least one nimble andbat-like ear cocked attentively in the direction of the signal panel. 

A whistling, shrieking ululation rent the air and the officer's coilstightened as he reared a few feet of his length upright, shooting outhalf a dozen tentacular arms to various switches and controls upon hisboard, while throughout the great heptagon, hundreds of other Vorkulssprang to attention at their assigned posts of duty. As the howling wailcame to a climax in a blast of sound Kromodeor threw over a lever, asdid every other projector officer in every other heptagon, and there wasmade plain to any observer the reason for the burns and scars in thetortured space between the lofty inner and outer walls of Vorkulia. For these heptagons were the monstrous flying fortresses which Czuvhad occasionally seen from afar, as they went upon some unusual errandabove the Jovian banks of mist, and which Brandon was soon to see inhis visiray screen. The seared and disfigured metal of the pavementand walls was made so by the release of the furious blasts of energynecessary to raise those untold thousands of tons of mass against theattraction of Jupiter, more than two and a half times the gravity of ourown world! Vast volumes of flaming energy shrieked from the ports. Waveupon wave, flooding the heptagons, it dashed back and forth upon theheavy metal between the walls. As more and more of the inconceivablepower of those Titanic generators was unleashed, it boiled forth ina devastating flood which, striking the walls, rebounded and leapedvertically far above even those mighty ramparts. Even the enormousthickness of the highly conducting metal could not absorb all theenergy of that intolerable blast, and immediately beneath the ports newseven-pointed areas of disfigurement appeared as those terrific flyingfortresses were finally wrenched from the ground and hurled upward. 

 * * * * *

High in the air, another signal wailed up and down a peculiar scale ofsound and the mighty host of vessels formed smoothly into symmetricalgroups of seven. Each group then moved with mathematical precision intoits allotted position in a complex geometrical formation--a gigantic, seven-ribbed, duplex cone in space. The flagship flew at the apex ofthis stupendous formation; behind, and protected by, the full powerof the other floating citadels of the forty-nine groups of seven. Due north, the amazing armada sped in rigorous alignment, flying alonga predetermined meridian--due north!

At the end of his watch Kromodeor relinquished his board to the officerrelieving him and shot into the air, propelled by the straightening ofthe powerful coils of his snake-like body and tail. Wings half spread, lateral and vertical ruddering fins outthrust, he soared across the roomtoward a low opening. Just before they struck the wall upon either sideof the doorway the great wings snapped shut, the fins retracted, and thelong and heavy body struck the floor of the passage without a jar. Witha wriggling, serpentine motion he sped like a vibrant arrow along thehall and into a wardroom. There, after a brief glance around the room, he coiled up beside a fellow officer who, with one eye, was negligentlyreading a scroll held in three or four hands; while with another eye, poised upon its slender pedicle, he watched a moving picture upon atelevision screen. 

"Hello, Kromodeor, " Wixill, Chief Power Officer[2] greeted the newcomerin the wailing, hissing language of the Vorkuls. He tossed the scrollinto the air, where it instantly rolled into a tight cylinder and shotinto an opening in the wall of the room. "Glad to see you. Books andshows are all right on practice cruises, but I can't seem to work upmuch enthusiasm about such things now. "

[Footnote 2: In order to avoid all unnecessary strain upon the memory ofthe reader, all titles, etc. , have been given in the closest possibleEnglish equivalent, instead of in an attempted transliteration of theforeign word. This particular officer has no counterpart upon Tellurianvessels. He is the second in command of a Vorkulian fortress, hisfunction being to supervise all expenditure of power. --E. E. S. ]

Kromodeor elevated an eye and studied the screen, upon which, to theaccompaniment of whistling, shrieking sound, whirled and gyrated aninterlacing group of serpentine forms. 

"A good show, Wixill, " the projector officer replied, "but nothing tohold the attention of men engaged in what we are doing. Think of it!After twenty years of preparation--two long lifetimes--and for the firsttime in our history, we are actually going to war!"

"I have thought of it at length. It is disgusting. Compelled to trafficwith an alien form of life! Were it not to end in the extinction ofthose unspeakable hexans, it would be futile to the point of silliness. I cannot understand them at all. There is ample room upon this planetfor all of us. Our races combined are not using one seven-thousandthof its surface. You would think that they would shun all strangers. Yet for ages have they attacked us, refusing to let us alone, untilfinally they forced us to prepare means for their destruction. Theyseem as senselessly savage as the jungle growths, and, but for theirvery evident intelligence, one would class them as such. You wouldthink that, being intelligent and being alien to us, they would nothave anything to do with us in any way, peacefully or otherwise. However, their intrusions and depredations are about to end. "

"They certainly are. Vorkulia has endured much--too much--but I am gladthat our forefathers did not decide to exterminate them sooner. If theyhad, we could not have been doing this now. "

"There speaks the rashness of youth, Kromodeor. It is a violation of allour instincts to have any commerce with outsiders, as you will learn assoon as you see one of them. Then, too, we will lose heavily. Since wehave studied their armaments so long, and have subjected every phase ofthe situation to statistical analysis, it is certain that we are tosucceed--but you also know at what cost. "

"Two-sevenths of our force, with a probable error of one in seven, "replied the younger Vorkul. "And because that figure cannot be improvedwithin the next seven years and because of the exceptional weakness ofthe hexans due to their unexpectedly great losses upon Callisto, we areattacking at this time. Their spherical vessels are nothing, of course. It is in the reduction of the city that we will lose men and vessels. But at that, each of us has five chances in seven of returning, which isgood enough odds--much better than we had in that last expedition intothe jungle. But by the Mighty Seven, I shall make myself wrap around onehexan, for my brother's sake, " and his coils tightened unconsciously. "Hideous, repulsive monstrosities! Creatures so horrible should notbe allowed to live--they should have been tossed over the wall tothe jungle ages ago!" Kromodeor curled out an eye as he spoke, andcomplacently surveyed the writhing cylinder of sinuous, supple powerthat was his own body. 

"Better avoid contact work with them if possible, " cautioned Wixill. "You might not be able to unwrap, and to touch one of them is almostunthinkable. Speaking of wrapping, you know that they are putting on thefinals of the contact work in the star this evening. Let's watch them. "

They slid to the floor and wriggled away in perfect "step"--undulatingalong in such nice synchronism that their adjacent sides, only a fewinches apart, formed two waving rigidly parallel lines. Deep in thelower part of the fortress they entered a large assembly room, providedwith a raised platform in the center and having hundreds of short, upright posts in lieu of chairs; most of which were already taken byspectators. The two officers curled their tails comfortably around twoof the vacant pillars, elevated their heads to a convenient level ofsight and directed each an eye or two upon the stage. This was, ofcourse, heptagonal. Its sides, like those of the mighty flying fortsthemselves, were not straight, but angled inward sufficiently to makethe platform a seven-pointed star. The edge was outlined by a low rail, and bulwark and floor were padded with thick layers of a hard but smoothand yielding fabric. 

 * * * * *

In this star-shaped ring two young Vorkuls were contending for thechampionship of the fleet in a contest that seemed to combine most ofthe features of wrestling, boxing, and bar-room brawling, with no holdsbarred. Four hands of each of the creatures held heavy leather billies, and could be used only in striking with those weapons, the remaininghands being left free to employ as the owner saw fit. Since the sportwas not intended to be lethal, however, the eyes and other highlyvulnerable parts were protected by metal masks, and the wing ribswere similarly guarded by leathern shields. The guiding fins, beingcomparatively small and extremely tough, required no protection. 

"We're just in time, " Kromodeor whistled. "The main bout is nicely on. See anyone from the flagship? I might stake a couple of korpels thatSintris will paint the symbol upon his wing. "

"Most of their men seem to be across the star, " Wixill replied, and bothbeings fell silent, absorbed in the struggle going on in the ring. 

It was a contest well worth watching. Wing crashed against mighty wingand the lithe, hard bodies snapped and curled this way and that, almostfaster than the eye could follow, in quest of advantageous holds. Abovethe shrieking wails of the crowd could be heard the smacks and thuds ofthe eight flying clubs as they struck against the leather shields oragainst tough and scaly hides. For minutes the conflict raged, with noadvantage apparent. Now the fighters were flat upon the floor of thestar, now dozens of feet in the air above it, as one or the other soughtto gain a height from which to plunge downward upon his opponent; butboth stayed upon or over the star--to leave its boundaries was to losedisgracefully. 

Then, high in air, the visiting warrior thought that he saw an openingand grappled. Wings crashed in fierce blows, hands gripped and furiouslywrenched. Two powerful bodies, tapering smoothly down to equallypowerful tails, corkscrewed around each other viciously, winding up intosomething resembling tightly twisted lamp cord; and the two Vorkuls, each helpless, fell to the mat with a crash. Fast as was Zerexi, thegladiator from the flagship, Sintris was the merest trifle faster. Like the straightening of a twisted spring of tempered steel that longbody uncoiled as they struck the floor, and up under those shieldingwings--an infinitesimal fraction of a second slow in interposing--thatlithe tail sped. Two lightning loops flashed around the neck of thevisitor and tightened inexorably. Desperately the victim fought to breakthat terrible strangle hold, but every maneuver was countered as soonas it was begun. Beating wings, under whose frightful blows the very airquivered, were met and parried by wings equally capable. Hands and clubswere of no avail against that corded cable of sinew, and Sintris, hishead retracted between his wings and his own hands reenforcing thatimpregnable covering over his head and neck, threw all his power intohis tail--tightening, with terrific, rippling surges, that alreadythrottling band about the throat of his opponent. Only one result waspossible. Soon Zerexi lay quiet, and a violet beam of light flared froma torch at the ringside, bathing both contenders. At the flash thewinner disengaged himself from the loser, and stood by until the latterhad recovered the use of his paralyzed muscles. The two combatants thentouched wing tips in salute and flew away together, over the heads ofthe crowd; plunging into a doorway and disappearing as the two officersuncoiled from their "seats" and wriggled out into the corridor. 

"Fine piece of contact work, " said Wixill, thoughtfully. "I'm glad thatSintris won, but I did not expect him to win so easily. Zerexi shouldn'thave gone into a knot so early against such a fast man. "

"Oh, I don't know, " argued Kromodeor. "His big mistake was in thatsecond body check. If he had blocked the sixth arm with his fifth, takenout the fourth and second with his third, and then gone in with.... " andso, quite like two early experts after a good boxing match, the friendsargued the fine points of the contest long after they had reached theirquarters. 

Day after day the vast duplex cone of Vorkulian fortresses spedtoward the north pole of the great planet, with a high and constantvelocity. Day after day the complex geometrical figure in space remainedunchanged, no unit deviating measurably from its precise place in theformation. Over rapacious jungles, over geysers spouting hot water, over sullenly steaming rivers and seas, over boiling lakes of mud, andhigh over gigantic volcanoes, in uninterrupted eruptions of cataclysmicviolence, the Vorkulian phalanx flew--straight north. The equatorialregions, considerably hotter than the poles, were traversed withpractically no change in scenery--it was a world of steaming fog, of jungle, of hot water, of boiling, spurting mud, and of volcanoes. Not of such mild and sporadic volcanic outbreaks as we of green Terraknow, but of gigantic primordial volcanoes, in terrifyingly continuousperformances of frightful intensity. Due north the Vorkulian spearheadwas hurled, before the rigorous geometrical alignment was altered. 

"All captains, attention!" Finally, in a high latitude, the flagshipsent out final instructions. "The hexans have detected us and our longrange observers report that they are coming to meet us in force. We willnow go into the whirl, and proceed with the maneuvers exactly as theyhave been planned. Whirl!"

At the command, each vessel began to pursue a tortuous spiral path. Each group of seven circled slowly about its own axis, as though eachstructure were attached rigidly to a radius rod, and at the same timespiraled around the line of advance in such fashion that the wholegigantic cone, wide open maw to the fore, seemed to be boring its waythrough the air. 

"Lucky again!" Kromodeor, in the wardroom, turned to Wixill as the twoprepared to take their respective watches. "It looks as though the firstaction would come while we're on duty. I've got just one favor to ask, if you have to economize on power, let Number One alone, will you?"

"No fear of that, " Wixill hissed, with the Vorkulian equivalent of achuckle. "We have abundance of power for all of your projector officers. But don't waste any of it, or I'll cut you down five ratings!"

"You're welcome. When I shine old Number One on any hexan work, oneflash is all we'll take. See you at supper, " and, leaving his superiorat the door of the power room, Kromodeor wriggled away to his stationupon the parallel horizontal bars before his panel. 

Making sure that his tail coils were so firmly clamped that no possiblelurch or shock could throw him out of position, he set an eye towardeach of his sighting screens, even though he knew that it would be longbefore those comparatively short range instruments would show anythingexcept friendly vessels. Then, ready for any emergency, he scanned hisone "live" screen--the one upon which were being flashed the picturesand reports secured by the high-powered instruments of the observers. 

 * * * * *

With the terrific acceleration employed by the hexan spheres, itwas not long until the leading squadron of fighting globes nearedthe Vorkulian war-cone. This advance guard was composed of the new, high-acceleration vessels. Their crews, with the innate blood-lustand savagery of their breed, had not even entertained the thought ofaccommodating their swifter pace to that of the main body of the fleet. These vast, slow-moving structures were no more to be feared than thosesimilar ones whose visits they had been repulsing for twenty longJovian years--by the time the slower spheres could arrive upon the scenethere would be nothing left for them to do. Therefore, few in numberas were the vessels of the vanguard, they rushed to the attack. In oneblinding salvo they launched their supposedly irresistible planes offorce--dazzling, scintillating planes under whose fierce power thestudying, questing, scouting fortresses previously encountered had fledback southward; cut, beaten, and crippled. These spiraling monsters, however, did not pause or waver in their stolidly ordered motion. As the hexan planes of force flashed out, the dull green metal wallsbroke into a sparkling green radiance, against which the Titanicbolts spent themselves in vain. Then there leaped out from the weirdbrilliance of the walls of the fortresses great shafts of pale greenluminescence--tractor ray after gigantic tractor ray, which seizedupon the hexan spheres and drew them ruthlessly into the yawningopen end of that gigantic cone. 

Then, in each group of seven, similar great streamers of energy reachedout from fortress to fortress, until each group was welded into onemighty unit by twenty-one such bands of force. The unit formed, a rayfrom each of its seven component structures seized upon a designatedsphere, and under the combined power of those seven tractors, theluckless globe was literally snapped into the center of mass of theVorkulian unit There seven dully gleaming red pressor rays leaped uponit, backed by all the power of seven gigantic fortresses, held rigidlyin formation by the unimaginable mass of the structures and by theirtwenty-one prodigious tractor beams. Under that awful impact, thescreens and walls of the hexan spheres were exactly as effective as somany structures of the most tenuous vapor. The red glare of the vortexof those beams was lightened momentarily by a flash of brighter color, and through the foggy atmosphere there may have flamed briefly a drop ortwo of metal that was only liquefied. The red and green beams snappedout, the peculiar radiance died from the metal walls, and the giganticduplex cone of the Vorkuls bored serenely northward--as little marked oraffected by the episode as is a darting swift who, having snapped up achance insect in full flight, darts on. 

"Great Cat!" Far off in space, Brandon turned from his visiray screenand wiped his brow. "Czuv certainly chirped it, Perce, when he calledthose things flying fortresses. But who, what, why, and how? We didn'tsee any apparatus that looked capable of generating or handling thosebeams--and of course, when they got started, their screens cut usoff at the pockets. Wish we could have made some sense out of theirlanguage--like to know a few of their ideas--find out whether we can'tget on terms with them some way or other. Funny-looking wampuses, butthey've got real brains--their think-tanks are very evidently full ofbubbles. If they have it in mind to take us on next, old son, it'll bejust ... Too ... Bad!"

"And then some, " agreed Stevens. "They've got something--no fooling. Itlooks like the hexans are going to get theirs, good and plenty, prettysoon--and then what? I'd give my left lung and four front teeth for onelong look at their controls in action. "

"You and me both--it's funny, the way those green ray-screens stick tothe walls, instead of being spherical, as you'd expect ... Should thinkthey'd _have_ to radiate from a center, and so be spherical, " Brandoncogitated. "However, we've got nothing corkscrewy enough to go throughthem, so we'll have to stand by. We'll stay inside whenever possible, look on from outside when we must, but all the time picking up whateverinformation we can. In the meantime, now that we've got our passengers, old Doctor Westfall prescribes something that he says is good for whatails us. Distance--lots of distance, straight out from the sun--andI wouldn't wonder if we'd better take his prescription. "

The two Terrestrial observers relapsed into silence, staring intotheir visiray plates, searching throughout the enormous volume of oneof those great fortresses in another attempt to solve the mystery of thegeneration and propagation of the incredible manifestations of energywhich they had just witnessed. Scarcely had the search begun, however, when the visirays were again cut off sharply--the rapidly advancing mainfleet of the hexans had arrived and the scintillant Vorkulian screenswere again in place. 

True to hexan nature, training and tradition, the fleet, hundredsstrong, rushed savagely to the attack. Above, below, and around thefar-flung cone the furious globes dashed, attacking every Vorkuliancraft viciously with every resource at their command; with every weaponknown to their diabolically destructive race. Planes of force stabbedand slashed, concentrated beams of annihilation flared fiercely throughthe reeking atmosphere, gigantic aerial bombs and torpedoes were hurledwith full radio control against the unwelcome visitor--with no effect. Bound together in groups of seven by the mighty, pale-green bands offorce, the Vorkulian units sailed calmly northward, spiraling along withnot the slightest change in formation or velocity. The frightful planesand beams of immeasurable power simply spent themselves harmlesslyagainst those sparklingly radiant green walls--seemingly as absorbentto energy as a sponge is to water, since the eye could not detect anychange in the appearance of the screens, under even the fiercest blastsof the hexan projectors. Bombs, torpedoes, and all material projectileswere equally futile--they exploded harmlessly in the air far from theirobjectives, or disappeared at the touch of one of those dark, dull-redpressor rays. And swiftly, but calmly and methodically as at a Vorkulianpractice drill, the heptagons were destroying the hexan fleet. Sevenmighty green tractors would lash out, seize an attacking sphere, andsnap it into the center of mass of the unit of seven. There would be abrief flash of dull red, a still briefer flare of incandescence, and theimpalpable magnets would leap out to seize another of the doomed globes. It was only a matter of moments until not a hexan vessel remained; andthe Vorkulian juggernaut spiraled onward, now at full acceleration, toward the hexan stronghold dimly visible far ahead of them--a vastcity built around Jupiter's northern pole. 

At the controls of his projector, Kromodeor spun a dial with amany-fingered, flexible hand and spoke. 

"Wixill, I am being watched again--I can feel very plainly that strangeintelligence watching everything I do. Have the tracers located him?"

"No, they haven't been able to synchronize with his wave yet. Eitherhe is using a most minute pencil or, what is more probable, he is on afrequency which we do not ordinarily use. However, I agree with you thatit is not a malignant intelligence. All of us have felt it, and none ofus senses enmity. Therefore, it is not a hexan--it may be one of thosestrange creatures of the satellites, who are, of course, perfectlyharmless. "

"Harmless, but unpleasant, " returned Kromodeor. "When we get back I'mgoing to find his beam myself and send a discharge along it that willend his spying upon me. I do not.... "

 * * * * *

A wailing signal interrupted the conversation and every Vorkul inthe vast fleet coiled even more tightly about his bars, for the realbattle was about to begin. The city of the hexans lay before them, all her gigantic forces mustered to repel the first real invasion ofher long and warlike history. Mile after mile it extended, an orderlylabyrinth of spherical buildings arranged in vast interlocking seriesof concentric circles--a city of such size that only a small part of itwas visible, even to the infra-red vision of the Vorkulians. Apparentlythe city was unprotected, having not even a wall. Outward from the low, rounded houses of the city's edge there reached a wide and verdantplain, which was separated from the jungle by a narrow moat ofshimmering liquid--a liquid of such dire potency that across it, even those frightful growths could neither leap nor creep. 

But as the Vorkulian phalanx approached--now shooting forward andupward with maximum acceleration, screaming bolts of energy flaming outfor miles behind each heptagon as the full power of its generators wasunleashed--it was made clear that the homeland of the hexans was farfrom unprotected. The verdant plain disappeared in a blast of radiance, revealing a transparent surface, through which could be seen masses ofmachinery filling level below level, deep into the ground as far as theeye could reach; and from the bright liquid of the girdling moat thereshot vertically upward a coruscantly refulgent band of intense yellowluminescence. These were the hexan defences, heretofore invulnerable andinvincible. Against them any ordinary warcraft, equipped with ordinaryweapons of offense, would have been as pitifully impotent as a nakedbaby attacking a battleship. But now those defenses were beingchallenged by no ordinary craft; it had taken the mightiest intellectsof Vorkulia two long lifetimes to evolve the awful engine of destructionwhich was hurling itself forward and upward with an already terrific andconstantly increasing speed. 

Onward and upward flashed the gigantic duplex cone, its entire whirlingmass laced and latticed together--into one mammoth unit by green tractorbeams and red pressors. These tension and compression members, ofunheard-of power, made of the whole fleet of three hundred forty-threefortresses a single stupendous structure--a structure with all thestrength and symmetry of a cantilever truss! Straight through that wallof yellow vibrations the vast truss drove, green walls flaming bluedefiance as the absorbers overloaded; its doubly braced tip rearingupward, into and beyond the vertical as it shot through that searingyellow wall. Simultaneously from each heptagon there flamed downward agreen shaft of radiance, so that the whole immense circle of the cone'smouth was one solid tractor beam, fastening upon and holding in anunbreakable grip mile upon mile of the hexan earthworks. 

Practically irresistible force and supposedly immovable object!Every loose article in every heptagon had long since been stored inits individual shockproof compartment, and now every Vorkul coiled hisentire body in fierce clasp about mighty horizontal bars: for the entirekinetic energy of the untold millions of tons of mass comprising thecone, at the terrific measure of its highest possible velocity, wasto be hurled upon those unbreakable linkages of force which boundthe trussed aggregation of Vorkulian fortresses to the deeply buriedintrenchments of the hexans. The gigantic composite tractor beam snappedon and held. Inconceivably powerful as that beam was, it stretched atrifle under the incomprehensible momentum of those prodigious massesof metal, almost halted in their terrific flight. But the war-cone wasnot quite halted; the calculations of the Vorkulian scientists had beenaccurate. No possible artificial structure, and but few natural ones--inpractice maneuvers entire mountains had been lifted and hurled for milesthrough the air--could have withstood the incredible violence of thatlunging, twisting, upheaving impact. Lifted bodily by that impalpablehawser of force and cruelly wrenched and twisted by its enormous coupleof angular momentum, the hexan works came up out of the ground as awaterpipe comes up in the teeth of a power shovel. The ground trembledand rocked and boulders, fragments of concrete masonry, and masses ofmetal flew in all directions as that city-encircling conduit ofdiabolical machinery was torn from its bed. 

 * * * * *

A portion of that conduit fully thirty miles in length was in the air, a twisted, flaming inferno of wrecked generators, exploding ammunition, and broken and short-circuited high-tension leads before the hexanscould themselves cut it and thus save the remainder of theirfortifications. With resounding crashes, the structure parted at theweakened points, the furious upheaval stopped and, the tractor beamsshut off, the shattered, smoking, erupting mass of wreckage fell inclashing, grinding ruin upon the city. 

The enormous duplex cone of the Vorkuls did not attempt to repeat themaneuver, but divided into two single cones, one of which darted towardeach point of rupture. There, upon the broken and unprotected ends ofthe hexan cordon, their points of attack lay: theirs the task to eatalong that annular fortress, no matter what the opposition might bringto bear--to channel in its place a furrow of devastation until the twocones, their work complete, should meet at the opposite edge of thecity. Then what was left of the cones would separate into individualheptagons, which would so systematically blast every hexan thing intonothingness as to make certain that never again would they resume theirinsensate attacks upon the Vorkuls. Having counted the cost and beinggrimly ready to pay it, the implacable attackers hurled themselves upontheir objectives. 

Here were no feeble spheres of space, commanding only the limitedenergies transmitted to their small receptors through the ether. Insteadthere were all the offensive and defensive weapons developed by hundredsof generations of warrior-scientists; wielding all the incalculablepower capable of being produced by the massed generators of a mightynation. But for the breach opened in the circle by the irresistiblesurprise attack, they would have been invulnerable, and, hampered asthey were by the defenseless ends of what should have been an endlessring, the hexans took heavy toll. 

The heptagons, massive and solidly braced as they were, and anchored bytractor rays as well, shuddered and trembled throughout their mightyframes under the impact of fiercely driven pressor beams. Sullenlyradiant green wall-screens flared brighter and brighter as the Vorkulianabsorbers and dissipators, mighty as they were, continued more and moreto overload; for there were being directed against them beams from theentire remaining circumference of the stronghold. Every deadly frequencyand emanation known to the fiendish hexan intellect, backed by the fullpower of the city, was poured out against the invaders in sizzlingshrieking bars, bands, and planes of frenzied incandescence. Nor wasvibratory destruction alone. Armor-piercing projectiles of enormoussize and weight were hurled--diamond-hard, drill-headed projectileswhich clung and bored upon impact. High-explosive shells, canisters ofgas, and the frightful aerial bombs and radio-dirigible torpedoes ofhighly scientific war--all were thrown with lavish hand, as fast asthe projectors could be served. But thrust for thrust, ray for ray, projectile for massive projectile, the Brobdingnagian creations ofthe Vorkuls gave back to the hexans. 

The material lining of the ghastly moat was the only substance capableof resisting the action of its contents, and now, that lining destroyedby the uprooting of the fortress, that corrosive, brilliantly mobileliquid cascaded down in to the trough and added its hellish contributionto the furious scene. For whatever that devouring fluid touched flaredinto yellow flame, gave off clouds of lurid, strangling vapor, anddisappeared. But through yellow haze, through blasting frequencies, through clouds of poisonous gas, through rain of metal and throughstorm of explosive the two cones ground implacably onward, their everyoffensive weapon centered upon the fast-receding exposed ends of thehexan fortress. Their bombs and torpedoes ripped and tore into thestructure beneath the invulnerable shield and exploded, demolishingand hurling aside like straws, the walls, projectors, hexads and vastmountains of earth. Their terrible rays bored in, softening, fusing, volatilizing metal, short-circuiting connections, destroying lifefar ahead of the point of attack; and, drawn along by the relentlesslycreeping composite tractor beam, there progressed around the circumferenceof the hexan city two veritable Saturnalia of destruction--uninterrupted, cataclysmic detonations of sound and sizzling, shrieking, multi-coloreddisplays of pyrotechnic incandescence combining to form a spectacleof violence incredible. 

But the heptagons could not absorb nor radiate indefinitely thosetorrents of energy, and soon one greenishly incandescent screen wentdown. Giant shells pierced the green metal walls, giant beams of forcefused and consumed them. Faster and faster the huge heptagon became ashapeless, flowing mass, its metal dripping away in flaming gouts ofbrilliance; then it disappeared utterly in one terrific blast as someprobing enemy ray reached a vital part. The cone did not pause norwaver. Many of its component units would go down, but it would goon--and on and on until every hexan trace had disappeared or untilthe last Vorkulian heptagon had been annihilated. 

In one of the lowermost heptagons, one bearing the full brunt of thehexan armament, Kromodeor reared upright as his projector controlswent dead beneath his hands. Finding his communicator screens likewiselifeless, he slipped to the floor and wriggled to the room of the ChiefPower Officer, where he found Wixill idly fingering his controls. 

"Are we out?" asked Kromodeor, tersely. 

"All done, " the Chief Power Officer calmly replied. "We have power left, but we cannot use it, as they have crushed our screens and are fusingour outer walls. Two out of seven chances, and we drew one of them. Weare still working on the infra band, over across on the Second's board, but we won't last long.... "

 * * * * *

As he spoke, the mighty fabric lurched under them, and only their quickand powerful tails, darting in lightning loops about the bars, savedthem from being battered to death against the walls as the heptagon washurled end over end by a stupendous force. With a splintering crash itcame to rest upon the ground. 

"I wonder how that happened? They should have rayed us out or explodedus, " Kromodeor pondered. The Vorkuls, with their inhumanly powerful, sinuous bodies, were scarcely affected by the shock of that frightfulfall. 

"They must have had a whole battery of pressors on us when our greenswent out--they threw us half-way across the city, almost into the gatewe made first, " Wixill replied, studying the situation of the vessel inthe one small screen still in action. "We aren't hurt very badly--only afew holes that they are starting to weld already. When the absorber anddissipator crews get them cooled down enough so that we can use poweragain, we'll go back. "

But they were not to resume their place in the attack. Through theholes in the still-glowing walls, hexan soldiery were leaping insteady streams, fighting with the utmost savagery of their bloodthirstynatures, urged on by the desperation born of the knowledge of imminentdefeat and total destruction. Hand-weapons roared, flashed, andsparkled; heavy bars crashed and thudded against crunching bones;mighty bodies and tails whipped crushingly about six-limbed forms whichwrenched and tore with monstrously powerful hands and claws. Fiercelyand valiantly the Vorkuls fought, but they were outnumbered by hundredsand only one outcome was possible. 

Kromodeor was one of the last to go down. Weapons long since exhausted, he unwrapped his deadly coils from about a dead hexan and darted towarda storeroom, only to be cut off by a horde of enemies. Throwing himselfdown a vertical shaft, he flew toward a tiny projector-locker, in thelowermost part of one of the great star's points, the hexans in hotpursuit. He wrenched the door open, and even while searing planes offorce were riddling his body, he trained the frightful weapon he hadsought. He pressed the contact, and bursts of intolerable flame sweptthe entire passage clear of life. Weakly he struggled to go out into theaisle, but his muscles refused to do the bidding of his will and he laythere, twitching feebly. 

In the power room of the heptagon a hexan officer turned fiercely toanother, who was offering advice. 

"Vorkuls? Bah!" he snarled, viciously. "Our race is finished. Die wemust, but we shall take with us the one enemy, who above all othersneeds destruction!" and he hurled the captured Vorkulian fortress intothe air. 

As the heptagon lurched upward, the massive door of a lower projectorlocker clanged shut and Kromodeor collapsed in a corner, hisconsciousness blotted out. 

 * * * * *

"Well, that certainly tears it! That's a ... I.... " Stevens' readyvocabulary failed him and he turned to Brandon, who was still staringnarrow-eyed into the plate, watching the destruction of the hexan city. 

"They've got something, all right--you've got to hand it to them, "Brandon replied. "And we thought we knew something about forces andphysical phenomena in general. Those birds have forgotten more than weever will know. Just one of those things could take the whole I-P fleet, armed as we are now, any morning before breakfast, just for setting-upexercises. We've got to do something about it--but what?"

"It's okay--whatever you say. There may be an out somewhere, but I don'tsee it, " and Stevens' gloomy tone matched his words. 

Highly trained scientists both, they had been watching that whichtranscended all the science of the inner planets and knew themselvesoutclassed immeasurably. 

"Only one thing to do, as I see it, " Brandon cogitated. "That's to keepon going straight out, the way we're headed now. We'd better call acouncil of war, to dope out a line of action. "

CHAPTER XII

The Citadel in Space

For the first time in many days Brandon and Westfall sat at dinner inthe main dining room of the _Sirius_. They were enjoying greatly theunaccustomed pleasure of a leisurely, formal meal; but still theirtalk concerned the projection of pure forces instead of subjects moreappropriate to the table; still their eyes paid more attention todiagrams drawn upon scraps of paper than to the diners about them. 

"But I tell you, Quince, you're full of little red ants, clear to theneck!" Brandon snorted, as Westfall waved one of his arguments aside. "You must have had help to get that far off--no one man could possiblybe as wrong as you are. Why, those fields absolutely will.... "

"Hi, Quincy! Hi, Norman!" a merry voice interrupted. "Still fighting asusual, I see! What kind of knights are you, anyway, to rescue us poordamsels in distress, and then never even know that we're alive?" A tall, willowy brunette had seen the two physicists as she entered the saloon, and came over to their table, a hand outstretched to each in cordialgreeting. 

"Ho, Verna!" both men exclaimed, and came to their feet as they welcomedthe smiling, graceful newcomer. 

"Sit down here, Verna--we have hardly started, " Westfall invited, andBrandon looked at the girl in assumed surprise as she seated herself inthe proffered chair. 

"Well, Verna, it's like this.... " he began. 

"That's enough!" she broke in. "That phrase always was your introductionto one of the world's greatest brainstorms. But I know that this is thefirst time you have had time even to eat like civilized beings, so I'llforgive you this once. Why all the registering of amazement, Norman?"

"I'm astonished that you aren't being monopolized by some husband orother. Surely the officers of the _Arcturus_ weren't so dumb that they'dstand for your still being Verna _Pickering_, were they?"

"Not dumb, Norman, no. Far from it. But I'm still working for myM. R. S. Degree, and I haven't succeeded in snaring it yet. You'd besurprised at how cagy those officers got after a few of them had beencaptured. But they are just like any other hunted game, I suppose--theantelopes that survive get pretty wild, you know, " she concluded, plaintively. 

"Well, that certainly is one tough break for a poor little girl, "Brandon sympathized. "Quince, our little Nell, here, hasn't been doneright by. I'm bashful and you're a woman-hater, but between us, someway, we've simply got to take steps. "

"You might take longer steps than you think, " Verna laughed, herregular, white teeth and vivid coloring emphasized by her olive skinand her startling hair, black as Brandon's own. "Perhaps I would likea scientist better than an I-P officer, anyway. The more I think of it, the surer I am that Nadia Newton had the right idea. I believe thatI'll catch me a physicist, too--either of you would do quite nicely, I think, " and she studied the two men carefully. 

Westfall, the methodical and precise, had never been able to defendhimself against Verna Pickering's badinage, but Brandon's ready tonguetook up the challenge. 

"Verna, if you really decided to get any living man he wouldn't stand achance in the world, " he declared. "If you've already made up your mindthat I'm your meat, I'll come down like Davy Crockett's coon. But ifeither of us will do, that'll give us each a fifty-fifty chance toescape your toils. What say we play a game of freeze-out to decide it?"

"Fine, Norman! When shall we play?"

"Oh, between Wednesday and Thursday, any week you say, " and the twofenced on, banteringly but skilfully, with Westfall an appreciative andunembarrassed listener. 

Dinner over, Brandon and Westfall went back to the control room, wherethey found Stevens already seated at one of the master screens. 

"All x, Perce?"

"All x. The observers report no registrations during the last twowatches, " and the three fell into discussion. Long they talked, studyingevery angle of the situation confronting them; until suddenly a speakerrattled furiously and an enormous, staring eye filled both masterplates. Brandon's hand flashed to a switch, but the image disappearedeven before he could establish the full-coverage ray screen. 

"I'm on the upper band--take the lower!" he snapped, but Stevens'projector was already in action. Trained minds all, they knew that someintelligence had traced them, and all realized that it was of the utmostimportance to know what and where that intelligence was. Stevens foundthe probing frequency in his range and they flashed their own beam alongit, encountering finally one of the monstrous Vorkulian fortresses, farfrom Jupiter and almost directly between them and the planet! Its wallscreens were in operation, and no frequency at their command couldpenetrate that neutralizing blanket of vibrations. 

"What kind of an eye was that--ever see anything like it, Perce?"Brandon demanded. 

"I don't think so, though of course we got only an awfully short flashof it. It didn't look like the periscopic eyes that those flying snakeshad--looked more like a hexan eye, don't you think? Couldn't very wellbe hexan, though, in that kind of a ship. "

"Don't think so, either. Maybe it's a purely mechanical affair that theyuse for observing. Anyway, old sons, I don't like the looks of things atall. Quince, you're the brains of this outfit--shift the massive oldintellect into high and tell us what to do. "

Westfall, staring into the eyepiece of the filar micrometer, finishedmeasuring the apparent size of the heptagon before he turned towardStevens and Brandon. 

"It is hard to decide upon a course of action, since anything that wedo may prove to be wrong, " he said, slowly. "However, I do not see thatthis latest development can operate to change the plan we have alreadyadopted; that of running away, straight out from the sun. We may haveto increase our acceleration to the highest value the women and babiescan stand. A series of observations of our pursuer will, of course, benecessary to decide that point. It would be useless to go to Titan, for they would be powerless to help us. We could not hold their mirrorupon either the _Sirius_ or their torpedoes against such forces as thatfortress has at her command. Then, too, we might well be bringing downupon them an enemy who would destroy much of their world before he couldbe stopped. Both Uranus and Neptune are approximately upon our presentcourse. Do the Titanians know anything of either of them, Steve?"

"Not a thing, " the computer replied. "They can't get nearly as far asUranus on their power beam--it's all they can do to make Jupiter. Theyseem to think, though, that one or more of the satellites of Uranus orNeptune may be inhabited by beings similar to themselves, only perhapseven more so. But considering the difference between what we found onthe Jovian satellites and on Titan, I'd say that anything might be outthere--on Uranus, Neptune, their satellites, or anywhere else. "

"Cancel Uranus, and double that for Neptune, " Brandon commanded. "Realize how far away they are?"

"That's right, too, " agreed Stevens. "Before we got there, with anyacceleration we can use now, this whole mess will be cleaned up, one wayor the other. "

 * * * * *

Westfall completed the series of observations and calculated hisresults. Then, with a grave face, he went to consult the medicalofficers. The women, children, and the two Martian scientists were sentto the sick-bay and the acceleration was raised slowly to twenty metersper second per second, above which point the physicians declared theyshould not go unless it became absolutely necessary. Then the scientistsmet again--met without Alcantro and Fedanzo, who lay helpless uponnarrow hospital bunks, unable even to lift their massive arms. 

While Westfall made another series of precise measurements of thesuper-dreadnought of space so earnestly pursuing them, Brandon stumbledheavily about the room, hands jammed deep into pockets, eyes unseeingemitting clouds of smoke from his villainously reeking pipe. TheVenetians, lacking Brandon's physical strength and by nature quieter ofdisposition, sat motionless; keen minds hard at work. Stevens sat at thecalculating machine, absently setting up and knocking down weird andmeaningless integrals, while he also concentrated upon the problembefore them. 

"They are still gaining, but comparatively slowly, " Westfall finallyreported. "They seem to be.... "

"In that case we may be all x, " Brandon interrupted, brandishing hispipe vigorously. "We know that they're on a beam--apparently we're theonly ones hereabouts having cosmic power. If we can keep away from themuntil their beam attenuates, we can whittle 'em down to our size andthen take them, no matter how much accumulator capacity they've got. "

"But can we keep away from them that long?" asked Dol Kenor, pointedly;and his fellow Venerian also had a question to propound:

"Would it not be preferable to lead them in a wide circle, back to arendezvous with the Space Fleet, which will probably be ready by thetime of meeting?"

"I am afraid that that would be useless, " Westfall frowned in thought. "Given power, that fortress could destroy the entire Fleet almost aseasily as she could wipe out the _Sirius_ alone. "

"Kenor's right. " Stevens spoke up from the calculator. "You're gettingtoo far ahead of the situation. We aren't apt to keep ahead of them longenough to do much leading anywhere. The Titanians can hold a beamtogether from Saturn to Jupiter--why can't these snake-folks?"

"Several reasons, " Brandon argued stubbornly. "First place, look at themass of that thing, and remember that the heavier the beam the harderit is to hold it together. Second, there's no evidence that they wanderaround much in space. If their beams are designed principally for travelupon Jupiter, why should they have any extraordinary range? I say theycan't hold that beam forever. We've got a good long lead, and in spiteof their higher acceleration, I think we'll be able to keep out of rangeof their heavy stuff. If so, we'll trace a circle--only one a good dealbigger than the one Amonar suggested--and meet the fleet at a pointwhere that enemy ship will be about out of power. "

Thus for hours the scientists argued, agreeing upon nothing, whilethe Vorkulian fortress crept ever closer. At the end of three days ofthe mad flight, the pursuing space ship was in plain sight, coveringhundreds of divisions of the micrometer screens. But now the size ofthe images was increasing with extreme slowness, and the scientistsof the _Sirius_ watched with strained attention the edges of thoseglowing green pictures. Finally, when the pictured edges were aboutto cease moving across the finely-ruled lines, Brandon cut down hisown acceleration a trifle, and kept on decreasing it at such a ratethat the heptagon still crept up, foot by foot. 

"Hey what's the big idea?" Stevens demanded. 

"Coax 'em along. If we run away from them they'll probably reverse powerand go back home, won't they? Their beam is falling apart fast, butthey're still getting so much stuff along it that we couldn't do a thingto stop them. If they think that we're losing power even faster thanthey are, though, they'll keep after us until their beam's so thin thatthey'll just be able to stop on it. Then they'll reverse or else go ontotheir accumulators--reverse, probably, since they'll be a long ways fromhome by that time. We'll reverse, too, and keep just out of range. Then, when we both have stopped and are about to start back, their beam willbe at its minimum and we'll go to work on 'em--foot, horse, and marines. Nobody can run us as ragged as they've been doing and get away with itas long as I'm conscious and stand a chance in the world of hanging oneonto their chins in retaliation. I've got a hunch. If it works, we cantake those birds alone, and take 'em so they'll _stay_ took. We might aswell break up--this is going to be an ordinary job of piloting for a fewdays, I think. I'm going up and work with the Martians on that hunch. You fellows work out any ideas you want to. Watch 'em close, Mac. Keepkidding 'em along, but don't let them get close enough to puncture us. "

 * * * * *

Everything worked out practically as Brandon had foretold, and a fewdays later, their acceleration somewhat less than terrestrial gravity, he called another meeting in the control room. He came in grinning fromear to ear, accompanied by the two Martians, and seated himself at hiscomplex power panel. 

"Now watch the professor closely, gentlemen, " he invited. "He is goingto cut that beam. "

"But you can't, " protested Pyraz Amonar. 

"I know you can't, ordinarily, when a beam is tight and solid. Butthat beam's as loose as ashes right now. I told you I had a hunch, andAlcantro and Fedanzo worked out the right answer for me. If I can cutit, Quince, and if their screens go down for a minute, shoot yourvisiray into them and see what you can see. "

"All x. How much power are you going to draw?"

"Plenty--it figures a little better than four hundred thousandkilofranks. I'll draw it all from the accumulators, so as not todisturb you fellows on the cosmic intake. We don't care if we do run thebatteries down some, but I don't want to hold that load on the bus-barsvery long. However, if my hunch is right, I won't be on that beam fiveminutes before it's cut from Jupiter--and I'll bet you four dollars thatyou won't see the original crew in that fort when you get into it. "

He set upper and lower bands of dirigible projectors to apply apowerful sidewise thrust, and the _Sirius_ darted off her course. Flashing a minute pencil behind the huge heptagon, Brandon manipulatedhis tuning circuits until a brilliant spot in space showed him that hewas approaching resonance with the heptagon's power beam. Micrometerdials were then engaged and the delicate tuning continued until themeters gave evidence that the two beams were precisely synchronized andexactly opposite in phase. Four plunger switches closed, that tiny pilotray became an enormous rod of force, and as those two gigantic beams metin exact opposition and neutralized each other, a solid wall of blindingbrilliance appeared in the empty ether behind the Vorkulian fortress. Asthat dazzling wall sprang into being, the sparkling green protectiondied from the walls of the heptagon. 

"Go to it, Quince!" Brandon yelled, but the suggestion was entirelysuperfluous. Even before the wall-screen had died, Westfall's beam wastrying to get through it, and when the visiray revealed the interior ofthe heptagon, the quiet and methodical physicist was shaken from hishabitual calm. 

"Why, they aren't the winged monsters at all--they're _hexans_!"he exclaimed. 

"Sure they are. " Brandon did not even turn his heavily-goggled eyesfrom the blazing blankness of his own screen. "That was my hunch. Thosesnakes went about things in a business-like fashion. They didn't strikeme as being folks who would pull off such a wild stunt as trying tochase us clear out of the solar system, but a gang of hexans would dojust that. Some of them must have captured that ship and, already havingit in their cock-eyed brains that we were back of what happened onCallisto, they decided to bump us off if it was the last thing they everdid. That's what I'd do myself, if I were a hexan. Now I'll tell youwhat's happening back at the home power plant of that ship and what'sgoing to happen next. I'm kicking up a horrible row out there with myinterference, and a lot of instruments at the other end of that beammust be cutting up all kinds of didoes, right now. They'll check up onthat ship with the expedition, by radio and what-not, and when they findout that it's clear out here--chop! Didn't get to see much, did you?"

"No, they must have switched over to their accumulators almostinstantly. "

"Yeah, but if they've got accumulator capacity enough to hold off ourentire cosmic intake and get back to Jupiter besides, I'm a polyp! We'regoing to take that ship, fellows, and learn a lot of stuff we neverdreamed of before. Ha! There goes his beam--pay me the four, Quince. "

The dazzling wall of incandescence had blinked out without warning, andBrandon's beam bored on through space, unimpeded. He shut it off andturned to his fellows with a grin--a grin which disappeared instantlyas a thought struck him and he leaped back to his board. 

"Sound the high-acceleration warning quick, Perce!" he snapped, anddrove in switch after switch. 

"Cosmic intake's gone down to zero!" exclaimed MacDonald, as the_Sirius_ leaped away. 

"Had to cut it--they might shoot a jolt through that band. Just thoughtof something. Maybe unnecessary, but no harm done if ... It's necessary, all x--we're taking a sweet kissing right now. You see, even thoughwe're at pretty long range, they've got some horrible projectors, andthey were evidently mad enough to waste some power taking a good, solidflash at us--and if we hadn't been expecting it, that flash would havebeen a bountiful sufficiency, believe me--Great Cat! Look at thatmeter--and I've had to throw in number ten shunt! The outer screen isdrawing five hundred and forty thousand!"

 * * * * *

They stared at the meter in amazement. It was incredible, even afterthey had seen those heptagons in action, that at such extreme rangeany offensive beam could be driven with such unthinkable power--powerrequiring for its neutralization almost the full output of theprodigious batteries of accumulators carried by the _Sirius_! Yet forfive, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes that beam drove furiously againsttheir straining screens, and even Brandon's face grew tense and hardas that frightful attack continued. At the end of twenty-two minutes, however, the pointer of the meter snapped back to the pin and everyman there breathed an explosive sigh of relief--the almost unbearablebombardment was over; the screen was drawing only its maintenance load. 

"Wow!" Brandon shouted. "I thought for a minute they were going to hangto us until we cracked, even if it meant that they'd have to freeze todeath out here themselves!"

"It would have meant that, too, don't you think?" asked Stevens. 

"I imagine so--don't see how they could possibly have enough power leftto get back to Jupiter if they shine that thing on us much longer. Ofcourse, the more power they waste on us, the quicker we can take them;but I don't want much more of that beam, I'll tell the world--I justabout had heart failure before they cut off!"

The massive heptagon was now drifting back toward Jupiter at constantvelocity. The hexans were apparently hoarding jealously their remainingpower, for their wall screens did not flash on at the touch of thevisiray. Through unresisting metal the probing Terrestrial beams sped, and the scientists studied minutely every detail of the Vorkulianarmament; while the regular observers began to make a detailedphotographic survey of every room and compartment of the great fortress. Much of the instrumentation and machinery was familiar, but some of itwas so strange that study was useless--days of personal inspection andexperiment, perhaps complete dismantling, would be necessary to revealthe secrets hidden within those peculiar mechanisms. 

"They're trying to save all the power they can--think I'll make themspend some more, " Brandon remarked, and directed against the heptagon aheavy destructive beam. "We don't want them to get back to Jupiter untilafter we've boarded them and found out everything we want to know. Comehere, Quince--what do you make of this?"

Both men stared at the heptagon, frankly puzzled; for the screens of thestrange vessel did not radiate, nor did the material of the walls yieldunder the terrible force of the beam. The destructive ray simply struckthat dull green surface and vanished--disappeared without a trace, as atiny stream of water disappears into a partially-soaked sponge. 

"Do you know what you are doing?" asked Westfall, after a few minutes'thought. "I believe that you are charging their accumulators at the rateof, " he glanced at a meter, "exactly thirty-one thousand five hundredkilofranks. "

"Great Cat!" Brandon's hand flashed to a switch and the beam expired. "But they can't just simply grab it and store it, Quince--it'simpossible!"

"The word 'impossible' in that connection, coming from you, has a queersound, " Westfall said pointedly and Brandon actually blushed. 

"That's right, too--we have got pretty much the same idea in our cosmicintake fields, but we didn't carry things half as far as they have done. Huh! They're flashing us again ... But those thin little beams don'tmean anything. They're just trying to make us feed them some more, Iguess. But we've got to hold them back some way--wonder if they canabsorb a tractor field?"

The hexans had lashed out a few times with their lighter weapons, but, finding the _Sirius_ unresponsive, had soon shut them off and werestolidly plunging along toward Jupiter. Brandon flung out a tractor rodand threw the mass of his cruiser upon it as it locked into those sullengreen walls. But as soon as the enemy felt its drag, their screensflared white, and the massive Terrestrial space-ship quivered in everymember as that terrific cable of force was snapped. 

"They apparently cannot store up the energy of a tractor, " commentedWestfall, "but you will observe that they have no difficulty inradiating when they care to. "

"Those two ideas didn't pan out so heavy. There's lots of things nottried yet, though. Our next best bet is to get around in front of himand push back. If they wiggle away from more than fifty percent of apressor, they're really good. "

The pilot maneuvered the _Sirius_ into line, directly between Jupiterand the pentagon; and as the driving projectors went into action, Brandon drove a mighty pressor field along their axis, squarely into thecenter of mass of the Vorkulian fortress. For a moment it held solidly, then, as the screens of the enemy went into action, it rebounded andglanced off in sparkling, cascading torrents. But the hexans, with alltheir twisting and turning, could not present to that prodigious beam offorce any angle sufficiently obtuse to rob it of half its power, and thedriving projectors of the pentagon again burst into activity as thebackward-pushing mass of the _Sirius_ made itself felt. In a short time, however, the wall-screens were again cut off--apparently more power wasrequired to drive them than they were able to deflect. 

Although even the enormous tonnage of the Terrestrial cruiser wasinsignificant in comparison with the veritable mountain of metal towhich she was opposed, so that the fiercest thrust of her drivingprojectors did not greatly affect the monster's progress; yet Brandonand his cohorts were well content. 

"It's a long trip back to where they came from, and since they wantedto drift all the way, I think they'll be out of power before they getthere, " Brandon summed up the situation. "We aren't losing any power, either, since we are using only a part of our cosmic intake. "

In a few hours the struggle had settled down to a routine matter--the_Sirius_ being pushed backward steadily against the full drive of herevery projector, contesting stubbornly every mile of space traversed. Assured that the regular pilots and lookouts were fully capableof handling the vessel, the scientists were about to resume theirinterrupted tasks when one of the photographers called them over to lookat something he had discovered in one of the lowermost and smallestcompartments of the heptagon. All crowded around the screens, and sawpictured there the winged, snake-like form of one of the original crewof the Vorkulian vessel!

"Dead?" Brandon asked. 

"Not yet, " replied the photographer. "He is twitching a little once ina while, but you see, he's pretty badly cut up. "

"I see he is ... He must have a lot of vitality to have lasted thislong--may be he'll live through it yet. Hold him on the plate, and gethis exact measurements. " He turned to the communicator. "Doctor vonSteiffel? Can you come down to the control room a minute? We may wantyou to operate upon one of these South Jovians after a while. "

"_Himmel! Es ... Ist ... Der.... _" The great surgeon, bearded andmassive, stared into the plate, and in his surprise started to speakin his native German. He paused, his long, powerful fingers tracing thelikeness of the Vorkul upon the plate, then went on: "I would like verymuch to operate, but, not understanding our intentions, he would, ofcourse, struggle. And when that body struggles--_schrecklichkeit_!" andhe waved his arms in a pantomime of wholesale destruction. 

"I thought of that--that's why I am talking to you now instead of whenwe get to him, two or three days from now. We'll give you his exactmeasurements, and a crew of mechanics will, under your direction, sinkholes in the steel floor and install steel bands heavy enough to holdhim rigid, from tailfins to wing-tips. We'll hold him there until we canmake him understand that we're friends. It is of the utmost importanceto save that creature's life if possible; because we do not want one oftheir fortresses launched against us--and in any event, it will not dous any harm to have a friend in the City of the South. "

"Right. I will also have prepared some kind of a space-suit in whichhe can be brought from his vessel to ours, " and the surgeon took themeasurements and went to see that the "operating table" and suit weremade ready for Kromodeor, the sorely wounded Vorkul. 

 * * * * *

It was not long until the projectors of the heptagon went out andshe lay inert in space, power completely exhausted. Knowing that thescreens of the enemy would absorb any ordinary ray, the scientists hadcalculated the most condensed beam they could possibly project, a beamwhich, their figures showed, should be able to puncture those screens bysheer mass action--puncture them practically instantaneously, before theabsorbers could react. To that end they had arranged their circuits tohurl seven hundred sixty-five thousand kilofranks--the entire power oftheir massed accumulators and their highest possible cosmic intake--inone tiny bar of superlative density, less than one meter in diameter!Everything ready, Brandon shot in prodigious switches that launched thatbolt--a bolt so vehement, so inconceivably intense, that it seemedfairly to blast the very ether out of existence as it tore its way alongits carefully predetermined line. The intention was to destroy all thecontrol panels of the absorber screens; parts so vital that without themthe great vessel would be helpless, and yet items which the Terrestrialscould reconstruct quite readily from their photographs and drawings. 

As that irresistible bolt touched the Vorkulian wall-screen, the spotof contact flared instantaneously through the spectrum and into theblack beyond the violet as that screen overloaded locally. Fast as itresponded and highly conductive though it was, it could not handle thatfrightfully concentrated load. In the same fleeting instant of timeevery molecule of substance in that beam's path flashed into tenuousvapor--no conceivable material could resist or impede that stabbingstiletto of energy--and the main control panel of the Vorkulianwall-screen system vanished. Time after time, as rapidly as he couldsight his beam and operate his switches, Brandon drove his needle ofannihilation through the fortress, destroying the secondary controls. Then, the walls unresisting, he cut in the vastly larger, but infinitelyless powerful, I-P ray, and with it systematically riddled the immenseheptagon. Out through the gaping holes in the outer walls rushed thedense atmosphere of Jupiter, and the hexans in their massed hundredsdied. 

The _Sirius_ was brought up beside the heptagon, so that her mainair-lock was against one of the yawning holes in the green metal wallof the enemy. There she was anchored by tractor beams, and the twohundred picked men of the I-P police, in full space equipment, preparedto board the gigantic fortress of the void. Brandon sat tense at hiscontrols, ready to send his beam ahead of the troopers against anyhexans that might survive in some as yet unpunctured compartment. General Crowninshield sat beside the physicist at an auxiliary board, phones at ears and four infra-red visiray plates ranged in front of him;ready through light or darkness to direct and oversee the attack, nomatter where it might lead or how widely separated the platoons mightbecome before the citadel was taken. 

The space-line men--the engineers of weightless combat--led the van, protected by the projectors of their fellows. Theirs the task to set upways of rope, along which the others could advance. Power drills bitsavagely into metal, making holes to receive the expanding eyebolts;grappling hooks seized fast every protuberance and corner; points oflittle stress were supported by powerful suction cups; and at intervalswere strung beam-fed lanterns, illuminating brilliantly the line ofmarch. Through compartments and down corridors they went, bridging themany gaps in the metal through which Brandon's beams had blasted theirway; guided by Crowninshield along the shortest feasible path toward thelittle projector room in which Kromodeor, the wounded Vorkul, lay. Therewere so many chambers and compartments in the heptagon that it had, ofcourse, been impossible to puncture them all, and in some of the tightrooms were groups of hexans, anxious to do battle. But the general's eyeled his men, and if such a room lay before them, Brandon's frightfulbeam entered it first--and where that beam entered, life departed. 

But the hexans were really intelligent, as has been said. They had hadtime to prepare for what they knew awaited them, and they were renderedutterly desperate by the knowledge that, no matter what might happen, their course was run. Their power was gone, and even if the presentenemy should be driven off, they would float idly in space until theydied of cold; or, more probably, hurtling toward Jupiter as they were, they would plunge to certain death upon its surface as soon as they camewithin its powerful gravitational field. Therefore some fifty of thecreatures, who had had space experience in their spherical vessels, had spent the preceding days in manufacturing space equipment. Let theweight-fiends plan upon detonating magazines of explosives, upon layingmines calculated to destroy the invaders, even the vessel itself andall within it. Let them plan upon any other such idle schemes, whichwere certain to be foreseen and guarded against by the space-hardenedveterans who undoubtedly moaned that all-powerful and vengeful footballof scarred gray metal. Space-fighters were they, and as space-fighterswould they die; taking with them to their own inevitable death a fullquota of the enemy. 

 * * * * *

Thus it came about that the head of the column of police had scarcelypassed a certain door, when in the room behind it there began toassemble the half-hundred spacehounds of the hexans. When the vanguardhad approached that room, Crowninshield had inspected it thoroughly withhis infra-red beams. He had found it punctured and airless, devoid oflife or of lethal devices, and had passed on. But now the space-suitedwarriors of the horde, guided in their hiding by their own visirays, were massing there. When the center of the I-P column reached that door, it burst open. There boiled out into the corridor, into the very midstof the police, fifty demoniacal hexans, fighting with Berserk fury, ruled by but one impulse--to kill. 

Hand-weapons flashed viciously, tearing at steel armor and at bulgingspace-suits. Space-hooks bit and tore. Pikes and lances were driven withthe full power of brawny arms. Here and there could be seen trooper andhexan, locked together in fierce embrace far from any hand-line--sixlimbs against four, all ten plied with abandon in mortal, hand-to-hand, foot-to-foot combat. 

"Give way!" yelled Crowninshield into the ears of his men. "Epstein, back! LeFevre, advance! Get out of block ten--give us a chance to usea beam!"

As the police fell back out of the designated section of the corridor, Brandon's beam tore through it, filling it from floor to ceiling witha volume of intolerable energy. In that energy walls, doorway, andspace-lines, as well as most of the hexans, vanished utterly. But thebeam could not be used again. Every surviving enemy had hurled himselffrantically into the thickest ranks of the police and the battle ragedfiercer than ever. It did not last long. The ends of the column hadalready closed in. The police filled the corridor and overflowed intothe yawning chasm cut by the annihilating ray. Outnumbered, surroundedupon all sides, above, and below by the Terrestrials, the hexans foughtwith mad desperation to the last man--and to the last man died. And eventhough in lieu of their own highly efficient space-armor they had foughtin weak, crude, and hastily improvised space-suits, which were pitifullyinferior to the ray resistant, heavy steel armor of the I-P forces, nevertheless the enormous strength and utter savagery of the hexans hadtaken toll; and when the advance was resumed, it was with extra lookoutsscanning the entire neighborhood of the line of march. 

Since the troops had entered the fortress as close to their goal aspossible, it was not long until the leading platoon reached the doorbehind which Kromodeor lay. Tools and cylinders of air were brought up, and the engineers quickly fitted pressure bulkheads across the corridor. There was a screaming hiss from the valves, the atmosphere in thatwalled-off space became dense, and mechanics attacked with their powerdrills the door of the projector room. It opened, and four huskyorderlies rapidly but gently encased the long body of the Vorkul in thespace-suit built especially to receive it. As that monstrous form inits weirdly bulging envelope was guided through the air-locks into the_Sirius_, Crowninshield barked orders into his transmitter and thepolice reformed. They would now systematically scour the fortress, towipe out any hexans that might still be in hiding; to discover anddestroy any possible traps or infernal machines which the enemy mighthave planted for their undoing. 

Assured that the real danger to the _Sirius_ was over and that hispresence was no longer necessary, Brandon turned his controls over to anassistant and went up to the Venerian rooms, where von Steiffel and hisstaff were to operate upon the Vorkul. There, in the dense, hot air, butlittle different now from the atmosphere of Jupiter, Kromodeor lay;bolted down to the solid steel of the floor by means of padded steelstraps. So heavy were the bands that he could not possibly break evenone of them; so closely were they spaced that he could scarcely havemoved a muscle had he tried. But he did not try--so near death was hethat his mighty muscles did not even quiver at the trenchant bite of thesurgeon's tools. Von Steiffel and his aides, meticulously covered withsterile gowns, hoods, and gloves, worked in most rigidly aseptic style;deftly and rapidly closing the ghastly wounds inflicted by the weaponsof the hexans. 

"Hi, Brandon, " the surgeon grunted as he straightened up, the workcompleted. "I did not use much antiseptic on him. Because of possibledifferences in blood chemistry and in ignorance of his native bacteria, I depended almost wholly upon asepsis and his natural resistance. It isa good thing that we did not have to use an anaesthetic. He is in badshape, but if we can feed him successfully, he may pull through. "

"Feed him? I never thought of that. What d'you suppose he eats?"

"I have an idea that it is something highly concentrated, from hisanatomy. I shall try giving him sugar, milk chocolate, something ofthe kind. First I shall try maple syrup. Being a liquid, it is easilyadministered, and its penetrating odor also may be a help. "

 * * * * *

A can of the liquid was brought in and to the amazement of theTerrestrials, the long, delicate antennae of the Vorkul began to twitchas soon as the can was opened. Motioning hastily for silence, vonSteiffel filled a bowl and placed it upon the floor beneath Kromodeor'sgrotesque nose. The twitching increased, until finally one dull, glazedeye brightened somewhat and curled slowly out upon its slender pedicle, toward the dish. His mouth opened sluggishly and a long, red tonguereached out, but as his perceptions quickened, he became conscious ofthe strangers near him. The mouth snapped shut, the eye retracted, andheaving, rippling surges traversed that powerful body as he struggledmadly against the unbreakable shackles of steel binding him to the floor. 

"_Ach, kindlein_!" The surgeon bent anxiously over that grotesque butfrightened head; soothing, polysyllabic German crooning from his beardedlips. 

"Here, let's try this--I'm good on it, " Stevens suggested, bringing upthe Callistonian thought exchanger. All three men donned headsets, andsent wave after wave of friendly and soothing thoughts toward thatfrantic and terrified brain. 

"He's got his brain shut up like a clam!" Brandon snorted. "Open up, guy--we aren't going to hurt you! We're the best friends you've got, if you only knew it!"

"Himmel, und he iss himself killing!" moaned von Steiffel. 

"One more chance that might work, " and Brandon stepped over to thecommunicator, demanding that Verna Pickering be brought at once. Shecame in as soon as the air-locks would permit, and the physicistwelcomed her eagerly. 

"This fellow's fighting so he's tearing himself to pieces. We can't makehim receive a thought, and von Steiffel's afraid to use an anaesthetic. Now it's barely possible that he may understand hexan. I thought youwasted time learning any of it, but maybe you didn't--see if you canmake him understand that we're friends. "

The girl flinched and shrank back involuntarily, but forced herself toapproach that awful head. Bending over, she repeated over and over oneharsh, barking syllable. The effect of that word was magical. InstantlyKromodeor ceased struggling, an eye curled out, and that long, suppletongue flashed down and into the syrup. Not until the last sticky tracehad been licked from the bowl did his attention wander from the food. Then the eye, sparkling brightly now, was raised toward the girl. Simultaneously four other eyes arose, one directed at each of the menand the other surveying his bonds and the room in which he was. Then theVorkul spoke, but his whistling, hissing manner of speech so garbledthe barking sounds of the hexan words he was attempting to utter, thatVerna's slight knowledge of the language was of no use. She thereforeput on one of the headsets, motioning the men to do the same, andapproached Kromodeor with the other, repeating the hexan word offriendly import. This time the Vorkul's brain was not sealed againstthe visitors and thoughts began to flow. 

"You've used those things a lot, " Brandon turned to Stevens in a quickaside. "Can you hide your thoughts?"

"Sure--why?"

"All I can think of is that power system of theirs, and he'd know whatwe were going to do, sure. And I'd better be getting at it anyway. Soyou can wipe that off your mind with a clear conscience--the rest of uswill get everything they've got there. Your job's to get everything youcan out of this bird's brain. All x?"

"All x. "

"Why, you didn't put yours on!" Verna exclaimed. 

"No, I don't think I'll have time. If I get started talking to him now, I'd be here from now on, and I've got a lot of work to do. Steve cantalk to him for me--see you later, " and Brandon was gone. 

He went directly to the Vorkulian fortress, bare now of hexan life anddevoid of hexan snares and traps. There he and his fellows labored dayafter day learning every secret of every item of armament and equipmentaboard the heptagon. 

"Did you finish up today, Norm?" asked Stevens one evening. "Kromodeor'scoming to life fast. He's able to wiggle around a little now, and isinsisting that we take off the one chain we keep on him and let him usea plate, to call his people. "

"All washed up. Guess I'll go in and talk to him--you all say he's suchan egg. With this stuff off my mind I can hide it well enough. By theway, what does he eat?" And the two friends set out for the Venerianrooms. 

"Anything that's sweet, apparently, with just enough milk to furnish alittle protein. Won't eat meat or vegetables at all--von Steiffel saysthey haven't got much of a digestive tract, and I know that they haven'tgot any teeth. He's already eaten most all the syrup we had on board, all of the milk chocolate, and a lot of the sugar. But none of us canget any kind of a raise out of him at all--not even Nadia, when she fedhim a whole box of chocolates. "

"No, I mean what does he eat when he's home?"

"It seems to be a sort of syrup, made from the juices of jungle plants, which they drag in on automatic conveyors and process on automaticmachinery. But he's a funny mutt--hard to get. Some of his thoughts arelucid enough, but others we can't make out at all--they are so foreignto all human nature that they simply do not register as thoughts at all. One funny thing, he isn't the least bit curious about anything. Hedoesn't want to examine anything, doesn't ask us any questions, andwon't tell us anything about anything, so that all we know about him wefound out purely by accident. For instance, they like games and sports, and seem to have families. They also have love, liking, and respect forothers of their own race--but they seem to have no emotions whatever foroutsiders. They're utterly inhuman--I can't describe it--you'll have toget it for yourself. "

"Did you find out about the Callistonians who went to see them?"

"Negatively, yes. They never arrived. They probably couldn't see in thefog and must have missed the city. If they tried to land in that jungle, it was just too bad!"

"That would account for everything. So they're strictly neutral, eh?Well, I'll tell him 'hi, ' anyway. " Now in the sickroom, Brandon pickedup the headset and sent out a wave of cheery greeting. 

To his amazement, the mind of the Vorkul was utterly unresponsiveto his thoughts. Not disdainful, not inimical; not appreciative, norfriendly--simply indifferent to a degree unknown and incomprehensible toany human mind. He sent Brandon only one message, which came clear andcoldly emotionless. 

"I do not want to talk to you. Tell the hairy doctor that I am nowstrong enough to be allowed to go to the communicator screen. That isall. " The Vorkul's mind again became an oblivious maze of unintelligiblethoughts. Not deliberately were Kromodeor's thoughts hidden; he wasconstitutionally unable to interest himself in the thoughts or things ofany alien intelligence. 

"Well, that for that. " A puzzled, thoughtful look came over Brandon'sface as he called von Steiffel. "A queer duck, if there ever was one. However, their ship will never bother us, that's one good thing; andI think we've got about everything of theirs that we want, anyway. "

The surgeon, after a careful examination of his patient, unlocked theheavy collar with which he had been restraining the over-anxious Vorkul, and supported him lightly at the communicator panel. As surely as thoughhe had used those controls for years Kromodeor shot the visiray beam outinto space. One hand upon each of the several dials and one eye uponeach meter, it was a matter only of seconds for him to get in touch withVorkulia. To the Terrestrials the screen was a gray and foggy blank; butthe manifest excitement shrieking and whistling from the speaker inresponse to Kromodeor's signals made it plain that his message was beingreceived with enthusiasm. 

"They are coming, " the Vorkul thought, and lay back, exhausted. 

"Just as well that they're comin' out here, at that, " Brandon commented. "We couldn't begin to handle that structure anywhere near Jupiter--infact, we wouldn't want to get very close ourselves, with passengersaboard. "

Such was the power of the Vorkulian vessels that in less than twentyhours another heptagon slowed to a halt beside the _Sirius_ and two ofits crew were wafted aboard. 

They were ushered into the Venerian room, where they talked briefly withtheir wounded fellow before they dressed him in a space-suit, whichthey filled with air to their own pressure. Then all three were liftedlightly into the air, and without a word or a sign were borne throughthe air-locks of the vessel, and into an opening in the wall of therescuing heptagon. A green tractor beam reached out, seizing thederelict, and both structures darted away at such a pace that in a fewminutes they had disappeared in the black depths of space. 

"Well--that, as I may have remarked before, is indisputably andconclusively that. " Brandon broke the surprised, almost stunned, silencethat followed the unceremonious departure of the visitors. "I don't knowwhether to feel relieved at the knowledge that they won't bother us, orwhether to get mad because they won't have anything to do with us. "

He sent the "All x" signal to the pilot and the _Sirius_, once more atthe acceleration of Terrestrial gravity, again bored on through space. 

CHAPTER XIII

Spacehounds Triumphant

Now that the hexan threat that had so long oppressed the humanity of the_Sirius_ was lifted, that dull gray football of armor steel was filledwith relief and rejoicing as the pilot laid his course for Europa. Lounges and saloons resounded with noise as police, passengers, and suchof the crew as were at liberty made merry. The control room, in whichwere grouped the leaders of the expedition and the scientists, wasorderly enough, but a noticeable undertone of gladness had replaced thetense air it had known so long. 

"Hi, men!" Nadia Stevens and Verna Pickering, arms around each other'swaists, entered the room and saluted the group gaily before they becamea part of it. 

"'Smatter, girls--tired of dancing already?" asked Brandon. 

"Oh, no--we could dance from now on, " Verna assured him. "But you see, Nadia hadn't seen that husband of hers for fifteen minutes, and wasgetting lonesome. Being afraid of all you men, she wanted me to comealong for moral support. The real reason I came, though, " and shenarrowed her expressive eyes and lowered her voice mysteriously, "isthat you two physicists are here. I want to study my chosen victims alittle longer before I decide over which of you to cast the spell ofmy fatal charm. "

"But you can't do that, " he objected, vigorously. "Quince and I aregoing to settle that ourselves some day--by shooting dice, or maybe eachother, or.... " he broke off, listening to an animated conversation goingon behind them. 

"... Just simply outrageous!" Nadia was exclaiming. "Here we saved hislife, and I fed him a lot of my candy, and we went to all the trouble ofbringing their ship back here almost to Jupiter for them, and then theysimply dashed off without a word of thanks or anything! And he alwaysacted as though he never wanted to see or hear of any of us again, ever!Why, they don't _think_ straight--as Norman would say it, they're _full_of little red _ants_! Why, they aren't even _human_!"

"Sure not. " Brandon turned to the flushed speaker. "They couldn't be, hardly, with their make-up. But is it absolutely necessary that allintelligent beings should possess such an emotion as gratitude? Such abeing without it does seem funny to us, but I can't see that its lacknecessarily implies anything particularly important. Keep still aminute, " he went on, as Nadia tried to interrupt him, "and listen tosome real wisdom. Quince, _you_ tell 'em. "

"They are, of course, very highly developed and extremely intelligent;but it should not be surprising that intelligence should manifestitself in ways quite baffling to us human beings, whose minds work sodifferently. They are, however ... Well, peculiar. "

"I _won't_ keep still!" Nadia burst out, at the first opportunity. "I don't want to talk about those hideous things any more, anyway. Come on, Steve, let's go up and dance!"

Crowninshield turned to Verna, with the obvious intention of leadingher away, but Brandon interposed. 

"Sorry, Crown, but this lady is conducting a highly importantpsychological research, so your purely social claims will have to waituntil after the scientific work is done. "

"Why narrow the field of investigation?" laughed the girl. "I'd ratherwiden it, myself--I might prefer a general, even to a physicist!"

They went up to the main saloon and joined the mêlée there, and afterone dance with Verna--all he could claim in that crowd ofmen--Crowninshield turned to Brandon. 

"You two seem to know Miss Pickering extraordinarily well. Would I bestepping on your toes if I give her a play?"

"Clear ether as far as we're concerned. " Brandon shrugged his shoulders. "She's been kicking around under foot ever since she was knee high to aduck--we gave her her first lessons on a slide rule. "

"Don't be dumb, Norman. That woman's a knock-out--a riot--a regulartri-planet call-out!"

"Oh, she's all x, as far as that goes. She's a good little scout, too--not half as dumb as she acts--and she's one of the squarest littleaces that ever waved a plume; but as for _playing_ her--too much likeour kid sister. "

"Good--me for her!" and they made their way back down to the controlroom. 

Stevens, after his one dance with Nadia, had already returned. Brandonand Crowninshield found him seated at the calculating machine, continuing a problem which already filled several pages of his notebook. 

"'Smatter, Steve? So glad to see a calculator and some paper that youcan't let them alone?"

"Not exactly--just had a thought a day or so ago. Been computing theorbit of the wreckage of the _Arcturus_ around Jupiter. Think we shouldsalvage it--the upper half, at least. It was left intact, you know. "

"H ... M ... M. That would be nice, all right. Dope enough?"

"Got the direction solid, from my own observations; the velocity's apretty rough approximation though. But after allowing for my probableerror, it figures an ellipse of low eccentricity, between the orbits ofIo and Europa. Its period is short--about two days. "

"Isn't it wonderful to have a brain?" Brandon addressed the room atlarge. "The kid's clever. Nobody else would have thought of it, exceptmaybe Westfall. Let's see your figures. Um ... M ... M. According tothat, we're within an hour of it, right now. " He turned to the pilot andsketched rapidly. 

"Get on this line here, please, and decelerate, so that the stuff'llcatch up with us, and pass the word to the lookouts. Stevens and I willtake the bow plates. 

"That's a good idea, " he went on to Stevens, as they took their placesat main and auxiliary ultra-banks. "Lot of plunder in that ship. Instruments, boats, and equipment worth millions, besides most of thejunk of the passengers--clothes, trunks, trinkets, and what-not. You'rethere, bucko!"

"Thanks, Chief, " ... And they fell silent, watching the instrumentscarefully, and from time to time making computations from the readingsof the acceleration and flight meters. 

"There she is!" An alarm bell had finally sounded, the ultra-lights hadflared out into space, and upon both screens there shone out images ofthe closely clustered wreckage of the _Arcturus_. But both men were moreinterested just then in the mathematics of the recovery than in thevessel itself. 

"Missed it eight minutes of time and eleven divisions on the scale, "reported Stevens. "Not so good. "

"Not so bad either--I've seen worse computation. " Thus lightly wasdismissed a mathematical feat which, a few years earlier, before thedays of I-P computers, would have been deemed worthy of publication in"The Philosophical Magazine. "

 * * * * *

Director Newton was called in, and it was decided that the many smallfragments of the vessel were not worth saving; that its upper halfwas all that they should attempt to tow the enormous distance back toTellus. The pace of the _Sirius_ was adjusted to that of the floatingmasses, and tractor beams were clamped upon the undamaged portion of thederelict, and upon the two slices from the nose of the craft. A coupleof the larger fragments of wreckage were also taken, to furnish metalfor the repairs which would be necessary. Acceleration was broughtslowly up to normal, and the battle-scarred cruiser of the void, withher heavy burden of inert metal, resumed her interrupted voyage towardEuropa; the satellite upon which the passengers and crew of theill-fated _Arcturus_ had been so long immured. On she bored through theether, detector screens full out and greenly scintillant Vorkulianwall-screens outlining her football shape in weird and ghastly light;unafraid now of any possible surviving space-craft of the hexans. 

But if the hexans detected her, they made no sign. Perhaps their fleethad been destroyed utterly; perhaps it had been impressed upon eventheir fierce minds that those sparkling green screens were not to bemolested with impunity! The satellite was reached without event and downinto the crater landing shaft the two enormous masses of metal dropped. 

Callisto's foremost citizens were on hand to welcome the Terrestrialrescuers, and revelry reigned supreme in that deeply buried Europancommunity. All humanity celebrated. The Callistonians rejoiced becausethey were now freed from the age-old oppression of the hexan hordes;because they could once more extend their civilization over the Joviansatellites and live again their normal lives upon the surface of thosesmall worlds. 

The Terrestrials were almost equally enthusiastic in the reunion thatmarked the end of the long imprisonment of the refugees. 

As soon as the hull of the _Arcturus_ had been warmed sufficiently topermit inspection, its original passengers were allowed to visit itbriefly, to examine and to reclaim their belongings. Of course, somedamage had been done by the cold of interplanetary space, but in generaleverything was as they had left it. Stevens and Nadia were among thefirst permitted aboard. They went first to the control room, whereStevens found his bag still lying behind Breckenridge's desk, where hehad thrown it when he first boarded the vessel. Then they made theirway up to Nadia's stateroom, which they found in meticulous order andspotless in its cleanliness--there is neither dust nor dirt in space. Nadia glanced about the formal little room and laughed up at herhusband. 

"Funny, isn't it, sweetheart, how little we know what to expect? Justthink how surprised I would have been, when I left this room, if I hadbeen told that I would have a husband before I got back to it!"

Breckenridge's first thought was for his precious triplex automaticchronometer, which he found, of course, "way off"--six and three-tenthsseconds fast. Having corrected the timepiece from that of the _Sirius_, he immersed himself in the other delicate instruments of hisdepartment--and he was easy to find from that time on. 

Overcrowded as the _Sirius_ already was, it was decided that theoriginal complement of the _Arcturus_ should occupy their formerquarters aboard her during the return trip. To this end, corps ofmechanics set to work upon the salvaged hulk. Heavy metal work was nonovelty to the Callistonian engineers and mechanics, and the _Sirius_also was well equipped with metal-working machines and men. Thus theprow was welded; armored, insulating air-breaks were built along thestern, which was the plane of hexan cleavage, electrical connectionswere restored; and lastly, a set of the great Vorkulian wall-screengenerators, absorbers, and dissipators was installed, with sufficientaccumulator capacity for their operation. Director Newton studied thisinstallation in silence for some time, then went in search of Brandon. 

"I hadn't considered the possibility of being attacked againbetween here and Tellus, but there's always the chance, " he admitted. "If you think that there is any danger, we will crowd them all into the_Sirius_. It will not be at all comfortable, but it will be better thanhaving any more of us killed. "

"With that outfit they'll be as safe as we will, " the scientist assuredhim. "They can stand as much grief as we can. We'll do the fighting forthe whole outfit from here, and anything we meet will have to take usbefore they can touch them. So they had better ride it there, wherethey'll have passengers' accommodations and be comfortable. As todanger, I don't know what to expect. They may all be gone and they maynot. We're going to expect trouble every meter of the way in, though, and be ready for it. "

Everything ready and thoroughly tested, and stream of power flowinginto the _Arcturus_ from the cosmic receptors of her sister ship, thepassengers and their new possessions were moved into their formerquarters. There was a brief ceremony of farewell, the doors of theairlocks were closed, the careful check-out was gone through, and thedriving projectors of the _Sirius_ lifted both great vessels up theshaft, slowly and easily. And after them, as long as they could be seen, stared the thousands of Callistonians who thronged the great shaft'sfloor. Many of the spectators were not, strictly speaking, Callistoniansat all. They were really Europans, born and reared in that hidden citywhich was to have been the last stronghold of Callisto's civilization. In that throng were hundreds who had never before seen the light of thesun nor any of the glories of the firmament, hundreds to whom that briefglimpse was a foretaste of the free and glorious life which was soon tobe theirs. 

Up and up mounted that powerful tug-boat of space, with her heavy barge, falling smoothly upward at normal acceleration. Below her first Europa, then mighty Jupiter, became moons growing smaller and smaller. In theirstateroom Nadia's supple waist writhed in the curve of Stevens' arm asshe turned and looked up at him with sparkling eyes. 

"Well, big fellow, how does it feel to be out of a job? Or are you goingover there every day on a tractor beam to work, as Norman suggested?"

"Not on your sweet young life!" he exclaimed. "Norm thought he waskidding somebody, but it registered zero. It gives me the pip to loafaround when there's a lot of work to do, but this is entirely different. Nothing's driving us now, and a fellow's entitled to at least onehoneymoon during his life. And what a honeymoon this is going to be, little spacehound of my heart! Nothing to do but love you all the wayfrom here to Tellus! Whoopee!"

"Oh, there's a couple of other things to do, " she reminded him gaily. "You've got to smoke a lot of good cigarettes, I must eat a lot ofDelray's chocolates, and we both really should catch up on eating fancycooking. Speaking of eating, isn't that the second call for dinner? It_is_!" and they went along the narrow hall toward the elevator. To thesetwo the long journey was to seem all too short. 

Long though the voyage was, it was uneventful. The occupants of thetwo vessels were in constant touch with each other by means of thecommunicators, and there was also much visiting back and forth inperson. Stevens and Nadia came often to the _Sirius_, and wereaccompanied frequently by Verna Pickering, who claimed anew her ancientright of "kicking around under foot, " wherever Brandon and Westfallmight chance to be--and at such times General Crowninshield waspractically certain to appear. And upon days when the beautiful brunettedid not appear, the commandant generally found it necessary to inspectin person something in the _Arcturus_. 

Day after day passed, and even the new and ultra-powerful detectorscreens of the _Sirius_ remained unresponsive and cold. Day after daythe plates before the doubled lookouts and observers remained blank. Power flowed smoothly and unfailingly into the cosmic receptors, andthe products of conversion were discharged with equal smoothness andregularity from the forty-five gigantic driving projectors. The tractorbeam held its heavy burden easily and the generators functionedperfectly. And finally a planet began to loom up in the stern lookoutplates. 

Verna, the irrepressible, was in the control room of the _Sirius_, quarreling adroitly with Brandon and deftly flirting with Crowninshield. Glancing into the control screen she saw the planet in its end block, then studied the instruments briefly. 

"We're heading for _Mars_!" she declared with conviction. "I thoughtit looked that way yesterday, but supposed it must be only apparent--atrick of piloting or something about the orbit. I thought of course youwere taking us back home--but you can't _possibly_ get to Tellus on anysuch course as this!"

"Sure not, " Brandon replied easily. "Certainly it's Mars. Isn't thatwhere the _Arcturus_ started out for? Whoever said we were going toTellus? Of course, if any of the passengers want to go right back theIPC will undoubtedly furnish transportation _gratis_. But paste this inyour hat, Verna, for future reference--when spacehounds start out to goanywhere they _go_ there, even if they have to spend a year or so onminus time to do it!"

Closer and closer they approached the red planet, swinging around in awide arc in order to make their course coincide exactly with the pilotray of check station M14, which was now precisely in its scheduledlocation in space. At the chief pilot's desk in the control room of the_Arcturus_, Breckenridge checked in with the station, then calculatedrapidly the instant of their touching the specially-built bumperplatforms of spring steel, hemp, and fiber which awaited them upon theMartian dock of the Interplanetary Corporation. Within range of theterminal, he plugged into it, waited until the tiny light flashed itsgreen message of attention, and reported. 

"IPV _Arcturus_; Breckenridge, Chief Pilot; trip number forty-threetwenty-nine. Checking in--four hundred forty-six days, fifteen hours, eleven minutes, thirty-eight and seven-tenths seconds minus!"

THE END. 

Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories July, August and September 1931. Extensive research did not uncover anyevidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed.