The Black Star Passes Part 20

They were in a dozen places at once, dodging and twisting, unharmed, out of the way of the deadly red beams, and were as hard to hit as so many dancing feathers suspended over an air jet.

And if the pilots were skillful in avoiding enemy rays, their ray men were as accurate in placing theirs. But then, with a target of such vast size, not so much skill was necessary.

These smaller vessels were the s.h.i.+ps of Earth. The people of the dark star had entered the solar system quite unannounced, except that they had been seen in pa.s.sing the orbit of Mars, for a s.h.i.+p had been out there in s.p.a.ce, moving steadily out toward Neptune, and the great interstellar cruisers, flas.h.i.+ng in across s.p.a.ce, away from that frigid planet, had not seen the tiny wanderer. But he had seen those mighty hulks, and had sent his message of danger out on the ether, warning the men of Earth. They had relayed it to Venus, and the s.h.i.+ps that had gone there had received an equally warm reception, and were even now finding their time fully occupied trying to beat off the Interplanetary Patrol.

The battle ended as swiftly as it began, for Taj Lamor, in his machine high above, saw that they were outcla.s.sed, and ordered them to withdraw at once. Scarcely ten minutes had elapsed, yet they had lost twenty-two of their giant s.h.i.+ps.

The expedition that had gone to Venus reported a similarly active greeting. It was decided at once that they should proceed cautiously to the other planets, to determine which were inhabited and which were not, and to determine the chemical and physical conditions on each.

The s.h.i.+ps formed again out in s.p.a.ce, on the other side of the sun, however, and started at once in compact formation for Mercury.

Their observations were completed without further mishap, and they set out for their distant home, their number depleted by forty-one s.h.i.+ps, for nineteen had fallen on Venus.

I

The Terrestrian and Venerian governments had met in conference, a grim, businesslike discussion with few wasted words. Obviously, this was to be a war of science, a war on a scale never before known on either world.

Agreements were immediately drawn up between the two worlds for a concerted, cooperative effort. A fleet of new and vastly more powerful s.h.i.+ps must be constructed--but first they must have a complete report on the huge invading craft that had fallen in western Canada, and on Venus, for they might conceivably make their secrets their own.

They called for the scientists whose work had made possible their successful resistance of the marauders: Arcot, Morey and Wade. They found them working in the Arcot Laboratories.

"Wade," called Arcot tensely as he snapped the switch of the televisophone, "bring Morey and meet me at the machine on the roof at once. That was a call from Was.h.i.+ngton. I'll explain as soon as you get there."

On the roof Arcot opened the hangar doors, and entered the five-pa.s.senger molecular motion s.h.i.+p inside. Its sleek, streamlined sides spoke of power and speed. This was a special research model, designed for their experiments, and carrying mechanisms not found in commercial crafts. Among these were automatic controls still in the laboratory stage, but permitting higher speed, for no human being could control the s.h.i.+p as accurately as these.

It took the trio a little less than a quarter of an hour to make the 5,000 mile trip from New York to the battlefield of Canada. As they sped through the air, Arcot told them what had transpired. The three were pa.s.sed through the lines at once, and they settled to the ground beside one of the huge s.h.i.+ps that lay half buried in the ground. The force of the impact had splashed the solid soil as a stone will splash soft mud, and around the s.h.i.+p there was a ma.s.sive ridge of earth. Arcot looked at the t.i.tanic proportions of this s.h.i.+p from s.p.a.ce, and turned to his friends:

"We can investigate that wreck on foot, but I think it'll be far more sensible to see what we can do with the car. This monster is certainly a mile or more long, and we'd spend more time in walking than in investigation. I suggest, we see if there isn't room for the car inside.

This beats even those huge Kaxorian planes for size." Arcot paused, then grinned. "I sure would have liked to mix in the fight they must have had here--nice little things to play with, aren't they?"

"It would make a nice toy," agreed Wade as he looked at the rows of wicked-looking projectors along the sides of the metal hull, "and I wonder if there might not be some of the crew alive in there? If there are, the size of the s.h.i.+p would prevent their showing themselves very quickly, and since they can't move the s.h.i.+p, it seems to me that they'll let us know shortly that they're around. Probably, with the engines stopped, their main weapons are useless, but they would doubtless have some sort of guns. I'm highly in favor of using the car. We carry a molecular director ray, so if the way is blocked, we can make a new one."

Wade's attention was caught by a sudden flare of light a few miles across the plain. "Look over there--that s.h.i.+p is still flaming--reddish, but almost colorless. Looks like a gas flame, with a bit of calcium in it. Almost as if the air in the s.h.i.+p were combustible. If we should do any exploring in this baby, I suggest we use alt.i.tude suits--they can't do any harm in any case."

Three or four of the great wrecks, spread over a wide area, were burning now, hurling forth long tongues of colorless, intensely hot flame.

Several of the s.h.i.+ps had been only slightly damaged; one had been brought down by a beam that had torn free the entire tail of the s.h.i.+p, leaving the bow in good condition. Apparently this machine had not fallen far; perhaps the pilot had retained partial control of the s.h.i.+p, his power failing when he was only a comparatively short distance from Earth. This was rather well to one side of the plain, however, and they decided to investigate it later.

The s.h.i.+p nearest them had crashed nose first, the point being crushed and shattered. Arcot maneuvered his craft cautiously toward the great hole at the nose of the s.h.i.+p, and they entered the mighty vessel slowly, a powerful spotlight illuminating the interior. Tremendous girders, twisted and broken by the force of impact, thrust up about them. It soon became evident that there was little to fear from any living enemies, and they proceeded more rapidly. Certainly no creature could live after the shock that had broken these huge girders! Several times metal beams blocked their path, and they were forced to use the molecular director ray to bend them out of the way.

"Man," said Arcot as they stopped a moment to clear away a huge member that was bent across their path, "but those beams do look as if they were built permanently! I'd hate to ram into one of them! Look at that one--if that has anywhere near the strength of steel, just think of the force it took to bend it!"

At last they had penetrated to the long tube that led through the length of the s.h.i.+p, the communication tube. This admitted the small s.h.i.+p easily, and they moved swiftly along till they came to what they believed to be about the center of the invader. Here Arcot proposed that they step out and see what there was to be seen.

The others agreed, and they at once put on their alt.i.tude suits of heavy rubberized canvas, designed to be worn outside the s.h.i.+p when at high alt.i.tude, or even in s.p.a.ce. They were supplied with oxygen tanks that would keep the wearer alive for about six hours. Unless the atmosphere remaining in the alien s.h.i.+p was excessively corrosive, they would be safe. After a brief discussion, they decided that all would go, for if they met opposition, there would be strength in numbers.

They met their first difficulty in opening the door leading out of the communication tube. It was an automatic door, and resisted their every effort--until finally they were forced to tear it out with a ray. It was impossible to move it in any other way. The door was in what was now the floor, since the s.h.i.+p seemed to have landed on one side rather than on its keel.

They let themselves through the narrow opening one at a time, and landed on the sloping wall of the corridor beyond.

"Lucky this wasn't a big room, or we'd have had a nice drop to the far wall!" commented Wade. The suits were equipped with a thin vibrating diaphragm that made speech easy, but Wade's voice came through with a queerly metallic ring.

Arcot agreed somewhat absently, his attention directed toward their surroundings. His hand light pierced the blackness, finally halting at a gaping opening, apparently the entrance to a corridor. As they examined it, they saw that it slanted steeply downward.

"It seems to be quite a drop," said Wade as he turned his light into it, "but the surface seems to be rather rough. I think we can do it. I notice that you brought a rope, Morey; I think it'll help. I'll go first, unless someone else wants the honor."

"You go first?" Arcot hesitated briefly. "But I don't know--if we're all going, I guess you had better, at that. It would take two ordinary men to lower a big bulk like you. On the other hand, if anybody is going to stay, you're delegated as elevator boy!

"Hold everything," continued Arcot. "I have an idea. I think none of us will need to hold the weight of the others with the rope. Wade, will you get three fairly good-sized pieces of metal, something we can tie a rope to? I think we can get down here without the help of anyone else. Morey, will you cut the rope in three equal pieces while I help Wade tear loose that girder?"

Arcot refused to reveal his idea till his preparations were complete, but worked quickly and efficiently. With the aid of Wade, he soon had three short members, and taking the rope that Morey had prepared, he tied lengths of cord to the pieces of metal, leaving twenty foot lengths hanging from each. Now he carefully tested his handiwork to make sure the knots would not slip.

"Now, let's see what we can do." Arcot put a small loop in one end of a cord, thrust his left wrist through this, and grasped the rope firmly with his hand. Then he drew his ray pistol, and adjusted it carefully for direction of action. The trigger gave him control over power.

Finally he turned the ray on the block of metal at the other end of the rope. At once the metal pulled vigorously, drawing the rope taut, and as Arcot increased the power, he was dragged slowly across the floor.

"Ah--it works." He grinned broadly over his shoulder. "Come on, boys, hitch your wagon to a star, and we'll go on with the investigation. This is a new, double action parachute. It lets you down easy, and pulls you up easier! I think we can go where we want now." After a pause he added, "I don't have to tell you that too much power will be very bad!"

With Arcot's simple brake, they lowered themselves into the corridor below, descending one at a time, to avoid any contact with the ray, since the touch of the beam was fatal.

The scene that lay before them was one of colossal destruction. They had evidently stumbled upon the engine room. They could not hope to illuminate its vast expanse with their little hand lights, but they could gain some idea of its magnitude, and of its original layout. The floor, now tilted at a steep angle, was torn up in many places, showing great, ma.s.sive beams, buckled and twisted like so many wires, while the heavy floor plates were crumpled like so much foil. Everywhere the room seemed covered with a film of white silvery metal; it was silver, they decided after a brief examination, spattered broadcast over the walls of the room.

Suddenly Morey pointed ceilingward with his light. "That's where the silver came from!" he exclaimed. A network of heavy bars ran across the roof, great bars of solid silver fully three feet thick. In one section gaped a ragged hole, suggesting the work of a disintegration ray, a hole that went into the metal roof above, one which had plainly been fused, as had the great silver bars.

Arcot looked in wonder at the heavy metal bars. "Lord--bus bars three feet thick! What engines they must have! Look at the way those were blown out! They were short circuited by the crash, just before the generator went out, and they were volatilized! Some juice!"

With the aid of their improvised elevators, the three men attempted to explore the tremendous chamber. They had scarcely begun, when Wade exclaimed:

"Bodies!"

They crowded around his gruesome find and caught their first glimpse of the invaders from s.p.a.ce. Anatomical details could not be distinguished since the bodies had been caught under a rain of crus.h.i.+ng beams, but they saw that they were not too different from both Terrestrians and Venerians--though their blood seemed strangely pallid, and their skin was of a ghastly whiteness. Evidently they had been a.s.sembled before an unfamiliar sort of instrument panel when catastrophe struck; Morey indicated the dials and keys.

"Nice to know what you're fighting," Arcot observed. "I've a hunch that we'll see some of these critters alive--but not in this s.h.i.+p!"

They turned away and resumed their examination of the shattered mechanisms.

A careful examination was impossible; they were wrecks, but Arcot did see that they seemed mainly to be giant electrical machines of standard types, though on a gargantuan scale. There were t.i.tanic ma.s.ses of wrecked metal, iron and silver, for with these men silver seemed to replace copper, though nothing could replace iron and its magnetic uses.

"They are just electrical machines, I guess," said Arcot at last. "But what size! Have you seen anything really revolutionary, Wade?"

Wade frowned and answered. "There are just two things that bother me.

Come here." As Arcot jumped over, nearly suspended by his ray pistol, Wade directed his light on a small machine that had fallen in between the cracks in the giant ma.s.s of broken generators. It was a little thing, apparently housed in a gla.s.s case. There was only one objection to that a.s.sumption. The base of a large generator lay on it, metal fully two feet thick, and that metal was cracked where it rested on the case, and the case, made of material an inch and a half thick, was not dented!

"Whewww--that's a nice kind of gla.s.s to have!" Morey commented. "I'd like to have a specimen for examination. Oh--I wonder--yes, it must be!

There's a window in the side up there toward what was the bow that seemed to me to be the same stuff. It's buried about three feet in solid earth, so I imagine it must be."

The three made their way at once to where they had seen the window. The frame appeared to be steel, or some such alloy, and it was twisted and bent under the blow, for this was evidently the outer wall, and the impact of landing had flattened the rounded side. But that "gla.s.s"

window was quite undisturbed! There was, as a further proof, a large granite boulder lying against it on the outside--or what had been a boulder, though it had been shattered by the impact.