[Transcriber's note:

 Typographical errors have been corrected. 

 This etext was produced from Amazing Stories January, February, March and April 1934. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. ]

_Triplanetary_

By EDWARD E. SMITH, Ph. D. 

 We are sure that our readers will be highly pleased to have us give the first installment of a story by Dr. Smith. It will continue for several numbers and is a worthy follower of the "Skylark" stories which were so much appreciated by our readers. We think that they will find this story superior to the earlier ones. Dr. Smith certainly has the narrative power, and that, joined with his scientific position, makes him an ideal author for our columns. 

Illustrated by MOREY

CHAPTER I

 Pirates of Space

Apparently motionless to her passengers and crew, the Interplanetaryliner _Hyperion_ bored serenely onward through space at normalacceleration. In the railed-off sanctum in one corner of the controlroom a bell tinkled, a smothered whirr was heard, and Captain Bradleyfrowned as he studied the brief message upon the tape of the recorder--amessage flashed to his desk from the operator's panel. He beckoned, andthe second officer, whose watch it now was, read aloud:

 "Reports of scout patrols still negative. "

"Still negative. " The officer scowled in thought. "They've alreadysearched beyond the widest possible location of the wreckage, too. Twounexplained disappearances inside a month--first the _Dione_, then the_Rhea_--and not a plate nor a lifeboat recovered. Looks bad, sir. Onemight be an accident; two might possibly be a coincidence.... " His voicedied away. What might that coincidence mean?

"But at three it would get to be a habit, " the captain finished thethought. "And whatever happened, happened quick. Neither of them hadtime to say a word--their location recorders simply went dead. But ofcourse they didn't have our detector screens nor our armament. Accordingto the observatories we're in clear ether, but I wouldn't trust themfrom Tellus to Luna. You have given the new orders, of course?"

"Yes, sir. Detectors full out, all three courses of defensive screen onthe trips, projectors manned, suits on the hooks. Every object detectedin the outer space to be investigated immediately--if vessels, they areto be warned to stay beyond extreme range. Anything entering the fourthzone is to be rayed. "

"Right--we are going through!"

"But no known type of vessel could have made away with them withoutdetection, " the second officer argued. "I wonder if there isn'tsomething in those wild rumors we've been hearing lately?"

 [Illustration:

 Now, systematically and precisely, the great Cone of Battle was coming into being; a formation developed during the Jovian Wars while the forces of the Three Planets were fighting in space. ]

"Bah! Of course not!" snorted the captain. "Pirates in ships faster thanlight--fifth order rays--nullification of gravity--mass withoutinertia--ridiculous! Proved impossible, over and over again. No, sir, ifpirates are operating in space--and it looks very much like it--theywon't get far against a good big battery full of kilowatt-hours behindthree courses of heavy screen, and a good solid set of multiplex rays. Properly used, they're good enough for anybody. Pirates, Neptunians, angels, or devils--in ships or on sunbeams--if they tackle the_Hyperion_ we'll burn them out of the ether!"

Leaving the captain's desk, the watch officer resumed his tour of duty. The six great lookout plates into which the alert observers peered wereblank, their far-flung ultra-sensitive detector screens encountering noobstacle--the ether was empty for thousands upon thousands ofkilometers. The signal lamps upon the pilot's panel were dark, itswarning bells were silent. A brilliant point of white in the center ofthe pilot's closely ruled micrometer grating, exactly upon thecross-hairs of his directors, showed that the immense vessel wasprecisely upon the calculated course, as laid down by the automaticintegrating course-plotters. Everything was quiet and in order. 

"All's well, sir, " he reported briefly to Captain Bradley--but all wasnot well. 

 * * * * *

Danger--more serious far in that it was not external--was even then, allunsuspected, gnawing at the great ship's vitals. In a locked andshielded compartment, deep down in the interior of the liner, was thegreat air purifier. Now a man leaned against the primary duct--the aortathrough which flowed the stream of pure air supplying the entire vessel. This man, grotesque in full panoply of space armor, leaned against theduct, and as he leaned a drill bit deeper and deeper into the steel wallof the pipe. Soon it broke through, and the slight rush of air wasstopped by the insertion of a tightly fitting rubber tube. The tubeterminated in a heavy rubber balloon, which surrounded a frail glassbulb. The man stood tense, one hand holding before his silica-and-steelhelmeted head a large pocket chronometer, the other lightly grasping theballoon. A sneering grin was upon his face as he awaited the exactsecond of action--the carefully pre-determined instant when his righthand, closing, would shatter the fragile flask and force its contentsinto the primary air stream of the _Hyperion_!

 * * * * *

Far above, in the main saloon, the regular evening dance was in fullswing. The ship's orchestra crashed into silence, there was a patter ofapplause and Clio Marsden, radiant belle of the voyage, led her partnerout into the promenade and up to one of the observation plates. 

"Oh, we can't see the earth any more!" she exclaimed. "Which way do youturn this, Mr. Costigan?"

"Like this, " and Conway Costigan, burly young first officer of theliner, turned the dials. "There--this plate is looking back, or down, atTellus; this other one is looking ahead. "

Earth was a brilliantly shining crescent far beneath the flying vessel. Above her, ruddy Mars and silvery Jupiter blazed in splendor ineffableagainst a background of utterly indescribable blackness--a backgroundthickly besprinkled with dimensionless points of dazzling brilliancewhich were the stars. 

"Oh, isn't it wonderful!" breathed the girl, awed. "Of course, I supposethat it's old stuff to you, but I--a ground-gripper, you know, and Icould look at it forever, I think. That's why I want to come out hereafter every dance. You know, I ... "

Her voice broke off suddenly, with a queer, rasping catch, as she seizedhis arm in a frantic clutch and as quickly went limp. He stared at hersharply, and understood instantly the message written in her eyes--eyesnow enlarged, staring hard, brilliant, and full of soul-searing terroras she slumped down, helpless but for his support. In the act ofexhaling as he was, lungs almost entirely empty, yet he held his breathuntil he had seized the microscope from his belt and had snapped thelever to "emergency. "

"Control room!" he gasped then, and every speaker throughout the greatcruiser of the void blared out the warning as he forced his alreadyevacuated lungs to absolute emptiness. "Vee-Two Gas! Get tight!"

Writhing and twisting in his fierce struggle to keep his lungs fromgulping in a draft of that noxious atmosphere, and with the unconsciousform of the girl draped limply over his left arm, Costigan leaped towardthe portal of the nearest lifeboat. Orchestra instruments crashed to thefloor and dancing couples fell and sprawled inertly while the torturedFirst Officer swung the door of the lifeboat open and dashed across thetiny room to the air-valves. Throwing them wide open, he put his mouthto the orifice and let his laboring lungs gasp their eager fill of thecold blast roaring from the tanks. Then, air-hunger partially assuaged, he again held his breath, broke open the emergency locker, donned one ofthe space-suits always kept there, and opened its valves wide in orderto flush out of his uniform any lingering trace of the lethal gas. 

He then leaped back to his companion. Shutting off the air, he releaseda stream of pure oxygen, held her face in it, and made shift to forcesome of it into her lungs by compressing and releasing her chest againsthis own body. Soon she drew a spasmodic breath, choking and coughing, and he again changed the gaseous stream to one of pure air, speakingurgently as she showed signs of returning consciousness. Now, it wasClio Marsden's life. 

"Stand up!" he snapped. "Hang onto this brace and keep your face in thisair-stream until I get a suit around you! Got me?"

She nodded weakly, and, assured that she could now hold herself at thevalve, it was the work of only a minute to encase her in one of theprotective coverings. Then, as she sat upon a bench, recovering herstrength, he flipped on the lifeboat's visiphone projector and shot itsinvisible beam up into the control room, where he saw space-armoredfigures furiously busy at the panels. 

"Dirty work at the cross-roads!" he blazed to his captain, man toman--formality disregarded, as it so often was in the Triplanetaryservice. "There's skulduggery afoot somewhere in our primary air! Maybethat's the way they got those other two ships--pirates! Might have beena timed bomb--don't see how anybody could have stowed away down therethrough the inspections, and nobody but Franklin can neutralize theshield of the air-room--but I'm going to look around, anyway. Then I'lljoin you fellows up there. "

"What was it?" the shaken girl asked. "I think that I remember yoursaying 'Vee-Two gas. ' That's forbidden! Anyway, I owe you my life, Conway, and I'll never forget it--never. Thanks--but the others--howabout all the rest of us?"

"It was Vee-Two, and it is forbidden, " Costigan replied grimly, eyesfast upon the flashing plate, whose point of projection was now deep inthe bowels of the vessel. "The penalty for using it or having it isdeath on sight. Gangsters and pirates use it, since they have nothing tolose, being on the death list already. As for your life, I haven't savedit yet--you may wish I'd let it ride before we get done. The others aretoo far gone for oxygen--couldn't have brought even you around a fewseconds later, quick as I got to you. But there's a sure antidote--weall carry it in a lock-box in our armor--and we all know how to use it, because crooks all use Vee-Two and so we're always expecting it. Butsince the air will be pure again in half an hour we'll be able to revivethe others easily enough if we can get by with whatever is going tohappen next. There's the bird that did it, right in the air-room! It'sthe chief engineer's suit, but that isn't Franklin that's in it. Somepassenger--disguised--slugged the chief--took his suit andprojectors--hole in duct--p-s-s-t! All washed out! Maybe that's all hewas scheduled to do to us in this performance, but he'll do nothing elsein this life!"

"Don't go down there!" protested the girl. "His armor is _so_ muchbetter than that emergency suit you are wearing, and he's got Mr. Franklin's Lewiston, besides!"

"Don't be an idiot!" he snapped. "We can't have a live pirateaboard--we're going to be altogether too busy with outsiders directly. Don't worry, I'm not going to give him a break. I'm taking a Standishand I'll rub him out like a blot. Stay right here until I come backafter you, " he commanded, and the heavy, vacuum insulated door of thelifeboat clanged shut behind him as he leaped out into the promenade. 

Straight across the saloon he made his way, paying no attention to theinert forms scattered here and there. Going up to a blank wall, hemanipulated an almost invisible dial set flush with its surface, swung aheavy door aside, and lifted out the Standish--a fearsome weapon. Squat, huge, and heavy, it resembled somewhat an overgrown machine rifle, butone possessing a thick, short telescope, with several opaque condensinglenses and parabolic reflectors. Laboring under the weight of the thing, he strode along corridors and clambered heavily down short stairways. Finally he came to the purifier room, and grinned savagely as he saw thegreenish haze of light obscuring the door and walls--the shield wasstill in place; the pirate was still inside, still flooding with theterrible Vee-Two the _Hyperion's_ primary air. 

He set his peculiar weapon down, unfolded its three massive legs, crouched down behind it and threw in a switch. Dull red beams offrightful intensity shot from the reflectors and sparks, almost oflightning proportions, leaped from the shielding screen under theirimpact. Roaring and snapping, the conflict went on for seconds; then, under the superior force of the Standish, the greenish radiance gaveway. Behind it the metal of the door ran the gamut of color--red, yellow, blinding whiter--then literally exploded; molten, vaporized, burned away. Through the aperture thus made Costigan could plainly seethe pirate in the space-armor of the chief engineer--an armor which wasproof against rifle fire and which could reflect and neutralize for somelittle time even the terrific beam Costigan was employing. Nor was thepirate unarmed--a vicious flare of incandescence leaped from hisLewiston, to spend its force in spitting, crackling pyrotechnics againstthe ether-wall of the squat and monstrous Standish. But Costigan'sinfernal machine did not rely only upon vibratory destruction. At almostthe first flash of the pirate's weapon the officer touched a trigger;there was a double report, ear-shattering in that narrowly confinedspace; and the pirate's body literally flew into mist as a half-kilogramshell tore through his armor and exploded. Costigan shut off his beam, and, with not the slightest softening of one hard lineament, staredaround the air-room; making sure that no serious damage had been done tothe vital machinery of the air-purifier--the very lungs of the greatspace-ship. 

Dismounting the Standish, he lugged it back up to the main saloon, replaced it in its safe and again set the combination lock. Thence tothe lifeboat, where Clio cried out in relief as she saw that he wasunhurt. 

"Oh, Conway, I've been so afraid something would happen to you!" sheexclaimed, as he led her rapidly upward toward the control room. "Ofcourse you.... " she paused. 

"Sure, " he replied, laconically. "Nothing to it. How do you feel--aboutback to normal?"

"All right, I think, except for being scared to death and just about outof control. I don't suppose that I'll be good for anything, but whateverI can do, count me in on. "

"Fine--you may be needed, at that. Everybody's out, apparently, exceptthose who, like me, had a warning and could hold their breath until theygot to their suits. "

"But how did you know what it was? You can't see it, nor smell it, noranything. "

"You inhaled a second before I did, and I saw your eyes. I've been in itbefore--and when you see a man get a jolt of that stuff just once, younever forget it. The engineers down below got it first, of course--itmust have wiped them out. Then we got it in the saloon. Your passing outwarned me, and luckily I had enough breath left to give the word. Quitea few of the fellows up above should have had time to get away--we'llsee 'em all in the control room. "

"I suppose that was why you revived me--in payment for so kindly warningyou of the gas attack?" The girl laughed; shaky, but game. 

"Something like that, probably, " he answered, lightly. "Here we are--nowwe'll soon find out what's going to happen next. "

In the control room they saw at least a dozen armored figures; not nowrushing about, but seated at their instruments, tense and ready. Fortunate it was that Costigan--veteran of space as he was, though youngin years--had been down in the saloon; fortunate that he had beenfamiliar with that horrible outlawed gas; fortunate that he had had thepresence of mind enough and sheer physical stamina enough to send hiswarning without allowing one paralyzing trace to enter his own lungs. Captain Bradley, the men on watch, and several other officers in theirquarters or in the wardrooms--space-hardened veterans all--had obeyedinstantly and without question the amplifiers' gasped command to "gettight. " Exhaling or inhaling, their air-passages had snapped as thatdread "Vee-Two" was heard, and they had literally jumped into theirarmored suits of space--flushing them out with volume after volume ofunquestionable air; holding their breath to the last possible second, until their straining lungs could endure no more. 

Costigan waved the girl to a vacant bench, cautiously changed into hisown armor from the emergency suit he had been wearing, and approachedthe captain. 

"Anything in sight, sir?" he asked, saluting. "They should have startedsomething before this. "

"They've started, but we can't locate them. We tried to send out ageneral sector alarm, but that had hardly started when they blanketedour wave. Look at that!"

Following the captain's eyes, Costigan stared at the high powered set ofthe ship's operator. Upon the plate, instead of a moving, living, three-dimensional picture, there was a flashing glare of blinding whitelight; from the speaker, instead of intelligible speech, was issuing aroaring, crackling stream of noise. 

"It's impossible!" Bradley burst out, violently. "There's not a gram ofmetal inside the fourth zone--within a hundred thousand kilometers--andyet they must be close to send such a wave as that. But the Secondthinks not--what do you think, Costigan?" The bluff commander, reactionary and of the old school as was his breed, wasfurious--baffled, raging inwardly to come to grips with the invisibleand undetectable foe. Face to face with the inexplicable, however, helistened to the younger men with unusual tolerance. 

"It's not only possible; it's quite evident that they've got somethingwe haven't. " Costigan's voice was bitter. "But why shouldn't they have?Service ships never get anything until it's been experimented with foryears, but pirates and such always get the new stuff as soon as it'sdiscovered. The only good thing I can see is that we got part of amessage away, and the scouts can trace that interference out there. Butthe pirates know that, too--it won't be long now, " he concluded, grimly. 

He spoke truly. Before another word was spoken the outer screen flaredwhite under a beam of terrific power, and simultaneously there appearedupon one of the lookout plates a vivid picture of the pirate vessel--ahuge, black globe of steel, now emitting flaring offensive beams offorce. Her invisibility lost, now that she had gone into action, she layrevealed in the middle of the first zone--at point-blank range. 

Instantly the powerful weapons of the _Hyperion_ were brought to bear, and in the blast of full-driven beams the stranger's screens flamedincandescent. Heavy guns, under the recoil of whose fierce salvos, theframe of the giant globe trembled and shuddered, shot out their tons ofhigh-explosive shell. But the pirate commander had known accurately thestrength of the liner, and knew that her armament was impotent againstthe forces at his command. His screens were invulnerable, the giantshells were exploded harmlessly in mid-space, miles from theirobjective. And suddenly a frightened pencil of flame stabbed brilliantlyfrom the black hulk of the enemy. Through the empty ether it tore, through the mighty defensive screens, through the tough metal of theouter and inner walls. Every ether-defence of the _Hyperion_ vanished, and her acceleration dropped to a quarter of its normal value. 

"Right through the battery room!" Bradley groaned. "We're on theemergency drive now. Our rays are done for, and we can't seem to put ashell anywhere near her with our guns!"

But ineffective as the guns were, they were silenced forever as afrightful beam of destruction stabbed relentlessly through the controlroom, whiffing out of existence the pilot, gunnery, and lookout panelsand the men before them. The air rushed into space, and the suits of thethree survivors bulged out into drumhead tightness as the pressure inthe room decreased. 

Costigan pushed the captain lightly toward a wall, then seized the girland leaped in the same direction. 

"Let's get out of here, quick!" he cried, the miniature radioinstruments of the helmets automatically taking up the duty oftransmitting speech as the sound disks refused to function. "They can'tsee us--our ether wall is still up and their spy-sprays can't getthrough it from the outside, you know. They're working from blue-prints, and they'll probably take your desk next, " and even as they boundedtoward the door, now become the outer seal of an airlock, theannihilating ray tore through the space which they had just quitted intheir flight. 

Through the airlock, down through several levels of passengers' quartersthey hurried, and into a lifeboat, whose one doorway commanded the fulllength of the third lounge--an ideal spot, either for defense or forescape outward by means of the miniature cruiser. As they entered theirretreat they felt their weight begin to increase. More and more forcewas applied to the helpless liner, until it was moving at normalacceleration. 

"What do you make of that, Costigan?" asked the captain. "Tractorbeams?"

"Apparently. They've got something, all right. They're taking ussomewhere, fast. I'll go get a couple of Standishes, and another suit ofarmor--we'd better dig in, " and soon the small room became a veritablefortress, housing as it did, those two formidable engines ofdestruction. Then the first officer made another and longer trip, returning with a complete suit of triplanetary space armor, exactly likethose worn by the two men, but considerably smaller. 

"Just as an added factor of safety, you'd better put this on, Clio--those emergency suits aren't good for much in a battle. I don'tsuppose that you ever fired a Standish, did you?"

"No, but I can soon learn how to do it, " she replied, pluckily. 

"Two is all that can work here at once, but you should know how to takehold in case one of us goes out. And while you're changing suits you'dbetter put on some stuff I've got here--Service special phones anddetectors. Stick this little disk onto your chest with this bit of tape;low down, out of sight. Just under your wishbone is the best place. Takeoff your wrist-watch and wear this one _continuously_--never take it offfor a second. Put on these pearls, and wear them all the time, too. Takethis capsule and hide it against your skin, some place where it can't befound except by the most rigid search. Swallow it in an emergency--itgoes down easily and works just as well inside as outside. It is themost important thing of all--you can get along with it alone if you loseeverything else, but without that capsule the whole system's shot topieces. With that outfit, if we should get separated, you can talk tous--we're both wearing 'em, although somewhat different forms. You don'tneed to talk loud--just a mutter will be enough. They're handy littleoutfits, almost impossible to find, and capable of a lot of things. "

"Thanks, Conway--I'll remember that, too, " Clio replied, as she turnedtoward the tiny locker to follow his instructions. "But won't the scoutsand patrols be catching us pretty quick? The operator sent a warning. "

"Afraid the ether's empty, as far as we're concerned. They couldneutralize our detector screens, and the scouts' detectors are the sameas ours. "

Captain Bradley had stood by in silent astonishment during thisconversation. His eyes had bulged slightly at Costigan's "we're bothwearing 'em, " but he had held his peace and as the girl disappeared alook of dawning comprehension came over his face. 

"Oh, I see, sir, " he said, respectfully--far more respectfully than hehad ever before addressed a mere first officer. "Meaning that we both_will be_ wearing them shortly, I assume. 'Service Specials'--but youdidn't specify exactly _what_ Service, did you?"

"Now that you mention it, I don't believe that I did, " Costigan grinned. 

"That explains several things about you--particularly your recognitionof Vee-Two and your uncanny control and speed of reaction. But aren'tyou.... "

"No, " Costigan interrupted, positively. "This situation is apt to getaltogether too serious to overlook any bets. If we get away, I'll takethem away from her and she'll never know that they aren't routineequipment in the Triplanetary Service. As for you, I know that you canand do keep your mouth shut. That's why I'm hanging this junk on you--Ihad a lot of stuff in my kit, but I flashed it all with the Standish, except what I brought in here for us three. Whether you think so or not, we're in a real jam--our chance of getting away is mightly close tozero. Now that I've gone this far, I might as well tell you that I don'tbelieve these birds are pirates at all, in the ordinary sense of theword. And it may be possible that they're after me, but I don't thinkso--we've covered up too.... "

He broke off as the girl came back, now to all appearances a smallTriplanetary officer, and the three settled down to a long and eventlesswait. Hour after hour they flew through the ether, but finally there wasa lurching swing and an abrupt increase in their acceleration. After ashort consultation Captain Bradley turned on the visiray set and, withthe beam at its minimum power, peered cautiously downward, in thedirection opposite to that in which he knew the pirate vessel must be. All three stared into the plate, seeing only an infinity of emptiness, marked only by the infinitely remote and coldly brilliant stars. Whilethey stared into space a vast area of the heavens was blotted out andthey saw, faintly illuminated by a peculiar blue luminescence, a vastball--a sphere so large and so close that they seemed to be droppingdownward toward it as though it were a world! They came to astop--paused, weightless--a vast door slid smoothly aside--they weredrawn _upward_ through an airlock and floated quietly in the air above asmall, but brightly-lighted and orderly city of metallic buildings!Gently the _Hyperion_ was lowered, to come to rest in the embracing armsof a regulation landing cradle. 

"Well, wherever it is, we're here, " remarked Captain Bradley, grimly. 

"And now the fireworks start, " assented Costigan, with a questioningglance at the girl. 

"Don't mind me, " she answered his unspoken question. "I don't believe insurrendering, either. "

"Right, " and both men squatted down behind the ether-walls of theirterrific weapons; the girl prone behind them. 

They had not long to wait. A group of human beings--men and to allappearance Americans--appeared unarmed in the little lounge. As soon asthey were well inside the room, Bradley and Costigan released upon themwithout compunction the full power of their frightful projectors. Fromthe reflectors, through the doorway, there tore a concentrated doublebeam of pure destruction--but that beam did not reach its goal. Yardsfrom the men it met a screen of impenetrable density. Instantly thegunners pressed their triggers and a stream of high-explosive shellsissued from the roaring weapons. But shells, also, were futile. Theystruck the shield and vanished--vanished without exploding and withoutleaving a trace to show that they had ever existed. 

Costigan sprang to his feet, but before he could launch his intendedattack a vast tunnel appeared beside him--an annihilating ray had sweptthrough the entire width of the liner, cutting instantly a smoothcylinder of emptiness. Air rushed in to fill the vacuum, and the threevisitors felt themselves seized by invisible forces and drawn into thetunnel. Through it they floated, up to and over the buildings, finallyslanting downward toward the door of a great high-powered structure. Doors opened before them and closed behind them, until at last theystood upright in a room which was evidently the office of a busyexecutive. They faced a desk which, in addition to the usual equipmentof the business man, carried a bewilderingly complete switchboard andinstrument panel. 

Seated impassively at the desk there was a gray man. Not only was hedressed entirely in gray, but his heavy hair was gray, his eyes weregray, and even his tanned skin seemed to give the impression of graynessin disguise. His overwhelming personality radiated an aura ofgrayness--not the gentle gray of the dove, but the resistless, drivinggray of the super-dreadnaught; the hard, inflexible, brittle gray of thefracture of high-carbon steel. 

"Captain Bradley, First Officer Costigan, Miss Marsden, " the man spokequietly, but crisply. "I had not intended you two men to live so long. That is a detail, however, which we will pass by for the moment. You mayremove your suits. "

Neither officer moved, but both stared back at the speakerunflinchingly. 

"I am not accustomed to repeating instructions, " the man at the deskcontinued; voice still low and level, but instinct with deadly menace. "You may choose between removing those suits and dying in them, here andnow. "

Costigan moved over to Clio and slowly took off her armor. Then, after aflashing exchange of glances and a muttered word, the two officers threwoff their suits simultaneously and fired at the same instant; Bradleywith his Lewiston, Costigan with a heavy automatic pistol whose bulletswere explosive shells of tremendous power. But the man in gray, surrounded by an impenetrable wall of force, only smiled at thefusillade, tolerantly and maddeningly. Costigan leaped fiercely, only tobe hurled backward as he struck that unyielding, invisible wall. Avicious beam snapped him back into place, the weapons were snatchedaway, and all three captives were held in their former positions. 

"I permitted that, as a demonstration of futility, " the gray man said, his hard voice becoming harder, "but I will permit no more foolishness. Now I will introduce myself. I am known as Roger. You probably haveheard nothing of me yet but you will--if you live. Whether or not youtwo live depends solely upon yourselves. Being something of a student ofmen, I fear that you will both die shortly. Able and resourceful as youhave just shown yourselves to be, you could be valuable to me, but youprobably will not--in which case you shall, of course, cease to exist. That, however, in its proper time--you shall be of some slight serviceto me in the process of being eliminated. In your case, Miss Marsden, Ifind myself undecided between two courses of action; each highlydesirable, but unfortunately mutually exclusive. Your father will beglad to ransom you at an exceedingly high figure, but, in spite of thatfact, I may decide to keep you for--well, let us say for certainpurposes. "

"Yes?" Clio rose magnificently to the occasion. Fear forgotten, hercourageous spirit flashed from her clear, young eyes and emanated fromher slender, rounded young body, erect in defiance. "Since I am acaptive, you can of course do anything you please with me up to acertain point--but no further, believe me!"

With no sign of having heard her outburst Roger pressed a button and atall, comely woman, appeared--a woman of indefinite age and of uncertainnationality. 

"Show Miss Marsden to her apartment, " he directed, and as the two womenwent out a man came in. 

"The cargo is unloaded, sir, " the newcomer reported. "The two men andthe five women indicated have been taken to the hospital, " was thereport of the man. 

"Very well, dispose of the others in the usual fashion. " The minion wentout, and Roger continued, emotionlessly:

"Collectively, the other passengers may be worth a million or so, but itwould not be worth while to waste time upon them. "

"What are you, anyway?" blazed Costigan, helpless but enraged beyondcaution. "I have heard of mad scientists who tried to destroy the earth, and of equally mad geniuses who thought themselves Napoleons capable ofconquering even the Solar System. Whichever you are, you should knowthat you can't get away with it. "

"I am neither. I am, however, a scientist, and I direct many otherscientists. I am not mad. You have undoubtedly noticed several peculiarfeatures of this place?"

"Yes, particularly the artificial gravity, which has always beenconsidered impossible, and those screens. An ordinary ether-wall isopaque in one direction, and doesn't bar matter--yours are transparentboth ways and something more than impenetrable to matter. How do you doit?"

"You could not understand them if I explained them to you, and they aremerely two of our smaller developments. I have no serious designs uponthe earth nor upon the Solar System, nor have I any desire to rule over, or to control the destinies of masses of futile and brainless men. Ihave, however, certain ends of my own in view. To accomplish my plans Irequire hundreds of millions in gold, other hundreds of millions inplatinum and noble metal, and some five kilograms of the bromide ofradium--all of which I shall take from the planets of this Solar Systembefore I leave it. I shall take them in spite of the puerile efforts ofthe fleets of your Triplanetary League. 

"This structure, floating in a planetary orbit, was designed by me andbuilt under my direction. It is protected from meteorites by certainforces of my devising. It is undetectable and invisible--your detectorsdo not touch it and light-waves are bent around it without loss ordistortion. I am discussing these points at such length so that you mayrealize exactly your position. As I have intimated, you can be ofassistance to me if you will. "

"Now just what could you offer any _man_ to make him join your outfit?"demanded Costigan, venomously. 

"Many things. " Roger's cold tone betrayed no emotion, no recognition ofCostigan's open and bitter contempt. "I have under me many men, bound tome by many ties. Needs, wants, longings and desires differ from man toman, and I can satisfy practically any of them. Personally, I takedelight in the society of young and beautiful women, and many men havethat same taste; but there are other urges which I have found quiteefficient. Greed, thirst for fame, longing for power, and so on, including many qualities usually regarded as 'noble. ' And what Ipromise, I deliver. I demand only loyalty to me, and that only incertain things and for a relatively short period. In all else, my men doas they please. In conclusion, I can use you two conveniently, but I donot need you. Therefore you may choose now between my service and--thealternative. "

"Exactly what is the alternative?"

"We will not go into that. Suffice it to say that it has to do with aminor research, which is not progressing satisfactorily. It will resultin your extinction, and perhaps I should mention that that extinctionwill not be particularly pleasant. "

"I say NO, you.... " Bradley roared. He intended to give an unexpurgatedclassification, but was rudely interrupted. 

"Hold on a minute!" snapped Costigan. "How about Miss Marsden?"

"She has nothing to do with this discussion, " returned Roger, icily. "Ido not bargain--in fact, I believe that I shall keep her for a time. Shehas it in mind to destroy herself, if I do not allow her to be ransomed, but she will find that door closed to her until I permit it to open. "

"In that case, I string along with the Chief--take what he started tosay about you and run it clear across the board for me!" barkedCostigan. 

"Very well. That decision was to be expected from men of your type. " Thegray man touched two buttons and two of his creatures entered the room. "Put these men into separate cells on the second level, " he ordered. "Search them to the skin: all their weapons may not have been in theirarmor. Seal the doors and mount special guards, tuned to me here. "

Imprisoned they were, and carefully searched; but they bore no arms, andnothing had been said or thought of communicators. Even if suchinstruments could be concealed, Roger would detect their use instantly. At least, so would have run his thought had the subject entered hismind. But even Roger had no inkling of the possibility of Costigan's"Service Special" phones, detectors and spy-ray--instruments of minutesize and of infinitesimal power, but yet instruments which, working asthey were, below the level of the ether, were effective at greatdistances and caused no vibrations in the ether by which their use couldbe detected. And what could be more innocent than the regulation, personal equipment of every officer of space? The heavy goggles, thewrist-watch and its supplementary pocket chronometer, the flash-lamp, the automatic lighter, the sender, the money-belt?

All these items of equipment were examined with due care; but thecleverest minds of Triplanetary's Secret Service had designated thosecommunicators to pass any ordinary search, however careful, and whenCostigan and Bradley were finally locked into the designated cells, theystill possessed their ultra-instruments. 

CHAPTER II

 In Roger's Planetoid

In the hall Clio glanced around her wildly, her bosom heaving, eyesdarting here and there, seeking even the narrowest avenue of escape. Before she could act, however, her body was clamped inflexibly, asthough in a vise, and she struggled, motionless. 

"It is useless to attempt to escape, or to do anything except what Rogerwishes, " the guide informed her somberly, snapping off the instrument inher hand and thus restoring to the thoroughly cowed girl her freedom ofmotion. 

"His lightest wish is law, " she continued as they walked down a longcorridor. "The sooner you realize that you must do exactly as hepleases, in all things, the easier your life will be. "

"But I wouldn't _want_ to keep on living!" Clio declared, with a flashof spirit. "And I can _always_ die, you know. "

"You will find that you cannot, " the passionless creature returned, monotonously. "If you do not yield, you will long and pray for death, but you will not die unless Roger wills it. I was like you once. I alsostruggled, and I became what I am now--whatever it is. Here is yourapartment. You will stay here until Roger gives further ordersconcerning you. "

The living automaton opened a door and stood silent and impassive, whileClio, staring at her in unutterable horror, shrank past her and into thesumptuously furnished suite. The door closed soundlessly and uttersilence descended as a pall. Not an ordinary silence, but theindescribable perfection of the absolute, complete absence of all sound. In that silence Clio stood motionless. Tense and rigid, hopeless, despairing, she stood there in that magnificent room, fighting an almostoverwhelming impulse to scream. Suddenly she heard the cold voice ofRoger, speaking from the empty air. 

"You are over-wrought, Miss Marsden. You can be of no use to yourself orto me in that condition. I command you to rest; and, to insure thatrest, you may pull that cord, which will establish about this room anether wall: a wall cutting off even this my voice.... "

The voice ceased as she pulled the cord savagely and threw herself upona divan in a torrent of gasping, strangling, but rebellious sobs. Thenagain came a voice, but not to her ears. Deep within her, pervadingevery bone and muscle, it made itself felt rather than heard. 

"Clio?" it asked. "Don't talk yet.... "

"Conway!" she gasped in relief, every fiber of her being thrilled intonew hope at the deep, well-remembered voice of Conway Costigan. 

"Keep still!" he snapped. "Don't act so happy! He may have a spy-ray onyou. He can't hear me, but he may be able to hear you. When he wastalking to you you must have noticed a sort of rough, sandpapery feelingunder that necklace I gave you? Since he's got an ether-wall around youthe beads are dead now. If you feel anything like that under thewrist-watch, breathe deeply, twice. If you don't feel anything there, it's safe for you to talk, as loud as you please. 

"I don't feel a thing, Conway!" she rejoiced. Tears forgotten, she washer old, buoyant self again. "So that wall _is_ real, after all? I onlyabout half believed it. "

"Don't trust it too much, because he can cut it off from the outside anytime he wants to. Remember what I told you: that necklace will warn youof any spy-ray in the ether, and the watch will detect anything belowthe level of the ether. It's dead now, of course, since our three phonesare direct-connected; I'm in touch with Bradley, too. Don't be tooscared; we've got a lot better chance that I thought we had. "

"What? You don't mean it!"

"Absolutely. I'm beginning to think that maybe we've got something hedoesn't know exists--our ultra-wave. Of course I wasn't surprised whenhis searchers failed to find our instruments, but it never occurred tome that I might have a clear field to use them in! I can't quite believeit yet, but I haven't been able to find any indication that he can evendetect the bands we are using. I'm going to look around over there withmy spy-ray ... I'm looking at you now--feel it?"

"Yes, the watch feels that way, now. "

"Fine! Not a sign of interference over here, either. I can't find atrace of ultra-wave--anything below ether-level, you know--anywhere inthe whole place. He's got so much stuff that we've never heard of that Isupposed of course he'd have ultra-wave, too; but if he hasn't, thatgives us the edge. Well, Bradley and I've got a lot of work to do.... Wait a minute, I just had a thought. I'll be back in about a second. "

There was a brief pause, then the soundless, but clear voice went on:

"Good hunting! That woman that gave you the blue willies isn'talive--she's full of the prettiest machinery and communicators you eversaw!"

"Oh, Conway!" and the girl's voice broke in an engulfing wave ofthanksgiving and relief. "It was so unutterably horrible, thinking ofwhat must have happened to her and to others like her!"

"He's running a colossal bluff, I think. He's good, all right, but helacks quite a lot of being omnipotent. But don't get too cocky, either. Plenty has happened to plenty of women here, and men too--and plenty mayhappen to us unless we put out a few jets. Keep a stiff upper lip, andif you want us, yell. 'Bye!"

The silent voice ceased, the watch upon Clio's wrist again became anunobtrusive timepiece, and Costigan, in his solitary cell far below hertower room, turned his peculiarly goggled eyes toward other scenes. Inhis pockets his hands manipulated tiny controls, and through the lensesof those goggles Costigan's keen and highly-trained eyes studied everyconcealed detail of mechanism of the great globe, the while he plannedwhat must be done. Finally, he took off the goggles and spoke in a lowvoice to Bradley, confined in another windowless room across the hall. 

"I think I've got dope enough, Captain. I've found out where he put ourarmor and guns, and I've located all the main leads, controls, andgenerators. There are no ether-walls around us here, but every door isshielded, and there are guards outside our doors--one to each of us. They're robots, not men. That makes it harder, since they're undoubtedlyconnected direct to Roger's desk, and will give an alarm at the firsthint of abnormal performance. We can't do a thing until he leaves hisdesk. See that black panel, a little below the cord-switch to the rightof your door? That's the conduit cover. When I give you the word, tearthat off and you'll see one red wire in the cable. It feeds theshield-generator of your door. Break that wire and join me out in thehall. Sorry I had only one of these ultra-wave spies, but once we'retogether it won't be so bad. Here's what I thought we could do, " and hewent over in detail the only course of action which his surveys hadshown to be possible. 

"There, he's left his desk!" Costigan exclaimed after the conversationhad continued for almost an hour. "Now as soon as we find out where he'sgoing, we'll start something ... He's going to see Clio, the swine! Thischanges things, Bradley!" His hard voice was a curse. 

"Somewhat!" blazed the captain. "I know how you two have been getting onall during the cruise. I'm with you, but what can we do?"

"We'll do something, " Costigan declared grimly. "If he makes a pass ather I'll get him if I have to blow this whole sphere out of space, withus in it!"

"Don't do that, Conway. " Clio's low voice, trembling but determined, wasfelt by both men and both gasped audibly: they had forgotten that therewere three instruments in the circuit. "If there's a chance for you toget away and do anything about fighting him, don't mind me. Maybe heonly wants to talk about the ransom, anyway. "

"He wouldn't talk ransom to _you_--he's going to talk something elseentirely, " Costigan gritted; then his voice changed suddenly. "But say, maybe it's just as well this way. They didn't find our specials whenthey searched us, you know, and we're going to do plenty of damage rightsoon now. Roger probably isn't a fast worker--more the cat-and-mousetype, I'd say--and after we get started he'll have something on his mindbesides you. Think you can stall him off and keep him interested forabout fifteen minutes?"

"I'm sure I can--I'll do _anything_ to help us, or you, get away fromthis horrible.... " Her voice ceased as Roger broke the ether-wall of herapartment and walked toward the divan upon which she crouched inwide-eyed, helpless, trembling terror. 

"Get ready, Bradley!" Costigan directed tersely. "He's left Clio'sether-wall off, so that any abnormal signals would be relayed to himfrom his desk--he knows that there's no chance of anyone disturbing himin _that_ room. But I'm holding my beam on that switch--it's as good aconductor as metal--so that the wall is on, full strength. No matterwhat we do now, he can't get a warning. I'll have to hold the beamexactly on the switch, though, so you'll have to do the dirty work. Tearout that red wire and kill those two guards. You know how to kill arobot, don't you?"

"Yes--break his eye-lenses and his eardrums and he'll stop whatever he'sdoing and send out distress calls.... Got 'em both. Now what?"

"Open my door--the shield switch is to the right. "

Costigan's door flew open and the Triplanetary captain leaped into theroom. 

"Now for our armor!" he cried. 

"Not yet!" snapped Costigan. He was standing rigid, goggled eyes staringimmovably at a spot upon the ceiling. "I can't move a millimeter untilyou've closed Clio's ether-wall switch. If I take this ray off it for asecond we're sunk. Five floors up, straight ahead down acorridor--fourth door on right. When you're at the switch you'll feel myray on your watch. Snap it up!"

"Right!" and the captain leaped away at a pace to be equaled by few menof half his years. 

Soon he was back, and after Costigan had tested the ether-wall of the"bridal suite" to make sure that no warning signal from his desk or hisservants could reach Roger within it, the two officers hurried awaytoward the room in which their discarded space-armor had been stored. 

"Too bad they don't wear uniforms, " panted Bradley, short of breath fromthe many flights of stairs. "Might have helped some as disguise. "

"I doubt it--with so many robots around, they've probably got signalsthat we couldn't understand, anyway. If we meet anybody it'll mean abattle. Hold it!" Peering through walls with his spy-ray, Costigan hadseen two men approaching, blocking an intersecting corridor into whichthey must turn. "Two of 'em, a man and a robot--the robot's on yourside. We'll wait here, right at the corner--when they round it, take'em!" And Costigan put away his goggles in readiness for strife. 

All unsuspecting, the two pirates came into view, and as they appearedthe two officers struck. Costigan, on the inside, drove a short, hardright low into the human pirate's abdomen. The fiercely driven fist sankto the wrist into the soft tissues and the stricken man collapsed. Buteven as the blow landed, Costigan had seen that there was a third enemy, following close behind the two he had been watching, a pirate who waseven then training a ray projector upon him. Reacting automatically, Costigan swung his unconscious opponent around in front of him, so thatit was into that insensible body that the vicious ray tore, and not intohis own. Crouching down into the smallest possible compass, hestraightened his powerful body with the lashing force of a mighty steelspring, hurling the corpse straight at the flaming mouth of theprojector. The weapon crashed to the floor and dead pirate and livingwent down in a heap. Upon that heap Costigan hurled himself, feeling forthe enemy's throat. But the pirate had wriggled clear, and counteredwith a gouging thrust that would have torn out the eyes of a slower man, following it up instantly with a savage kick for the groin. No automatonthis, geared and set to perform certain fixed duties with mechanicalprecision, but a lithe, strong man in hard training, fighting with everyfoul trick known to his murderous ilk. 

But Costigan was no tyro in the art of dirty fighting. Few indeed arethe maiming tricks of foul combat unknown to even the rank and file ofthe highly efficient Secret Service of the Triplanetary League; andCostigan, a Sector Chief of that unknown organization, knew them all. Not for pleasure, sportsmanship, nor million-dollar purses do thosesecret agents use Nature's weapons. They come to grips only when itcannot possibly be avoided, but when they are forced to fight in thatfashion they go into it with but one grim purpose--to kill, and to killin the shortest possible space of time. Thus it was that Costigan'sopening soon came. The pirate launched a particularly vicious kick, thedreaded "coup de sabot, " which Costigan avoided by a lightning shift. Itwas a slight shift, barely enough to make the kicker miss, and twopowerful hands closed upon that flying foot in midair like the sprungjaws of a bear-trap. Closed and twisted viciously, in the same fleetinginstant. There was a shriek, smothered as a heavy boot crashed to itscarefully pre-determined mark: the pirate was out, definitely andpermanently. 

The struggle had lasted scarcely ten seconds, coming to its close justas Bradley finished blinding and deafening the robot. Costigan picked upthe projector, again donned his spy-ray goggles, and the two hurried on. 

"Nice work, Chief--it must be a gift to rough-house the way you do, "Bradley exclaimed. "That's why you took the live one?"

"Practice helps some, too! I've been in brawls before, and I'm a lotyounger and maybe some faster than you are, " Costigan explained briefly, penetrant gaze rigidly to the fore as they ran along one corridor afteranother. 

Several more guards, both living and mechanical, were encountered on theway, but they were not permitted to offer any opposition. Costigan sawthem first. In the furious beam of the projector of the dead pirate theywere riven into nothingness, and the two officers sped on to the roomwhich Costigan had located from afar. The three suits of Triplanetaryspace armor had been sealed into a cabinet whose doors Costiganliterally blew off with a blast of force, rather than consume time intracing the power leads. 

"I feel like something now!" Costigan, once more encased in his ownarmor, heaved a great sigh of relief. "Rough-and-tumble's all right withone or two, but that generator room is full of grief, and we won't haveany too much stuff as it is. We've got to take Clio's suit along--we'llcarry it down to the door of the power room, drop it there, and pick itup after we've wrecked the works. "

Contemptuous now of possible guards, the armored pair strode toward theroom which housed the pulsating heart of the immense fortress of space. Guards were encountered, and captains--officers who signaled franticallyto their chief, since he alone could unleash the frightful forces at hiscommand, and who profanely wondered at his unwonted silence--but theenemy beams were impotent against the mighty ether-walls of that armor;and the pirates, without armor in the security of their own planet asthey were, vanished utterly in the ravening beams of the twin Lewistons. As they paused before the door of the power room, both men felt Clio'svoice raised in her first and last appeal, an appeal wrung from heragainst her will by the extremity of her position. 

"Conway! Hurry! Oh, hurry! I can't last much longer--good-bye, dear!" Inthe horror-filled tones both men read clearly the girl's dire extremity. Each saw plainly a happy, care-free young earth girl, upon her firsttrip into space, locked inside an ether-wall with an over-brained, under-conscienced human machine--a super-intelligent but lecherous andunmoral mechanism of flesh and blood, acknowledging no authority, ruledby nothing save his own scientific drivings and the almost equallypowerful urges of his desires and passions! She had fought with everyresource at her command. She had wept and pleaded, she had stormed andraged, she had feigned submission and had played for time--and hertorment had not touched in the slightest degree the merciless andgloating brain of the being who called himself Roger. Now histantalizing, ruthless cat-play was done, the horrible gray-brown facewas close to hers--she wailed her final despairing message to Costiganand attacked that hideous face with the fury of a tigress. 

Costigan bit off a bitter imprecation. "Hold him just a second longer, sweetheart!" he cried, and the power room door vanished. 

Through the great room the two Lewistons swept at full aperture and atmaximum power, two rapidly opening fans of death and destruction. Hereand there a guard, more rapid than his fellows, trained a futileprojector--a projector whose magazine exploded at the touch of thatfrightful field of force, liberating instantaneously its thousands uponthousands of kilowatt-hours of stored-up energy. Through the delicatelyadjusted, complex mechanisms the destroying beams tore. At their toucharmatures burned out, high-tension leads volatilized in crashing, high-voltage sparks, masses of metal smoked and burned in the path ofvast forces now seeking the easiest path to neutralization, delicateinstruments blew up, copper ran in streams like water. As the lastmachine subsided into a semi-molten mass of metal the two wreckers, eachgrasping a brace, felt themselves become weightless and knew that theyhad accomplished the first part of their program. 

Costigan leaped for the outer door. His the task to go to Clio's aid.... Bradley would follow more slowly, bringing the girl's armor and takingcare of any possible pursuit. As he sailed through the air he spoke. 

"Coming, Clio! All right, girl?" Questioningly, half fearfully. 

"All right, Conway. " Her voice was almost unrecognizable, broken inretching agony. "When everything went crazy he ... Found out that theether-wall was up ... Forgot all about me. He shut it off ... And seemedto go crazy, too ... He is floundering around like a wild man now.... I'm trying to keep ... Him from ... Going down-stairs. "

"Good girl--keep him busy one minute more--he's getting all the warningsat once and wants to get back to his board. But what's the matter withyou? Did he ... Hurt you, after all?"

"Oh, no; not that. But I'm sick--horribly sick. I'm falling.... I'm sodizzy I can scarcely see ... My head is breaking up into little pieces... I just _know_ I'm going to die, Conway! Oh ... Oh!"

"Oh, is _that_ all!" In his sheer relief that they had been in time, Costigan did not think of sympathizing with Clio's very real presentdistress of mind and body. "I forgot that you're aground-gripper--that's just a little touch of space-sickness. It'll wearoff directly.... All right, I'm coming! Let go of him and get as faraway from him as you can!"

He was now in the street. Perhaps two hundred feet distant and a hundredfeet above him was the tower room in which were Clio and Roger. Hesprang directly toward its large window, and as he floated "upward" hecorrected his course and accelerated his pace by firing backward atvarious angles with his heavy service pistol, uncaring that at the pointof impact of each of those shells a small blast of destruction erupted. He missed the window a trifle, but that did not matter--his flamingLewiston opened a way for him, partly through the window, partly throughthe wall. As he soared through the opening he trained projector andpistol upon Roger, now almost to the door, noticing as he did so thatClio was clinging convulsively to a lamp-bracket upon the wall. Door andwall vanished in the Lewiston's terrific beam, but the pirate stoodunharmed. Neither ravening ray nor explosive shell could harm him--hehad snapped on the protective shield whose generator was always upon hisperson. 

But Roger, while not exactly a ground-gripper, did not know how tohandle himself without weight; whereas Costigan, given six walls againstwhich to push, was even more efficient in weightless combat than whenhandicapped by the force of gravitation. Keeping his projector upon thepirate, he seized the first club to hand--a long, slender pedestal ofmetal--and launched himself past the pirate chief. With all the momentumof his mass and velocity and all the power of his mighty right arm heswung the bar at the pirate's head. That fiercely driven mass of metalshould have taken Roger's head from his shoulders, but it did not. Thatshield of force was utterly rigid and impenetrable; the only effect ofthe frightful blow was to set him spinning, end over end, like theflying baton of an acrobatic drum-major. As the spinning form crashedagainst the opposite wall of the room, Bradley floated in, carryingClio's armor. Without a word the captain loosened the helpless girl'sgrip upon the bracket and encased her in the suit. Then, supporting herat the window, he held his Lewiston upon the captive's head whileCostigan propelled him toward the opening. Both men knew that Roger'sshield of force must be threatened every instant--that if he wereallowed to release it he probably would bring to bear a hand-weapon evensuperior to their own. 

Braced against the wall, Costigan sighted along Roger's body toward themost distant point of the lofty dome of the artificial planet and gavehim a gentle push. Then, each grasping Clio by an arm, the two officersshoved mightily with their feet and the three armored forms darted awaytoward their only hope of escape--an emergency boat which could belaunched through the shell of the great globe. To attempt to reach the_Hyperion_ and to escape in one of her lifeboats would have beenuseless; they could not have forced the great gates of the mainair-locks and no other exits existed. As they sailed onward through theair, Costigan keeping the slowly-floating form of Roger enveloped in hisbeam, Clio began to recover. 

"Suppose they get their gravity fixed?" she asked, apprehensively. "Andthey're raying us and shooting at us!"

"They may have fixed it already. They undoubtedly have spare parts andduplicate generators, but if they turn it on the fall will kill Rogertoo, and he wouldn't like that. They'll have to get him down with anairship, and they know that we'll get them as fast as they come up. Theycan't hurt us with hand-weapons, and before they can bring up any heavystuff they'll be afraid to use it, because we'll be too close to theirshell. 

"I wish we could have brought Roger along, " he continued, savagely, toBradley. "But you were right, of course--it'd be altogether too muchlike a rabbit capturing a wildcat. My Lewiston's about done right now, and there can't be much left of yours--what he'd do to us would be a sinand a shame. "

Now at the great wall, the two men heaved mightily upon a lever, thegate of the emergency port swung slowly open, and they entered theminiature cruiser of the void. Costigan, familiar with the mechanism ofthe craft from careful study from his prison cell, manipulated thecontrols. Through gate after massive gate they went, until finally theywere out in open space, shooting toward distant Tellus at the maximumacceleration of which their small craft was capable. 

Costigan cut the other two phones out of circuit and spoke, hisattention fixed upon some extremely distant point. 

"Samms!" he called, sharply. "Costigan. We're out ... All right ... Yes... Sure ... Absolutely ... You tell 'em, Sammy; I've got company here. "

Through the sound-disks of their helmets the girl and the captain hadheard Costigan's share of the conversation. Bradley stared at hiserstwhile first officer in amazement, and even Clio had often heard thatmighty, half-mythical name. Surely that bewildering young man must rankhigh, to speak so familiarly to Virgil Samms, the all-powerful head ofthe space-pervading Secret Service of the Triplanetary League!

"You've turned in a general call-out, " Bradley stated, rather thanasked. 

"Long ago--I've been in touch right along, " Costigan answered. "Now thatthey know what to look for and know that ether-wave detectors areuseless, they can find it. Every vessel in seven sectors, clear down tothe scout patrols, is concentrating on this point, and the call is outfor all battleships and cruisers afloat. There are enough operatives outthere with ultra-waves to locate that globe, and once they spot itthey'll point it out to all the other vessels. "

"But how about the other prisoners?" asked the girl. "They'll all bekilled, won't they?"

"Hard telling, " Costigan shrugged. "Depends on how things turn out. Welack a lot of being safe ourselves yet, and it's my personal opinionthat there's going to be a real war. "

"What's worrying me mostly is our own chance, " Bradley assented. "Theywill chase us, of course. "

"Sure, and they'll have more speed than we have. Depends on how far awaythe nearest Triplanetary vessels are. Anyway, we've done everything wecan do--it's in the laps of the gods now. "

Silence fell, and Costigan cut in Clio's phone and came over to the seatupon which she was reclining, white and stricken--worn out by thehorrible and terrifying ordeals of the last few hours. As he seatedhimself beside her she blushed vividly, but her deep blue eyes met hisgray ones steadily. 

"Clio, I ... We ... You ... That is, " he flushed hotly and stopped. Thissecret agent, whose clear, keen brain no physical danger could cloud;who had proved over and over again that he was never at a loss in anyemergency, however desperate--this quick-witted officer floundered inembarrassment like any schoolboy, but continued, doggedly: "I'm afraidthat I gave myself away back there, but.... "

"We gave ourselves away, you mean, " she filled in the pause. "I did myshare, but I won't hold you to it if you don't want--but I _know_ thatyou love me, Conway!"

"_Love_ you!" The man groaned, his face lined and hard, his whole bodyrigid. "That doesn't half tell it, Clio. You don't need to hold me--I'mheld for life. There never was a woman who meant anything to me before, and there never will be another. You're the only woman that everexisted. It isn't that. Can't you see that it's impossible?"

"Of course I can't--it isn't impossible, at all. " She released herfinger shields, four hands met and tightly clasped; and her low voicethrilled with feeling as she went on: "You love me and I love you. Thatis all that matters. "

"I wish it were, " Costigan returned bitterly, "but you don't know whatyou'd be letting yourself in for. It's who and what you are and who andwhat I am that's eating me. You, Clio Marsden, Curtis Marsden'sdaughter. Nineteen years old. You think you've been places and donethings. You haven't. You haven't seen or done anything--you don't knowwhat it's all about. And who am I to love a girl like you? A homelessspace-flea who hasn't been on any planet three weeks in three years. Ahard-boiled egg. A trouble-shooter and a brawler by instinct andtraining. A sp.... " He bit off the word and went on quickly: "Why, youdon't know me at all, and there's a lot of me that you never _will_know--that I can't let you know! You'd better lay off me, girl, whileyou can. It'll be best for you, believe me. "

"But I can't Conway, and neither can you, " the girl answered softly, aglorious light in her eyes. "It's too late for that. On the ship it wasjust another of those things, but since then we've come really to knoweach other, and we're sunk. The situation is out of control, and we bothknow it--and neither of us would change it if we could, and you knowthat, too. I don't know very much, I admit, but I do know what youthought you'd have to keep from me, and I admire you all the more forit. We all honor the Service, Conway dearest--it is only you men whohave made and are keeping the Three Planets fit places to live in--and Iknow that Virgil Samms' chief lieutenant would have to be a man in fourthousand million.... "

"What makes you think that?" he demanded sharply. 

"You told me so yourself, indirectly. Who else in the known Universecould possibly call him 'Sammy'? You are hard, of course, but you mustbe so--and I never did like soft men, anyway. And you brawl in a goodcause. You are very much a _man_, my Conway; a real, _real_ man, and Ilove you! Now, if they catch us, all right--we'll die together, atleast!" she finished, passionately. 

"You're right, sweetheart, of course, " he admitted. "I don't believethat I _could_ really let you let me go, even though I know you oughtto, " and their hands locked together even more firmly than before. "Ifwe ever get out of this jam I'm going to kiss you, but this is no timeto be taking off your helmet. In fact, I'm taking too many chances withyou in keeping your finger shields off. Snap 'em on, Clio mine; thepirates ought to be getting fairly close by this time. "

Hands released and armor again tight, Costigan went over to join Bradleyat the control board. 

"How're they coming, Captain?" he asked. 

"Not so good. Quite a ways off yet. At least an hour, I'd say, before acruiser can get within range. "

"I'll see if I can locate any of the pirates chasing up. If I do, it'llbe by accident; this little spy-ray isn't good for much except closework. I'm afraid the first warning we'll have will be when they takehold of us with a beam or spear us with a ray. Probably a beam, though;this is one of their emergency lifeboats and they wouldn't want todestroy it unless they have to. Also, I imagine that Roger wants usalive pretty badly. He has unfinished business with all three of us, andI can well believe that his 'not particularly pleasant extinction' willbe even less so after the way we rooked him. "

"I want you to do me a favor, Conway. " Clio's face was white with horrorat the thought of facing again that unspeakable creature of gray. "Giveme a gun or something, please. I don't want him to touch me again whileI'm alive. "

"He won't, " Costigan assured her, narrow of eye and grim of jaw. He was, as she had said, hard. "But you don't want a gun. You might get nervousand use it too soon. I'll take care of you at the last possible moment, because if he gets hold of us we won't stand a chance of getting awayagain. "

For minutes there was silence, Costigan surveying the ether in alldirections with his ultra-wave device. Suddenly he laughed, deeply andwith real enjoyment, and the others stared at him in surprise. 

"No, I'm not crazy, " he told them. "This is really funny; it had neveroccurred to me that all these pirate ships are invisible to any etherwave as long as they're using power. I can see them, of course, withthis sub-ether spy, but they can't see us! I knew that they should haveovertaken us before this. I've finally found them. They've passed us, and are now tacking around, waiting for us to cut off our power for aminute so that they can see us! They're heading right into theFleet--they think they're safe, of course, but what a surprise they'vegot coming to them!"

But it was not only the pirates who were to be surprised. Long beforethe pirate ship had come within extreme visibility range of theTriplanetary Fleet, it lost its invisibility and was starkly outlinedupon the lookout plates of the three fugitives. For a few seconds thepirate craft seemed unchanged, then it began to glow redly, with a redthat seemed to become darker as it grew stronger. Then the sharpoutlines blurred, puffs of air burst outward, and the metal of the hullbecame a viscous, fluid-like something, flowing away in a long, redstreamer into seemingly empty space. Costigan turned his ultra-gaze intothat space and saw that it was actually far from empty. There lay a vastsomething, formless and indefinite even to his sub-ethereal vision; asomething into which the viscid stream of transformed metal plunged. Plunged, and vanished. 

Powerful interference blanketed his ultra-wave and howled throughout hisbody; but in the hope that some part of his message might get through hecalled Samms, and calmly and clearly he narrated everything that hadjust happened. He continued his crisp report, neglecting not thesmallest detail, while their tiny craft was drawn inexorably toward aredly impermeable veil; continued it until their lifeboat, still intact, shot through that veil and he found himself unable to move. He wasconscious, he was breathing normally, his heart was beating; but not avoluntary muscle would obey his will. 

CHAPTER III

 Fleet Against Planetoid

One of the newest and fleetest of the Law Enforcement Vessels of theTriplanetary League, the heavy cruiser _Chicago_, of the North AmericanDivision of the Tellurian Contingent, plunged stolidly throughinterplanetary vacuum. For five long weeks she had patrolled herallotted volume of space. In another week she would report back to thecity whose name she bore, where her space-weary crew, worn by their long"trick" in the awesomely oppressive depths of the limitless void, wouldenjoy to the full their fortnight of refreshing planetary leave. 

She was performing certain routine tasks--charting meteorites, watchingfor derelicts and other obstructions to navigation, checking inconstantly with all scheduled space-ships in case of need, and soon--but primarily she was a warship. She was a mighty engine ofdestruction, hunting for the unauthorized vessels of whatever power orplanet it was, that had not only defied the Triplanetary League, butwere evidently attempting to overthrow it; attempting to plunge theThree Planets back into the ghastly sink of bloodshed and destructionfrom which they had so recently emerged. Every space-ship within rangeof her powerful detectors was represented by two brilliant, slowlymoving points of light; one upon a great micrometer screen, the other inthe "tank"--the immense, three-dimensional, minutely cubed model of theentire Solar System. 

A brilliantly intense red light flared upon a panel and a bell clangedbrazenly the furious signals of the sector alarm. Simultaneously aspeaker roared forth its message of a ship in dire peril. 

"Sector alarm! N. A. T. _Hyperion_ gassed with Vee-Two. Nothingdetectable in space, but.... "

The half-uttered message was drowned out in a crackling roar ofmeaningless noise, the orderly signals of the bell became a hideousclamor, and the two points of light which had marked the location of theliner disappeared in widely spreading flashes of the same high-poweredinterference. Observers, navigators, and control officers were alikedumfounded. Even the captain, in the shell-proof, shock-proof, anddoubly ray-proof retreat of his conning compartment, was equally at aloss. No ship or thing could _possibly_ be close enough to be sendingout interfering waves of such tremendous power--yet there they were!

"Maximum acceleration, straight for the point where the _Hyperion_ waswhen her tracers went out, " the captain ordered, and through the fringeof that widespread interference he drove a solid beam, reportingconcisely to G. H. Q. Almost instantly the emergency call-out cameroaring in--every vessel of the Sector, of whatever class or tonnage, was to concentrate upon the point in space where the ill-fated liner hadlast been known to be. 

Hour after hour the great globe drove on at maximum acceleration, captain and every control officer alert and at high tension. But in theQuartermaster's Department, deep down below the generator rooms, nothought was given to such minor matters as the disappearance of a_Hyperion_. The inventory did not balance, and two Q. M. Privates weretrying, profanely, and without much success, to find the discrepancy. 

"Charged cells for model DF Lewistons, none requisitioned, on handeighteen thous.... " The droning voice broke off short in the middle of aword and the private stood rigid, in the act of reaching for anotherslip, every faculty concentrated upon something, imperceptible to hiscompanion. 

"Come on, Cleve--snap it up!" the second commanded, but was silenced bya vicious wave of the listener's hand. 

"What!" the rigid one exclaimed. "Reveal ourselves! Why, it's ... Oh, all right.... Oh, that's it.... Uh-huh.... I see.... Yes, I've got itsolid. Maybe I'll see you again some time. If not, so long!"

The inventory sheets fell unheeded from his hand, and his fellow privatestared after him in amazement as he strode over to the desk of theofficer in charge. That officer also stared as the hitherto easy-goingand gold-bricking Cleve saluted briskly, showed him something flat inthe palm of his left hand, and spoke. 

"I've just got some of the funniest orders ever put out, Lieutenant"--his voice was low and intense--"but they came from 'way, 'way up. I'm to join the brass hats in the Center. You'll know about itdirectly, I imagine. Cover me up as much as you can, will you?" And hewas gone. 

Unchallenged he made his way to the control room, and his curt "urgentreport for the Captain" admitted him there without question. But when heapproached the sacred precincts of the Captain's own and inviolate room, he was stopped in no uncertain fashion by no less a personage than theOfficer of the Day. 

" ... And report yourself under arrest immediately!" the O. D. Concludedhis brief but pointed speech. 

"You were right in stopping me, of course, " the intruder conceded, unmoved. "I wanted to get in there without giving everything away, ifpossible, but it seems that I can't. Well, I've been ordered by VirgilSamms to report to the Captain, at once. See this? Touch it!" He heldout a flat, insulated disk, cover thrown back to reveal a tiny goldenmeteor, at the sight of which the officer's truculent manner alteredmarkedly. 

"I've heard of them, of course, but I never saw one before, " and theofficer touched the shining symbol lightly with his finger, jerkingbackward involuntarily as there shot through his whole body a thrillingsurge of power, shouting into his very bones an unpronounceablesyllable--the password of the Secret Service. "Genuine or not, it getsyou to the Captain. He'll know, and if it's a fake you'll be breathingspace in five minutes. "

Projector at the ready, the Officer of the Day followed Cleve into theHoly of Holies. There the grizzled four-striper touched the goldenmeteor lightly, then drove his piercing gaze deep into the unflinchingeyes of the younger man. But that captain had won his high rank neitherby accident nor by "pull"--he understood at once. 

"It _must_ be an emergency, " he growled, half-audibly, still staring athis lowly Q. M. Clerk, "to make Samms uncover his whole organization. "He turned and curtly dismissed the wondering O. D. Then: "All right! Outwith it!"

"Serious enough so that every one of us afloat has just received ordersto reveal himself to his commanding officer and to anyone else, ifnecessary to reach that officer at once--orders never before issued. Theenemy have been located. They have built a base, and have ships betterthan our best. Base and ships cannot be seen nor detected by any etherwave. However, the Service has been experimenting for years with a newtype of communicator beam; and, while pretty crude yet, it was given tous when the _Dione_ went out without leaving a trace. One of our men wasin the _Hyperion_, managed to stay alive, and has been sending data. Iam instructed to attach my new phone set to one of the universal platesin your conning room, and to see what I can find. "

"Go to it!" The captain waved his hand and the operative bent to histask. 

"Commanders of all vessels of the Fleet!" The Headquarters speaker, receiver sealed upon the wave-length of the Admiral of the Fleet, brokethe long silence. "All vessels, in sectors L to R, inclusive, willinterlock location signals. Some of you have received, or will receiveshortly, certain communications from sources which need not bementioned. Those commanders will at once send out red K4 screens. Vessels so marked will act as temporary flagships. Unmarked vessels willproceed at maximum to the nearest flagship, grouping about it inregulation squadron cone in order of arrival. Squadrons most distantfrom objective point designated by flagship observers will proceedtoward it at maximum; squadrons nearest it will decelerate or reversevelocity--that point must not be approached until full Fleet formationhas been accomplished. Heavy and Light Cruisers of all other sectorsinside the orbit of Mars ... " the orders went on, directing themobilization of the stupendous forces of the League, so that they wouldbe in readiness in the highly improbable event of the failure of themassed power of seven sectors to reduce the pirate base. 

In those seven sectors perhaps a dozen vessels threw out enormousspherical screens of intense red light, and as they did so their tracerpoints upon all the interlocked lookout plates also became ringed aboutwith red. Toward those crimson markers the pilots of the unmarkedvessels directed their courses at their utmost power; and while thewhite lights upon the lookout plates moved slowly toward and clusteredabout the red ones--the ultra-instruments of the Secret Serviceoperatives were probing into space, sweeping the neighborhood of thecomputed position of the pirate's stronghold. 

But the object sought was so far away that the small spy-ray sets of theSecret Service men, intended as they were for close-range work, wereunable to make contact with the invisible planetoid for which they wereseeking. In the captain's sanctum of the _Chicago_, the operativestudied his plate for only a minute or two, then shut off his power andfell into a brown study, from which he was rudely aroused. 

"Aren't you even going to _try_ to find them?" demanded the captain. 

"No, " Cleve returned shortly. "No use--not half enough power or control. I'm trying to think ... Maybe ... Say, Captain, will you please have theChief Electrician and a couple of radio men come in here?"

They came, and for hours, while the other ultra-wave men searched theapparently empty ether with their ineffective beams, the three technicalexperts and the erstwhile Quartermaster's clerk labored upon a huge andcomplex ultra-wave projector--the three blindly and with doubtfulquestions; the one with sure knowledge at least of what he was trying todo. Finally the thing was done, the crude but efficient graduatedcircles were set, and the tubes glowed redly as their solidly massedoutput was driving into a tight beam of ultra-vibration. "There it is, sir, " Cleve reported, after some ten minutes of delicate manipulation, and the vast structure of the miniature world flashed into being uponhis plate. "You may notify the fleet--co-ordinates H 11. 62, RA124-31-16, and Dx about 173. 2. "

The report made and the assistants out of the room, the captain turnedto the observer and saluted gravely. 

"We have always known, sir, that the Service had _men_; but I had noidea that any one man could possibly do, on the spur of the moment, whatyou have just done--unless that man happened to be Lyman Cleveland. "

"Oh, it doesn't ... " the observer began, but broke off, mutteringunintelligibly at intervals; then swung the visiray beam toward theearth. Soon a face appeared upon the plate, the keen but careworn faceof Virgil Samms!

"Hello, Lyman. " His voice came clearly from the speaker, and the Captaingasped--his ultra-wave observer and sometime clerk was Lyman Clevelandhimself, probably the greatest living expert in beam transmission! "Iknew that you'd do something, if it could be done. How about it--can theothers install similar sets on their ships? I'm betting that theycan't. "

"Probably not, " Cleveland frowned in thought. "This is a patchworkaffair, made of gunny-sacks and hay-wire. I'm holding it together bymain strength and awkwardness, and even at that it's apt to go to piecesany minute. "

"Can you rig it up for photography?"

"I think so. Just a minute--yes, I can. Why?"

"Because there's something going on out there that neither we nor theso-called pirates know anything about. The Admiralty seems to think thatit's the Jovians again, but we don't see how it can be--if it is, theyhave developed a lot of stuff that none of our agents has evensuspected, " and he recounted briefly what Costigan had reported to him, concluding: "Then there was a burst of interference--on the_ultra-band_, mind you--and I've heard nothing from him since. ThereforeI want you to stay out of the battle entirely. Stay as far away from itas you can and still get good pictures of everything that happens. Iwill see that orders are issued to the _Chicago_ to that effect. "

"But listen ... "

"Those are orders!" snapped Samms. "It is of the utmost importance thatwe know every detail of what is going to happen. The answer is pictures. The only possibility of obtaining pictures is that machine you have justdeveloped. If the fleet wins, nothing will be lost. If the fleetloses--and I am not half as confident of success as the Admiral is--the_Chicago_ doesn't carry enough power to decide the issue, and we willhave the pictures to study, which is all-important. Besides, we'veprobably lost Conway Costigan to-day, and we don't want to lose _you_, too. "

Cleveland remained silent, pondering this startling news, but thegrizzled Captain, veteran of the Fourth Jovian War that he was, was notconvinced. 

"We'll blow them out of space, Mr. Samms!" he declared. 

"You just think you will, Captain. I have suggested, as forcibly aspossible, that the general attack be withheld until after a thoroughinvestigation is made, but the Admiralty will not listen. They see theadvisability of withdrawing a camera ship, but that is as far as theywill go. "

"And that's plenty far enough!" growled the _Chicago's_ commander, asthe beam snapped off. "Mr. Cleveland, I don't like the idea of runningaway under fire, and I won't do it without direct orders from theAdmiral. "

"Of course you won't--that's why you are going.... "

He was interrupted by a voice from the Headquarters speaker. The captainstepped up to the plate and, upon being recognized, he received theexact orders which had been requested by the Chief of the SecretService--now not as secret as it had been heretofore. 

Thus it was that the _Chicago_ reversed her acceleration, cut off herred screen, and fell rapidly behind, while the vessels following her intheir loose cone formation shot away toward another crimson-flaringleader. Farther and farther back she dropped, back to the limiting rangeof the ultra-cameras upon which Cleveland and his highly trainedassistants were furiously and unremittingly at work. And during all thistime the forces of the seven sectors had been concentrating. The pilotvessels, with their flaming red screens, each followed by a cone ofspace-ships, drew closer and closer together, approaching the_Fearless_--the British super-dreadnaught which was to be the flagshipof the Fleet--the mightiest and heaviest space-ship which had yet liftedher stupendous mass into the ether. 

Now, systematically and precisely, the great Cone of Battle was cominginto being; a formation developed during the Jovian Wars while theforces of the Three Planets were fighting in space for their verycivilizations' existence, and one never used since the last space-fleetsof Jupiter's murderous hordes had been wiped out. 

The mouth of that enormous hollow cone was a ring of scout patrols, thesmallest and most agile vessels of the fleet. Behind them came asomewhat smaller ring of light cruisers, then rings of heavy cruisersand of light battleships, and finally of heavy battleships. At the apexof the cone, protected by all the other vessels of the formation and inbest position to direct the battle, was the flagship. In this formationevery vessel was free to use her every weapon, with a minimum of dangerto her sister ships; and yet, when the gigantic main projectors wereoperated along the axis of the formation, from the entire vast circle ofthe cone's mouth there flamed a cylindrical field of force of suchintolerable intensity that in it no conceivable substance could endurefor a moment!

The artificial planet of metal was now close enough so that it wasvisible to the ultra-vision of the Secret Service men, so plainlyvisible that the warships of the pirates were seen issuing from theenormous air-locks. As each vessel shot out into space it sped straightfor the approaching fleet without waiting to go into any formation--grayRoger believed his structures invisible to Triplanetary eyes, thoughtthat the presence of the fleet was the result of mathematicalcalculations, and was convinced that his mighty vessels of the voidwould destroy even that vast fleet without themselves becoming known. Hewas wrong. The foremost globes were allowed actually to enter the mouthof that conical trap before an offensive move was made. Then thevice-admiral in command of the fleet touched a button, andsimultaneously every generator in every Triplanetary vessel burst intofurious activity. Instantly the hollow volume of the immense cone becamea coruscating hell of resistless energy, an inferno which, with thevelocity of light, extended itself into a far-reaching cylinder ofrapacious destruction. Ether-waves they were, it is true, but vibrationsdriven with such fierce intensity that the screens of deflectionsurrounding the pirate vessels could not handle even a fraction of theirawful power. Invisibility lost, their defensive screens flared briefly;but even the enormous force backing Roger's inventions, greater far thanthat of any single Triplanetary vessel, could not hold off theincredible violence of the massed attack of the hundreds of mightyvessels composing the Fleet. Their defensive screens flared briefly, then went down; their great spherical hulls first glowing red, thenshining white, then in a brief moment exploding into flying masses ofred hot, molten, and gaseous metal. 

A full two-thirds of Roger's force was caught in that raging, incandescent beam; caught and obliterated: but the remainder did notretreat to the planetoid. Darting out around the edge of the cone at astupendous acceleration, they attacked its flanks and the engagementbecame general. But now, since enough beams were kept upon each ship ofthe enemy so that invisibility could not be restored, each Triplanetarywar vessel could attack with full efficiency. Magnesium flares andstar-shells illuminated space for a thousand miles, and from every unitof both fleets was being hurled every item of solid, explosive, andvibratory destruction known to the highly scientific warfare of thatage. Offensive beams, rods and daggers of frightful power struck andwere neutralized by defensive screens equally capable; the long rangeand furious dodging made ordinary solid or high-explosive projectilesuseless; and both sides were filling all space with such a volume ofblanketing frequencies that such radio-dirigible torpedoes as werelaunched could not be controlled, but darted madly and erraticallyhither and thither, finally to be exploded harmlessly in mid-space bythe touch of some fiercely insistent, probing beam of force. 

Individually, however, the pirate vessels were far more powerful thanthose of the fleet, and that superiority soon began to make itself felt. The power of the smaller ships began to fail as their accumulatorsbecame discharged under the awful drain of the battle, and vessel aftervessel of the Triplanetary fleet was hurled into nothingness by theconcentrated blasts of the pirates' rays. But the Triplanetary forceshad one great advantage. In furious haste the Secret Service men hadbeen altering the controls of the radio-dirigible torpedoes, so thatthey would respond to ultra-wave control; and, few in number though theywere, each was highly effective. 

A hard-eyed observer, face almost against his plate and both hands andboth feet manipulating controls, hurled the first torpedo. Propellingrockets viciously aflame, it twisted and looped around the incandescentrods of destruction so thickly and starkly outlined, under perfectcontrol; unaffected by the hideous distortion of all ether-bornesignals. Through a pirate screen it went, and under the terrific blastof its detonation one entire panel of the stricken battleship vanished, crumpled and broken. It should have been out, cold--but, to theamazement of the observers, it kept on fighting with scarcely lessenedpower! Three more of the frightful space-bombs had to be exploded init--it had to be reduced to junk--before its terrible rays went out; Nota man in that great fleet had even an inkling of the truth; that thosegreat vessels, those terrible engines of destruction, did not contain asingle living creature: that they were manned and fought by automatons;robots controlled by keen-eyed, space-hardened veterans inside theplanetoid so distant by means of tight, interference-proof communicatorbeams!

But they were to receive an inkling of it. As ship after ship of thepirate fleet was blown to pieces, Roger realized that his navy wasbeaten, and forthwith all his surviving vessels darted toward the apexof the cone, where the heaviest battleships were stationed. There eachhurled itself upon a Triplanetary warship, crashing to its owndestruction, but in that destruction insuring the loss of one of theheaviest vessels of the enemy. Thus passed the _Fearless_, and twenty ofthe finest space-ships of the fleet as well. But the ranking officerassumed command, the war-cone was re-formed, and, yawning maw to thefore, the great formation shot toward the pirate stronghold, now near athand. It again launched its stupendous cylinder of annihilation, buteven as the mighty defensive screens of the planetoid flared intoincandescently furious defense, the battle was interrupted and piratesand Triplanetarians learned alike that they were not alone in the ether. 

Space became suffused with a redly impenetrable opacity, and throughthat indescribable pall there came reaching huge arms of forceincredible; writhing, coruscating beams of power which glowed a baleful, although almost imperceptible, red. A vessel of unheard-of armament andpower, hailing from a distant solar system of the Galaxy, had come torest in that space. For months her commander had been investigating sunafter sun in quest of one precious substance. Now his detectors hadfound it; and, feeling neither fear of Triplanetarian weapons norreluctance to sacrifice those thousands of Triplanetarian lives, he wasabout to take it!

CHAPTER IV

 Within the Red Veil

Nevia, the home planet of the marauding space-ship, would have appearedpeculiar indeed to Terrestrial senses. High in the deep red heavens afervent blue sun poured down its flood of brilliant purplish light upona world of water. Not a cloud was to be seen in that flaming sky, andthrough that dustless atmosphere the eye could see the horizon--ahorizon three times as distant as the one to which we areaccustomed--with a distinctness and clarity impossible in our Terra'sdust-filled air. As that mighty sun dropped below the horizon the skywould fill suddenly with clouds and rain would fall violently andsteadily until midnight. Then the clouds would vanish as suddenly asthey had come into being, the torrential downpour would cease, and, through that huge world's wonderfully transparent, gaseous envelope, thefull glory of the firmament would be revealed. Not the firmament as weknow it--for that hot blue sun and Nevia, her one planet-child, weremany light-years distant from Old Sol and his numerous brood--but astrange and glorious firmament containing not one constellation familiarto earthly eyes. 

 [Illustration:

 Many bridges and more tubes extended through the air from building to building, and the watery "streets" teemed with surface craft, and with submarines. ]

Out of the vacuum of space a fish-shaped vessel of the void--the vesselthat was shortly to attack so boldly both the massed fleet ofTriplanetary and Roger's planetoid--plunged into the rarefied outeratmosphere, and crimson beams of force tore shriekingly the thin air asit braked its terrific speed. A third of the circumference of Nevia'smighty globe was traversed before the velocity of the craft could bereduced sufficiently to make a landing possible. Then, approaching thetwilight zone, the vessel dived vertically downward, and it becameevident that Nevia was neither entirely aqueous nor devoid ofintelligent life. For the blunt nose of the space-ship was pointingtoward what was evidently a half-submerged city, a city whose buildingswere flat-topped, hexagonal towers, exactly alike in size, shape, color, and material. These buildings were arranged as the cells of a honeycombwould be if each cell were separated from its neighbors by a relativelynarrow channel of water, and all were built of the same white metal. Many bridges and more tubes extended through the air from building tobuilding, and the watery "streets" teemed with surface craft, and withsubmarines. 

The pilot, stationed immediately below the conical prow of thespace-ship, peered intently through the thick windows of crystal-clearmetal which afforded unobstructed vision in every direction exceptvertically upward and behind him. His four huge and contractile eyeswere active, each operating independently in sending its own message tohis peculiar but capable brain. One was watching the instruments, theothers scanned narrowly the immense, swelling curve of the ship's belly, the water upon which his vessel was to land, and the floating dock towhich it was to be moored. Four hands--if hands they could becalled--manipulated levers and wheels with infinite delicacy of touch, and with scarcely a splash the immense mass of the Nevian sky-wandererstruck the water and glided to a stop within a foot of its exact berth. 

Four mooring bars dropped neatly into their sockets and thecaptain-pilot, after locking his controls in neutral, released hissafety straps and leaped lightly from his padded bench to the floor. Scuttling across the floor and down a runway upon his four short, powerful, heavily scaled legs, he slipped smoothly into the water andflashed away, far below the surface. For Nevians are true amphibians. Their blood is cold; they use with equal comfort and efficiency gillsand lungs for breathing; their scaly bodies are equally at home in thewater or in the air; their broad, flat feet serve equally well forrunning about upon a solid surface or for driving their stream-linedbodies through the water at a pace few of our fishes can equal. 

Through the water the Nevian commander darted along, steering his courseaccurately by means of his short, vaned tail. Through an opening in awall he sped and along a submarine hallway, emerging upon a broad ramp. He scurried up the incline and into an elevator which lifted him to thetop floor of the hexagon, directly into the office of the Secretary ofCommerce of all Nevia. 

"Welcome, Captain Nerado!" The Secretary waved a tentacular arm and thevisitor sprang lightly upon a softly cushioned bench, where he lay atease, facing the official across his low, flat "desk. " "We congratulateyou upon the success of your final trial flight. We received all yourreports, even while you were traveling with many times the velocity oflight. With the last difficulties overcome, you are now ready to start?"

"We are ready, " the captain-scientist replied, soberly. "Mechanically, the ship is as nearly perfect as our finest minds can make her. She isstocked for two years. All the iron-bearing suns within reach have beenplotted. Everything is ready except the iron. Of course the Councilrefused to allow us any of the national supply--how much were you ableto purchase for us in the market?"

"Nearly ten pounds.... "

"Ten pounds! Why, the securities we left with you could not have boughttwo pounds, even at the price then prevailing!"

"No, but you have friends. Many of us believe in you, and have dippedinto our own resources. You and your fellow scientists of the expeditionhave each contributed his entire personal fortune; why should not someof the rest of us also contribute, as private citizens?"

"Wonderful--we thank you. Ten pounds!" The captain's great triangulareyes glowed with an intense violet light. "A full year of cruising. But... What if, after all, we should be wrong?"

"In that case you shall have consumed ten pounds of irreplaceablemetal. " The Secretary was unmoved. "That is the viewpoint of the Counciland of almost everyone else. It is not the waste of treasure they objectto; it is the fact that ten pounds of iron will be forever lost. "

"A high price truly, " the Columbus of Nevia assented, "And after all, Imay be wrong. "

"You probably are--of course you are wrong, " his host made a startlinganswer. "It is practically certain--it is almost a demonstrablemathematical fact--that no other sun within hundreds of thousands oflight-years of our own has a planet. In all probability Nevia is theonly planet in the entire Universe. We are the only intelligent life inthe Universe. But there is one chance in numberless millions that, somewhere with the cruising range of your newly perfected space-ship, there may be an iron-bearing planet upon which you can effect a landing, and it is upon that infinitesimal chance that some of us are staking aportion of our wealth. We expect no return whatever, but if you _should_by some miracle happen to find stores of iron somewhere in space, whatthen? Deep seas being made shallow, civilization extending itself overthe globe, science advancing by leaps and bounds, Nevia becomingpopulated as she should be peopled--that, my friend, is a chance wellworth taking!"

The Secretary called in a group of guards, who escorted the smallpackage of priceless metal to the space-ship, and before the massivedoor was sealed the friends bade each other farewell. 

" ... I will keep in touch with you on the ultra-wave, " the Captainconcluded. "After all, I do not blame the Council for refusing to allowthe other ship to go with us. Ten pounds of iron will be a fearful lossto the world. If we _should_ find iron, however, see to it that theother vessel loses no time in following us. "

"No fear of that! If you find iron all space will be full of vessels, assoon as they can possibly be built--good-bye!"

The last opening was sealed and Nerado shot the great vessel into theair. Up and up, out beyond the last tenuous trace of atmosphere, on andon through space it flew with ever-increasing velocity until Nevia'sgigantic blue sun had been left so far behind that it became a splendidblue-white star. Then, projectors cut off to save the precious ironwhose disintegration furnished them power, for week after week CaptainNerado and his venturesome crew of scientists drifted idly through theillimitable void. Sun after sun, as visible in their ultra-instrumentsas though the flying vessel were moving slower than light, they studiedwithout finding a single planet. 

Three months passed. Nerado had already applied the slight power whichwas to swing the vessel around in an immense circle, back toward hisnative world. In that course he was rapidly approaching a sun, anordinary G-type dwarf, whose spectrum revealed a blaze of lines of theprecious element for which he was searching. Now at close observingrange--he had long since abandoned his former eager habit of studying asun as soon as it showed the tiniest perceptible disk in his mostpowerful telescope--he turned on his powerful visiray beam withoutenthusiasm, swung it upon that very commonplace sun, and shrieked aloudin exultation. Not only one planet had that yellowish luminary--it hadsix, seven, eight; yes, possibly nine or ten; and several of thoseplanets were themselves apparently centers of attraction around whichwere circling other tiny worlds! Nerado thrilled with joy as he applieda full retarding force, and every creature aboard that great vessel hadto peer into a plate or through a telescope, before he could believethat planets other than Nevia did in reality exist!

Velocity checked to the merest crawl, as space-speed goes, and withelectro-magnetic detector screens full out, the Nevian vessel crepttoward our sun. Finally the detectors encountered an obstacle, aconductive substance which the patterns showed conclusively to bepractically pure iron. Iron--an enormous mass of it--floating alone outin space! Without waiting to investigate the nature, appearance, orstructure of the precious mass, Nerado ordered power into the convertersand drove an enormous softening field of force upon the object--a forceof such a nature that it would condense the metallic iron into anallotropic modification of much smaller bulk; a red, viscous, extremelydense and heavy liquid which could be stored conveniently in his tanks. 

No sooner had the precious fluid been stored away than the detectorsagain broke into an uproar. In one direction was an enormous mass ofiron, scarcely detectable; in another a great number of smaller masses;in a third an isolated mass, comparatively small in size. Space seemedto be full of iron, and Nerado drove his most powerful beam towarddistant Nevia and sent an exultant message. 

"We have found iron--easily obtained and in unthinkable quantity--not infractions of milligrams, but in millions upon unmeasured millions oftons! Send our sister ship here as once!"

"Nerado!" The captain was called to one of the observation plates assoon as he had opened his key. "I have been investigating the mass ofiron now nearest us, the small one. It is an artificial structure, asmall space-boat, and there are three creatures in it--monstrositiescertainly, but they must possess some intelligence or they could not benavigating space. "

"What? Impossible!" exclaimed the chief explorer. "Probably, then, theother was--but no matter, we had to have the iron. Bring the boat inwithout converting it, so that we may study at our leisure both thebeings and their mechanisms, " and Nerado swung his own visiray beam intothe emergency boat, seeing there the armored figures of Clio Marsden andthe two Triplanetary officers. 

"They are indeed intelligent, " Nerado commented, as he detected andsilenced Costigan's ultra-beam communicator. "Not, however, asintelligent as I had supposed, " he went on, after studying the peculiarcreatures and their tiny space-ship more in detail. "They have immensestores of iron, yet use it for nothing other than building material. They apparently have a rudimentary knowledge of ultra-waves, but do notuse them intelligently--they cannot neutralize even these ordinaryforces we are now employing. They are of course more intelligent thanthe lower ganoids, or even than some of the higher fishes, but by nostretch of the imagination can they be compared to us. I am quiterelieved--I was afraid that in my haste I might slay members of a highlydeveloped race. "

The helpless boat, all her forces neutralized, was brought up close tothe immense flying fish. There flaming knives of force sliced her neatlyinto sections and the three rigid armored figures, after being bereft oftheir external weapons, were brought through the air-locks and into thecontrol room, while the pieces of their boat were stored away for futurestudy. The Nevian scientists first analyzed the air inside thespace-suits of the Terrestrials, then removed without ado the protectivecovering of the captives. 

Costigan--fully conscious through it all and now able to move a little, since the peculiar temporary paralysis was wearing off--braced himselffor he knew not what shock, but it was needless; their grotesque captorswere not torturers. The air, while somewhat less dense than earth's andof a peculiar odor, was eminently breathable, and even though the vesselwas motionless in space, an almost-normal gravitation gave them a largefraction of their usual weight. The space suits were removed with care, and after the three had been relieved of their pistols and otherarticles which the Nevians thought might prove to be weapons, thestrange paralysis was lifted entirely. The earthly clothing puzzled thecaptors immensely, but so strenuous were the objections raised to itsremoval, but they did not press the point, but fell back to study theirfind in detail. 

Then faced each other the representatives of the civilizations of twowidely separated solar systems. The Nevians studied the human beingswith interest and curiosity blended largely with loathing and repulsion;the three Terrestrials regarded the unmoving, expressionless "faces"--ifthose coned heads could be said to possess such things--with horror anddisgust, as well as with other emotions, each according to his type andtraining. For to human eyes the Nevian is a fearful thing. Even to-daythere are few Terrestrials--or Solarians for that matter--who can lookat a Nevian, eye to eye, without feeling a creeping of the skin andexperiencing a "gone" sensation in the pit of the stomach. The horny, wrinkled, drought-resisting Martian, whom we all know and rather like, is a hideous being indeed. The bat-eyed, colorless, hairless, practically skinless Venerian is worse. But they both are, after all, remote cousins of Terra's humanity, and we get along with them quitewell whenever we are compelled to visit Mars or Venus. But the Nevians--

The horizontal, flat, fish body is not so bad, even supported as it isby four, short, powerful, scaly, flat-footed legs; and terminating as itdoes in the weird, four-vaned tail. The neck, even, is endurable, although it is long and flexible, heavily scaled, and is carried inwhatever eye-wringing loops, knots, or angles the owner considers mostconvenient or ornamental at the time. Even the smell of a Nevian--amalodorous reek of over-ripe fish--does in time become tolerable, especially if sufficiently disguised with creosote, which purelyTerrestrial chemical is the most highly prized perfume of Nevia. But thehead! It is that member that makes the Nevian so appalling to earthlyeyes, for it is a thing utterly foreign to all Solarian history orexperience. As most Tellurians already know, it is fundamentally amassive cone, covered with scales, based spearhead-like upon the neck. Four great sea-green, triangular eyes are spaced equidistant from eachother about half way up the cone. The pupils are contractile at will, like the eyes of the cat, permitting the Nevian to see equally well inany ordinary extreme of light or darkness. Immediately below each eyesprings out a long, jointless, boneless, tentacular arm; an arm which atits extremity divides into eight delicate and sensitive, but verystrong, fingers. Below each arm is a mouth: a beaked, needle-tuskedorifice of dire potentialities. Finally, under the overhanging edge ofthe cone-shaped head are the delicately frilled organs which serveeither as gills or as nostrils and lungs, as may be desired. To otherNevians the eyes and other features are highly expressive, but to usthey appear utterly cold and unmoving. Terrestrial senses can detect nochanges of expression in a Nevian's "face. " Such were the frightfulbeings at whom the three prisoners stared with sinking hearts. 

But if we human beings have always considered Nevians grotesque andrepulsive, the feeling has always been mutual. For those "monstrous"beings are a highly intelligent and extremely sensitive race, andour--to us--trim and graceful human forms seems to them the veryquintessence of malformation and hideousness. 

"Good Heavens, Conway!" Clio exclaimed, shrinking against Costigan ashis left arm flashed around her. "What monstrosities! And they can'ttalk--not one of them has made a sound--suppose they can be deaf anddumb?"

But at the same time Nerado was addressing his fellows. 

"What hideous, deformed creatures they are! Truly a low form of life, even though they do possess some intelligence. They cannot talk, andhave made no signs of having heard our words to them--do you supposethat they communicate by sight? That those weird contortions of theirpeculiarly placed organs serve as speech?"

Thus both sides, neither realizing that the other had spoken. For theNevian voice is pitched so high that the lowest note audible to them isfar above our limit of hearing. The shrillest note of a Terrestrialpiccolo is to them so profoundly low that it cannot be heard. 

"We have much to do. " Nerado turned away from the captives. "We mustpostpone further study of the specimens until we have taken aboard afull cargo of the iron which is so plentiful here. "

"What shall we do with them, sir?" asked one of the Nevian officers. "Lock them in one of the storage rooms?"

"Oh, no! They might die there, and we must by all means keep them ingood condition, to be studied most carefully by the fellows of theCollege of Science. What a commotion there will be when we bring in thisgroup of strange creatures, living proof that there are other sunspossessing planets; planets which are supporting organic and intelligentlife! You may put them in three communicating rooms, say in the fourthsection--they will undoubtedly require light and exercise. Lock allexits, of course, but it would be best to leave the doors between therooms unlocked, so that they can be together or apart, as they choose. Since the smallest one, the female, stays so close to the larger male, it may be that they are mates. But since we know nothing of their habitsor customs, it will be best to give them all possible freedom compatiblewith safety. "

Nerado turned back to his instruments and three of the frightful crewcame up to the human beings. One walked away, waving a couple of arms inan unmistakable signal that the prisoners were to follow him. The threeobediently set out after him, the other two guards falling behind. 

"Now's our best chance!" Costigan muttered, as they passed through a lowdoorway and entered a narrow corridor. "Watch that one ahead of you, Clio--hold him for a second if you can. Bradley, you and I'll take thetwo behind us--now!"

Costigan stopped and whirled. Seizing a cable-like arm, he pulled theoutlandish head down, the while the full power of his mighty right legdrove a heavy service boot into the place where scaly neck and headjoined. The Nevian fell, and instantly Costigan leaped at the leader, ahead of the girl. Leaped; but dropped to the floor, again paralyzed. For the Nevian leader had been alert, his four eyes covering the entirecircle of vision, and he had acted rapidly. Not in time to stopCostigan's first Berserk attack--the First Officer's reactions werepractically instantaneous, and he moved like chain lightning--but intime to retain command of the situation. Another Nevian appeared and, while the stricken guard was recovering, all four arms wrapped tightlyaround his convulsively looping, knotting neck, the three helplessTerrestrials were lifted into the air and carried bodily into thequarters to which Nerado had assigned them. Not until they had beenplaced upon cushions in the middle room and the heavy metal doors hadbeen locked upon them did they again find themselves able to use arms orlegs. 

"Well, that's another round we lose, " Costigan commented, cheerfully. "Aguy can't mix it very well when he can neither kick, strike, nor bite. Iexpected those lizards to rough me up, but they didn't. "

"They don't want to hurt us. They want to take us home with them, wherever that is, as curiosities, like wild animals or something, "decided the girl, shrewdly. "They're pretty bad, of course, but I likethem a lot better than I do Roger and his robots, anyway. "

"I think you have the right idea, Miss Marsden, " Bradley rumbled. "That's it, exactly. I feel like a bear in a cage. I should think you'dfeel worse than ever. What chance has an animal of escaping from amenagerie?"

"These animals, lots. I'm feeling better and better all the time, " Clioanswered, and her serene bearing bore out her words. "You two got us outof that horrible place of Roger's, and I'm pretty sure that you will getus away from here, somehow or other. They may think we're stupidanimals, but before you two and the Secret Service get done with themthey'll have another think coming. "

"That's the old fight, Clio!" cheered Costigan. "I haven't got itfigured out as close as you have, but I see you, eye to eye. Thesefour-legged fish carry considerably heavier stuff than Roger did, I'mthinking; but they'll be up against something themselves pretty quick, that is NO light-weight, believe me!"

"Do you _know_ something, or are you just whistling in the dark?"Bradley demanded. 

"I know a little; not much. The Science Service has been working on anew ship for a long time; a ship to travel so much faster than lightthat it can go anywhere in the Galaxy and back in a month or so. Newsub-ether drive, new power, new armament, new everything. Only bad thingabout it is that it doesn't work so good yet--it's fuller of "bugs" thana Venerian's kitchen. It has blown up five times that I know of, and haskilled twenty-nine men. But when they get it licked they'll _havesomething!_"

"When, or if?" asked Bradley, pessimistically. 

"I said _when!_" snapped Costigan, his voice cutting like a knife. "Whenthat gang goes after anything they get it, and when they get it itstays.... " He broke off abruptly and his voice lost its edge. "Sorry. Didn't mean to get high, but I think we'll have help, if we can keep ourheads up a while. And it looks good--these are first-class cages they'vegiven us. All the comforts of home, even to lookout plates. Let's seewhat's going on, shall we?"

After some experimenting with the unfamiliar controls Costigan learnedhow to operate the Nevian visiray, and upon the plate they saw the Coneof Battle hurling itself toward Roger's planetoid. They saw the piratefleet rush out to do battle with Triplanetary's massed forces, and withbated breath they watched every maneuver of that epic battle to itssavagely sacrificial end. And that same battle was being watched, alsowith intense interest, by the Nevians. 

"It is indeed a blood-thirsty combat, " mused Nerado at his observationplate. "And it is peculiar--or rather, probably only to be expected froma race of such a low stage of development--that they employ onlyether-borne forces. Warfare seems universal among primitivetypes--indeed, it is not so long ago that our own cities, few in numberthough they are, ceased fighting each other and combined against thesemi-civilized fishes of the greater deeps. "

He fell silent, and for many minutes watched the furious battle betweenthe two navies of the void. That conflict ended, he watched theTriplanetary fleet reform its battle cone and rush upon the planetoid. 

"Destruction, always destruction, " he sighed, adjusting his powerswitches. "Since they are bent upon mutual destruction I can see nopurpose in refraining from destroying all of them. We need the iron, andthey are a useless race. "

He launched his softening, converting field of dull red energy. Vast asthat field was, it could not encompass the whole of the fleet, but halfof the lip of the gigantic cone soon disappeared, its component vesselssubsiding into a sluggishly flowing stream of allotropic iron. Instantlythe fleet abandoned the attack upon the planetoid and swung its conearound, to bring the flame-erupting axis to bear upon the inchoatesomething dimly perceptible to the ultra-vision of the Secret Serviceobservers. Furiously the gigantic composite beam of the massed fleet washurled, nor was it alone. 

For Roger in his floating citadel had realized at once that somethinguntoward was happening; something altogether beyond even his knowledgeand experience. He could not see anything--space was apparentlyempty--but he took his rays off the battleships and directed his everyforce just beyond the point in space where that red stream oftransformed metal was disappearing. Then, for the first time inTriplanetary history, the forces of law and order joined hands withthose of piracy and banditry against a common foe. Rods, beams, planes, and stilettoes of unbearable energy the doomed fleet launched, inaddition to its main beam of annihilation, and Roger also hurled outinto space every weapon at his command. Bombs, high-explosive shells, and deadly radio-dirigible torpedoes--all alike disappeared ineffectivein that redly murky veil of nothingness. And the fleet was being melted. In quick succession the vessels flamed red, shrank together, gave outtheir air, and merged their component iron into the intensely red, sullenly viscous stream which was flowing through the impenetrable veilupon which Triplanetarians and pirates alike were directing their everypossible weapon of offense. 

The last vessel of the Triplanetary armada converted and the resultingmetal stored away in their capacious reservoirs, the Nevians turnedtheir attention upon the stronghold of the pirates. There ensued abattle royal. For this vast planetoid was no feeble warship, dependingsolely upon the limited power available in its accumulators. It was theproduct of a really mighty brain, a brain re-enforced by the manyperverted but powerful intellects which Roger had won over to his cause. It was powered by the incalculable force of cosmic radiation, powered todrive its unimaginable mass through space, against any possibleattractions, for an indefinite number of years. It was armed andequipped to meet any emergency which Roger's coldly analytical mind hadbeen able to foresee. 

The fact that the scientists of the Secret Service had discoveredultra-waves as yet unknown to him was unfortunate. That Service wasitself unfortunate--impenetrable as it was, and incorruptible. He couldlearn nothing whatever about it. He had heard vague rumors of certainexperiments--but even if they should discover something it would be toolate to do them any good. Even without invisibility he would have notrouble in annihilating the massed Grand Fleet of the TriplanetaryLeague. He would very shortly collect his tribute and disappear. Andthis new enemy, himself invisible and armed with heretofore unknownweapons of dire power, who was apparently unaffected by his beams--evenhe would discover that Roger the Great was no puny opponent. He wouldanalyze those unknown forces, regenerate them, and hurl them back upontheir senders. 

Thinking thus, the man of gray sat coldly motionless at his greatmulti-shielded desk, whose top was now swung up to become a board ofmassed and tiered instruments and controls. He shut off his offensivebeams and surrounded the entire planetoid with the peculiarly rigid andsubstantial shield which had so easily warded off Costigan's fiercestattacks. And that shield was more effective than even its designer hadsupposed--gray Roger had builded even better than he knew. For thevoracious and all-powerful converting beam of the Nevians, below thelevel of the ether though it was, struck that perfectly transparent walland rebounded, defeated and futile. Struck and rebounded, then struckand clung hungrily, licking out over that impermeable surface in dartingtongues of red flame as the surprised Nerado doubled and then quadrupledhis power. Fiercer and fiercer drove in the Nevian flood of force untilthe whole immense globe of the planetoid was one scintillant ball ofscarlet energy, but still the pirates' shield remained intact--at whatawful drain of resource, Roger alone knew. 

"Here is the analysis of his screen, sir. " A Nevian computer handed hischief a sheet of metal, upon which were engraved rows of symbols. 

"Ah, a sixth-phase polycyclic. A screen of that type was scarcely tohave been expected from such a low form of life, " Nerado commented, andrapidly adjusted the many dials and switches before him. 

As he did so the character of the clinging mantle of force changed. Fromred it flamed quickly through the spectrum, became unbearably violet, then disappeared; and as it disappeared the shielding wall began to giveway. It did not cave in abruptly, but softened locally, sagging into apeculiar grouping of valleys and ridges--contesting stubbornly everyinch of position lost. And gray Roger knew that the planetoid wasdoomed. His supposedly impregnable screen was failing in spite of itsutmost measure of energy, and, that defense down, the citadel would notlast a minute. Therefore he summoned a chosen few of his motley crew ofrenegade scientists and issued brief instructions. For minutes a host ofrobots toiled mightily, then a portion of the shield bulged out, extended into a tube beyond the attacking layers of force, and from itthere erupted a beam of violence incredible. A beam behind which wasevery volt and ampere that the gigantic generators and accumulators ofthe planetoid could yield. A beam that tore screamingly through theether; that by the very vehemence of its incalculable energy tore a holethrough the redly impenetrable Nevian field and hurled itself upon theinner screen of the fish-shaped cruiser in frenzied incandescence. Andwas there, or was there not, a lesser eruption upon the other side--analmost imperceptible flash, as though something had shot from the doomedplanetoid out into space?

Nerado's looped neck straightened convulsively as his tortured driverswhined and shrieked at the terrific overload; but Roger's effort was fartoo intense to be long maintained. Even before his accumulators failed, generator after generator burned out, the defensive screen collapsed, and the red converter beam attacked voraciously the unresisting metal ofthose prodigious walls. Soon there was a terrific explosion as thepent-up air of the planetoid broke through its weakening container, andthe sluggish river of allotropic iron flowed in an ever larger stream, ever faster. 

"It is well that we had an unlimited supply of iron. " Nerado tied a knotin his neck and spoke in huge relief. "With but the seven poundsremaining of our original supply, I fear that it would have beendifficult to parry that last thrust. "

"Difficult?" asked the second in command. "We would now be swimming inspace. But what shall I do with this iron? Our reservoirs will not holdit all. "

"Seal up one or two of the lower storage compartments, to make room forthis lot. Immediately it is loaded, we return to Nevia. There we shallinstall reservoirs in all the spare space, and come back here for more. "

The last drop of the precious liquid secured, the vessel moved away, sluggishly now because of its prodigious load. In their quarters in thefourth section the three Terrestrials, who had watched with strainedattention the downfall and absorption of the planetoid, stared at eachother with drawn faces. Clio broke the silence. 

"Oh, Conway, this is ghastly! It's ... It's just simply perfectlyhorrible!" she gasped, then recovered a measure of her customary spiritas she stared in surprise at Costigan's face. For it was thoughtful, hiseyes were bright and keen--no trace of fear or disorganization wasvisible in any line of his hard young face. 

"It's not so good, " he admitted frankly. "I wish I wasn't such a dumbcluck--if Lyman Cleveland or Ford Rodebush were here they could help alot, but I don't know enough about any of their stuff to flag ahand-car. I can't even interpret that funny flash--if it really was aflash--that we saw. "

"Why bother about one little flash, after all that really did happen?"asked Clio, curiously. 

"You think Roger launched something? He couldn't have--I didn't see athing, " Bradley argued. 

"I don't know what to think. I've never seen anything material sent outso fast that I couldn't trace it with an ultra-wave--but on the otherhand, Roger's got a lot of stuff that I never saw anywhere else. However, I don't see that it has anything to do with the fix we're inright now--but at that, we might be worse off. We're still breathingair, you notice, and if they don't blanket my wave I can still talk. "

He put both hands in his pockets and spoke. 

"Samms? Costigan. Put me on a recorder, quick--I probably haven't gotmuch time, " and for ten minutes he talked, concisely and as rapidly ashe could utter words, reporting clearly and exactly everything that hadtranspired. Suddenly he broke off, writhing in agony. Frantically hetore his shirt open and hurled a tiny object across the room. 

"Wow!" he exclaimed. "They may be deaf, but they can certainly detect anultra-wave, and the interference they can set up on it is enough topulverize your bones. No, I'm not hurt, " he reassured the anxious girl, now at his side, "but it's a good thing I had you out of circuit--itwould have jolted you loose from six or seven of your back teeth. "

"Have you any idea where they're taking us?" she asked, soberly. 

"No, " he answered flatly, looking deep into her steadfast eyes. "No uselying to you--if I know you at all you'd rather take it standing up. That talk of Jovians or Neptunians is the bunk--nothing like that evergrew in our Solarian system. All the signs say that we're going for along, long ride!"

CHAPTER V

 Nevian Strife

The Nevian space-ship was hurtling upon its way. Space-navigators both, the two Terrestrial officers soon discovered that it was even thenmoving with a velocity far above that of light and that it must beaccelerating at a stupendous rate, even though to them it seemedstationary--they could feel only a gravitational force somewhat lessthan that of their native earth. 

Bradley, seasoned old campaigner that he was, had retired promptly assoon as he had completed a series of observations, and was sleepingsoundly upon a pile of cushions in the first of the threeinter-connecting rooms. In the middle room, which was to be Clio's, Costigan was standing very close to the girl, but was not touching her. His body was rigid, his face was tense and drawn. 

"You are wrong, Conway; all wrong, " Clio was saying, very seriously. "Iknow how you feel, but it's false chivalry. "

"That isn't it, at all, " he insisted, stubbornly. "It isn't only thatI've got you out here in space, in danger and alone, that's stopping me. I know you and I know myself well enough to know that what we start nowwe'll go through with for life. It doesn't make any difference, thatway, whether I start making love to you now or whether I wait untilwe're back on Tellus--I've been telling you for half an hour that foryour own good you'd better pass me up entirely. I've got enoughhorsepower to keep away from you if you tell me to--not otherwise. "

"I know it, both ways, dear, but.... "

"But nothing!" he interrupted. "Can't you get it into your skull whatyou'll be letting yourself in for if you marry me? Assume that we getback, which isn't sure, by any means. But even if we do, some day--andmaybe soon, too, you can't tell--somebody is going to collect fiftygrams of radium for my head. "

"Fifty grams--and everybody knows that Samms himself is rated at onlysixty? I _knew_ that you were somebody, Conway!" Clio exclaimed, undeterred. "But at that, something tells me that any pirate will earneven that much reward several times over before he collects it. Don't besilly, dear heart--good-night. "

She tipped her head back, holding up to him her red, sweetly curved, smiling lips, and his eager arms, hitherto kept away from her by sheerforce of will, swept around her in almost fierce intensity. As his hotlips met hers, her arms crept up around his neck and they stood, claspedtogether in the motionless ecstasy of love's first embrace. 

"Girl, girl, how I love you!" Costigan's voice was husky, his usuallyhard eyes were glowing with a tender light. "That settles that. I'llreally _live_ now, anyway, while.... "

"Stop it!" she commanded, sharply. "You're going to live until you dieof old age--see if you don't. You'll simply _have_ to, Conway!"

"That's so, too--no percentage in dying now. All the pirates betweenTellus and Andromeda couldn't take me after this--I've got too much tolive for. Well, good-night, sweetheart, I'd better beat it--you needsome sleep. "

The lovers' parting was not as simple and straightforward a procedure asCostigan's speech would indicate, but finally he did seek his own roomand relaxed upon a pile of cushions, his stern visage transformed. Instead of the low metal ceiling he saw a beautiful, oval, tanned youngface, framed in a golden-blonde corona of hair. His gaze sank into thedepths of loyal, honest, dark-blue eyes; and looking deeper and deeperinto those blue wells he fell asleep. Upon his face, too set and grim byfar for a man of his years--the lives of Sector Chiefs of the T. S. S. Are never easy, nor as a rule are they long--there lingered as he sleptthat newly acquired softness of expression, the reflection of histranscendent happiness. 

For eight hours he slept soundly, as was his wont; then, also accordingto his habit and training, he came wide awake, with no intermediatestage of napping. 

"Clio?" he whispered. "Awake, girl?"

"Awake!" Her voice came through the ultra-phone, relief in everysyllable. "Good heavens, I thought you were going to sleep until we gotto wherever it is that we're going! Come on in, you two--I don't see howyou can possibly sleep, just as though you were home in bed. "

"You've got to learn to sleep anywhere if you expect to keep in.... "Costigan broke off as he opened the door and saw Clio's wan face. Shehad evidently spent a sleepless and wracking eight hours. "Good Lord, Clio, why didn't you call me?"

"Oh, I'm all right, except for being a little jittery. No need of askinghow _you_ feel, is there?"

"No--I feel hungry, " he answered cheerfully. "I'm going to see what wecan do about it--or say, guess I'll see whether they're stillinterfering on Samms' wave. "

He took out a small, insulated case and touched the contact stud lightlywith his fingers. His arm jerked away powerfully. 

"Still at it, " he gave the necessary explanation. "They don't seem towant us to talk outside, but his interference is as good as mytalking--they can trace it, of course. Now I'll see what I can find outabout our breakfast. "

He stepped over to the plate and shot its projector beam forward intothe control room, where he saw Nerado lying, doglike, at his instrumentpanel. As Costigan's beam entered the room a blue light flashed on andthe Nevian turned an eye and an arm toward his own small observationplate. Knowing that they were now in visual communication, Costiganbeckoned an invitation and pointed to his mouth in what he hoped was theuniversal sign of hunger. The Nevian waved an arm and fingered controls, and as he did so a wide section of the floor of Clio's room slid aside. The opening thus made revealed a table which rose upon its low pedestal, a table equipped with three softly cushioned benches and spread with aglittering array of silver and glassware. Bowls and platters ofdazzlingly white metal, narrow-waisted goblets of sheerest crystal; allwere hexagonal, beautifully and intricately carved or etched inapparently conventional marine designs. And the table utensils of thisstrange race were peculiar indeed. There were tearing forceps of sixteenneedle-sharp curved teeth; there were flexible spatulas; there were deepand shallow ladles with flexible edges; there were many other peculiarlycurved instruments at whose uses the Terrestrials could no even guess;all having delicately fashioned handles to fit the long, slender fingersof the Nevians. 

But if the table and its appointments were surprising to theTerrestrials, revealing as they did a degree of culture which none ofthem had expected to find in a race of beings so monstrous, the food waseven more surprising, although in another sense. For the wonderfulcrystal goblets were filled with a grayish-green slime of a nauseous andoverpowering odor, the smaller bowls were full of living sea spiders andother such delicacies; and each large platter contained a fish fully afoot long, raw and whole, garnished tastefully with red, purple, andgreen strands of seaweed!

Clio looked once, then gasped, shutting her eyes and turning away fromthe table, but Costigan flipped the three fish into a platter and set itaside before he turned back to the visiplate. 

"They'll go good fried, " he remarked to Bradley, signaling vigorously toNerado that the meal was not acceptable and that he wanted to talk tohim, _in person_. Finally he made himself clear, the table sank down outof sight, and the Nevian commander cautiously entered the room. 

At Costigan's insistence, he came up to the plate, leaving near the doorthree guards armed with projectors in instant readiness. The operativethen shot the beam into the galley of the pirate's lifeboat, suggestingthat they should be allowed to live there. For some time the argument ofarms and fingers raged--though not exactly a fluent conversation, bothsides managed to convey their meanings quite clearly. Nerado would notallow the Terrestrials to visit their own ship--he was taking nochances--but after a thorough ultra-ray inspection he did finally ordersome of his men to bring into the middle room the electric range and asupply of Terrestrial food. Soon the Nevian fish were sizzling in a panand the appetizing odors of coffee and of browning biscuit permeated theroom. But at the first appearance of those odors the Nevians departedhastily, content to watch the remainder of the curious and repulsiveprocedure in their visiray plates. 

Breakfast over and everything made tidy and shipshape, Costigan turnedto Clio. 

"Look here, girl; you've got to learn how to sleep. You're all in. Youreyes look like you'd been on a Martian picnic and you didn't eat halfenough breakfast. You've got to sleep and eat to keep fit. We don't wantyou passing out on us, so I'll put out this light, and you'll lie downhere and sleep until noon. "

"Oh, no; don't bother. I'll sleep to-night. I'm quite.... "

"You'll sleep now, " he informed her, levelly. "I never thought of youbeing nervous, with Bradley and me on each side of you. We're both righthere now, though, and we'll stay here. We'll watch over you like acouple of old hens with one chick between them. Come on; lie down and gobye-bye. "

Clio laughed at the simile, but lay down obediently. Costigan sat uponthe edge of the great divan, holding her hand, and they chatted idly. The silences grew longer, Clio's remarks became fewer, and soon herlong-lashed lids fell and her deep, regular breathing showed that shewas sound asleep. The man stared at her, his very heart in his eyes. Soyoung, so beautiful, so lovely--and _how_ he did love her! He was notformally religious, but his every thought was a sincere prayer. If hecould only get her out of this mess ... He wasn't fit to live on thesame planet with her, but ... Just give him one chance, just one!

But Costigan had been laboring for days under a terrific strain, and hadbeen going very short on sleep. Half hypnotized by his own mixedemotions and by his staring at the smooth curves of Clio's cheek, hisown eyes closed and, still holding her hand, he sank down into the softcushions beside her and into oblivion. 

Thus sleeping hand-in-hand like two children Bradley found them, and atender, fatherly expression came over his face as he looked down atthem. 

"Nice little girl, Clio, " he mused, "and when they made Costigan theybroke the mould. They'll do--about as fine a couple of kids as oldTellus ever produced. I could do with some more sleep myself. " He yawnedprodigiously, lay down at Clio's left, and almost instantly was himselfasleep. 

Hours later, both men were awakened by a merry peal of laughter. Cliowas sitting up, regarding them with sparkling eyes. She was refreshed, buoyant, ravenously hungry and highly amused. Costigan was amazed andannoyed at what he considered a failure in a self-appointed task;Bradley was calm and matter-of-fact. 

"Thanks for being such a nice bodyguard, you two, " Clio laughed again, but sobered quickly. "I slept wonderfully well, but I wonder if I cansleep to-night without making you hold my hand all night?"

"Oh, he doesn't mind doing that, " Bradley commented. 

"Mind it!" Costigan exclaimed, and his eyes and his tone spoke volumesthat his tongue left unsaid. 

They prepared and ate another meal, one to which Clio did full justice;and, rested and refreshed, had begun to discuss possibilities of escapewhen Nerado and his three armed guards entered the room. The Nevianscientist placed a box upon a table and began to make adjustments uponits panels, eyeing the Terrestrials attentively after each setting. After a time a staccato burst of articulate speech issued from the box, and Costigan saw a great light. 

"You've got it--hold it!" he exclaimed, waving his arms excitedly. "Yousee, Clio, their voices are pitched either higher or lower thanours--probably higher--and they've built an audio-frequency changer. He's nobody's fool, that fish!"

Nerado heard Costigan's voice; there was no doubt of that. His long necklooped and angled in Nevian gratification, and, although neither sidecould understand the other, both knew that intelligent speech andhearing were attributes common to the two races. This fact alteredmarkedly the relations between captors and captives. The Neviansadmitted among themselves that the strange bipeds might be quiteintelligent, after all; and the Terrestrials at once became morehopeful. 

"It isn't so bad, if they can talk, " Costigan summed up the situation. "We might as well take it easy and make the best of it, particularlysince we haven't been able to figure out any possible way of gettingaway from them. They can talk and hear, and we can learn their languagein time. Maybe we can make some kind of a deal with them to take us backto our own system, if we can't make a break. "

The Nevians being as eager as the Terrestrials to establishcommunication, Nerado kept the newly devised frequency-changer inconstant use. There is no need of describing at length the details ofthat interchange of languages. Suffice it to say that starting at thevery bottom they learned as babies learn, but with the great advantageover babies of possessing fully developed and capable brains. And whilethe human beings were learning the tongue of Nevia, several of theamphibians (and incidentally Clio Marsden) were learning Triplanetarian;the two officers knowing well that it would be much easier for theNevians to learn the logically-built common language of the ThreePlanets than to master the senseless intricacies of English. 

In a few weeks the two parties were able to understand each other aftera fashion, by using a weird mixture of both languages. As soon as a fewideas had been exchanged, the Nevian scientists built transformers smallenough to be worn collar-like by the Terrestrials, and the captives wereallowed to roam at will throughout the great vessel; only thecompartment in which was stored the dismembered pirate lifeboats beingsealed to them. Thus it was that they were not left long in doubt, whenanother fish-shaped cruiser of the world was revealed upon their lookoutplates in the awful emptiness of interstellar space. 

"That is our sister-ship, going to your Solarian system for a cargo ofthe iron which is so plentiful there, " Nerado explained to hisinvoluntary guests. 

"I hope the gang has got the bugs worked out of our super-ship, "Costigan muttered savagely to his companions as Nerado turned away. "Ifthey have, that outfit will get something more than a load of iron whenthey get there!"

More weeks passed; weeks during which a blue-white star separated itselffrom the infinitely distant firmament and began to show a perceptibledisk. Larger and larger it grew, becoming bluer and bluer as the flyingspace-ship approached it, until finally Nevia could be seen, apparentlyclose beside her parent orb. 

Heavily laden though the vessel was, such was her power that she wassoon dropping vertically toward a large lagoon in the middle of theNevian city. That bit of open water was strangely devoid of life, forthis was to be no ordinary landing. Under the terrific power of thebeams braking the descent of that unimaginable load of allotropic ironthe water seethed and boiled; and instead of floating gracefully uponthe surface of the sea, this time the huge ship of space sank like aplummet to the bottom. Having accomplished this delicate feat of dockingthe vessel safely in the immense cradle prepared for her, Nerado turnedto the Terrestrials, who, now under guard, had been brought before him. 

"While our cargo of iron is being discharged, I am to take you threeTellurians to the College of Science, where you are to undergo athorough physical and psychological examination. Follow me. "

"Wait a minute!" protested Costigan, with a quick and furtive wink athis companions. "Do you expect us to go _through water_, and at thisfrightful depth?"

"Certainly, " replied the Nevian, in surprise. "You are air-breathers, ofcourse, but you must be able to swim a little, and this slightdepth--but little more than thirty of your meters--will not troubleyou. "

"You are wrong, twice, " declared the Terrestrial, convincingly. "If by'swimming' you mean propelling yourself in or through the water, we knownothing of it. In water over our heads we drown helplessly in a minuteor two, and the pressure at this depth would kill us instantly. "

"Well, I could take a lifeboat, of course, but that.... " The NevianCaptain began, doubtfully, but broke off at the sound of a staccato callfrom his signal panel. 

"Captain Nerado, attention!"

"Nerado, " he acknowledged into a microphone. 

"The Third City is being attacked by the fishes of the greater deeps. They have developed new and powerful mobile fortresses mountingunheard-of weapons and the city reports that it cannot long withstandtheir attack. The inhabitants are asking for all possible help. Yourvessel not only has vast stores of iron, but also mounts weapons ofpower. You are requested to proceed to their aid at the earliestpossible moment. "

Nerado snapped out orders and the liquid iron fell in streams fromwide-open ports, forming a vast, red pool in the bottom of the dock. Ina short time the great vessel was in equilibrium with the water shedisplaced, and as soon as she had attained a slight buoyancy the portssnapped shut and Nerado threw on the power. 

"Go back to your own quarters and stay there until I send for you, " theNevian directed, and as the Terrestrials obeyed the curt orders thefish-shaped cruiser of space tore herself from the water and flashed upinto the crimson sky. 

"What a barefaced liar!" Bradley exclaimed. The three, transformers cutoff, were back in the middle room of their suite. "You can outswim anotter, and I happen to know that you came up out of the old DZ83 from adepth of.... "

"Maybe I did exaggerate a trifle, " Costigan interrupted him, "but themore helpless he thinks we are the better for us. And we want to stayout of any of their cities as long as we can, because they may be hardplaces to escape from. I've got a couple of ideas, but they aren't ripeenough to pick yet.... Wow! how this bird's been traveling! We're therealready! If he hits the water going like this, he'll split himself, sure!"

With undiminished velocity they were flashing downward in a long slanttoward the beleaguered Third City, and from the flying vessel there waslaunched toward the city's central lagoon a torpedo. No missile this, but a capsule containing a full ton of allotropic iron, which would beof more use to the Nevian defenders than millions of men. For the ThirdCity was sore pressed indeed. Around it was one unbroken ring ofboiling, exploding water--water billowing upward with searing, blindingbursts of superheated steam, or being hurled bodily in all directions insolid masses by the cataclysmic forces being released by the embattledfishes of the greater deeps. Her outer defenses were already down, andeven as the Terrestrials stared in amazement another of the immensehexagonal buildings burst into fragments; its upper structure flyingwildly into scrap metal, its lower half subsiding drunkenly below thesurface of the boiling sea. 

The three Terrestrials involuntarily seized whatever supports were athand as the Nevian space-ship struck the water with undiminished speed, but the precaution was needless--Nerado knew thoroughly his vessel, itsstrength and its capabilities. There was a mighty splash, but that wasall. The artificial gravity was unchanged by the impact; to thepassengers the vessel was still motionless and on even keel as, now asubmarine, she snapped around like a very fish and attacked the rear ofthe nearest fortress. 

For fortresses they were; vast structures of green metal, plowingforward implacably upon immense caterpillar treads. And as they crawledthey destroyed, and Costigan, exploring the strange submarine with hisvisiray beam, watched and marveled. For the fortresses were full ofwater; water artificially cooled and aerated, entirely separate from theboiling flood through which they moved. They were manned by fish somefive feet in length. Fish with huge, goggling eyes; fish plentifullyequipped with long, armlike tentacles; fish poised before control panelsor darting about intent upon their various duties. Fish with intelligentbrains, waging desperate war upon a hated foe!

Nor was their warfare ineffectual. Their heat-rays boiled the water forhundreds of yards before them and their torpedoes were exploding againstthe Nevian defenses in one appallingly continuous concussion. But mostpotent of all was a weapon unknown to Triplanetary warfare. From afortress there would shoot out, with the speed of a meteor, a long, jointed, telescopic rod, tipped with a tiny, brilliantly shining ball. Whenever this glowing tip encountered any obstacle, that obstacledisappeared in an explosion world-wracking in its intensity. Then whatwas left of the rod, dark now, would be retracted into thefortress--only to emerge again in a moment with a tip once more shiningand potent. 

Nerado, apparently as unfamiliar with the peculiar weapon as were theTerrestrials, attacked cautiously; sending out far to the fore hismurkily impenetrable screens of red. But the submarine was entirelynon-ferrous, and its officers were apparently quite familiar with theNevian beams which licked at and clung to the green walls in impotentfury. Through the red veil came stabbing tiny ball after brilliant ball, and only the most frantic dodging saved the space-ship from destructionin those first few furious seconds. And now the Nevian defenders of theThird City had secured and were employing the vast store of allotropiciron so opportunely delivered by Nerado. 

From the city there pushed out immense nets of metal, extending from thesurface of the ocean to its bottom; nets radiating such terrific forcesthat the very water itself was beaten back and stood motionless invertical, glassy walls. Torpedoes were futile against that wall ofenergy. The most fiercely driven rays of the fishes flamed incandescentagainst it, in vain. Even the incredible violence of a concentration ofevery available force-ball against one point could not break through. Atthat unimaginable explosion water was hurled for miles. The bed of theocean was not only exposed, but in it there was blown a crater at whosedimensions the Terrestrials dared not even guess. The crawlingfortresses themselves were thrown backward violently and the very worldwas rocked to its core by the concussion, but that iron-driven wallheld. The massive nets swayed and gave back, and tidal waves hurledtheir mountainously destructive masses through the Third City, but themighty barrier remained intact. And Nerado, still attacking two of thepowerful tanks with his every weapon, was still dodging those flashingballs charged with the quintessence of destruction. The fishes could notsee through the sub-ethereal veil, but all the rod-gunners of the twofortresses were combing it thoroughly with ever-lengthening, ever-thrusting rods, in a desperate attempt to wipe out the new andapparently all-powerful Nevian submarine, whose sheer power was slowlybut inexorably crushing even their gigantic walls. 

"Well, I think that right now's the best chance we'll ever have of doingsomething for ourselves. " Costigan turned away from the absorbing scenespictured upon the visiplate and faced his two companions. 

"But what can we possibly do?" asked Clio, and

"Whatever it is, we'll try it!" Bradley exclaimed. 

"Anything's better than staying here and letting them analyze us--notelling what they'd do to us, " Costigan went on. "I know a lot moreabout things than they think I do. They never did catch me using myspy-ray--it's on an awfully narrow beam, you know, and uses almost nopower at all--so I've been able to dope out quite a lot of stuff. I canopen most of their locks, and I know how to run their small boats. Thisbattle, fantastic as it is, is deadly stuff, and it isn't one-sided, byany means, either, so that every one of them, from Nerado down, seems tobe on emergency duty. There are no guards watching us, or stationedwhere we want to go--our way out is open. And once out, this battle isgiving us our best possible chance to get away from them. There's somuch emission out there already that they probably couldn't detect thedriving rays of the lifeboat, and they'll be too busy to chase us, anyway. "

"Once out, then what?" asked Bradley, eagerly. 

"We'll have to decide that before we start, of course. I'd say make abreak back for our own Solarian system. We know the direction, from ourown observation, and we'll have plenty of power. "

"But good Heavens, Conway, it's so far!" exclaimed Clio. "How aboutfood, water, and air--would we ever get there?"

"You know as much about that as I do. I think so, but of course anythingmight happen. This ship is none too big, is considerable slower than thebig space-ship, and we're a long ways from home. Another bad thing isthe food question. The boat is well stocked according to Nevian ideas, but it's pretty foul stuff for us to eat. However, it's nourishing, andwe'll have to eat it, since we can't carry enough of our own supplies tothe boat to last long. Even so, we may have to go on short rations, butI think that we'll be able to make it. On the other hand, what happensif we stay here? We will certainly strike trouble sooner or later, andwe don't know any too much about these ultra-weapons. We areland-dwellers, and there is mighty little land on this planet. Then, too, we don't know where to look for what little land there is, and, even if we could find it, we know that it is all over-run withamphibians already. There's a lot of things that might be better, butthey might be a lot worse, too. How about it? Do we try it or do we stayhere?"

"We try it!" exclaimed Clio and Bradley as one. 

"All right. I'd better not waste any more time talking--let's go!"

Stepping up to the locked and shielded door, he took out a peculiarlybuilt torch and pointed it briefly at the Nevian lock. There was nolight, no noise, but the massive portal swung smoothly open. Theystepped out and Costigan relocked and reshielded the entrance. 

"How ... What ... ?" Clio demanded, almost stuttering in her surprise. 

"I've been going to school for the last few weeks, " Costigan grinned, "and I've picked up quite a few things here and there--literally as wellas figuratively speaking. Snap it up, guys! Our armor is stored awaywith the pieces of the pirates' lifeboat, and I'll feel a lot betterwhen we've got it on and have hold of a few fresh Lewistons. "

They hurried down corridors, up ramps, and along hallways, withCostigan's spy-ray investigating the course ahead for chance Nevians. Bradley and Clio were unarmed, but the secret agent had found a piece offlat metal and had ground it to a razor edge. 

"I think I can throw this thing straight enough and fast enough to chopoff a Nevian's head before he can put a paralyzing ray on us, " heexplained grimly, but he was not called upon to show his skill with theimprovised cleaver. 

As he had concluded from his careful survey, every Nevian was at somecontrol or weapon, doing his part in that frightful combat with thedenizens of the greater deeps. Their part was open, they were neithermolested nor detected as they ran toward the compartment within whichwas sealed all their Terrestrial belongings. The door of that roomopened, as had the other, to Costigan's knowing beam; and all three sethastily to work. They made up packs of food, filled their capaciouspockets with emergency rations, recharged and buckled on Lewistons andautomatics, donned their armor, and clamped into their external holstersa full complement of additional weapons. 

"Now comes the ticklish part of the business, " Costigan informed them. His helmet was slowly turning this way and that, and the others knewthat through his spy-ray goggles he was studying their route. "There'sonly one boat we stand a chance of reaching, and somebody's mighty aptto see us. There's a lot of detectors up there, and we'll have to crossa corridor full of communicator beams. There, that line's off ... Scoot!"

At his word they dashed out into the hall and hurried along for minutes, dodging to right or left as the leader snapped out orders. Finally hestopped. 

"Here's those beams I told you about. We'll have to roll under 'em. They're less than waist high--right there's the lowest one. Watch me doit, and when I give you the word, one at a time, you do the same. _Keeplow_--don't let an arm or a leg get up into the path of a ray or theymay see us. "

He threw himself flat, rolled upon the floor a yard or so, and scrambledto his feet. He gazed intently at the blank wall for a space, then:

"Bradley--now!" he snapped, and the Interplanetary captain duplicatedhis performance. 

But Clio, unused to the heavy and cumbersome space-armor she waswearing, could not roll in it with any degree of success. When Costiganbarked his order she tried, but stopped, floundering, almost directlybelow the invisible network of communicator beams. As she struggled onemailed arm went up, and Costigan saw in his ultra-goggles the faintflash as the beam encountered the interfering field. But already he hadacted. Crouching low, he struck down the arm, seized it, and dragged thegirl out of the zone of visibility. Then in furious haste he opened anearby door and all three sprang into a tiny compartment. 

"Shut off all the fields of your suits, so that they can't interfere!"he hissed into the utter darkness. "Not that I'd mind killing a few ofthem, but if they start an organized search we're sunk. But even if theydid get a warning by touching your glove, Clio, they probably won'tsuspect us. Our rooms are still shielded, and the chances are thatthey're too busy to bother much about us, anyway. "

He was right. A few beams darted here and there, but the Nevians sawnothing amiss and ascribed the interference to the falling into the beamof some chance bit of charged metal. With no further misadventures theTerrestrials gained entrance to the Nevian lifeboat, where Costigan'sfirst act was to disconnect one steel boot from his armor of space. Witha sigh of relief he pulled his foot out of it, and from it carefullypoured into the small power-tank of the craft fully thirty pounds ofallotropic iron!

"I pinched it off them, " he explained, in answer to amazed and inquiringlooks, "and maybe you don't think it's a relief to get it out of thatboot! I couldn't steal a flask to carry it in, so this was the onlyplace I could put it in. These lifeboats are equipped with only a coupleof grams of iron apiece, you know, and we couldn't get half-way back toTellus on that, even with smooth going; and we may have to fight. Withthis much to go on, though, we could go to Andromeda, fighting all theway. Well, we'd better break away. "

Costigan watched his plate closely, and, when the maneuvering of thegreat vessel brought his exit port as far away as possible from theThird City and the warring citadels of the deep, he shot the littlecruiser out and away. Straight out into the ocean it sped, through themurky red veil, and darted upward toward the surface. The threewanderers sat tense, hardly daring to breathe, staring into theplates--Clio and Bradley pushing at metal levers and stepping down hardupon metal brakes in unconscious efforts to help Costigan dodge thebeams and rods of death flashing so appallingly close upon all sides. Out of the water and into the air the darting, dodging lifeboat flashedin safety; but in the air, supposedly free from menace, came disaster. There was a crunching, grating shock and the vessel was thrown into adizzy spiral, from which Costigan finally leveled it into headlongflight away from the scene of battle. Watching the pyrometers whichrecorded the temperature of the outer shell, he drove the lifeboat aheadat the highest safe atmospheric speed while Bradley went to inspect thedamage. 

"Pretty bad, but better than I thought, " the captain reported. "Outerand inner plates broken away on a seam. Inter-wall vacuum all lost, andwe wouldn't hold carpet-rags, let alone air. Any tools aboard?"

"Some--and what we haven't got we'll make, " Costigan declared. "We'llput a lot of distance behind us, then we'll fix her up and get away fromhere. "

"What are those fish, anyway, Conway?" Clio asked, as the lifeboat torealong. "The Nevians are bad enough, Heaven knows, but the very idea ofintelligent and _educated_ FISH is enough to drive one mad!"

"You know Nerado mentioned several times the 'semi-civilized fishes ofthe greater deeps'?" he reminded her. "I gather that there are at leastthree intelligent races here. We know two--the Nevians, who areamphibians, and the fishes of the greater deeps. The fishes of thelesser deeps are also intelligent. As I get it, the Nevian cities wereoriginally built in very shallow water, or perhaps were upon islands. The development of machinery and tools gave them a big edge on the fish;and those living in the shallow seas, nearest the islands, graduallybecame tributary nations, if not actually slaves. Those fish not onlyserve as food, but work in the mines, hatcheries, and plantations, anddo all kinds of work for the Nevians. Those so-called 'lesser deeps'were conquered first, of course, and all their races of fish are docileenough now. But the deep-sea breeds, who live in water so deep that theNevians can hardly stand the pressure down there, were more intelligentto start with, and more stubborn besides. But the most valuable metalshere are deep down--this planet is very light for its size, you know--sothe Nevians kept at it until they conquered some of the deep-sea fish, too, and put 'em to work. But those high-pressure boys were nobody'sfools. They realized that as time went on the amphibians would getfurther and further ahead of them in development, so they let themselvesbe conquered, learned how to use the Nevians' tools and everything elsethey could get hold of, developed a lot of new stuff of their own, andnow they're out to wipe the amphibians off the slate completely, beforethey get too far ahead of them to handle. "

"And the Nevians are afraid of them, and want to kill them all, as fastas they possibly can, " guessed Clio. 

"That would be the logical thing, of course, " commented Bradley. "Gotpretty nearly enough distance now, Costigan?"

"There isn't enough distance on the planet to suit me, " Costiganreplied. "We'll need all we can get. A full diameter away from that crewof amphibians is too close for comfort--their detectors are keen. "

"Then they can detect us?" Clio asked. "Oh, I wish they hadn't hitus--we'd have been away from here long ago. "

"So do I, " Costigan assented, feelingly. "But they did--no usesquawking. We can rivet and weld those seams and pump out the shell, andwe'd have to fill our air-tanks to capacity for the trip, anyway. Andthings could be a lot worse--we are still breathing air!"

In silence the lifeboat flashed onward, and half of Nevia's mighty globewas traversed before it was brought to a halt, in the emptiest reachesof the planet's desolate and watery waste. Then in furious haste the twoofficers set to work, again to make their small craft sound andspaceworthy. 

CHAPTER VI

 Worm, Submarine, and Freedom

Since both Costigan and Bradley had often watched their captors at workduring the long voyage from the Solar System to Nevia, they were quitefamiliar with the machine tools of the amphibians. Their stolenlifeboat, being an emergency craft, of course carried full repairequipment; and to such good purpose did the two officers labor that evenbefore their air-tanks were fully charged, all the damage had beenrepaired. 

The lifeboat lay motionless upon the mirror-smooth surface of the ocean. Captain Bradley had opened the upper port and the three stood in theopening, gazing in silence toward the incredibly distant horizon, whilepowerful pumps were forcing the last possible ounces of air into thepractically unbreakable storage cylinders. Mile upon strangely flat milestretched that waveless, unbroken expanse of water, merging finally intothe violent redness of the Nevian sky. The sun was setting; a vast ballof purple flame dropping rapidly toward the horizon. Darkness camesuddenly as that seething ball disappeared, and the air became bitterlycold, in sharp contrast to the pleasant warmth of a moment before. Andas suddenly clouds appeared in blackly banked masses and a cold, drivingrain began to beat down in torrents. 

"Br-r-r, it's cold! Let's go in--Oh! _Shut the door!_" Clio shrieked, and leaped wildly down into the compartment below, out of Costigan'sway, for he and Bradley also had seen slithering toward them thefrightful arm of the Thing. 

Almost before the girl had spoken Costigan had leaped to the levers, andnot an instant too soon; for the tip of that horrible tentacle flashedinto the rapidly narrowing crack just before the door clanged shut. Asthe powerful toggles forced the heavy screw threads into engagement anddrove the massive disk home into its bottle-tight, insulated seat, thatgrisly tip fell severed to the floor of the compartment and lay there, twitching and writhing with a loathsome and unearthly vigor. Two feetlong the piece was, and larger than a strong man's leg. It was armedwith spiked and jointed metallic scales, and instead of sucking disks itwas equipped with a series of _mouths_--mouths filled with sharpmetallic teeth which gnashed and ground together furiously, even thoughsundered from the horrible organism which they were designed to feed. 

The little submarine shuddered in every plate and member as monstrouscoils encircled her and tightened inexorably in terrific, ripplingsurges eloquent of mastodonic power; and a strident vibration smotesickeningly upon Terrestrial eardrums as the metal spikes of themonstrosity crunched and ground upon the outer plating of their smallvessel. Costigan stood unmoved at the plate, watching intently; handsready upon the controls. Due to the artificial gravity of the lifeboatit seemed perfectly stationary to its occupants. Only the weirdgyrations of the pictures upon the lookout screens showed that the craftwas being shaken and thrown about like a rat in the jaws of a terrier;only the gauges revealed that they were almost a mile below the surfaceof the ocean already, and were still going downward at an appallingrate. Finally Clio could stand no more. 

"Aren't you going to do something, Conway?" she cried. 

"Not unless I have to, " he replied, composedly. "I don't believe that hecan really hurt us, and if I use a ray of any kind I'm afraid that itwill kick up enough disturbance to bring Nerado down on us like a hawkafter a chicken. However, if he takes us much deeper I'll have to go towork on him. We're getting down pretty close to our limit, and thebottom's a long way down yet. "

Deeper and deeper the lifeboat was dragged by its dreadful opponent, whose spiked teeth still tore savagely at the tough outer plating of thecraft until Costigan reluctantly threw in his power switches. Againstthe full propellant thrust the monster could draw them no lower, butneither could the lifeboat make any headway toward the surface. TheTerrestrial then turned on his rays, but found that they wereineffective. So closely was the creature wrapped around the submarinethat his weapons could not be brought to bear upon it without meltingthe vessel's own outer skin. 

"What can it possibly be, anyway, and what can we do about it?" Clioasked. 

"I thought at first it was something like a devilfish, or possibly anovergrown starfish, but it's too flat, and has no body that I can see, "Costigan made answer. "It must be a kind of flat worm. That doesn'tsound reasonable--the thing must be all of a hundred meters long--butthere it is. The only thing left to do now, as I see it, is to try toboil him alive. "

He closed other circuits, diffusing a terrific beam of pure heat, andthe water all about them burst into furious clouds of steam. The boatleaped upward as the metallic fins of the gigantic worm fanned vaporinstead of water, but the creature neither released its hold nor ceasedits relentlessly grinding attack. Minute after minute went by, butfinally the worm dropped limply away--cooked through and through;vanquished only by death. 

"Now we've put our foot in it, clear to the knee!" Costigan exclaimed, as he shot the lifeboat upward at its maximum power. "Look at that! Iknew that Nerado could trace us, but I didn't have any idea that _they_could. It's a good thing these ultra-vision plates don't need light tosee by or we'd be _'spurlos versenkt'_ in a hurry!"

Staring with Costigan into the plate, Bradley and the girl saw, not theNevian sky-rover they had expected, but a fast submarine cruiser, mannedby the frightful fishes of the greater deeps. It was coming directlytoward the lifeboat, and even as Costigan hurled the little vessel offat an angle and then upward into the air one of the deadly offensiverods, tipped with its glowing ball of pure destruction, flashed throughthe spot where they would have been had they held their former course. 

But powerful as were the propellant forces and fiercely though Costiganapplied them, the denizens of the deep clamped a tractor ray upon theflying vessel before it had gained a mile of altitude. Costigan alignedhis every driving projector as his vessel came to an abrupt halt in theinvisible grip of the beam, then experimented with various dials. 

"There ought to be some way of cutting that beam, " he pondered audibly, "but I don't know enough about their system to do it, and I'm afraid tomonkey around with things too much, because I might accidentally releasethe screens we've already got out, and they're stopping altogether toomuch stuff for us to do without them right now. "

He frowned as he studied the flaring defensive screens, now radiating anincandescent violet under the concentration of the forces being hurledagainst them by the warlike fishes, then stiffened suddenly. 

"I thought so--they _can_ shoot 'em!" he exclaimed, throwing thelifeboat into a furious corkscrew turn, and the very air blazed intoflaming splendor as a dazzlingly scintillating ball of energy sped pastthem and high into the air beyond. 

Then for minutes a spectacular battle raged. The twisting, turning, leaping airship, small as she was agile, kept on eluding the explosiveprojectiles of the fishes, and her screens neutralized and re-radiatedthe full power of the attacking beams. More--since Costigan did not needto think of sparing his iron, the ocean around the great submarine beganfuriously to boil under the full-driven offensive beams of the tinyNevian ship. But escape Costigan could not. He could not cut thattractor beam and the utmost power of his drivers could not wrest thelifeboat from its tenacious clutch. And slowly but inexorably the shipof space was being drawn downward toward the ship of ocean's depths. Downward, in spite of the utmost possible effort of every projector andpenetrator, and the two Terrestrial spectators, sick at heart, lookedonce at each other. Then they looked at Costigan, who, jaw hard set andeyes unflinchingly upon his plate, was concentrating his attack upon oneturret of the green monster as they settled lower and lower. 

"If this is ... If our number is going up, Conway, " Clio began, unsteadily. 

"Not yet, it isn't!" he snapped. "Keep a stiff upper lip, girl. We'restill breathing air, and the battle's not over yet!"

Nor was it; but it was not Costigan's efforts, mighty though they were, that ended the attack of the fishes of the greater deeps. The tractorbeam snapped without warning, and so prodigious were the forces beingexerted by the lifeboat that, as it hurled itself away, the threepassengers were thrown violently to the floor, in spite of the powerfulgravity controls. Scrambling up on hands and knees, bracing himself asbest he could against the terrific forces, Costigan managed finally toforce a hand up to his panel. He was barely in time; for even as he cutthe driving power to its normal value the outer shell of the lifeboatwas blazing at white heat from the friction of the atmosphere throughwhich it had been tearing with such an insane acceleration!

"Oh, I see--Nerado to the rescue, " Costigan commented, after a glanceinto the plate. "I hope that those fish blow him clear out of theGalaxy!"

"Why?" demanded Clio. "I should think that you'd.... "

"Think again, " he advised her. "The worse Nerado gets licked the betterfor us. I don't really expect that, but if they can keep him busy longenough, we can get far enough away so that he won't bother about us anymore. "

As the lifeboat tore upward through the air at the highest permissibleatmospheric velocity Bradley and Clio peered over Costigan's shouldersinto the plate, watching in absorbed interest the scene which was beingkept in focus upon it. The Nevian ship of space was plunging downward ina long, slanting dive, her terrific beams of force screaming out aheadof her. The rays of the little lifeboat had boiled the waters of theocean; those of the parent craft seemed literally to blast them out ofexistence. All about the green submarine there had been volumes offuriously-boiling water and dense clouds of vapor; now water and fogalike disappeared, converted into transparent superheated steam by theblasts of Nevian energy. Through that tenuous gas the enormous mass ofthe submarine fell like a plummet, her defensive screens flaming analmost invisible violet, her every offensive weapon vomiting forth solidand vibratory destruction toward the Nevian cruiser so high in theangry, scarlet heavens. 

For miles the submarine dropped, until the frightful pressure of thedepth drove water into Nerado's beam faster than his forces couldvolatilize it. Then in that seething funnel there was waged desperateconflict. At that funnel's wildly turbulent bottom lay the submarine, now apparently trying to escape, but held fast by the tractor rays ofthe space-ship; at its top, smothered almost to the point ofinvisibility by billowing masses of steam, hung poised the Neviancruiser. 

As the atmosphere had grown thinner and thinner with increasing altitudeCostigan had regulated his velocity accordingly, keeping the outer shellof the vessel at the highest temperature consistent with safety. Nowbeyond measurable atmospheric pressure, the shell cooled rapidly and heapplied full touring acceleration. At an appalling and constantlyincreasing speed the miniature space-ship shot away from the strange, red planet; and smaller and smaller upon the plate became its picture. Long since the great vessel of the void had plunged beneath the surfaceof the sea, more closely to come to grips with the vessel of the fishes;for a long time nothing of the battle had been visible save immenseclouds of steam, blanketing hundreds of square miles of the ocean'ssurface. But just before the picture became too small to reveal detailsa few tiny dark spots appeared above the banks of cloud, now brilliantlyilluminated by the rays of the rising sun--dots which might have beenfragments of either vessel, blown bodily from the depths of the oceanand, riven asunder, hurled high into the air by the incredible forces atthe command of the other. 

Nevia a tiny moon and the fierce blue sun rapidly growing smaller in thedistance, Costigan swung his visiray beam into the line of travel andturned to his companions. 

"Well, we're off, " he said, scowling. "I hope it was Nerado that gotblown up back there, but I'm afraid it wasn't. He whipped two of thosesubmarines that we know of, and probably half their fleet besides. There's no particular reason why that one should be able to take him, soit's my idea that we should get ready for great gobs of trouble. 

"They'll chase us, of course; and I'm afraid that with their immensepower, they'll catch us. "

"But what can we do, Conway?" asked Clio. 

"Several things, " he grinned. "I managed to get quite a lot of dope onthat paralyzing ray and some of their other stuff, and we can installthe necessary equipment in our suits easily enough. "

They removed their armor, and Costigan explained in detail the changeswhich must be made in the Triplanetary field generators. All three setvigorously to work--the two officers deftly and surely; Clio uncertainlyand with many questions, but with undaunted spirit. Finally, having doneall they could do to strengthen their position, they settled down to thewatchful routine of the flight, with every possible instrument set todetect any sign of the pursuit they so feared. 

CHAPTER VII

 The Hill

 [Illustration:

 Its atmosphere was withdrawn, the outer door opened, and he glanced across a bare hundred feet of space at the rocket-plane which, keel ports fiercely aflame, was braking her terrific speed to match the slower pace of the gigantic ship of war. ]

The heavy cruiser _Chicago_ hung motionless in space, thousands of milesdistant from the warring fleets of space-ships so viciously attackingand so stubbornly defending the planetoid of the enemy. In the captain'ssanctum Lyman Cleveland crouched tensely above his ultra-cameras, hissensitive fingers touching lightly their micrometric dials. His body wasrigid, his face was set and drawn. Only his eyes moved: flashing backand forth between the observation plates and smoothly-running rollswhich were feeding into the cameras the hardened steel tapes upon whichwere being magnetically recorded the frightful scenes of carnage anddestruction there revealed. 

Silent and bitterly absorbed, though surrounded by staring officers, whose fervent, almost unconscious cursing was prayerful in itsintensity, the visiray expert kept his ultra-instruments upon that awfulstruggle to its dire conclusion. Flawlessly those instruments notedevery detail of the destruction of Roger's fleet, of the transformationof the armada of Triplanetary into an unknown fluid, and finally of thedissolution of the gigantic planetoid itself. Then furiously Clevelanddrove his beams against the crimsonly opaque obscurity into which thepeculiar, viscous stream of substance was disappearing. Time after timehe applied his every watt of power, with no result. A vast volume ofspace, roughly ellipsodial in shape, was closed to him by forcesentirely beyond his experience or comprehension. But suddenly, while hisrays were still trying to pierce that impenetrable murk, it disappearedinstantly and, without warning, the illimitable infinity of space oncemore lay revealed upon his plates and his beams flashed on and onthrough the void, unimpeded. 

"Back to Tellus, sir?" The _Chicago_'s captain broke the strainedsilence. 

"I wouldn't say so, if I had the say. " Cleveland, baffled and frustrate, straightened up and shut off his cameras. "We should report back as soonas possible, of course, but there seems to be a lot of wreckage outthere yet, that we can't photograph in detail at this distance. A closestudy of it might help us a lot in understanding what they did and howthey did it. I'd say that we should get close-ups of whatever is left, and do it right away, before it gets scattered all over space; but ofcourse I can't give you orders. "

"You can, though, " the captain made surprising answer. "My orders arethat you are in command of this vessel. "

"In that case we will proceed at full emergency acceleration toinvestigate the wreckage, " Cleveland replied, and the cruiser--solesurvivor of Triplanetary's supposedly invincible force--shot away withevery projector delivering its maximum blast. 

As the scene of the disaster was approached there was revealed upon theplates a confused mass of debris; a mass whose individual units wereapparently moving at random: yet which was as a whole still followingthe orbit of Roger's planetoid. Space was full of machine parts, structural members, furniture, flotsam of all kinds; and everywhere werethe bodies of men. Some were encased in space-suits, and it was to thesethat the rescuers turned first--space-hardened veterans though the menof the _Chicago_ were, they did not care even to look at the others. Strangely enough, however, not one of the floating figures spoke ormoved, and space-line men were hurriedly sent out to investigate. 

"All dead. " Quickly the dread report came back. "Been dead a long time. The armor is all stripped off the suits, and the generators and theother apparatus are all shot. Something funny about it, too--none ofthem seem to have been touched, but the machinery of the suits seems tobe about half of it missing. "

"I've got it all on the spools, sir. " Cleveland, his close-up survey ofthe wreckage finished, turned to the captain. "What they've justreported checks up with what I've photographed everywhere. I've got anidea of what might have happened, but it's so dizzy that I'll have tohave a lot of reenforcement before I'll believe it myself. But you mighthave them bring in a few of the armored bodies, a couple of thoseswitchboards and panels floating around out there, and half a dozenmiscellaneous pieces of junk--the nearest things they get hold of, whatever they happen to be. "

"Then back to Tellus at maximum?"

"Right--back to Tellus, as fast as we can possibly go there. "

While the _Chicago_ hurtled through space at full power, Cleveland andthe ranking officers of the vessel grouped themselves about the salvagedwreckage. Familiar with space-wrecks as were they all, none of them hadever seen anything like the material before them. For every part andinstrument was weirdly and meaninglessly disintegrated. There were nobreaks, no marks of violence, and yet nothing was intact. Bolt-holesstared empty, cores, shielding cases and needles had disappeared, thevital parts of every instrument hung awry, disorganization reignedrampant and supreme. 

"I never imagined such a mess, " the captain said, after a long andsilent study of the objects. "If you have any theory to cover _that_, Cleveland, I would like to hear it!"

"I want you to notice something first, " the visiray expert replied. "Butdon't look for what's there--look for what _isn't_ there. "

"Well, the armor is gone. So are the shielding cases, shafts, spindles, the housings and stems.... " The captain's voice died away as his eyesraced over the collection. "Why, everything that was made of wood, bakelite, copper aluminum, silver, bronze, or anything but steel hasn'tbeen touched, and every bit of steel is gone. But that doesn't makesense--what does it mean?"

"I don't know--yet, " Cleveland replied, slowly. "But I'm afraid thatthere's more, and worse. " He opened a space-suit reverently, revealingthe face; a face calm and peaceful, but utterly, sickeningly white. Still reverently, he made a deep incision in the brawny neck, severingthe jugular vein, then went on, soberly:

"You never imagined such a thing as _white_ blood, either, but it allchecks up. Someway, somehow, every particle--probably every atom--offree or combined iron in this whole volume of space was made off with. "

"Huh? How come? And above all, _why_?" from the amazed and staringofficers. 

"You know as much as I do, " grimly, ponderingly. "If it were not for thefact that there are solid asteroids of iron out beyond Mars, I would saythat somebody wanted iron badly enough to wipe out the fleets and theplanetoid to get it. But anyway, whoever they were, they carried enoughpower so that our armament didn't bother them at all. They simply tookthe metal they wanted and went away with it--so fast that I couldn'ttrace them with an ultra-beam. There's only one thing plain; but that'sso plain that it scares me stiff. This whole affair spells intelligence, with a capital "I", and that intelligence is anything but friendly. Asfor me I want to get Fred Rodebush at work on this soon--think I'llhurry it up a little. "

He stepped over to his ultra-projector and called the Terrestrialheadquarters of the T. S. S. Samms' face soon appeared upon his screen. 

"We got it all, Virgil, " he reported. 

"It's something extraordinary--bigger, wider, and deeper than any of usdreamed. It may be urgent, too, so I think I had better shoot thepictures in on the ultra-wave and save a few days. Fred has atelemagneto recorder there that he can synchronize with this cameraoutfit easily enough. Right?"

"Right. Good work, Lyman--thanks, " came back terse approval andappreciation, and soon the steel tapes were again flashing between thefeed-rolls. This time, however, their varying magnetic charges weremodulating an ultra-wave so that every detail of that calamitous battleof the void was being screened and recorded in the innermost privatelaboratory of the Triplanetary Secret Service. 

Eager though he naturally was to join his fellow-scientists, Clevelanddid not waste his time during the long, but uneventful journey back toearth. There was much to study, many improvements to be made in hiscomparatively crude first ultra-camera. Then, too, there were longconferences with Samms, and particularly with Rodebush, the mathematicalphysicist, whose was the task of solving the riddles of the energies andweapons of the Nevians. Thus it did not seem long before green Terragrew large beneath the flying sphere of the _Chicago_. 

"Going to have to circle at once, aren't you?" Cleveland asked the chiefpilot. He had been watching that officer closely for minutes, admiringthe delicacy and precision with which the great vessel was beingmaneuvered preliminary to entering the earth's atmosphere. 

"Yes, " the pilot replied. "We had to come in in the shortest possibletime, and that meant a velocity here that we can't check without aspiral. However, even at that we saved a lot of time. You can save quitea bit more, though, by having a rocket-plane come out to meet ussomewhere around fifteen or twenty thousand kilometers, depending uponwhere you want to land. With their power-to-mass ratio they can matchour velocity and still make the drop direct. "

"Guess I'll do that--thanks, " and the operative called his chief, onlyto learn that his suggestion had already been acted upon. 

"We beat you to it, Lyman, " Samms smiled. "The _Silver Sliver_ is outthere now, looping to match your course, acceleration, and velocity attwenty-two thousand kilometers. You'll be ready to transfer?"

"I'll be ready!" and the Quartermaster's ex-clerk went to his quartersand packed his dunnage-bag. 

In due time the long, slender body of the rocket-plane came into view, creeping 'down' upon the space-ship from 'above, ' and Cleveland bade hisfriends good-bye. Donning a space-suit, he stationed himself in thestarboard airlock. Its atmosphere was withdrawn, the outer door opened, and he glanced across a bare hundred feet of space at the rocket-planewhich, keel ports fiercely aflame, was braking her terrific speed tomatch the slower pace of the gigantic ship of war. Shaped like atoothpick, needle-pointed fore and aft, with ultra-stubby wings andvanes, with flush-set rocket ports everywhere, built of a lustroussilvery alloy of noble and almost infusible metals--such was the privatespeedboat of the chief of the T. S. S. The fastest thing known, whetherin planetary air, the stratosphere, or the vacuus depth ofinterplanetary space, her first flashing trial spins had won her thenickname of the _Silver Sliver_. She had had a more formal name, butthat title had long since been buried in the Departmental files. 

Lower and slower dropped the _Silver Sliver_, her rockets flaming evenbrighter, until her slender length lay level with the airlock door. Thenher blasting discharges subsided to the power necessary to match exactlythe _Chicago_'s deceleration. 

"Ready to cut, _Chicago_! Give me a three-second call!" snapped from thepilot room of the _Sliver_. 

"Ready to cut!" the pilot of the _Chicago_ replied. "Seconds! Three!Two! One! CUT!"

At the last word the power of both vessels was instantly cut off andeverything in them became weightless. In the tiny airlock of the slendercraft crouched a space-line man with coiled cable in readiness, but hewas not needed. As the flaring exhausts ceased Cleveland swung out hisheavy bag and stepped lightly off into space, and in a right line hefloated directly into the open doorway of the rocket-plane. The doorclanged shut behind him and in a matter of moments he stood in thecontrol room of the racer, divested of his armor and shaking hands withhis friend and co-laborer, Frederick Rodebush. 

"Well, Fred, what do you know?" Cleveland asked, as soon as greetingshad been exchanged. "How do the various reports dovetail together? Iknow that you couldn't tell me anything on the wave, but there's nodanger of eavesdroppers _here_. "

"You can't tell, " Rodebush soberly replied. "We're just beginning towake up to the fact that there are a lot of things we don't knowanything about. Better wait until we're back at the Hill. We have a fullset of ultra-screens around there now. There's a couple of other goodreasons, too--it would be better for both of us to go over the wholething with Virgil, from the ground up; and we can't do any more talking, anyway. Our orders are to get back there at maximum, and you know whatthat means aboard the _Sliver_. Strap yourself solid in thatshock-absorber there, and here's a pair of ear-plugs. "

"When the _Sliver_ really cuts loose it means a rough party, all right, "Cleveland assented, snapping about his body the heavy spring-straps ofhis deeply cushioned seat, "but I'm just as anxious to get back to theHill as anybody can be to get me there. All set. "

Rodebush waved his hand at the pilot and the purring whisper of theexhausts changed instantly to a deafening, continuous explosion. The menwere pressed deeply into their shock-absorbing chairs as the _SilverSliver_ spun around her longitudinal axis and darted away from the_Chicago_ with such a tremendous acceleration that the spherical warshipseemed to be standing still in space. In due time the calculatedmid-point was reached, the slim space-plane rolled over again, and, madacceleration now reversed, rushed on toward the earth, but withconstantly diminishing speed. Finally a measurable atmospheric pressurewas encountered, the needle prow dipped downward, and the _SilverSliver_ shot forward upon her tiny wings and vanes, nose-rockets nowdrumming in staccato thunder. Her metal grew hot: dull red, bright redyellow, blinding white; but it neither melted nor burned. The pilot'scalculations had been sound, and though the limiting point of safety oftemperature was reached and steadily held, it was not exceeded. As thedensity of the air increased so decreased the velocity of the man-mademeteorite. So it was that a dazzling lance of fire sped high overSeattle, lower over Spokane, and hurled itself eastward, a furiouslyflaming arrow; slanting downward in a long, screaming dive toward theheart of the Rockies. As the now rapidly cooling greyhound of the skiespassed over the western ranges of the Bitter Roots it became apparentthat her goal was a vast, flat-topped, and conical mountain, shrouded inlivid light; a mountain whose height awed even its stupendous neighbors. 

While not artificial, the Hill had been altered markedly by theTriplanetary engineers who had built into it the headquarters of theSecret Service. Its mile-wide top was a jointless expanse of gray armorsteel; the steep, smooth surface of the truncated cone was acontinuation of the same immensely thick sheet of metal. No knownvehicle could climb that smooth, hard, forbidding slope of steel; noknown projectile could mar that armor; no known craft could evenapproach the Hill without detection. Could not approach it at all, infact, for it was constantly inclosed in a vast hemisphere of lambentviolet flame through which neither material substance nor destructiveray could pass. 

As the _Silver Sliver_, crawling along at a bare three-hundred miles anhour, approached that transparent, brilliantly violet wall ofdestruction, a violet light filled her control room and as suddenly wentout; flashing on and off again and again. 

"Giving us the once-over, eh?" Cleveland asked. "That is something new, isn't it, Fred?"

"Yes, it's a high-powered ultra-wave spy, " Rodenbush returned. "Thelight is simply a warning, which can be carried if desired. It can alsocarry voice and vision.... "

"Like this, " Samms' voice interrupted from the powerful dynamic speakerupon the pilots' panel and his clear-cut face appeared upon thetelevision screen. "I don't suppose Fred thought to mention it, but thisis one of his inventions of the last few days. We are just trying it outon you. It doesn't mean a thing though, as far as the _Sliver_ isconcerned. Come ahead!"

A circular opening appeared in the wall of force, an opening whichdisappeared as soon as the plane had darted through it; and at the sametime her landing-cradle rose into the air through a great trap-door. Slowly and gracefully the space-plane settled downward into thatcushioned embrace. Then cradle and nestled _Sliver_ sank from view and, turning smoothly upon mighty trunnions, the plug of armor drove solidlyback into its place in the metal pavement of the mountain's loftysummit. The cradle-elevator dropped rapidly, coming to rest many levelsdown in the heart of the Hill, and Cleveland and Rodebush leaped lightlyout of their transport, through her still hot outer walls. A door openedbefore them and they found themselves in a large room of full daylightillumination; the anteroom of the private office of Virgil Samms. Chiefsof Departments sat at their desks, concentrated upon problems or atease, according to the demands of the moment; televisotypes andrecorders flashed busily but silently; calmly efficient men and womenwent wontedly about the all-embracing business of Triplanetary'sspace-pervading Secret Service. 

"Right of way, Norma?" Rodebush paused briefly before the desk of theChief's private secretary; but even before he had spoken she had presseda button and the door behind her swung wide. 

"You two do not need to be announced, " the attractive young womansmiled. "Go right in. "

Samms met them at the door eagerly, shaking hands particularlyvigorously with Cleveland. 

"Congratulations on that camera, Lyman!" he exclaimed. "You did awonderful piece of work on that. Help yourselves to smokes and sitdown--there are a lot of things we want to talk over. Your picturescarried most of the story, but they would have left us pretty much atsea without Costigan's reports. But as it was, Fred here and his crewworked out most of the answers from the dope the two of you got; andwhat few they haven't got yet they soon will have. "

"Nothing new on Conway?" Cleveland was almost afraid to ask thequestion. 

"No. " A shadow came over Samms' face. "I'm afraid ... But I'm hopingit's only that those creatures, whatever they are, have taken him so faraway that he can't reach us. "

"They certainly are so far away that we can't reach them. " Rodenbushvolunteered. "We can't even get their ultra-wave interference any more. "

"Yes, that's a hopeful sign, " Samms went on. "I hate to think of ConwayCostigan checking out. There, fellows, was a real observer. He was theonly man, I have ever known, who combined the two qualities of theperfect witness. He could actually see everything he looked at, andcould report it truly, to the last, least detail. Take all this stuff, for instance; especially their ability to transform iron into a fluidallotrope, and in that form to use its intra-atomic energy as power. Something brand new--unheard of except in the ravings of imaginativefiction--and yet he described their converters and projectors sominutely that Fred was able to work out the underlying theory in threedays, and to tie it in with our own super-ship. My first thought wasthat we'd have to rebuild it iron-free, but Fred showed me my error--youfound it first yourself, of course. "

"It wouldn't do any good to make the ship non-ferrous unless you couldso change our blood chemistry that we could get along withouthemoglobin, and that would be quite a feat, " Cleveland agreed. "Then, too, our most vital electrical machinery is built around iron cores. No, we'll have to develop a screen for those forces--screens, rather, sopowerful that they can't drive anything through them. "

"We've been working along those lines ever since you reported, " Rodebushsaid, "and we're beginning to see light. And in that same connectionit's no wonder that we couldn't handle our super-ship. We had some goodideas, but they were wrongly applied. However, things look quitepromising now. We have that transformation of iron all worked out intheory, and as soon as we get a generator going we can straighten outeverything else in short order. And think what that unlimited powermeans! All the power we want--power enough even to try out such hithertopurely theoretical possibilities as the neutralization of gravity, andeven of the inertia of matter!"

"Hold on!" protested Samms. "You certainly can't do _that_! Inertiais--_must_ be--a basic attribute of matter, and surely cannot be doneaway with without destroying the matter itself. Don't start anythinglike that. Fred--I don't want to lose you and Lyman, too. "

"Don't worry about us, Chief. " Rodebush replied with a smile. "If youwill tell me what matter is, fundamentally, I may agree with you ... No?Well, then, don't be surprised at anything that happens. We are going todo a lot of things that nobody ever thought of doing before. "

Thus for a long time the argument and discussion went on, to beinterrupted by the voice of the secretary. 

"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Samms, but some things have come up that youwill have to handle. Knobos is calling from out near Mars. He has caughtthe _Endymion_, and has killed about half her crew doing it. Milton hasfinally reported from Venus, after being out of touch for five days. Hetrailed the Wintons into Thalleron swamp. They crashed him there, but hewon out and has what he went after. And just now I got a flash fromFletcher, in the asteroid belt. I think that he has finally traced thatdope line. But Knobos is on now--what do you want him to do about the_Endymion_?"

"Tell him to--no, put him on here, I'd better tell him myself, " Sammsdirected, and his face hardened in ruthless decision as the horny, misshapen face of the Martian lieutenant appeared upon the screen. "Whatdo you think, Knobos? Shall they come to trial or not?"

"No. "

"I don't think so, either. It is better that a few gangsters shoulddisappear in space than run the risk of another uprising. See to it. "

"Right. " The screen darkened and Samms spoke to his secretary. "PutMilton and Fletcher on whenever their rays come in. " He then turned tohis guests. "We've covered the ground quite thoroughly. Good-bye--I wishI could go with you, but I'll be pretty well tied up for the next weekor two. "

"Tied up, doesn't half express it, " Rodebush remarked as the twoscientists walked along a corridor toward an elevator. "He probably isthe busiest man on the three planets. "

"As well as the most powerful, " Cleveland supplemented. "And very fewmen could use his power as fairly--but he's welcome to it, as far as I'mconcerned. I'd have the pink fantods for a month if I had to do onlyonce what he's just done--and to him it's just part of a day's work. "

"You mean the _Endymion_? What else could he do?"

"Nothing--that's just what I'm talking about. It had to be done, sincebringing them to trial would probably mean killing half the people ofMorseca; but at the same time it's a ghastly thing to have to order ajob of deliberate, cold-blooded, and illegal murder. "

"You're right, of course, but you would.... " he broke off, unable to puthis thoughts into words. For while inarticulate, manlike, concerningtheir deepest emotions, in both men was ingrained the code of theirorganization; both knew that to every man chosen for it _The Service_was everything, himself nothing. 

"But enough of that, we'll have plenty of grief of our own right here, "Rodebush changed the subject abruptly as they stepped into a vast room, almost filled by the immense bulk of the _Boise_--the sinisterspace-ship which, although never flown, had already lined with black somany pages of Triplanetary's roster. She was now, however, the center ofa furious activity. Men swarmed over her and through her, in the orderlyconfusion of a fiercely driven but carefully planned program ofreconstruction. 

"I hope your dope is right, Fred!" Cleveland called, as the twoscientists separated to go to their respective laboratories. "If it is, we'll make a perfect lady out of this unmanageable man-killer yet!"

CHAPTER VIII

 The Super-Ship Is Launched

After weeks of ceaseless work, during which was lavished upon her everyresource of mind and material afforded by three planets, the _Boise_ wasready for her maiden flight. As nearly ready, that is, as the thoughtand labor of man could make her. Rodebush and Cleveland had finishedtheir last rigid inspection of the craft and, standing beside the centerdoor of the main airlock, were talking with their chief. 

"You say that you think that it's safe, and yet you won't take a crew, "Samms argued. "In that case it isn't safe enough for you men, either. Weneed you too badly to permit you to take such chances. "

"You've _got_ to let us go; because we are the only ones who arethoroughly familiar with her theory, " Rodebush insisted. "I said, andstill say, that I _think_ it is safe. I can't prove it, however, exceptmathematically; because she's altogether too full of too many new anduntried mechanisms, too many extrapolations beyond all existing orpossible data. Theoretically, she is sound, but you know that theory cango only so far, and that mathematically negligible factors may becomeoperative at those velocities. We do not need a crew for a short trip. We can take care of any minor mishaps, and if our fundamental theoriesare wrong, all the crews between here and Jupiter wouldn't do any good. Therefore we two are going--alone. "

"Well, be very careful, anyway. Start out slow and take it easy. "

"Start out slow? We can't! We can't neutralize half of gravity, nor halfof the inertia of matter--it's got to be everything or nothing, as soonas the neutralizers go on. We could start out on the projectors, ofcourse, instead of on the neutralizers, but that wouldn't prove anythingand would only prolong the agony. "

"Well, then, be as careful as you can. "

"We'll do that, Chief, " Cleveland put in. "We think a lot of us, and wearen't committing suicide just yet if we can help it. And remember abouteverybody staying inside when we take off--it's barely possible thatwe'll take up a lot of room. Good-bye to all of you. "

"Good-bye, fellows!"

The massive insulating doors were shut, the metal side of the mountainopened, and huge, squat caterpillar tractors came roaring and clankinginto the room. Chains and cables were made fast and, mighty steel railsgroaning under the load, the space-ship upon her rolling ways wasdragged out of the Hill and far out upon the level floor of the surfacebefore the tractors cast off and returned to the fortress. 

"Everybody is under cover. " Samms informed Rodebush. The chief wasstaring intently into his plate, upon which was revealed the controlroom of the untried super-ship. He heard Rodebush speak to Cleveland;heard the observer's brief reply; saw the navigator throw hisswitches--then the communicator plate went blank. Not the ordinaryblankness of a cut-off, but a peculiarly disquieting fading out intodarkness. And where the great space-ship had rested there was for aninstant nothing. Exactly nothing--a vacuum. Vessel, falsework, rollers, trucks, the enormous steel I-beams of the tracks, even the deep-setconcrete piers and foundations and a vast hemisphere of the solidground; all had disappeared utterly and instantaneously. But almost assuddenly as it had been formed the vacuum was filled by a cyclonic rushof air. There was a detonation as of a hundred vicious thunderclaps madeone, and, through the howling, shrieking blasts of wind, there raineddown upon the valley, plain and metaled mountain a veritable avalancheof debris: bent, twisted, and broken rails and beams, splinteredtimbers, masses of concrete, and thousands of cubic yards of soil androck. For inertia and gravitation had not been neutralized at preciselythe same instant, and for a moment everything within the radius ofaction of the iron-driven gravity nullifiers of the _Boise_ hadcontinued its absolute motion with inertia unimpaired. Then, left behindimmediately by the almost infinite velocity of the cruiser, all thismaterial had again become subject to all of Nature's everyday laws andhad crashed back to the ground. 

"Could you hold your beam, Randolph?" Samm's voice cut sharply throughthe daze of stupefaction which held spellbound most of the denizens ofthe Hill. But all were not so held--no conceivable emergency could takethe attention of the chief ultra-wave operator from his instruments. 

"No, sir, " Radio Center shot back. "It faded out and I couldn't recoverit. I put everything I've got behind a tracer on that beam, but haven'tbeen able to lift a single needle off the pin. "

"And no wreckage of the vessel itself, " Samms went on, half audibly. "Either they have succeeded far beyond their wildest hopes or else ... More probably.... " He fell silent and switched off the plate. Were histwo friends, those intrepid scientists, alive and triumphant, or hadthey gone to lengthen the list of victims of that man-killingspace-ship? Reason told him that they were gone. They _must be_ gone, orelse his ultra-beams--energies of such unthinkable velocity ofpropagation that man's most sensitive instruments had never been ableeven to estimate it--would have held the ship's transmitter in spite ofany velocity attainable by any matter under any conceivable conditions. The ship must have been disintegrated as soon as Rodebush released hisforces. And yet, had not the physicist dimly foreseen the possibility ofsuch an actual velocity--or had he? However, individuals could came andcould go, but Triplanetary went on. Samms squared his shouldersunconsciously, and slowly, grimly, made his way back to his privateoffice. 

He had scant time to mourn. Scarcely had he seated himself at his deskwhen an emergency call came snapping in; a call of such import that hissecretary's usually calm voice trembled as she put it on his plate. 

"Commissioner Hinkle is calling, sir, " she announced. "Somethingterrible is going on again, out toward Orion. Here he is, " and thereappeared upon the screen the face of the Commissioner of Public Safety, the commander of Triplanetary's every armed force--whether of land or ofwater, of air or of empty space. 

"They've come back, Samms!" the Commissioner rapped out, withoutpreliminary or greeting. "Four vessels gone--a freighter and a passengerliner, with her escort of two heavy cruisers. All in Sector M; Dx about151. I have ordered all traffic out of space for the duration of theemergency, and since even our warships seem useless, every ship ismaking for the nearest dock at maximum. How about that new flyer ofyours--got anything that will do us any good?" No one beyond the"Hill's" shielding screens knew that the _Boise_ had already beenlaunched. 

"I don't know. We don't even know whether we have a super-ship or not, "and Samms described briefly the beginning--and very probably theending--of the trial flight, concluding: "It looks bad, but if there wasany possible way of handling her, Rodebush and Cleveland did it. All ourtracers are negative yet, so nothing definite has.... "

He broke off as a frantic call came in from the Pittsburgh station forthe Commissioner, a call which Samms both heard and saw. 

"The city is being attacked!" came the urgent message. "We need all thereinforcements you can send us!" and a picture of the beleaguered cityappeared in ghastly detail upon the screens of the observers; a viewbeing recorded from the air. It required only seconds for thecommissioner to order every available man and engine of war to the seatof conflict; then, having done everything they could, Hinkle and Sammsstared in helpless, fascinated horror into their plates, watching thescenes of carnage and destruction depicted there. 

 * * * * *

The Nevian vessel--the sister-ship, the craft which Costigan had seen inmid-space as it hurtled earthward in response to Nerado's summons--hungpoised in full visibility, high above the metropolis. Scornful of thepitiful weapons wielded by man she hung there, her sinister beauty ofline sharply defined against the cloudless sky. From her shining hullthere reached down a tenuous but rigid rod of crimson energy; a rodwhich slowly swept hither and thither as the detectors of the amphibianssearched out the richest deposits of the precious iron for which theinhuman visitors had come so far. Iron, once solid, now a viscous redliquid, was sluggishly flowing in an ever-thickening stream up thatintangible crimson duct and into the capacious storage tanks of theNevian raider; and wherever that flaming beam went there went also ruin, destruction, and death. Office buildings, skyscrapers toweringmajestically in their architectural symmetry and beauty, collapsed intoheaps of debris as their steel skeletons were abstracted. Deep into theground the beam bored; flood, fire, and explosion following in its wakeas the mazes of underground piping disappeared. And the humanity of thebuildings died: instantaneously and painlessly, never knowing whatstruck them, as the life-bearing iron of their bodies went to swell theNevian stream. 

Pittsburgh's defenses had been feeble indeed. A few antiquated railwayrifles had hurled their shells upward in futile defiance, and had beenquietly absorbed. The district planes of Triplanetary, newly armed withiron-driven ultra-beams, had assembled hurriedly and had attacked theinvader in formation, with but little more success. Under the impact oftheir beams the stranger's screens had flared white, then poised shipand flying squadron alike had been lost to view in a murkily opaqueshroud of crimson flame. The cloud had soon dissolved, and from theplace where the planes had been there had floated or crashed down alitter of non-ferrous wreckage. And now the cone of space-ships from theBuffalo base of Triplanetary was approaching Pittsburgh, hurling itselftoward the Nevian plunderer and toward known, gruesome and hopelessdefeat. 

"Stop them, Hinkle!" Samms cried. "It's sheer slaughter! They haven'tgot a thing--they aren't even equipped yet with the iron drive!"

"I know it, " the commissioner groaned, "and Admiral Barnes knows it aswell as we do, but it can't be helped--wait a minute! The Washingtoncone is reporting. They're as close as the other, and they have the newarmament. Philadelphia is close behind, and so is New York. Now perhapswe can do something!"

The Buffalo flotilla slowed and stopped, and in a matter of minutes thedetachments from the other bases arrived. The cone was formed andiron-driven vessels in the van, the old-type craft far in the rear, itbore down upon the Nevian, vomiting from its hollow front a solidcylinder of annihilation. Once more the screens of the Nevian flaredinto brilliance, once more the red cloud of destruction was flungabroad. But these vessels were not entirely defenseless. Theiriron-driven ultra-generators threw out screens of the Nevians' ownformulae, screens of prodigious power to which the energies of theamphibians clung and at which they clawed and tore in baffled, wildlycoruscant displays of power unthinkable. For minutes the furiousconflict raged, while the inconceivable energy being dissipated by thosestraining screens hurled itself in terribly destructive bolts oflightning upon the city far beneath. 

No battle of such incredible violence could long endure. Triplanetary'sships were already exerting their utmost power, while the Nevians, contemptuous of Solarian science, had not yet uncovered their fullstrength. Thus the last desperate effort of mankind was proved futile asthe invaders forced their beams deeper and deeper into the overloaded, defensive screens of the war-vessels; and one by one the supposedlyinvincible space-ships of humanity dropped in horribly dismemberedwreckage upon the ruins of what had once been Pittsburgh. 

CHAPTER IX

 Specimens

Only too well founded was Costigan's conviction that the submarine ofthe deep-sea fishes had not been able to prevail against Nerado'sformidable engines of destruction. For days the Nevian lifeboat with itsthree Terrestrial passengers hurtled through the interstellar voidwithout incident, but finally the operative's fears were realized--hisfar-flung detector screens reacted; upon his observation plate layrevealed Nerado's mammoth space-ship, in full pursuit of its fleeinglifeboat!

"On your toes, folks--it won't be long now!" Costigan called, andBradley and Clio hurried into the tiny control room. 

Armor donned and tested, the three Terrestrials stared into theobservation plates, watching the rapidly enlarging pictures of theNevian space-ship. Nerado had traced them and was following them, andsuch was the power of the great vessel that the nearly inconceivablevelocity of the lifeboat was the veriest crawl in comparison to that ofthe pursuing cruiser. 

"And we've hardly started to cover the distance back to Tellus. Ofcourse you couldn't get in touch with anybody yet?" Bradley stated, rather than asked. 

"I kept on trying until they blanketed my wave, but all negative. Thousands of times too far for my transmitter. Our only hope of reachinganybody was the mighty slim chance that our super-ship might be prowlingaround out here already, but it isn't, of course. Here they are!"

Reaching out to the control panel, Costigan shot out against the greatvessel wave after wave of lethal vibrations, under whose fiercelyclinging impacts the Nevian defensive screens flared white; but, strangely enough, their own screens did not radiate. As if contemptuousof any weapons the lifeboat might wield, the mother ship simply defendedherself from the attacking beams, in much the same fashion as a wildcatmother wards off the claws and teeth of her spitting, snarling kittenwho is resenting a touch of needed maternal discipline. 

"They probably won't fight us, at that, " Clio first understood thesituation. "This is their own lifeboat, and they want us alive, youknow. "

"There's one more thing we can try--hang on!" Costigan snapped, as hereleased his screens and threw all his power into one enormous pressorbeam. 

The three were thrown to the floor and held there by an awful weight, asif the lifeboat darted away at the stupendous acceleration of the beam'sreaction against the unimaginable mass of the Nevian sky-rover; but theflight was of short duration. Along that pressor beam there crept a dullrod of energy, which surrounded the fugitive shell and brought it slowlyto a halt. Furiously then Costigan set and reset his controls, launchinghis every driving force and his every weapon, but no beam couldpenetrate that red murk, and the lifeboat remained motionless in space. No, not motionless--the red rod was shortening, drawing the truant craftback toward the launching port from which she had so hopefully emerged afew days before. Back and back it was drawn; Costigan's utmost effortsfutile to affect by a hair's breadth its line of motion. Through theopen port the boat slipped neatly, and as it came to a halt in itsoriginal position within the multilayered skin of the monster, theprisoners heard the heavy doors clang shut behind them, one afteranother. 

And then sheets of blue fire snapped and crackled all about the threesuits of Triplanetary armor--the two large human figures and the smallone were outlined starkly in blinding blue flame. 

"That's the first thing that has come off according to schedule. "Costigan laughed, a short, fierce bark. "That is their paralyzing ray;we've got it stopped cold, and we've each got enough iron to hold itforever. "

"But it looks as though the best we can do is to stalemate, " Bradleyargued. "Even if they can't paralyze us, we can't hurt them, and we areheading back for Nevia. "

"I think Nerado will come in for a conference, and we'll be able to maketerms of some kind. He must know what these Lewistons will do, and heknows that we'll get a chance to use them, some way or other, before hegets to us again, " Costigan asserted confidently--but again he waswrong. 

The door opened, and through it there waddled, rolled, or crawled ametal-clad monstrosity--a thing with wheels, legs, and writhingtentacles of jointed bronze; a thing possessed of defensive screenssufficiently powerful to absorb the full blast of the Triplanetaryprojectors without effort. Three brazen tentacles reached out throughthe ravening beams of the Lewistons, smashed them to bits, and wrappedthemselves in unbreakable shackles about the armored forms of the threehuman beings. Through the door the machine or creature carried itshelpless load, and out into and along a main corridor. And soon thethree Terrestrials, without armor, without arms, and almost withoutclothing, were standing in the control room, again facing the calm andunmoved Nerado. To the surprise of the impetuous Costigan, the Neviancommander was entirely without rancor. 

"The desire for freedom is perhaps common to all forms of animate life, "he commented, through the transformer. "As I told you before, however, you are specimens to be studied by the College of Science, and you shallbe so studied in spite of anything you may do. Resign yourselves tothat. "

"Well, say that we don't try to make any more trouble; that weco-operate in the examination and give you whatever information we can, "Costigan suggested. "Then you will probably be willing to give us a shipand let us go back to our own world?"

"You will not be allowed to cause any more trouble, " the amphibiandeclared, coldly. "Your co-operation will not be required. We will takefrom you whatever knowledge and information we wish. In all probabilityyou will never be allowed to return to your own system, because asspecimens you are too unique to lose. But enough of this idlechatter--take them back to their quarters!"

And back to their inter-communicating rooms the prisoners were led underheavy guard. 

True to his word, Nerado made certain that they had no moreopportunities to escape. All the way back to far-distant Nevia thespace-ship sped, where at once, in manacles, the Terrestrials were takento the College of Science, there to undergo the physical and psychicalexaminations which Nerado had promised them. 

Clio and Costigan learned that the Nevian scientist-captain had noterred in stating that their co-operation was neither needed nor desired. Furious but impotent, the human beings were studied in laboratory afterlaboratory by the coldly analytical, unfeeling scientists of Nevia, towhom they were nothing more nor less than specimens; and in full measurethey came to know what it meant to play the part of an unknown, lowlyorganism in a biological research. They were photographed, externallyand internally. Every bone, muscle, organ, vessel, and nerve was studiedand charted. Every reflex and reaction was noted and discussed. Metersregistered every impulse and recorders filmed every thought, every idea, and every sensation. Endlessly, day after day, the nerve-wrackingtorture went on, until the frantic subjects could bear no more. White-faced and shaking, Clio finally screamed wildly, hysterically, asshe was being strapped down upon a laboratory bench; and at the soundCostigan's nerves, already at the breaking point, gave way in anoutburst of Berserk fury. 

The man's struggles and the girl's shrieks were alike futile, but thesurprised Nevians, after a consultation, decided to give the specimens avacation. To that end they were installed, together with their earthlybelongings, in a three-roomed structure of transparent metal, floatingin the large central lagoon of the city. There they were leftundisturbed for a time--undisturbed, that is, except by the continuousgaze of the crowd of hundreds of amphibians which constantly surroundedthe floating cottage. 

"First we're bugs under a microscope, " Bradley growled, "then we'regoldfish in a bowl. I don't know that.... "

He broke off as two of their jailers entered the room. Without a wordinto the transformers, they seized Bradley and the girl. As thosetentacular arms stretched out toward Clio, Costigan leaped. A vainattempt. In midair the paralyzing ray of the Nevians touched him and hecrashed heavily to the crystal floor; and from that floor he looked onin helpless, raging fury while his sweetheart and his captain werecarried out of their prison and into a waiting submarine. 

CHAPTER X

 The _Boise_ Acts

But what of the super-ship? What happened after that inertialess, thatterribly destructive take-off?

Doctor Frederick Rodebush sat at the control panel of Triplanetary'snewly reconstructed space-ship, his hands grasping the gleaming, ebonitehandles of two double-throw switches. Facing the unknown though thephysicist was, yet he grinned whimsically at his friend. 

"Something, whatever it is, is about to take place. The _Boise_ istaking off, under full neutralization. Ready for anything to happen, Cleve?"

"All ready--shoot!" Laconically. Cleveland also was constitutionallyunable to voice his deeper sentiments in time of stress. 

Rodebush flipped the switches clear over in flashing arcs, and instantlyover both men there came a sensation akin to a tremendously intensifiedvertigo; but a vertigo as far beyond the space-sickness ofweightlessness, as that horrible sensation is beyond mere terrestrialdizziness. The pilot tried to reverse the switches he had just thrown, but his leaden hands utterly refused to obey the dictates of his reelingmind. His brain was a writhing, convulsive mass of tormentindescribable; expanding, exploding, swelling out with an unendurablepressure against its confining skull. Fiery spirals, laced withstreaming, darting lances of black and green, flamed inside his burstingeyeballs. The Universe spun and whirled in mad gyrations about him as hereeled drunkenly to his feet, staggering and sprawling. He fell. Herealized that he was falling, yet he could not fall! Thrashing wildly, grotesquely in agony, he struggled madly and blindly across the room, directly toward the thick steel wall. The tip of one hair of his unrulythatch touched the wall, and the slim length of that single hair did noteven bend as its slight strength brought to an instant halt thehundred-and-eighty-odd pounds of mass--mass now entirely withoutinertia--that was his body. 

But finally the sheer brain power of the man began to triumph over hisphysical torture. By indomitable force of will he compelled his gropinghands to seize a life-line, almost meaningless to his dazedintelligence; and through that nightmare incarnate of hellish torture hefought his way back to the control board. Hooking one leg around astandard, he made a seemingly enormous effort and drove the two switchesback into their original positions; then fell flat upon the floor, weakly but in a wave of relief and thankfulness, as his racked body feltagain the wonted phenomena of weight and of inertia. White, trembling, frankly and openly sick, the two men stared at each other in half-amazedjoy. 

"It worked. " Cleveland smiled wanly as he recovered sufficiently tospeak, then leaped to his feet. "Snap it up, Fred! We must be fallingfast--we'll be wrecked when we hit!"

"We're not falling anywhere. " Rodebush, foreboding in his eyes, walkedover to the main observation plate and scanned the heavens. "However, it's not as bad as I was afraid it might be. I can still recognize a fewof the constellations, even though they are all pretty badly distorted. That means that we can't be more than a couple of light-years or so awayfrom the Solar System. Of course, since we had so little thrust on, practically all of our time and energy was spent in getting out of theatmosphere; but, even at that, it's a good thing that space isn't anabsolutely perfect vacuum or we would have been clear out of theUniverse by this time. "

"Huh? Impossible--where are we anyway? Then we must be making mil ... Oh, I see!" Cleveland exclaimed in disjointed sentences as he alsostared into the plate. 

"Right. We aren't traveling at all _now_. " Rodebush replied. "We areperfectly stationary relative to Tellus, since we made the hop withoutinertia. We must have attained one hundred percent neutralization, whichwe didn't quite expect, and therefore we must have stoppedinstantaneously when our inertia was restored. But it isn't _where_ weare that is worrying me the most--we can fix our place in spaceaccurately enough by a few observations--it's _when_. "

"That's right, too. Say we're two light-years away. You think maybewe're two years older than we were ten minutes ago, then? That'spossible, of course, maybe probable: there's been a lot of discussion onthat theory. Now's a good time to prove or to disprove it. Let's snapback to Tellus and find out. "

"We'll do that, after a little more experimenting. You see, I had nointention of giving us such a long push. I was going to throw theswitches over and back, but you know what happened. However, there's onegood thing about it--it's worth two years of anybody's life to settlethat relativity-time thing definitely, one way or the other. "

"I'll say it is. But say, we've got a lot of power on our ultra-wave:enough to reach Tellus, I think. Let's locate the sun and get in touchwith Samms. "

"Let's work on these controls a little first, so we'll have something toreport. Out here's a fine place to try the ship out--nothing in theway. "

"All right with me. But I _would_ like to find out whether I'm two yearsolder than I think I am, or not!"

Then for hours they put the great super-ship through her paces, just astest-pilots check up on every detail of performance of an airplane ofnew and radical design. They found that the horrible vertigo could beendured, perhaps in time even conquered as space-sickness could beconquered, by a strong will in a sound body; and that their newconveyance had possibilities of which even Rodebush had never dreamed. Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they turned their mostpowerful ultra-beam communicator toward the yellowish star which theyknew to be Old Sol. 

"Samms ... Samms. " Cleveland spoke slowly and distinctly. "Rodebush andCleveland reporting from the 'Space-Eating Wampus', now directly in linewith Beta Ursae Minoris from the sun, distance about two point two lightyears. It will take six banks of tubes on your tightest beam, LSV3, toreach us. Barring a touch of an unusually severe type of space-sickness, everything worked beautifully; even better than our calculations showed. There's something we want to know right away--have we been gone fourhours and some odd minutes, or better than two years?"

He shut off the power, turned to Rodebush, and went on:

"Nobody knows how fast this ultra-wave travels, but if it goes as fastas we did coming out it's certainly moving. I'll give him about thirtyminutes, then shoot in another call. "

But in less than two minutes the care-ravaged face of their chiefappeared sharp and clear upon their plates and his voice snapped curtlyfrom the speaker. 

"Thank God you're alive, and twice that the ship works!" he exclaimed. "You've been gone four hours, eleven minutes, and forty-one seconds, butnever mind about abstract theorizing. Get back here, to Pittsburgh, asfast as you can drive. That Nevian vessel or another like her is moppingup the city, and has destroyed half the Fleet already!"

"We'll be back there in nine minutes!" Rodebush snapped into thetransmitter. "Two to get from here to atmosphere, four from atmospheredown to the Hill, and three to cool off. Notify the full four-shiftcrew--everybody we've picked out. Don't need anybody else. Ship, batteries, and armament are _ready_!"

"Two minutes to atmosphere, and it took ten coming out? Think you can doit?" Cleveland asked, as Rodebush flipped off the power and leaped tothe control panel. 

"We could do it in a few seconds if we had to. We used scarcely anypower at all coming out, and I'm not using very much going back, " thephysicist explained rapidly, as he set the dials which would determinetheir flashing course. 

The master switches were thrown and the pangs of inertialessness againassailed them--but weaker far this time than ever before--and upon theirlookout plates they beheld a spectacle never before seen by eye of man. For the ultra-beam, with its heterodyned vision, is not distorted by anyvelocity yet attained, as are the ether-borne rays of light. Convertedinto light only at the plate, it showed their progress as truly asthough they had been traveling at a pace to be expressed in the ordinaryterms of miles per hour. The yellow star that was the sun detacheditself from the firmament and leaped toward them, swelling visibly, momentarily, into a blinding monster of incandescence. And toward themalso flung the earth, enlarging with such indescribable rapidity thatCleveland protested involuntarily, in spite of his knowledge of thepeculiar mechanism of the vessel in which they were. 

"Hold it, Fred, hold it! Way 'nuff!" he exclaimed. 

"I'm using only ten thousand dynes, so she'll stop herself as soon as wetouch atmosphere, long before she can even begin to heat, " Rodebushexplained. "Looks bad, but we'll stop without a jar. "

And they did. Weightless and without inertia, gravitation powerlessagainst her neutralizing generators, the great super-ship came from herpractically infinite velocity to an almost instantaneous halt in theoutermost, most tenuous layer of the earth's atmosphere. Her halt wasbut momentary. Inertia restored and gravitation allowed again to affecther mass, she dropped at a sharp angle downward. More than dropped; shewas forced downward by one full battery of projectors; projectors drivenby iron-powered generators. Soon they were over the Hill, whose violetscreens went down at a word. 

Flaming a dazzling white from the friction of the atmosphere throughwhich she had torn her way, the _Boise_ slowed abruptly as she nearedthe ground, plunging toward the surface of the small but deep artificiallake below the Hill's steel apron. Into the cold waters the space-shipdove, and even before they could close over her, furious geysers ofsteam and boiling water erupted as the stubborn alloy gave up its heatto the cooling liquid. Endlessly the three necessary minutes draggedtheir slow way into time, but finally the water ceased boiling andRodebush tore the ship from the lake and hurled her into the gapingdoorway of her dock. The massive doors of the air-locks opened, andwhile the full crew of picked men hurried aboard with their personalequipment, Samms talked earnestly to the two scientists in the controlroom. 

" ... And about half the fleet is still in the air. They aren'tattacking; they are just trying to keep her from doing much more damageuntil you can get there. How about your take-off? We can't launch youagain--the tracks are gone--but you handled her easily enough comingin?"

"That was all my fault, " Rodebush admitted. "I should have neutralizedinertia first, but I had no idea that the fields would extend beyond thehull, nor that they wouldn't act simultaneously. We'll take her out onthe projectors this time, though, the same as we brought her in--shehandles like a bicycle. The projector blast tears things up a little, but nothing serious. Have you got that Pittsburgh beam for me yet? We'reabout ready to go. "

"Here it is, Doctor Rodebush, " came the secretary's voice, and upon thescreen there flashed into being the view of the events transpiring abovethat doomed city. "The dock is empty and sealed against your blast, " andthereupon "Good-bye, and power to your tubes!" came Samms' ringingvoice. 

As the words were being spoken, mighty blasts of power raved from thedriving projectors and the immense mass of the super-ship shot outthrough the portals and upward into the stratosphere. Through thetenuous atmosphere the huge ship rushed with ever-mounting speed, andwhile the hope of Triplanetary drove eastward Rodebush studied theever-changing scene of battle upon his plate and issued detailedinstructions to the highly trained specialists manning every offensiveand defensive weapon. 

But the Nevians did not wait to join battle until the newcomers arrived. Their detectors were sensitive--operative over untold thousands ofmiles--and the ultra-screen of the Hill had already been noted by theinvaders as the earth's only possible source of trouble. Thus thedeparture of the _Boise_ had not gone unnoticed, and the fact, that, noteven with his most penetrant rays could he see into her interior, hadalready given the Nevian commander some slight concern. Therefore, assoon as it was determined that the great ship was being directed towardPittsburgh the fish-shaped cruiser of the void went into action. 

High in the stratosphere, speeding eastward, the immense mass of the_Boise_ slowed abruptly, although no projector had slackened its effort. Cleveland, eyes upon interferometer grating and spectrophotometercharts, fingers flying over calculator keys, grinned as he turned towardRodebush. 

"Just as you thought, Skipper; an ultra-band pusher. C4V63L29. Shall Igive him a little pull?"

"Not yet; let's feel him out a little before we force a close-up. We'vegot plenty of mass. See what he does when I put full push on theprojectors. "

As the full power of the Terrestrial vessel was applied the Nevian wasforced backward, away from the threatened city, against the full driveof her every projector. Soon, however, the advance was again checked, and both scientists read the reason upon their plates. The enemy had putdown re-enforcing rods of tremendous power. Three compression membersspread out fanwise behind her, bracing her against the low mountainside, while one huge tractor beam was thrust directly downward, holding in anunbreakable grip a cylinder of earth extending deep down into bedrock. 

"Two can play at that game!" And Rodebush drove down similar beams, andforward-reaching tractors as well. "Strap yourselves in solid, everybody!" he sounded a general warning. "Something is going to giveway somewhere soon, and when it does we'll get a jolt!"

And the promised jolt did indeed come soon. Prodigiously massive andpowerful as the Nevian was, the _Boise_ was even more massive and morepowerful; and as the already enormous energy feeding the tractors, pushers, and projectors was raised to its inconceivable maximum, thevessel of the enemy was hurled upward, backward; and that of earth shotahead with a bounding leap that threatened to strain even her mightymembers. The Nevian anchor-rods had not broken; they had simply pulledup the vast cylinders of solid rock that had formed their anchorages. 

"Grab him now!" Rodebush yelled, and even while an avalanche of fallingrock was burying the countryside, Cleveland snapped a tractor ray uponthe flying fish and pulled tentatively. 

Nor did the Nevian now seem averse to coming to grips. The two warringsuper-dreadnaughts darted toward each other, and from the invader thereflooded out the dread crimson opacity which had theretofore meant thedoom of all things Solarian. It flooded out and engulfed the immensemass of humanity's hope in its spreading cloud of redly impenetrablemurk. But not for long. Triplanetary's super-ship boasted no ordinaryTerrestrial defense, but was sheathed in screen after screen ofultra-vibrations: imponderable walls, it is true, but barriersimpenetrable to any unfriendly wave. To the outer screen the red veil ofthe Nevians clung tenaciously, licking greedily at every square inch ofthe shielding sphere of force, but unable to find an opening throughwhich to feed upon the steel of the _Boise_'s armor. 

"Get back--'way back! Go back and help Pittsburgh!" Rodebush drove anultra-communicator beam through the murk to the instruments of theTerrestrial admiral; for the surviving warships of the Fleet--its mostpowerful units--were hurling themselves forward, to plunge into that reddestruction. "None of you will last a second in this red field. Andwatch out for a violet field pretty soon--it'll be worse than this. Wecan handle them alone, I think; but if we can't, there's nothing in theSystem that can help us!"

And now the hitherto passive screen of the super-ship became active. Atfirst invisible, it began to glow in livid, violet light, and as theglow brightened to unbearable intensity the entire spherical shieldbegan to increase in size. Driven outward from the super-ship as acenter, its advancing surface of seething energy consumed the crimsonmurk as a billow of blast-furnace heat consumes a cloud of snowflakes inthe air above its shaft. Nor was the red death-mist all that wasconsumed. Between that ravening surface and the armor skin of the_Boise_ there was nothing. No debris, no atmosphere, no vapor, no singleatom of material substance--the first time in Terrestrial experiencethat an absolute vacuum had ever been attained!

Stubbornly contesting every foot of way lost, the Nevian fog retreatedbefore the violet sphere of nothingness. Back and back it fell, disappearing altogether from all space as the violet tide engulfed theenemy vessel; but the flying fish did not disappear. Her triple screensflashed into furiously incandescent splendor and she entered, unscathed, that vacuous sphere, which collapsed instantly into an enormouslyelongated ellipsoid, at each focus a madly warring ship of space. 

Then in that tube of vacuum was waged a spectacular duel ofultra-weapons--weapons impotent in air, but deadly in empty space. Beams, rays, and rods of Titanic power smote cracklingly againstultra-screens equally capable. Time after time each contestant ran thegamut of the spectrum with his every available ultra-force, only to findall channels closed. For minutes the terrible struggle went on, then:

"Cooper, Adlington, Spencer, Dutton!" Rodebush called into histransmitter. "Ready? Can't touch him on the ultra, so I'm going onto themacro-bands. Give him everything you have as soon as I collapse theviolet. Go!"

At the word the violet barrier went down, and with a crash as of adisrupting Universe the atmosphere rushed into the void. And through thehurricane there shot out the deadliest material weapons of Triplanetary. Torpedoes--non-ferrous, ultra-screened, beam-dirigible torpedoes chargedwith the most effective forms of material destruction known to man. Cooper hurled his canisters of penetrating gas, Adlington his atomiciron explosive bombs, Spencer his indestructible armor-piercingprojectiles, and Dutton his shatterable flasks of the quintessence ofcorrosion--a sticky, tacky liquid of such dire potency that only onerare Solarian element could contain it. Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundredwere thrown as fast as automatic machinery could launch them; and theNevians found themselves adversaries not to be despised. Size for size, their screens were quite as capable as those of the _Boise_. TheNevians' destructive rays glanced harmlessly from their shields, and theNevians' elaborate screens, neutralized at impact by those of thetorpedoes, were impotent to impede their progress. Each projectile mustneeds be caught and crushed individually by beams of the most prodigiouspower; and while one was being annihilated dozens more were rushing tothe attack. Then, while the twisting, dodging invader was busiest withthe tiny but relentless destroyers, Rodebush launched his heaviestweapon. 

The macro-beams! Prodigious streamers of bluish-green flame which toresavagely through course after course of Nevian screen! Malevolent fangs, driven with such power and velocity that they were biting into the verywalls of the enemy vessel before the amphibians knew their defensiveshells of force had been punctured! And the emergency screens of theinvaders were equally futile. Course after course was sent out, only toflare viciously through the spectrum and to go black!

Outfought at every turn, the now frantically dodging Nevian leaped awayin headlong flight, only to be brought to a staggering, crashing halt asCleveland nailed her with a tractor beam. But the Terrestrials were tolearn that the Nevians held in reserve a means of retreat. The tractorsnapped--sheared off squarely by a sizzling plane of force--and thefish-shaped cruiser faded from Cleveland's sight, just as the _Boise_had disappeared from the communicator plates of Radio Center, back inthe Hill, when she was launched. But though the plates in the controlroom could not hold the Nevian, she did not vanish beyond the ken ofRandolph, now Communications Officer in the super-ship. For, warned andhumiliated by his losing one speeding vessel from his plates in RadioCenter, he was now ready for any emergency. Therefore as the Nevianfled, Randolph's spy-ray held her, automatically behind it as there wasthe full output of twelve special banks of iron-driven power tubes; andthus it was that the vengeful Terrestrials flashed immediately along theNevians' line of flight. Inertialess now, pausing briefly from time totime to enable the crew to accustom themselves to the new sensations, the _Boise_ pursued the invader; hurtling through the void with avelocity unthinkable. 

"He was easier to take than I thought he would be, " Cleveland grunted, staring into the plate. 

"I thought he had more stuff, too, " Rodebush assented; "but I guessCostigan got almost everything they had. If so, with all our own stuffand most of theirs besides, we should be able to take them. They musthave neutralization, too, to take off like that; and if it's one hundredper cent we'll never catch them ... But it isn't--there they are!"

"And this time I'm going to hold her or burn out all our generatorstrying, " Cleveland declared, grimly. "Are you fellows down there able tohandle yourselves yet? Fine! Start throwing out your cans!"

Space-hardened veterans all, the other Terrestrial officers had foughtoff the horrible nausea of inertialessness, just as Rodebush andCleveland had done. Again the ravening green macro-beams tore at theflying cruiser, again the mighty frames of the two space-ships shudderedsickeningly as Cleveland clamped on his tractor rod, again the highlydirigible torpedoes dashed out with their freights of death anddestruction. And again the Nevian shear-plane of force slashed at theTerrestrial's tractor beam; but this time the mighty puller did not giveway. Sparkling and spitting high-tension sparks, the plane bit deeplyinto the stubborn rod of energy. Brighter, thicker, and longer grew thedischarges as the gnawing plane drew more and more power; but in directratio to that power the rod grew larger, denser, and ever harder to cut. More and more vivid became the pyrotechnic display of electricbrilliance, until suddenly the entire tractor rod disappeared. At thesame instant a blast of intolerable flame erupted from the _Boise_'sflank and the whole enormous fabric of her shook and quivered under theforce of a terrific detonation. 

"Randolph! I don't see them! Are they attacking or running?" Rodebushdemanded. He was the first to realize what had happened. 

"Running--fast!"

"Just as well, perhaps, but get their line. Adlington!"

"Here!"

"Good! Was afraid you were gone--that was one of your bombs, wasn't it?"

"Yes. Well launched, just inside the screens. Don't see how it couldhave detonated unless something hot and hard struck it in the tube; itwould need about that much time to explode. Good thing it didn't go offany sooner, or none of us would have been here. As it is, Area Six ispretty well done in, but the bulkheads held the damage to Six. Whathappened?"

"We don't know, exactly. Both generators on the tractor beam went out. At first, I thought that was all, but my neutralizers are dead and Idon't know what else. When the G-4's went out the fusion must haveshorted the neutralizers. They would make a mess; it must have burned ahole down into number six tube. Cleveland and I will come down, andwe'll all look around. "

Donning space-suits, the scientists let themselves into the damagedcompartment through the emergency air-locks, and what a sight they saw!Both outer and inner walls of alloy armor had been blown away by theawful force of the explosion. Jagged plates hung awry; bent, twisted, and broken. The great torpedo tube, with all its intricate automaticmachinery, had been driven violently backward and lay piled in hideousconfusion against the backing bulkheads. Practically nothing remainedwhole in the entire compartment. 

"Nothing much we can do here, " Rodebush said finally, through histransmitter, "Let's go see what number four generator room looks like. "

That room, although not affected by the explosion from without, had beenquite as effectively wrecked from within. It was still stiflingly hot;its air was still reeking with the stench of burning lubricant, insulation, and metal; its floor was half covered by a semi-molten massof what had once been vital machinery. For with the burning out of thegenerator bars the energy of the disintegrating allotropic iron had hadno outlet, and had built up until it had broken through its insulationand in an irresistible flood of power had torn through all obstacles inits path of neutralization. 

"Hm-m-m. Should have had an automatic shut-off--one detail weoverlooked, " Rodebush mused. "The electricians _can_ rebuild this stuffhere, though--that hole in the hull is something else again. "

"I'll say it's something else, " the grizzled Chief Engineer agreed. "She's lost all her spherical strength--anchoring a tractor with thisship now would turn her inside out. Back to the nearest Triplanetaryshop for us, I would say. "

"Come again, Chief!" Cleveland advised the engineer. "None of us wouldlive long enough to get there. We can't travel inertialess until therepairs are made, so if they can't be made without very much traveling, it's just too bad. "

"I don't see how we could support our jacks.... " The engineer paused, then went on. "If you can't give me Mars or Tellus, how about some otherplanet? I don't care about atmosphere, or about anything but mass. I canstiffen her up in three or four days if I can sit down on somethingheavy enough to hold our jacks and presses; but if we have to rig upspace-cradles around the ship herself it'll take a long time--months, probably. Haven't got a spare planet on hand, have you?"

"We might have, at that, " Rodebush made surprising answer. "A couple ofseconds before we engaged we were heading toward a sun with at least twoplanets. I was just getting ready to dodge them when we cut theneutralizers, so they should be fairly close somewhere--yes, there's thesun, right over there. Rather pale and small; but it's close, comparatively speaking. We'll go back up into the control room and findout about the planets. "

The strange sun was found to have three large and easily locatedchildren, and observation showed that the crippled space-ship couldreach the nearest of these in about five days. Power was therefore fedto the driving projectors, and each scientist, electrician, and mechanicbent to the task of repairing the ruined generators; rebuilding them tohandle any load which the converters could possibly put upon them. Fortwo days the _Boise_ drove on; then her acceleration was reversed, andfinally a landing was effected upon the forbidding, rocky soil of thestrange world. 

It was larger than the earth, and of a somewhat stronger gravitation. Although its climate was bitterly cold, even in its short daytime, itsupported a luxuriant but outlandish vegetation. Its atmosphere, whilerich enough in oxygen and not really poisonous, was so rank withindescribably fetid vapors as to be scarcely breathable. 

But these things bothered the engineers not at all. Paying no attentionto temperature or to scenery and without waiting for chemical analysisof the air, the space-suited mechanics leaped to their tasks; and inonly a little more time than had been mentioned by the chief engineerthe hull and giant frame of the super-ship were as staunch as of yore. 

"All right, Skipper!" came finally the welcome word. "You might try herout with a fast hop around this world before you shove off in earnest. "

Under the fierce blast of her projectors the vessel leaped ahead, andtime after time, as Rodebush hurled her mass upon tractor beam orpressor, the engineers sought in vain for any sign of weakness. Thestrange planet half girdled and the severest tests passed flawlessly, Rodebush reached for his neutralizer switches. Reached and paused, dumfounded, for a brilliant purple light had sprung into being upon hispanel and a bell rang out insistently. 

"What the blue blazes!" Rodebush shot out an exploring beam along thedetector line and gasped. He stared, mouth open, then yelled:

"_Roger_ is here, rebuilding his planetoid! _STATIONS ALL_!"

CHAPTER XI

 Roger Carries On

For gray Roger had not perished in the floods of Nevian energy which haddestroyed his planetoid. While those terrific streamers of forceemanating from the crimson obscurity surrounding the amphibians'space-ship were driving into his defensive screens, Roger sat impassiveand immobile at his desk. His hard gray eyes moved methodically over hisinstruments and recorders; and after a few minutes he smiled coldly, while an expression of relief struggled fleetingly to move hisexpressionless face. Even though his screens were better than anyone hadsupposed, why admit it?

"Baxter, Hartkopf, Chatelier, Anandrusung, Penrose, Nishimura, Mirsky.... " He called off a list of names. "Report to me here at once!"

"The planetoid is lost, " he informed his select group of scientists whenthey had assembled, "and we must abandon it in exactly fifteen minutes, which will be the time required for the robots to fill this firstsection with our most necessary machinery and instruments. Pack each ofyou one box of the things he most wishes to take with him, and reportback here in not more than thirteen minutes. Say nothing to anyoneelse. "

They filed out calmly, and as they passed out into the hall Baxter, perhaps a trifle less case-hardened than his fellows, at least voiced athought for those they were so brutally deserting. 

"I say, it seems a bit thick to dash off this way and leave the rest ofthem; but still, I suppose.... "

"You suppose correctly. " Bland and heartless Nishimura filled in thepause. "A small part of the planetoid may be able to escape; which, tome at least, is pleasantly surprising news. It cannot carry all of ourmen and mechanisms, therefore only the most important of both are saved. What would you? For the rest it is simply what you call 'the fortune ofwar, ' no?"

"But the beautiful.... " began the amorous Chatelier. 

"Hush, fool!" snorted Hartkopf. "One word of that to the ear of Rogerand you too are left behind. Of such non-essentials the Universe isfull, to be collected in times of ease, but in times hard to bedisregarded. Und this is a time of schrecklichkeit indeed!"

 [Illustration:

 And through that terrific conduit came speeding package after package of destruction. ]

The group broke up, each man going to his own quarters; to meet again inthe First Section a few minutes before the zero time. Roger's "office"was now packed so tightly with machinery and supplies that but littleroom was left for the scientists. The gray monstrosity still sat unmovedbehind his dials. 

"But of what use is it, Roger?" the Russian physicist demanded. "Thosewaves are of some ultra-band, of a frequency immensely higher thananything heretofore known. Our screens should not have stopped them foran instant. It is a mystery that they have held so long, and certainlythis single section will not be permitted to leave the planetoid withoutbeing destroyed. "

"There are many things you do not know, Mirsky, " came the cold and levelanswer. "Our screens, which you think are of your own devising, haveseveral improvements of my own in the formulae, and would hold foreverhad I the power to drive them. The screens of this section, beingsmaller, can be held as long as will be found necessary. "

"Power!" the dumfounded Russian exclaimed. "Why, we have almost infinitepower--unlimited--sufficient for a lifetime of high expenditure!"

But Roger made no reply, for the time of departure was at hand. Hepressed down a tiny lever, and a robot in the power room threw in thegigantic plunger switches which launched against the Nevians thestupendous beam which so upset the complacence of Nerado theamphibian--the beam into which was poured recklessly every resource ofpower afforded by the planetoid, careless alike of burn-out and ofexhaustion. Then, all the attention of the Nevians and the greater partof their power output devoted to the neutralization of that lastdesperate thrust, the metal wall of the planetoid opened and the FirstSection shot out into space. Full-driven as they were, Roger's screensflared white as he drove through the temporarily lessened attack of theNevians; but in their preoccupation the amphibians did not notice theadditional disturbance and the section tore on, unobserved andundetected. Far out in space, Roger raised his eyes from the instrumentpanel and continued the conversation as though it had not beeninterrupted. 

"Everything is relative, Mirsky, and you have misused gravely the term'unlimited. ' Our power was, and is, very definitely limited. True, itthen seemed ample for our needs, and is far superior to that possessedby the inhabitants of any solar system with which I am familiar; but thebeings behind that red screen, whoever they are, have sources of poweras far above ours as ours are above those of the Solarians. "

"How do you know?"

"That power, what is it?" "We have, then, the analyses of those fieldsrecorded!" Came simultaneous questions and explanations. 

"Their power-source is very probably the intra-atomic energy of iron;and if so, much remains to be done before I can proceed with my plan. Imust have the most powerful structure in the known Universe before I canact. In the light of what I have just learned, the loss of the planetoidis but a trifle. " Roger, as unmoved as one of his own automatons, wascoldly analyzing the situation, thinking the thing through to itslogical conclusion, paying no attention whatever to the losses of life, time and treasure now behind him. 

"But what can you do about it?" growled the Russian. 

"Many things. From the charts of the recorders we can compute theirfields of force, and from that point it is only a step to their methodof liberating the energy. We shall build robots. They shall build otherrobots, who shall in turn construct another planetoid; one this timethat, wielding the theoretical maximum of power, will be suited to myneeds. "

"And where will you build it? We are marked. Invisibility now isuseless. Triplanetary will find us, even if we take up an orbit beyondthat of Pluto!"

"We have already left your Solarian system far behind. We are going toanother system; one far enough removed so that the spy-rays ofTriplanetary will never find us, and yet one that we can reach in areasonable length of time with the energies at our command. Some fifteendays will be required for the journey, however, and our quarters arecramped. Therefore make places for yourselves wherever you can, andlessen the tedium of those fifteen days by working upon whateverproblems are most pressing in your respective researches. "

The gray monster fell silent, immersed in what thoughts no one knew, andthe scientists set out to obey his orders. Baxter, the British chemist, followed Penrose, the lantern-jawed, saturnine American engineer andinventor, as he made his way to the furthermost cubicle of the section. 

"I say, Penrose, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions, if you don'tmind?"

"Go ahead. Ordinarily it's dangerous to be a cackling hen anywherearound _him_, but he can't hear anything here now. His system is prettywell shot to pieces. You want to know all I know about Roger?"

"Exactly so. You have been with him so much longer than I have, youknow. In some ways he impresses one as being scarcely human, if you knowwhat I mean. Ridiculous, of course, but of late I have been wonderingwhether he really _is_ human. He knows too much, about too many things. He seems to be acquainted with many solar systems, to visit which wouldrequire life-times. Then, too, he has dropped remarks which would implythat he actually saw things that happened long before any living mancould possibly have been born. Finally, he looks--well, peculiar--andcertainly does not act human. I have been wondering, and have been ableto learn nothing about him; as you have said, such talk as this aboardthe planetoid was impossible. "

"You needn't worry about being paid your price; that's one thing. If welive--and that was part of the agreement, you know--we will all get whatwe sold out for. You will become a belted earl. I have already mademillions, and shall make many more. Similarly, Chatelier has had andwill have his women, Anandrusung and Nishimura their cherished revenges. Hartkopf his power, and so on. " He eyed the other speculatively, thenwent on:

"I might as well spill it all, since I'll never have a better chance andsince you should know what the rest of us do. You're in the same boatwith us and tarred with the same brush. There's a lot of gossip, thatmay or may not be true, but I know one very startling fact. Here it is. My great-great-grandfather left some notes which, taken in connectionwith certain things I myself saw on the planetoid, prove beyond questionthat our Roger went to Harvard University at the same time he did. Rogerwas a grown man then, and the elder Penrose noted that he was marked, like this, " and the American sketched a cabalistic design. 

"What!" Baxter exclaimed. "An adept of North Polar Jupiter--_them?_"

"Yes. That was before the First Jovian War, you know, and it was thosemedicine-men--really high-caliber scientists--that prolonged that warso.... "

"But I say, Penrose, that's really a bit thick. When they were wiped outit was proved a lot of hocus-pocus.... "

"Some of it was, but most of it wasn't, " Penrose interrupted in turn. "I'm not asking you to believe anything except that one fact; I'm justtelling you the rest of it. But it is also a fact that those adepts knewthings and did things that take a lot of explaining. Now for the gossip, none of which is guaranteed. Roger is undoubtedly of Tellurianparentage, and the story is that his father was a moon-pirate, hismother a Greek adventuress. When the pirates were chased off the moonthey went to Ganymede, you know, and some of them were captured by theJovians. It seems that Roger was born at an instant of time sacred tothe adepts, so they took him on. He worked his way up through theForbidden Society as all adepts did, by various kinds of murder and joblots of assorted deviltries, until he got clear to the top--theseventy-seventh mystery.... "

"The secret of eternal youth!" gasped Baxter, awed in spite of himself. 

"Right, and he stayed Chief Devil, in spite of all the efforts of allhis ambitious sub-devils to kill him, until the turning-point of theFirst Jovian War. He cut away then in a space-ship, and ever since thenhe has been working--and working hard--on some stupendous plan of hisown that nobody else has ever got even an inkling of. That's the story. True or not, it explains a lot of things that no other theory can touch. And now I think you'd better shuffle along; enough of this is a greatplenty!"

Baxter went to his own cubby, and each man of the adept's cold-bloodedcrew methodically took up his task. True to prediction, in fifteen daysa planet loomed beneath them and their vessel settled through a reekingatmosphere toward a rocky and forbidding plain. Then for another daythey plunged along, a few thousand feet above the surface of thatstrange world, while Roger with his analytical detectors sought the mostfavorable location from which to wrest the materials necessary for hisprogram of construction. 

It was a world of cold; its sun was distant, pale, and wan. It hadmonstrous forms of vegetation, of which each branch and member writhedand fought with a grotesque and horrible individual activity. Ever andanon a struggling part broke from its parent plant and darted away inindependent existence; leaping upon and consuming or being consumed by afellow creature equally monstrous. This flora was of a uniform color--alurid, sickly yellow. In form some of it was fern-like, somecactus-like, some vaguely tree-like; but it was all outrageous, inherently repulsive to all Solarian senses. And no less hideous werethe animal-like forms of life, which slithered and slunk rapaciouslythrough that fantastic pseudo-vegetation. Snake-like, reptile-like, bat-like, the creatures squirmed, crawled, and flew; each covered with adankly oozing yellow hide and each motivated by twin common impulses--tokill and insatiably and indiscriminately to devour. Over this reekingwilderness Roger drove his vessel, untouched by its disgusting, itsappalling ferocity and horror. 

"There should be intelligence, of a kind, " he mused, and swept thesurface of the planet with an exploring beam. "Ah, yes, there is a city, of sorts, " and in a few minutes the outlaws were looking down upon ametal-walled city of roundly conical buildings. 

Inside these structures and between and around them there scuttledformless blobs of matter, one of which Roger brought up into his vesselby means of a tractor ray. Held immovable by the beam it lay upon thefloor, a strangely extensile, amoeba-like metal-studded mass of leatherysubstance. Of eyes, ears, limbs, or organs it apparently had none, yetit radiated an intensely hostile aura; a mental effluvium concentratedof rage and of hatred. 

"Apparently the ruling intelligence of the planet, " Roger commented. "Such creatures are useless to us; we can build robots in half the timerequired for their subjugation and training. Still, it should not bepermitted to carry back what it may have learned of us. " As he spoke theadept threw the peculiar being out into the air and dispassionatelyrayed it out of existence. 

"That thing reminds me of a man I used to know, back in Penobscot. "Penrose was as coldly callous as his unfeeling master. "Theevenest-tempered man in town--mad all the time!"

Eventually Roger found a location which satisfied his requirements ofraw materials, and made a landing upon that unfriendly soil. Sweepingbeams denuded a great circle of life, and into that circle leapedrobots. Robots requiring neither rest nor food, but only lubricants andpower; robots insensible alike to that bitter cold and to that noxiousatmosphere. 

But the outlaws were not to win a foothold upon that inimical planeteasily, nor were they to hold it without effort. Through the weirdvegetation of the circle's bare edge there scuttled and poured along ahorde of the metal-studded men--if "men" they might be called--who, ferocity incarnate, rushed the robot line. Mowed down by hundreds, stillthey came on; willing, it seemed to expend any number of lives in orderthat one living creature might once touch a robot with one out-thrustmetallic stud. Whenever that happened there was a flash as of lightning, the heavy smoke of burning insulation, grease and metal, and the robotwent down out of control. Recalling his remaining automatons, Roger sentout a shielding screen, against which the defenders of their planetraged in impotent fury. For days they hurled themselves and their everyforce against that impenetrable barrier, then withdrew: temporarilystopped, but by no means acknowledging defeat. 

Then, while Roger and his cohorts directed affairs from within theircomfortable and now sufficiently roomy vessel, there came into beingaround it an industrial city of metal, peopled by metallic and insensatemechanisms. Mines were sunk, furnaces were blown in, smelters belchedforth into the already unbearable air their sulphurous fumes, rollingmills and machine shops were built and equipped: and as fast as newenterprises were completed additional robots were ready to man them. Inrecord time the heavy work of girders, members, and plates was wellunder way; and shortly thereafter light, deft, and multi-fingeredmechanical men began the interminable task of building and installingthe prodigious amount of precise machinery required for the vaststructure. Roger was well content: but one day he was rudely awakenedfrom his dream of complete isolation. 

Even though he had no reason to believe that there was anythingdangerous within hundreds of millions of miles, it was Roger's cautiouscustom to release the screens from time to time, in order to allow hisdetectors to range out. This day, as he sent out his beams, his hardgray eyes grew even harder. 

"Mirsky! Nishimura! Come here!" he snapped, and showed them upon hisplate an enormous sphere of steel, its rays flaming viciously. "Is thereany doubt whatever in your minds as to the System to which that shipbelongs?"

"None at all--Triplanetarian, " replied the Russian. "While larger thanany I have seen before, its construction is unmistakable. They managedto trace us, and are testing out their weapons before attacking. Do weattack or do we run away?"

"If Triplanetarian, and it surely is, we attack, " coldly. "This onesection is armed and powered to defeat Triplanetary's entire navy. Weshall take that ship, and shall add its slight resources to our own. Andit may even be that they have picked up the three who escaped me.... Ihave never yet been balked for long. Yes, we shall take that vessel. Andthose three sooner or later. Bradley I care nothing about ... ButCostigan handled me ... And the woman.... " Diamond-hard eyes glaredbalefully at the urge of thoughts to a clean and normal mindunthinkable. 

"To your posts, " he ordered. "The robots will continue to function undertheir automatic controls during the short time it will require to abatethis nuisance. "

"_One moment!_" A strange voice roared from the speakers. "Consideryourselves under arrest, by order of the Triplanetary Council! Surrenderand you shall receive impartial hearing; fight us and you shall nevercome to trial. From what we have learned of Roger, we do not expect himto surrender, but if any of you other men wish to avoid immediate death, leave your vessel at once. We will come back for you later. "

"Any of you wishing to leave this vessel have my full permission to doso, " Roger announced, disdaining any reply to the challenge of the_Boise_. "Any such, however, will not be allowed inside the planetoidarea after the rest of us return from wiping out that patrol. We attackin one minute. "

"Would not one do better by stopping on?" Baxter, in the quarters of theAmerican, was in doubt as to the most profitable course to pursue. "Ishould leave immediately if I thought that that ship could win; but I donot fancy that it can, do you?"

"That ship? _One_ Triplanetary ship against _us_?" Penrose laughedraucously. "Do as you please. I'd go in a minute if I thought that therewas any chance of us losing; but there isn't, so I'm staying. I knowwhich side _my_ bread's buttered on. Those cops are bluffing, that'sall. Not bluffing exactly, either, because they'll go through with it aslong as they last. Foolish, but it's a way they have--they'll die tryingevery time, instead of running away, even when they know they're lickedbefore they start. They don't use good judgment. "

"None of you are leaving? Very well, you each know what to do, " cameRoger's emotionless voice. The stipulated minute having elapsed, headvanced a lever and the outlaw cruiser slid quietly into the air. 

Toward the poised _Boise_ Roger steered. Within range, he flung out aweapon new-learned and supposedly irresistible to any ferrous thing orcreature, the red converter-field of the Nevians. For Roger's analyticaldetectors had stood him in good stead during those frightful minutes inthe course of which the planetoid had borne the brunt of Nerado'ssuperhuman attack; in such good stead that from the records of thoseingenious instruments he and his scientists had been able to reconstructnot only the generators of the attacking forces, but also the screensemployed by the amphibians in the neutralization of similar beams. Witha vastly inferior armament the smallest of Roger's vessels had defeatedthe most powerful battleships of Triplanetary; what had he to fear insuch a heavy craft as the one he now was driving, one so superlativelyarmed and powered? Well it was for his peace of mind that he had noinkling that the harmless-looking sphere he was so blithely attackingwas in reality the much-discussed, half-mythical "super-ship" ofTriplanetary's Secret Service; nor that its already unprecedentedarmament had been re-enforced, thanks to that hated Costigan, withRoger's own every worth-while idea, as well as with every weapon anddefense known to that arch-Nevian, Nerado!

Unknowing and contemptuous, Roger launched his converter field, andinstantly found himself fighting for his very life. For from Rodebush atthe controls down, the men of the Secret Service countered with waveafter wave and with salvo after salvo of vibratory and materialdestruction. No thought of mercy for the men of the pirate ship couldenter their minds. The outlaws had each been given a chance tosurrender, and each had refused it. Refusing, they knew, as theTriplanetarians knew and as all modern readers know, meant that theywere staking their lives upon victory. For with modern armaments it isseldom indeed that a single man lives through the defeat in battle of awar-vessel of space. 

Roger launched his field of red opacity, but it did not reach even_Boise_'s screens. All space seemed to explode into violet splendor asRodebush neutralized it, drove it back with his obliterating zone offorce; but even that all-devouring zone could not touch Roger'speculiarly efficient screen. The outlaw vessel stood out, unharmed. Ultra-violet, infra-red, pure heat, infra-sound, solid beams ofhigh-tension high-frequency current in whose paths the most stubbornmetals would be volatilized instantly; all iron-driven, every deadly andtorturing vibration known was hurled against that screen; but it, too, was iron-driven, and it held. Even the awful force of the macro-beam wasdissipated by it--reflected, hurled away on all sides in coruscatingtorrents of blinding, dazzling energy. Cooper, Adlington, Spencer, andDutton hurled against it their bombs and torpedoes--and still it held. But Roger's fiercest blasts and heaviest projectiles were equallyimpotent against the force-shields of the super-ship. The adept, havingno liking for a battle upon anything like equal terms, sought safety inflight, only to be brought to a crashing, stunning halt by a massivetractor beam. 

"That must be that sixth-phase polycyclic screen that Conway reportedon, " Cleveland frowned in thought. "I've been doing a lot of work onthat, and I think I've calculated an opener for it, Fred, but I'll haveto have number ten projector and the whole output of number ten powerroom. Can you let me play with that much juice for a while? All right, Blake, tune her up to fifty-five thousand--there, hold it! Now, youother fellows, listen! I'm going to try to drill a hole through thatscreen with a hollow, quasi-solid beam: like a diamond drill cutting outa core. You won't be able to shove anything into the hole from outsidethe beam, so you'll have to steer your cans out through the centralorifice of number ten projector--that'll be cold, since I'm going to useonly the edge. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold the hole open, though so shoot them along as fast as you can. Ready? Here goes!"

He pressed a series of contacts. Far below, in number ten converterroom, massive switches drove home and the enormous mass of the vesselquivered under the terrific reaction of the newly-calculated, semi-material beam of energy that was hurled out, backed by themightiest of all the mighty converters and generators of Triplanetary'ssuper-dreadnaught. That beam, a pipe-like hollow cylinder of intolerableenergy, flashed out, and there was a rending, tearing crash as it struckRoger's hitherto impenetrable wall. Struck and clung, grinding, boringin, while from the raging inferno that marked the circle of contact ofcylinder and shield the pirates' screen radiated scintillating torrentsof cracking, streaming sparks, lightning-like in length and inintensity. 

Deeper and deeper the gigantic drill was driven. It was through! PiercedRoger's polycyclic screen; exposed the bare metal of Roger's walls! Andnow, concentrated upon one point, flamed out in seemingly redoubled furyTriplanetary's raging rays--in vain. For even as they could notpenetrate the screen, neither could they penetrate the wall ofCleveland's drill, but rebounded from it in the cascaded brilliance ofthwarted lightning. 

"Oh, what a dumb-bell I am!" groaned Cleveland. "Why, oh why didn't Ihave somebody rig up a secondary SX7 beam on Ten's inner rings? Hop toit, will you, Blake, so that we'll have it in case they are able to stopthe cans?"

But the pirates could not stop all of Triplanetary's projectiles, nowhurrying along inside the pipe as fast as they could be driven. In fact, for a few minutes desperate Roger, knowing that he faced his long life'sgravest crisis, paid no attention to them at all, nor to any of his ownuseless offensive weapons: he struggled only and madly to break awayfrom the savage grip of the _Boise_'s tractor rod. Futile. He couldneither cut nor stretch that inexorably anchoring beam. Then he devotedhis every resource to the closing of that unbelievable breach in hisshield; the barrier which through all previous emergencies had keptdeath at bay. Equally futile. His most desperate efforts resulted onlyin more frenzied displays of incandescence along the curved surface ofcontact of that penetrant cylinder. And through that terrific conduitcame speeding package after package of destruction. Bombs, andarmor-piercing shells, gas shells, and shells of poisonous and corrosivefluids followed each other in close succession. The surviving scientistsof the planetoid, expert gunners and ray-men all, destroyed many of theprojectiles, but it was not humanly possible to frustrate them all. Andthe breach could not be forced shut against the all but irresistibleforce of Cleveland's "opener". And with all his power Roger could notshift his vessel's position in the grip of Triplanetary's tractorssufficiently to bring a projector to bear upon the super-ship along thenow unprotected axis of that narrow, but deadly tube. 

Thus it was that the end came soon. A war-head touched steel plating andthere ensued a world-wracking explosion of atomic iron. Gaping wide, helpless, with all defenses down, other torpedoes entered the strickenhulk and completed its destruction even before they could be recalled. Explosive bombs literally tore the pirate vessel to fragments, whilevials of pure corrosion dissolved her substance into dripping corruptionand reeking gases filled every cranny of the wreckage as its torn anddismembered fragments began their long plunge to the ground. Thespace-ship followed the pieces down, and Rodebush sent out an exploringray. 

" ... Resistance was such that it was necessary to use corrosive, andship and contents were completely disintegrated, " he dictated into hisvessel's log, some time later. "While there were of course no remainsrecognizable as human, it is practically certain that Roger and his lasteleven men died. 

"Look here, Fred, " Cleveland called his attention to the plate, uponwhich was pictured a horde of the peculiar inhabitants of the ghastlyplanet, wreaking their frenzied electrical wrath upon everything withinthe circle bared by Roger. "I was just going to suggest that we clean upthat planetoid Roger started, but I see that the local boys areattending to it. "

"Just as well, perhaps. I would like to stay and study these people alittle while, but we must get back on the trail of the Nevians, " and the_Boise_ leaped away into space, toward the line of flight of theamphibians. 

They reached that line and along it they traveled at full normal blast. As they traveled their detecting receivers and amplifiers were reachingout with their utmost power; ultra-instruments capable of renderingaudible any signal originating within many light-years of them, upon anyknown frequency. And constantly at least two men were listening to thoseinstruments with every sense concentrated in their ears. Listening--straining to distinguish in the deafening roar of backgroundnoise from the over-driven tubes any sign of voice or signal. Listening--while, millions upon untold millions of miles beyond even theprodigious reach of those ultra-instruments, three human beings, pittedagainst overwhelming odds, were even then sending out into empty spacean almost hopeless appeal for the aid so desperately needed!

CHAPTER XII

 The Specimens Escape

Knowing well that conversation with its fellows is one of the greatestneeds of any intelligent being, the Nevians had permitted theTerrestrial specimens to retain possession of their ultra-beamcommunicators. Thus it was that Costigan had been able to keep in touchwith his sweetheart and with Bradley. He learned that each had beenplaced upon exhibition in a different Nevian city: that the three hadbeen separated in response to an insistent popular demand for such adistribution of the peculiar, but highly interesting creatures from adistant solar system. They had not been harmed. In fact, each wasvisited daily by a specialist, who made sure that his charge was beingkept in the pink of condition. 

As soon as he became aware of this condition of things Costigan becamemorose. He sat still, drooped, and pined away visibly. He refused toeat, and of the worried specialist he demanded liberty. Then, failing inthat as he knew he would fail, he demanded something to _do_. Theypointed out to him, reasonably enough, that in such a civilization astheirs there was nothing he _could_ do. They assured him that they woulddo anything they could to alleviate his mental suffering, but that sincehe was a museum piece he must see, himself, that he must be kept ondisplay for a short time. Wouldn't he please behave himself and eat, asa reasoning being should? Costigan sulked a little longer, then wavered. Finally he agreed to compromise. He would eat and exercise if they wouldfit up a laboratory in his apartment, so that he could continue thestudies he had begun upon his own native planet. To this they agreed, and thus it came about that one day the following conversation was held:

"Clio? Bradley? I've got something to tell you this time. Haven't saidanything before, for fear things might not work out, but they did. Iwent on a hunger strike and made them give me a complete laboratory. Asa chemist I'm a darn good electrician; but luckily, with the sea-waterthey've got here, it's a very simple thing to make.... "

"Hold on!" snapped Bradley. "Somebody may be listening in on us!"

"They aren't. They can't, without my knowing it, and I'll cut off thesecond anybody tries to synchronize with my beam. To resume--makingVee-Two is a very simple process, and I've got everything around herethat's hollow clear full of it.... "

"How come they let you?" asked Clio. 

"Oh, they don't know what I'm doing. They watched me for a few days, andall I did was make up and bottle the weirdest messes imaginable. Then Ifinally managed to separate oxygen and nitrogen, after trying hard allof one day; and when they thought they saw that I didn't know anythingabout either one of them or what to do with them after I had them, theygave me up in disgust as a plain dumb ape and haven't paid any attentionto me since. So I've got me plenty of kilograms of liquid Vee-Two, allready to touch off. I'm getting out of here in about three minutes and ahalf, and I'm coming over after you folks, in a new, iron-poweredspace-speedster that they don't know I know anything about. They've justgiven it its final tests, and it's the slickest thing you ever saw. "

"But Conway, dearest, you can't possibly rescue me, " Clio's voice broke. "Why, there are thousands of them, all around here. If you can get away, go, dear, but don't.... "

"I said I was coming after you, and if I can get away I'll be there. Agood whiff of this stuff will lay out a thousand of them just as easilyas it will one. Here's the idea. I've made a gas mask for myself, sinceI'll be in it where it's thick, but you two won't need any. The gas issoluble enough in water so that three or four thicknesses of wet clothover your noses will be enough. I'll tell you when to wet down. We'regoing to break away or go out trying--there aren't enough amphibiansbetween here and Andromeda to keep us humans cooped up like menagerieanimals forever! But here comes my specialist with the keys to the city;time for the overture to start. See you later!"

The Nevian physician directed his key-tube upon the transparent wall ofthe chamber and an opening appeared, an opening which vanished as soonas he had stepped through it; Costigan kicked a valve open; and fromvarious innocent tubes there belched forth into the water of the centrallagoon and into the air over it a flood of deadly vapor. As the Nevianturned toward the prisoner there was an almost inaudible hiss and a tinyjet of the frightful, outlawed stuff struck his open gills, just belowhis huge, conical head. He tensed momentarily, twitched convulsivelyjust once, and fell motionless to the floor. And outside, the streams ofavidly soluble liquefied gas rushed out into air and into water. Itspread, dissolved, and diffused with the extreme mobility which is oneof its characteristics; and as it diffused and was borne outward theNevians, in their massed hundreds, died. Died not knowing what killedthem; not knowing even that they died. Costigan, bitterly resentful ofthe inhuman treatment accorded the three and fiercely anxious for thesuccess of his plan of escape, held his breath and, grimly alert, watched the amphibians die. When he could see no more motion anywhere hedonned his gas-mask, strapped upon his back a large canister of thepoison--his capacious pockets were already full of smallercontainers--and two savagely exultant sentences escaped him. 

"I am a poor, ignorant specimen of ape, that can be let play withapparatus, am I?" he rasped, as he picked up the key-tube of thespecialist and opened the door of his prison. "Maybe they'll learnsometime that it ain't always safe to judge by the looks of a flea howfar he can jump!"

He stepped out through the opening into the water, and, burdened as hewas, made shift to swim to the nearest ramp. Up it he ran, toward a maincorridor. But ahead of him there was wafted a breath of dread Vee-Two, and where that breath went, went also unconsciousness--anunconsciousness which would deepen gradually into permanent oblivionsave for the prompt intervention of one who possessed, not only thenecessary antidote, but the equally important knowledge of exactly howto use it. Upon the floor of that corridor were strewn Nevians, who haddropped in their tracks. Past or over their bodies Costigan strode, pausing only to direct a jet of lethal vapor into whatever branchingcorridor or open doorway caught his eye. He was going to the intake ofthe city's ventilation plant, and no unmasked creature dependent forlife upon oxygen could bar his path. He reached the intake, tore thecanister from his back, and released its full, vast volume of horridcontents into the primary air stream of the entire city. 

And all throughout that doomed city Nevians dropped; quietly and withouta struggle, unknowing. Busy executives dropped upon their cushioned, flat-topped desks; hurrying travelers and messengers dropped upon thefloors of the corridors or relaxed in the noxious waters of the ways;lookouts and observers dropped before their flashing screens; centraloperators of communications dropped under the winking lights of theirpanels. Observers and centrals in the outlying sections of the citywondered briefly at the unwonted universal motionlessness andstagnation; then the racing taint in water and in air reached them, too, and they ceased wondering--forever. 

Then through those quiet halls Costigan stalked to a certain storageroom, where with all due precaution he donned his own suit ofTriplanetary armor. Making an ungainly bundle of the other Solarianequipment stored there, he dragged it along behind him as he clankedback toward his prison, until he neared the dock at which was moored theNevian space-speedster which he was determined to take. Here, he knew, was the first of many critical points. The crew of the vessel wasaboard, and, with its independent air-supply, unharmed. They hadweapons, were undoubtedly alarmed, and were very probably highlysuspicious. They, too, had ultra-beams and might see him, but his verycloseness to them would tend to protect him from ultra-beam observation. Therefore he crouched tensely behind a buttress, staring through hisspy-ray goggles, waiting for a moment when none of the Nevians would benear the entrance, but grimly resolved to act instantly should he feelany touch of a spying ultra-beam. 

"Here's where the pinch comes, " he growled to himself. "I know thecombination, but if they're suspicious enough and act quick enough theycan seal that door on me before I can get it open, and then rub me outlike a blot; but ... Ah!"

The moment had arrived, before the touch of any revealing ray. Hetrained the key-tube, the entrance opened, and through that opening inthe instant of its appearance there shot a brittle bulb of glass, whosebreaking meant death. It crashed into fragments against a metallic walland Costigan, entering the vessel, consigned its erstwhile crew one byone to the already crowded waters of the lagoon. He then leaped to thecontrols and drove the captured speedster through the air, to plunge itdown upon the surface of the lagoon beside the door of the isolatedstructure which had for so long been his prison. Carefully hetransferred to the vessel the motley assortment of containers ofVee-Two, and after a quick check-up to make sure that he had overlookednothing, he shot his craft straight up into the air. Then only did heclose his ultra-wave circuits and speak. 

"Clio, Bradley--I got away clean, without a bit of trouble. Now I'mcoming after you, Clio. "

"Oh, it's wonderful that you got away, Conway!" the girl exclaimed. "Buthadn't you better get Captain Bradley first? Then, if anything shouldhappen, he would be of some use, while I.... "

"I'll knock him into an outside loop if he does!" the captain snorted, and Costigan went on:

"You won't need to. You come first, Clio, of course. But you're too faraway for me to see you with my spy, and I don't want to use thehigh-powered beam of this boat for fear of detection; so you'd betterkeep on talking, so that I can trace you. "

"That's one thing I _am_ good at!" Clio laughed in sheer relief. "Iftalking were music, I'd be a full brass band!" and she kept up a flow ofinconsequential chatter, until Costigan told her that it was no longernecessary; that he had established the line. 

"Any excitement around there yet?" he asked her then. 

"Nothing unusual that I can see, " she replied. "Why? Should there besome?"

"I hope not, but when I made my get-away I couldn't kill them all, ofcourse, and I thought maybe they might connect things up with myjail-break and tell the other cities to take steps about you two. But Iguess they're pretty well disorganized back there yet, since they can'tknow who hit them, or what with, or why. I must have got about everybodythat wasn't sealed up somewhere, and it doesn't stand to reason thatthose who are left can check up very closely for a while yet. Butthey're nobody's fools--they'll certainly get conscious when I snatchyou, maybe before ... There, I see your city, I think. "

"What are you going to do?"

"Same as I did back there, if I can. Poison their primary air and allthe water I can reach.... "

"Oh, Conway!" Her voice rose to a scream. "They must know--they're allgetting out of the water and are rushing inside the buildings as fast asthey possibly can!"

"I see they are, " grimly. "I'm right over you now, 'way up. Beenlocating their primary intake. They've got a dozen ships around it, andhave guards posted all along the corridors leading to it; and _thoseguards are wearing masks!_ They're clever birds, all right, thoseamphibians--they know what they got back there and how they got it. Thatchanges things, girl! If we use gas here we won't stand a chance in theworld of getting old Bradley. Stand by to jump when I open that door!"

"Hurry, dear! They are coming out here after me!"

"Sure they are. " Costigan had already seen the two Nevians swimming outtoward Clio's cage, and had hurled his vessel downward in a screamingpower dive. "You're too valuable a specimen for them to let you begassed, but if they can get there before I do they're traveling fast!"

He miscalculated slightly, so that instead of coming to a halt at thesurface of the liquid medium the speedster struck with a crash thathurled solid masses of water for hundreds of yards. But no ordinarycrash could harm that vessel's structure, her gravity controls were notoverloaded, and she shot back to the surface; gallant ship and recklesspilot alike unharmed. Costigan trained his key-tube upon the doorway ofClio's cell, then tossed it aside. 

"Different combinations over here!" he barked. "Got to cut you out--liedown in that far corner!"

His hands flashed over the panel, and as Clio fell prone withouthesitation or question a heavy beam literally blasted away a largeportion of the roof of the structure. The speedster shot into the airand dropped down until she rested upon the tops of opposite walls; wallsstill glowing, semi-molten. The girl piled a stool upon the table andstood upon it, reached upward, and seized the mailed hands extendeddownward toward her. Costigan heaved her up into the vessel with apowerful jerk, slammed the door shut, leaped to the controls, and thespeedster darted away. 

"Your armor's in that bundle there. Better put it on, and check yourLewistons and pistols--no telling what kind of jams we'll get into, " hesnapped, without turning. "Bradley, start talking ... All right, I'vegot your line. Better get your wet rags ready and get organizedgenerally--every second will count by the time we get there. We'recoming so fast that our outer plating's white hot, but it may not befast enough, at that. "

"It isn't fast enough, quite, " Bradley announced, calmly. "They'recoming out after me now. "

"Don't fight them and probably they won't paralyze you. Keep on talking, so that I can find out where they take you. "

"No good, Costigan. " The voice of the old space-flea did not reveal asign of emotion as he made his dread announcement. "They have it allfigured out. They're not taking any chances at all--they're going toparal.... " His voice broke off in the middle of the word. 

With a bitter imprecation Costigan flashed on the powerful ultra-beamprojector of the speedster and focused the plate upon Bradley's prison;careless now of detection, since the Nevians were already warned. Uponthat plate he watched the Nevians carry the helpless body of the captaininto a small boat, and continued to watch as they bore it into one ofthe largest buildings of the city. Up a series of ramps they took thestill form, placing it finally upon a soft couch in an enormous andheavily guarded central hall. Costigan turned to his companion, Clio, and even through the helmets she could see plainly the white agony ofhis expression. He moistened his lips and tried twice to speak--triedand failed: but he made no move either to cut off their power or tochange their direction. 

"Of course, " she approved, steadily. "We are going through. I know thatyou _want_ to run with me, but if you actually did it, I would neverwant to see you or hear of you again, and you would hate me forever. "

"Hardly that. " The anguish did not leave his eyes and his voice washoarse and strained, but his hands did not vary the course of thespeedster by so much as a hair's breadth. "You're the finest littlefellow that ever waved a plume, and I would love you no matter whathappened. I'd trade my immortal soul to the devil if it would get youout of this mess, but we're both in it up to our necks and we can't dogit now. If they kill him we beat it--he and I both knew that it was onthe chance of that happening that I took you first--but as long as allthree of us are alive it's all three or none. "

"Of course, " she said again, as steadily, thrilled this time to thedepths of her being by the sheer manhood of him who had thus simplyvoiced his Code; a man of such fiber that neither love of life, nor theinfinitely more powerful love of her which she knew he bore, could makehim lower its high standard. 

"We are going through. Forget that I am a woman. We are three humanbeings, fighting a world full of monsters. I am simply one of us three. I will steer your ship, fire your projectors, or throw your bombs. Whatcan I do best?"

"Throw bombs, " he directed, briefly. He knew what must be done were theyto have even the slightest chance of winning clear. "I'm going to blasta hole down into the auditorium, and when I do you stand by that portand start dropping bottles of perfume. Throw a couple of big ones rightdown the shaft I make, and the rest of them most anywhere, after I cutthe wall open. They'll do good wherever they hit, land or water. "

"But Captain Bradley--he'll be gassed, too. " Her fine eyes weretroubled. 

"Can't be helped. I've got the antidote, and it'll work any time underan hour. That'll be lots of time--if we aren't gone in less than tenminutes we'll be staying here. They're bringing in platoons of militiain full armor, and if we don't beat those boys to it we're in for plentyof grief. All right--start throwing!"

The speedster had come to a halt directly over the imposing edificewithin which Bradley was incarcerated, and a mighty beam had flareddownward, digging a fiery well through floor after floor of stubbornmetal. The ceiling of the amphitheater pierced, the beam expired; anddown into that assembly hall there dropped two canisters of Vee-Two; tocrash and to fill its atmosphere with imperceptible death. Then the beamflashed on again, this time at maximum power, and with it Costiganburned away half of the gigantic building. Burned it away until roomabove room gaped open, shelf-like, to outer atmosphere; the great hallnow resembling an over-size pigeon-hole surrounded by smaller ones. Intothat largest pigeon-hole the speedster darted, and cushioned desks andbenches crashed down, crushed flat under its enormous weight as it cameto rest upon the floor. 

Every available guard had been thrown into that room, regardless ofcustomary occupation or of equipment. Most of them had been ordinarywatchmen, not even wearing masks, and all such were already down. Many, however, were protected by masks, and a few were dressed in full armor. But no portable armor could mount defenses of sufficient power towithstand the awful force of the speedster's weapons, and one flashingswing of a projector swept the hall almost clear of life. 

"Can't shoot very close to Bradley with this big beam, but I'll mop upon the rest of them by hand. Stay here and cover me, Clio!" Costiganordered, and went to open the door. 

"I can't--I won't!" Clio replied instantly. "I don't know the controlswell enough. I'd kill you or Captain Bradley, sure; but I _can_ shoot, and I'm going to!" and she leaped out, close upon his heels. 

Thus, flaming Lewiston in one hand and barking automatic in the other, the two mailed figures advanced toward Bradley; now doubly helpless:paralyzed by his enemies and gassed by his friends. For a time theNevians melted away before them, but as they approached more nearly thecouch, upon which the captain was, they encountered six figures encasedin armor fully as capable as their own. The beams of the Lewistonsrebounded from that armor in futile pyrotechnics, the bullets of theautomatics spattered and exploded impotently against it. And behind thatsingle line of armored guards were massed perhaps twenty unarmored, butmasked, soldiers; and scuttling up the ramps leading into the hall werecoming the platoons of heavily-armored figures which Costigan hadpreviously seen. 

Decision instantly made, Costigan ran back toward the speedster, but hewas not deserting his companions. 

"Keep the good work up!" he instructed the girl as he ran. "I'll pickthose jaspers off with a pencil ray and then stand off the bunch that'scoming while you rub out the rest of that crew there and drag Bradleyback here. "

Back at the control panel, he trained a narrow, but intensely densepencil of livid flame, and one by one the six armored figures fell. Then, knowing that Clio could handle the remaining opposition, hedevoted his attention to the reenforcements so rapidly approaching fromthe sides. Again and again the heavy beam lashed out, now upon thisside, now upon that, and in its flaming path Nevians disappeared. Andnot only Nevians--in the incredible energy of that beam's blast, floor, walls, ramps, and every material thing vanished in clouds of thick andbrilliant vapor. The room temporarily clear of foes, he sprang again toClio's assistance, but her task was nearly done. She had "rubbed out"all opposition and, tugging lustily at Bradley's feet, had alreadydragged him almost to the side of the speedster. 

"'At-a-girl, Clio!" cheered Costigan, as he picked up the burly captainand tossed him through the doorway. "Highly useful, girl of my dreams, as well as ornamental. In with you, and we'll start out to go places!"

But getting the speedster out of the now completely ruined hall provedto be much more of a task than driving it in had been, for scarcely hadthe Terrestrials closed their locks than a section of the buildingcollapsed behind them, cutting off their retreat. Nevian submarines andairships were beginning to arrive upon the scene, and were raying thebuilding viciously in an attempt to entrap or to crush the Terrestrialsin its ruins. Costigan managed finally to blast his way out, but theNevians had had time to assemble in force and he was met by aconcentrated storm of beams and of metal from every inimical weaponwithin range. 

But not for nothing had Conway Costigan selected for his dash forliberty the craft which, save only for the two immense interstellarcruisers, was the most powerful vessel ever built upon red Nevia. Andnot for nothing had he studied minutely and to the last, least detailevery item of its controls and of its armament during wearily long daysand nights of solitary imprisonment. He had studied it under test, inaction, and at rest; studied it until he knew thoroughly its everypossibility--and what a ship it was! The iron-driven generators of hisshielding screens handled with ease the terrific load of the Nevians'assault, his polycyclic screens were proof against any materialprojectile, and the machines supplying his offensive beams with powerwere more than equal to their tasks. Driven now at full rating thosefrightful weapons lashed out against the Nevian blocking the way, andunder their impacts her screens flared brilliantly through the spectrumand went down. And in the instant of their failure the enemy vessel wasliterally blown into nothingness--no unprotected metal, howeverresistant, could exist for a moment in the pathway of those iron-driventornadoes of pure energy. 

Ship after ship of the Nevians plunged toward the speedster indesperately suicidal attempts to ram her down, but each met the sameflaming fate before its mass could collide with the ship of theTerrestrials. Then, from the grouped submarines far below, there reachedup red rods of force, which seized the space-ship and began relentlesslyto draw her down. 

"What are they doing that for, Conway? _They_ can't fight us!"

"They don't want to fight us. They want to hold us, but I know what todo about that, too, " and the powerful tractor rods snapped as a plane oflurid light drove through them. Upward now at the highest permissiblevelocity the speedster leaped, and past the few ships remaining aboveher she dodged; there was nothing now between her and the freedom ofboundless space. 

"You did it, Conway; you did it!" Clio exulted. "Oh, Conway, you're justsimply wonderful!"

"I haven't done it yet, " Costigan cautioned her. "The worst is yet tocome. Nerado. He's why they wanted to hold us back, and why I was insuch a hurry to get away. That boat of his is bad medicine, girl, and wewant to put plenty of kilometers behind us before he gets started. "

"But do you think he will chase us?"

"_Think_ so? I _know_ so! The mere facts, that we are rare specimens andthat he told us that we were going to stay there all the rest of ourlives, would make him chase us clear to Dustheimer's Nebula. Besidesthat, we stepped on their toes pretty heavily before we left. We knowaltogether too much now to be let get back to Tellus; and finally, they'd all die of acute enlargement of the spleen if we get away withthis prize ship of theirs. I hope to tell you they'll chase us!"

He fell silent, devoting his whole attention to his piloting, drivinghis craft onward at such velocity that its outer plating held steadilyat the highest point of temperature compatible with safety. Soon theywere out in open space, hurtling toward the sun under the drive of everypossible iota of power, and Costigan took off his armor and turnedtoward the helpless body of the captain. 

"He looks so ... So ... So _dead_, Conway! Are you really sure that youcan bring him to?"

"Absolutely. Lots of time yet. Just three simple squirts in the rightplaces will do the trick. " He took from a locked compartment of hisarmor a small steel box, which housed a surgeon's hypodermic and threevials. One, two, three, he injected small, but precisely measuredamounts of the fluids into the three vital localities, then placed theinert form upon a deeply cushioned couch. 

"There! That'll take care of the gas in five or six hours. The paralysiswill wear off before that, so he'll be all right when he wakes up; andwe're going away from here with every watt of power we can put out. Wehave done everything I know how to do, for the present. "

Then only did Costigan turn and look down, directly into Clio's eyes. Wide, eloquent blue eyes that gazed back up into his, tender andunafraid; eyes freighted with the oldest message of woman to chosen man. His hard young face softened wonderfully as he stared at her; there weretwo quick steps and they were in each other's arms. Clio's lithelyrounded form nestled against Costigan's powerful body as his mighty armstightened around her; his neck and shoulder were no lessenthusiastically clasped, and less strongly only because of her woman'sslighter musculature. Lips upon eager lips, blue eyes to gray, motionless they stood clasped in ecstasy; thinking nothing of thedreadful past, nothing of the fearful future, conscious only of theglorious, the wonderful present. 

"Clio mine ... Darling ... Girl, girl, how I love you!" Costigan's deepvoice was husky with emotion. "I haven't kissed you for seven thousandyears! I don't rate you, by hundreds of steps; but if I can just get youout of this mess, I swear by all the space.... "

"You needn't, lover. Rate _me_? Good Heavens, Conway? It's just theother way.... "

"Chop it!" he commanded in her ear. "I'm still dizzy at the idea of yourloving me at all, to say nothing of loving me _this_ way! But you do, and that's all I ask, here or hereafter!"

"Love you? _Love_ you!" Their mutual embrace tightened and her low voicethrilled brokenly as she went on: "Conway, dearest.... I can't say athing, but you know.... Oh, Conway!"

After a time Clio drew a long and tremulous, but supremely happy breathas the realities of their predicament once more obtruded themselves uponher consciousness. She released herself gently from Costigan's arms. 

"Do you really think that there is a chance of us getting back to theearth, so that we can be together ... Always?"

"A chance, yes. A probability, no, " he replied, unequivocally. "Itdepends upon two things. First, how much of a start we got on Nerado. His ship is the biggest and fastest thing I ever saw, and if he stripsher down and drives her--which he will--he'll catch us long before wecan make Tellus. On the other hand, I gave Rodebush a lot of data, andif he and Lyman Cleveland can add it to their own stuff and get thatsuper-ship of ours rebuilt in time, they'll be out here on the prowl;and they'll have what can give even Nerado plenty of argument. No useworrying about it, anyway. We won't know anything until we can detectone or the other of them, and then will be the time to do somethingabout it. "

"If Nerado catches us, will you.... " She paused. 

"Rub you out? I will not. Even if he does catch us, and takes us back toNevia, I won't. There's lots more time coming onto the clock. Neradowon't hurt either of us badly enough to leave scars, either physical, mental, or moral. I'd kill you in a second if it were Roger; he's dirtyand he's thoroughly bad. But Nerado's a good enough old scout, in hisway. He's big and he's clean. You know, I could really like that fish, if I could meet him on terms of equality sometime?"

"_I_ couldn't!" she declared, vigorously. "He's crawly and scaly andsnaky; and he smells so ... So.... "

"So rank and fishy?" Costigan laughed deeply. "Details, girl; meredetails. I've seen people who looked like money in the bank and whosmelled like a bouquet of violets that you couldn't trust half thelength of Nerado's neck. "

"But look what he did to us!" she protested. "And they weren't trying torecapture us back there; they were trying to kill us. "

"That was perfectly all right, what he did and what they did--what elsecould they have done?" he wanted to know. "And while you're looking, look at what we did to them--plenty, I'd say. But we all had it to do, and neither side will blame the other for doing it. He's a squareshooter, I tell you. "

"Well, maybe, but I don't like him a bit, and let's not talk about himany more. Let's talk about us. Remember what you said once, when youadvised me to 'let you lay, ' or whatever it was?" Woman-like, she wishedto dip again lightly into the waters of pure emotion, even though shehad such a short time before led the man out of their profoundestdepths. But Costigan, into whose hard life love of woman had neverbefore entered, had not yet recovered sufficiently from his soul-shakingplunge to follow her lead. Inarticulate, distrusting his newly foundsupreme happiness, he must needs stay out of those enchanted waters orplunge again. And he was afraid to plunge--diffident, still deeminghimself unworthy of the miracle of this wonder-girl's love--even thoughevery fiber of his being shrieked its demand to feel again that slenderbody in his clasping arms. He did not consciously think those thoughts. He acted them without thinking; they were inherent in his personality. 

"I do remember, and I still think it's a sound idea, even though I amtoo far gone now to let you put it into effect, " he assured her, halfseriously. He kissed her, tenderly and reverently, then studied hercarefully. "But you look as though you'd been on a Martian picnic. Whendid you eat last?"

"I don't remember, exactly. This morning, I think. "

"Or maybe last night, or yesterday morning? I thought so! Bradley and Ican eat anything that's chewable, and drink anything that will pour, butyou can't. I'll scout around and see if I can't fix up something thatyou'll be able to eat. "

He rummaged through the store-rooms, emerging with sundry viands fromwhich he prepared a highly satisfactory meal. 

"Think you can sleep now, sweetheart?" After supper, once more withinthe circle of Costigan's arms, Clio nodded her head against hisshoulder. 

"Of course I can, dear. Now that you are with me, out here alone, I'mnot a bit afraid any more. You will get us back to the earth some way, sometime; I just know that you will. Good-night, Conway. "

"Good-night, Clio ... Little sweetheart, " he whispered, and went back toBradley's side. 

In due time the captain recovered consciousness, and slept. Then fordays the speedster flashed on toward our distant solar system; daysduring which her wide-flung detector screens remained cold. 

"I don't know whether I'm afraid they'll hit something or afraid thatthey won't, " Costigan remarked more than once, but finally those tenuoussentinels did in fact encounter an interfering vibration. Along thedetector line a visibeam sped, and Costigan's face hardened as he sawthe unmistakable outline of Nerado's interstellar cruiser, far behindthem. 

"Well, a stern chase always was a long one, " Costigan said finally. "Hecan't catch us for plenty of days yet ... Now what?" for the alarms ofthe detectors had broken out anew. There was still another point ofinterference to be investigated. Costigan traced it; and there, almostdead ahead of them, between them and their sun, nearing them at theincomprehensible rate of the sum of the two vessels' velocities, cameanother cruiser of the Nevians!

"Must be the sister-ship, coming back from our System with a load ofiron, " Costigan deduced. "Heavily loaded as she is, we may be able tododge her; and she's coming so fast that if we can stay out of her rangewe'll be all right--she won't be able to stop for probably three or fourdays. But if our super-ship is anywhere in these parts, now's the timefor her to rally 'round!"

He gave the speedster all the side-thrust she would take; then, puttingevery available communicator tube behind a tight beam, he drove itsunward and began sending out a long-continued call to his fellows ofTriplanetary's Secret Service. 

Nearer and nearer the Nevian flashed, trying with all her power tointercept the speedster; and it soon became evident that, heavily ladenthough she was, she could make enough sideway to bring her within rangeat the time of meeting. 

"Of course, they've got partial neutralization of inertia, the same aswe have, " Costigan cogitated, "and by the way he's coming I'd say thathe had orders to blow us out of the ether--he knows as well as we dothat he can't capture us alive at anything like the relative velocitieswe've got now. I can't give her any more side thrust without overloadingthe gravity controls, so overloaded they've got to be. Strap down, youtwo, because they may go out entirely. "

"Do you think that you can pull away from them, Conway?" Clio wasstaring in horrified fascination into the plate, watching the picturedvessel increase in size, moment by moment. 

"I don't know, girl, but I'm going to try. Just in case we don't, though, I'm going to keep on yelling for help. In solid? All right, boat, DO YOUR STUFF!"

CHAPTER XIII

 The Meeting of the Giants

"Check your blast, Fred, I think I hear something trying to comethrough!" Cleveland called out, sharply. For days the _Boise_ had tornthrough the illimitable reaches of empty space, and now the long vigilof the keen-eared listeners was to be ended. Rodebush cut off his power, and through the deafening roar of tube-noise an almost inaudible voicemade itself heard. 

" ... All the help you can give us. Samms--Cleveland--Rodebush--anybodyof Triplanetary who can hear me, listen! This is Costigan, with MissMarsden and Captain Bradley, heading for where we think the sun is, fromright ascension about six hours, declination about plus fourteendegrees. Distance unknown, but probably hundreds of light-years. Tracemy call. One Nevian ship is overhauling us slowly, another is comingtoward us from the sun. We may or may not be able to dodge it, but weneed all the help you can give us. Samms--Rodebush--Cleveland--anybodyof Triplanetary.... "

Endlessly the faint, faint voice went on, but Rodebush and Clevelandwere no longer listening. Sensitive ultra-loops had been swung, andalong the indicated line shot Triplanetary's super-ship at a velocitywhich she had never before even approached; the utterlyincomprehensible, almost incalculable velocity attained by inertialessmatter, driven through an almost perfect vacuum by the _Boise_'s maximumprojector blast--a blast which would lift her stupendous normal tonnageagainst a gravity five times that of earth's! At the full frightfulmeasure of that velocity the super-ship literally annihilated distance, while ahead of her the furiously driven, but scarcely faster spy-raybeam tore on in quest of the three Terrestrials who were calling forhelp. 

"Got any idea how fast we're going?" Rodebush demanded, glancing up foran instant from the observation plate. "We should be able to see him, since we could hear him, and our range is certainly as great as anythinghe can have. "

"No, can't figure velocity without any reliable data on how many atomsof matter exist per cubic meter out here. " Cleveland was staring at thecalculator. "It's constant, of course, at the value at which thefriction of the medium is equal to our thrust. Incidentally, we can'thold it long. We're running a temperature, which shows that we'restepping along faster than anybody ever computed before. TakingThrockmorton's estimates it figures somewhere near the order ofmagnitude of ten to the twenty-seventh. Fast enough, anyway, so you'dbetter bend an eye on that plate. Even after you see him you won't knowanything about where he really is, because we don't know any of thevelocities involved--our own, his, or that of the beam--and we may beright on top of him. "

"Or, if we are outrunning the beam, we won't see him at all. That makesit nice piloting. "

"How are you going to handle things when we get there?"

"Lock to them and take them aboard if we're in time. If not, if they arefighting already--_there they are_!"

The picture of the speedster's control room flashed upon the plate andCostigan's voice greeted them from the speaker. 

"Hello, fellows, welcome to our city! Where are you?"

"We don't know, " Cleveland snapped back, "and we don't know where youare, either. Can't figure anything without data. I see you're stillbreathing air. Where are the Nevians? How much time we got yet?"

"Not enough, I'm afraid. By the looks of things they will be withinrange of us in a couple of hours, and you're so far away yet that ittook our voices four minutes and about fifty seconds to make the roundtrip, _on the ultra_! Play that on your calculator, Lyman! You haven'teven touched our detector screen yet. I'm mighty glad to have seen youfellows again, though, anyway. "

"A couple of hours!" In his relief Cleveland almost shouted the words. "That's time to burn. We can be clear out of the Galaxy in lessthan.... " He broke off at a yell from Rodebush. 

"Broadcast, Conway, broadcast!" that worthy had cried, as Costigan'simage had disappeared utterly from his plate. 

Now he cut off the _Boise_'s power, stopping her instantaneously inmid-space, but the connection had been broken. Costigan could notpossibly have heard the orders to change his beam signal to a broadcast, so that they could pick it up; nor would it have done any good if he hadheard and had obeyed. So immeasurably great had been their velocity thatthey had flashed past the speedster without seeing it, even upon theultra-plates, and now they were unknown billions of miles beyond thefugitives they had come so far to help--far beyond the range of anypossible broadcast. But Cleveland had understood instantly what hadhappened. He now had a little data upon which to work, and his fingerswere flying over the keys of the calculator. 

"Back blast, maximum, seventeen seconds!" he directed, crisply. "Notexact, of course, but that'll put us close enough to find 'em with ourdetectors!"

Then for the calculated seventeen seconds the super-ship retraced herpath, at the same awful speed with which she had come so far. The blastexpired and there, plainly limned upon the observation plates, was theNevian speedster. 

"As a computer you're good, " Rodebush applauded. "So close that we can'tuse the neutralizers to catch him. If we use a dyne of driving forcewe'll overshoot him a million kilometers before I can snap the switchesout. "

"And yet he's so far away and going so fast that if we keep our inertiaon it'll take all day at full drive to overtake him. " Cleveland wasfrankly puzzled. "What to do? Shunt in a potentiometer?"

"No, we don't need it. " Rodebush turned to the transmitter. "Costigan!We are going to take hold of you with a very light tractor. Don't cutit!"

"A tractor--inertialess?" Cleveland wondered. 

"Why not?" Rodebush launched the tractor, set at its absolute minimum ofpower, and threw in his master switches. 

While hundreds of thousands of miles separating the two vessels and thetractor beam was exerting the least effort of which it was capable, yetthe super-ship leaped toward the smaller craft at a pace which coveredthat distance in the twinkling of an eye. So rapidly were the objectivesenlarging upon the plates that the automatic focusing devices couldscarcely function rapidly enough to keep them in place. Clevelandflinched involuntarily and seized his arm-rests in a spasmodic clutch ashe watched this, the first inertialess space-approach; and evenRodebush, who knew better than anyone else what to expect, held hisbreath and swallowed hard at the unbelievable rate at which the twovessels were rushing together. 

And if these two, who had rebuilt the space-flyer, could hardly controlthemselves, what of the three in the speedster, who knew nothingwhatever of the super-ship's potentialities? Clio, staring into theplate with Costigan, uttered a piercing shriek, as she sank her fingersinto his shoulders. Bradley swore a mighty deep-space oath and bracedhimself against certain annihilation. Costigan stared for an instant, unable to believe his eyes, then his hand darted to the contacts whichwould cut the beam. Too late. Before his flying fingers could reach thestuds the _Boise_ was upon them; had struck them in direct centralimpact. Moving at the full measure of her unthinkable velocity thoughthe super-ship was at the moment of impact, yet the most delicaterecording instruments of the speedster could not detect the slightestshock as the enormous globe struck the comparatively tiny torpedo andclung to it; accommodating instantly and effortlessly her own terrificpace to that of the smaller and infinitely slower craft. Clio sobbed inrelief and Costigan, one arm around her, sighed hugely. 

"Hey, you space-fleas!" he cried. "Glad to see you and all that, but youmight as well kill a man outright as scare him to death! So that's thesuper-ship, huh? SOME ship!"

"Hello, Conway!" "Clear ether, Conway!" The two scientists answered thehail of their fellow. 

"I didn't realize that an inertialess approach would be quite such aterrifying spectacle, or I would have warned you, " Rodebush went on. "Yes, thanks to you, the super-ship works as she should, at last. Butyou had better put on your suits and transfer. You might get your thingsready.... "

"'Things' is good!" Costigan laughed, and Clio giggled sunnily. 

"We've made so many transfers already that what you see us in is all wehave, " Bradley explained. "We'll bring ourselves, and we'll hurry; thatNevian is coming up fast. "

"Is there anything on this ship you fellows want?" Costigan asked. 

"There may be, but we haven't any locks big enough to let her inside andwe haven't time to study her now. You might leave her controls inneutral, so that Lyman can calculate her position if we should want herlater on. "

"All right. " The three armor-clad figures stepped into the _Boise_'sopen lock, the tractor beam was cut off, and the speedster flashed awayfrom the now stationary super-ship. 

"Better let formalities go for a while, " Captain Bradley interrupted thegeneral introduction taking place. "I was scared out of nine years'growth when I saw you coming at us, and maybe I've still got the humps;but that Nevian is coming up fast, and if you don't already know it Ican tell you that he's no light cruiser. "

"That's so, too, " Costigan concurred. "Have you fellows got enough stuffso that you think you can take him? You've got the legs on him, anyway--you can certainly run if you want to!"

"Run?" Cleveland laughed. "We have a bone of our own to pick with thatship. We licked her to a standstill once, until we burned out a set ofgenerators, and since we got them fixed we've been chasing her all overspace. We were chasing her when we picked up your call. See there? She'sdoing the running. "

The Nevian was running, in truth. Her commander had seen and hadrecognized the great vessel which had flashed out of nowhere to therescue of the three Terrestrials; and, having once been at grips withthat vengeful super-dreadnaught, he had little stomach for anotherencounter. Therefore his side-thrust was now being exerted in theopposite direction; he was frankly trying to put as much distance aspossible between himself and Triplanetary's formidable cruiser. In vain. A light tractor was clamped on and the _Boise_ flashed up to close rangebefore Rodebush threw on her inertia and Cleveland brought the twovessels relatively to rest by increasing gradually his tractor's pull. And this time the Nevian could not cut the tractor. Again that shearingplane of force bit into it and tore at it, but it neither yielded norbroke. The rebuilt generators of Number Four were designed to carry theload, and they carried it. And again Triplanetary's every mighty weaponwas brought into play. 

The "cans" were thrown, ultra-and infra-beams were driven, the furiousmacro-beam gnawed hungrily at the Nevian's defenses; and one by onethose defenses went down. In desperation the enemy commander threw hisevery generator behind a polycyclic screen; only to see Cleveland's evenmore powerful drill bore relentlessly through it. Punctured that lastdefense, the end came soon. A secondary SX7 beam was now in place onmighty Ten's inner rings, and one fierce blast blew a hole completelythrough the Nevian cruiser. Into that hole entered Adlington's terrificbombs and their gruesome fellows, and where they entered, life departed. All defenses vanished, and under the blasts of the _Boise_'s projectors, now unopposed, the metal of the Nevian vessel exploded instantly into awidely spreading cloud of vapor. Sparkling vapor, with perhaps here andthere a droplet or two of material which had only been liquefied. 

So passed the sister-ship, and Rodebush turned his plates upon thevessel of Nerado. But that highly intelligent amphibian had seen allthat had occurred. He had long since given over the pursuit of thespeedster, and he did not rush in to do hopeless battle beside hisfellow Nevians against the Terrestrials. His analytical detectors hadwritten down each detail of every weapon and of every screen employed;and even while prodigious streamers of red force were raving out fromhis vessel, braking her terrific progress and swinging her around in animmense circle back toward far Nevia, his scientists and mechanics weredoubling and redoubling the power of his already Titanic installations, to match and if possible to overmatch those of Triplanetary'ssuper-dreadnaught. 

"Do we kill him now or do we let him suffer a while longer?" Costigandemanded. 

"I don't think so, yet, " replied Rodebush. "Would you, Lyman?"

"Not yet, " replied Cleveland, grimly, reading the thought of the otherand agreeing with it. "Let him pilot us to Nevia; we might not be ableto find it without a guide. While we're at it we want to so pulverizethat crowd that if they never come near the Solarian system againthey'll think it's twenty minutes too soon!"

Thus it was that the _Boise_, under only a few dynes of propulsion, pursued the Nevian ship. Apparently exerting every effort, she nevercame quite within range of the fleeing raider; yet never was she so farbehind that the Nevian space-ship was not in clear register upon herobservation plates. Nor was Nerado alone in strengthening his vessel. Costigan knew well and respected highly the Nevian scientist-captain, and at his suggestion the entire time of the long and uneventful flightwas spent in re-enforcing the super-ship's armament to the iron-drivenlimit of theoretical and mechanical possibility. 

Thus, when Nevia and her hot, blue sun appeared upon his plates Rodebushwas ready for any emergency, and hurled his battleship upon the Nevianwith every weapon aflame. But so was Nerado ready; and, unlike hersister-ship, his vessel was manned by scientists well versed in thefundamental theory of the weapons with which they fought. Beams, rods, and lances of energy flamed and flared; planes and pencils cut, slashed, and stabbed; defensive screens glowed redly or flashed suddenly intointensely brilliant, coruscating incandescence. Crimson opacitystruggled sullenly against violet curtain of annihilation. Materialprojectiles and torpedoes were launched under full beam control; only tobe exploded harmlessly in mid-space, to be rayed into nothingness, or todisappear innocuously against impenetrable polycyclic screens. Bothvessels were equipped completely with iron-driven mechanisms; both weremanned by scientists capable of wringing the last possible watt of powerfrom their sources. They were approximately equal in size, and each shipnow wielded the theoretical ultimate of power for her mass; thereforeneither could harm the other, furiously though each was trying. And moreand more nearly they were approaching the red atmosphere of the world ofthe amphibians. Down into that crimson blanket the two warringspace-ships dropped, down toward a city which Costigan recognized asthat in which Nerado made his headquarters. 

"Better hold off a bit, " Costigan cautioned. "If I know that bird atall, he's cooking up something, " and even as he spoke there shot upwardfrom the city a multitude of flashing balls. The Nevians had masteredthe secret of the explosive of the fishes of the greater deeps and werelaunching it in a veritable storm against the Terrestrial visitor. 

"Those?" asked Rodebush, calmly. The detonating balls of destructionwere literally annihilating even the atmosphere beyond the polycyclicscreen, but that barrier was scarcely affected. 

"No, that, " pointing out a hemispherical dome which, redly translucent, surrounded a group of buildings towering high above their neighbors. "Neither those high towers nor those screens were there the last time Iwas in this town. They're stalling for time down there, that's all thosefireballs are for. Good sign, too--maybe they aren't ready for us yet. If not, you'd better take 'em while the taking's good; and if they _are_ready for us, we'd better get out of here while we're all in one piece. "

And in fact Nerado had been in touch with the scientists of his city;had been instructing them in the construction of converters andgenerators of such weight and power that they could crush even thedefenses of the super-ship. They were not, however, quite done; theentirely unsuspected possibilities of speed inherent in absoluteinertialessness had not entered into Nerado's calculations. 

"Better drop a few cans down on that dome, fellows, before they maketrouble for us, " suggested Rodebush to his gunners. 

"We can't, " came Adlington's instant reply. "We've been trying it, butthat's a polycyclic screen. Can you drill it? If you can, I've got areal bomb here--that special we built--that will do the trick if you canprotect it from their beams until it gets down into the water. "

"I'll try it, " Cleveland answered, at a nod from the physicist. "Icouldn't drill Nerado's polycyclics, but I couldn't use any momentum onhim. Couldn't ram him--he fell back with my thrust. But that screen downthere can't back off, so maybe I can work on it. Get your special ready, and hang on, everybody!"

The _Boise_ looped upward, and from an altitude of miles dove downwardthrough a storm of force-balls, rays, and shells; a dive checkedabruptly as the hollow tube of energy, which was Cleveland's drill, snarled savagely down ahead of her and struck the shielding hemispherewith a grinding, lightning-splitting shock. As it struck, backed by allthe enormous momentum of the plunging space-ship and driven by the fullpower of her mightiest generators, it bored in, clawing and gougingviciously through the tissue of that rigid and unyielding barrier ofpure energy. Then, mighty drill and plunging mass against iron-drivenwall, eye-tearing and furiously spectacular warfare was waged. Well itwas for Triplanetary, that day, that its super ship carried ample supplyof allotropic iron; well it was that her originally Gargantuanconverters and generators had been doubled and quadrupled in power onthe long Nevian way! For that oven-girdled fortress was powered towithstand any conceivable assault; but the _Boise_'s power and momentumwere now inconceivable, and every watt and every dyne was solidly behindthat hellishly flaming, that voraciously tearing, that irresistiblyravening cylinder of energy incredible!

Through the Nevian shield that cylinder gnawed its frightful way, anddown its protecting length there drove Adlington's "Special" bomb. "Special" it was indeed; so great of girth that it could barely passthrough the central orifice of Ten's mighty projector, so heavilycharged with sensitized atomic iron that its detonation upon any planetwould not have been considered for an instant if that planet's integritymeant anything to its attackers. Down the shielding pipe of force the"Special" screamed under full propulsion, and beneath the surface ofNevia's ocean it plunged. 

"Cut!" yelled Adlington, and as the scintillating drill expired, thebomber snapped his detonating switch. 

For a moment the effect of the explosion seemed unimportant. A dull, lowrumble was all that was to be heard of a concussion that jarred redNevia to her very center; and all that could be seen was a slow heavingof the water. But that heaving did not cease. Slowly, _so_ slowly itseemed to the observers now high in the heavens, the waters rose up andparted; revealing a vast chasm blown deep into the ocean's rocky bed. Higher and higher the lazy, mountains of water reared; effortlessly topick up, to smash, to grind into fragments, and finally to toss asideevery building, every structure, every scrap of material substancepertaining to the whole Nevian city. 

Flattened out, driven backward for miles the tortured waters were urged, leaving exposed bare ground and broken rock where once had been theocean's busy floor; while tremendous blasts of incandescent gas ravedupward, buffeting even the enormous masses of the two space-ships, poised by their breathless crews so high above the site of theexplosion. Then the displaced millions of tons of water rushed back intothat newly rived pit, seeming to seek in that mad rush to make even morecomplete the already total destruction of the city. The raging torrentspoured into that yawning cavern, filled it, and piled mountainouslyabove it; receding and piling up, again and again, causing tidal waveswhich swept a full half of Nevia's mighty, watery globe. 

The city forever silenced, Rodebush again directed his weapons uponNerado's vessel, but the Nevian was no longer fighting. For the firsttime in that long and bitter engagement, not a Nevian beam was inoperation. His screens, however, were as capable as ever, and after afew fruitless attempts to make an impression upon them, Rodebush cut offhis own offensive and turned to Costigan. 

"What do you make of it, Conway? You know these people better than wedo; what are they up to?"

"I wish to talk to you, " Nerado's voice came from the speaker, "and Icould not do so while the beams were operating. You are, I now perceive, a much higher form of life than any of us had thought possible; a formperhaps as high in evolution as our own. It is a pity that we did notmeet you when we first neared your planet, so that much life, bothTellurian and Nevian, might have been spared. But what is past cannot berecalled. As reasoning beings, however, you will see the futility ofcontinuing a contest in which neither of us is capable of injuring theother. You may, of course, destroy more of our Nevian cities, in whichcase I should be compelled to go and destroy similarly upon your earth;but, to reasoning minds, such a course of procedure is sheerest folly. "

Rodebush cut the communicator beam. 

"Does he mean it?" he demanded of Costigan. "It sounds reasonable, but.... "

"But fishy, " broke in Cleveland. "Altogether too reasonable for a.... "

"Yes, he means it; every word of it, " interrupted Costigan in turn. "That's the way they are. Reasonable, passionless. Funny--they lack alot of things we have, but they've got a lot of things that I wish moreof us Tellurians had too. Give me the plate--I'll talk forTriplanetary, " and the beam was restored. 

"Captain Nerado. " he greeted the Nevian commander. "Having been with youand among your people, I know that you mean what you say and that youspeak for your race. Similarly, I believe that I can speak for theTriplanetary Council--the government of three of the planets of oursolar system--in saying that there need be no more conflict between ourpeoples. I also was compelled by circumstances to do certain thingswhich I now wish could be undone; but as you have said, the past ispast. Our two races have much to gain from each other by friendlyexchanges of materials and of ideas, while we can expect nothing exceptmutual extermination, if we elect to continue this warfare. I offer youthe friendship of Triplanetary. Will you release your screens and comeaboard to sign a treaty?"

"I will come; my screens are down. " Rodebush likewise cut off his power, although somewhat apprehensively, and a Nevian lifeboat entered the mainairlock of the _Boise_. 

 * * * * *

Then, at a table in the control room of Triplanetary's first super-ship, there was written the first Inter-Systemic Treaty. Upon one side thethree Nevians; amphibious, cone-headed, loop-necked, scale-bodies, four-legged things to us monstrosities: upon the other the three humans, air-breathing, rounded-headed, shortnecked, smooth-bodied, two-leggedcreatures equally monstrous to the fastidious Nevians. Yet each of theserepresentatives, of two races so different, felt respect for the otherrace increase within him minute by minute as the conversation went on. 

The Nevians had destroyed Pittsburgh, but Adlington's bomb had blown anequally populous Nevian city out of existence. One Nevian vessel hadwiped out an entire unit of Triplanetary's fleet; but Costigan, practically unaided, had depopulated one Nevian city and had seriouslydamaged another. He had also beamed down many Nevian ships. Thereforeloss of life and material could be balanced. The Solarian system wasrich in iron, to which the Nevians were welcome; red Nevia possessedabundant stores of substances which upon earth were extremely rare andof vital importance. Therefore commerce was to be encouraged. TheNevians had knowledges and skills unknown to earthly science, but wereentirely ignorant of many things, to us commonplace. Thereforeinterchange of students and of books was highly desirable. And so on. 

Thus was signed the Triplanetario-Nevian Treaty of Eternal Peace. Neradoand his two companions were escorted ceremoniously to their vessel, andthe _Boise_ took off in an inertialess dash toward earth, bearing thegood news that the Nevian menace was no more. 

Clio, now a hardened space-flea, immune even to the horrible nausea ofinertialessness, wriggled lithely in the curve of Costigan's arm andlaughed up at him. 

"You can talk all you want to, Conway, but I don't like them a bit. Theygive me the purple jitters! I suppose that they are really estimablefolks; talented, cultured, and everything; but just the same I'll betthat it will be a long, long time before anybody on earth will really, truly _like_ them!"