Still, for all his swiftness of mind and accuracy of thought, he had to correct two mistakes in all his work. It was nearly an hour before the thing was finished. Then, two hundred feet long, a hundred wide, and fifty in height, the great mechanism was completed, the tall columns rising from four corners of the greater framework that supported it.
Then, into it, Arcot turned the powers of the cosmos. The stars in the airless s.p.a.ce wavered and danced as though seen through a thick atmosphere. Tingling power ran through them as it flowed into the tremendous coils. For thirty seconds--then the heavens were as before.
At last Arcot spoke. Through the radio communicators, and through the thought-channels, his ideas came as he took off the headpiece. "It"s done now, and we can rest." There was a tremendous crash from within the apparatus. The heavens reeled before them, and shifted, then were still, but the stars were changed. The sun shone weirdly, and the stars were altered.
"That is a time shifting apparatus on a slightly larger scale," replied Arcot to Torlos" question, "and is designed to give us a chance to work.
Come on, let"s sleep. A week here should be a few minutes of Earthtime."
"You sleep, Arcot. I"ll prepare the materials for you," suggested Morey.
So Arcot and Wade went to sleep, while Morey and the Talsonian and Torlos worked. First Morey bound the _Ancient Mariner_ to the frame of the time apparatus, safely away from the four luminous b.a.l.l.s, broadcasters of the time field. Then he shut off the attractive ray, and bound himself in the operator"s seat of the apparatus of the artificial matter machine.
A plane of artificial matter formed, and a stretch of rock rose under its lift as it cleft the rock apart. A great cleared, level s.p.a.ce resulted. Other artificial matter enclosed the rock, and the fragments cut free were treated under tremendous pressure. In a few moments a second enormous ma.s.s of cosmium was formed.
For three hours Morey worked steadily, building a tremendous reserve of materials. Lux metal he did not make, but relux, the infusible, perfect conductor, and cosmium in tremendous ma.s.ses, he did make. And he made some great blocks of oxygen from the rock, trans.m.u.ting the atoms, and stored it frozen on the plane, with liquid hydrogen in huge tanks, and some metals that would be needed. Then he slept while they waited for Arcot.
Eight hours after he had lain down, Arcot was up, and ate his breakfast.
He set to work at once with the machine. It didn"t suit him, it seemed, and first he made a new tool, a small ship that could move about, propelled by a piece of artificial matter, and the entire ship was a tremendously greater artificial matter machine, with a greater power than before!
His thoughts, far faster than hands could move, built up the gigantic hull of the new ship, and put in the rooms, and the brace members in less than twelve hours. A t.i.tanic sh.e.l.l of eight-inch cosmium, a s.p.a.ce, with braces of the same nonconductor of heat, cosmium, and a two inch inner hull. A tiny s.p.a.ce in the gigantic hull, a s.p.a.ce less than one thousand cubic feet in dimension was the control and living quarters.
It was held now on great cosmium springs, but Arcot was not by any means through. One man must do all the work, for one brain must design it, and though he received the constant advice and help of Morey and the others, it was his brain that pictured the thing that was built.
At last the hull was completed. A single, glistening tube, of enormous bulk, a mile in length, a thousand feet in diameter. Yet nearly all of that great bulk would be used immediately. Some room would be left for additional apparatus they might care to install. Spare parts they did not have to carry--they could make their own from the energy abounding in s.p.a.ce.
The enormous, shining hull was a thing of beauty through stark grandeur now, but obviously incomplete. The ray projectors were not mounted, but they were to be ray projectors of a type never before possible. s.p.a.ce is the transmitter of all rays, and it is in s.p.a.ce that those energy forms exist. Arcot had merely to transfer the enormously high energy level of the s.p.a.ce-curvature to any form of energy he wanted, and now, with the complete statistics on it, he was able to do that directly. No tubes, no generators, only fields that changed the energy already there--the immeasurable energy available!
The next period of work he started the s.p.a.ce distortion apparatus. That must go at the exact center of the ship. One tremendous coil, big enough for the _Ancient Mariner_ to lie in easily! Minutes, and flying thoughts had made it--then came thousands of the individual coils, by thinking of one, and picturing it many times! In ranks, rows, and columns they were piled into a great block, for power must be stored for use of this tremendous machine, while in the artificial s.p.a.ce when its normal power was not available, and that power source must be tremendous.
Then the time apparatus, and after that the driving apparatus. Not the molecular drive now, but an attraction ray focused on their own ship, with projectors scattered about the ship that it might move effortlessly in every direction. And provision was made for a force-drive by means of artificial matter, planes of it pushing the ship where it was wanted.
But with the attraction-drive they would be able to land safely, without fear of being crushed by their own weight on Thett, for all its enormous gravity.
The control was now suspended finally, with a series of attraction drives about it, locking it immovably in place, while smaller attraction devices stimulated gravity for the occupants.
Then finally the main apparatus--the power plant--was installed. The enormous coils which handled, or better, caused s.p.a.ce to handle as they directed, powers so great that whole suns could be blasted instantaneously, were put in place, and the field generators that would make and direct their rays, their ray screen if need be, and handle their artificial matter. Everything was installed, and all but a rather small s.p.a.ce was occupied.
It had been six weeks of continuous work for them, for the mind of each was aiding in this work, indirectly or directly, and it neared completion now.
"But, we need one more thing, Arcot. That could never land on any planet smaller than Jupiter. What is its ma.s.s?" suggested Morey.
"Don"t know, I"m sure, but it is of the order of a billion tons. I know you are right. What are we going to do?"
"Put on a tender."
"Why not the _Ancient Mariner_?" asked Wade.
"It isn"t fitting. It was designed for individual use anyway," replied Morey. "I suggest something more like this on a small scale. We won"t have much work on that, merely think of every detail of the big ship on a small scale, with the exception of the control cube furnishings.
Instead of the numerous decks, swimming pool and so forth, have a large, single room."
"Good enough," replied Arcot.
As if by magic, a machine appeared, a "small" machine of two-hundred-foot length, modified slightly in some parts, its bottom flattened, and equipped with an attractor anchor. Then they were ready.
"We will leave the _Mariner_ here, and get it later. This apparatus won"t be needed any longer, and we don"t want the enemy to get it. Our trial trip will be a fight!" called Arcot as he leaped from his seat.
The ma.s.s of the giant ship pulled him, and he fell slowly toward it.
Into its open port he flew, the others behind him, their suits still on.
The door shut behind them as Arcot, at the controls, closed it. As yet they had not released the air supplies. It was airless.
Now the hiss of air, and the quickening of heat crept through it. The water in the tanks thawed as the heat came, soaking through from the great heaters. In minutes the air and heat were normal throughout the great bulk. There was air in power compartments, though no one was expected to go there, for the control room alone need be occupied; vision-screens here viewed every part of the ship, and all about it.
The eyes of the new ship were set in recesses of the tremendously strong cosmium wall, and over them, protecting them, was an infinitely thin, but infinitely strong wall of artificial matter, permanently maintained.
It was opaque to all forms of radiation known from the longest Hertzian to the shortest cosmics, save for the very narrow band of visible light.
Whether this protection would stop the Thessian beam that was so deadly to lux and relux was not, of course, known. But Arcot hoped it would, and, if that beam was radiant energy, or material particles, it would.
"We"ll destroy our station here now, and leave the _Ancient Mariner_ where it is. Of course we are a long way out of the orbit this planetoid followed, due to the effect of the time apparatus, but we can note where it is, and we"ll be able to find it when we want it," said Arcot, seated at the great control board now. There were no b.u.t.tons now, or visible controls; all was mental.
A tiny sphere of artificial matter formed, and shot toward the control board of the time machine outside. It depressed the main switch, and s.p.a.ce about them shifted, twisted, and returned to normal. The time apparatus was off for the first time in six weeks.
"Can"t fuse that, and we can"t crush it. It"s made of cosmium, and trying to crush it against the rock would just drive it into it. We"ll see what we can do though," muttered Arcot. A plane of artificial matter formed just beneath it, and sheared it from its bed on the planetoid, cutting through the heavy cosmium anchors. The framework lifted, and the apparatus with it. A series of planes, a gigantic honeycomb formed, and the apparatus was cut across again and again, till only small fragments were left of it. Then these were rolled into a ball, and crushed by a sphere of artificial matter beyond all repair. The enemy would never learn their secret.
A huge cylinder of artificial matter cut a great gouge from the plane that was left where the apparatus had been, and a clamp of the same material picked up the _Ancient Mariner_, deposited it there, then covered it with rubble and broken rock. A cosmic flashed on the rock for an instant, and it was glowing, incandescent lava. The _Ancient Mariner_ was buried under a hundred feet of rapidly solidifying rock, but rock which could be fused away from its infusible walls when the time came.
"We"re ready to go now--get to work with the radio, Morey, when we get to Earth."
The gravity seemed normal here as they walked about, no accelerations affected them as the ship darted forward, for all its inconceivably great ma.s.s, like an arrow, then flashed forward under time control. The sun was far distant now, for six weeks they had been traveling with the section of Eros under time control. But with their tremendous time control plant, and the s.p.a.ce control, they reached the solar system in very little time.
It seemed impossible to them that that battle could still be waging, but it was. The ships of Earth and Venus, battling now as a last, hopeless stand, over Chicago, were attempting to stop the press of a great Thessian fleet. Thin, long Negrian, or Sirian ships had joined them in the hour of Earth time that the men had been working. Still, despite the reinforcements, they were falling back.
Chapter XIX
THE BATTLE OF EARTH
It had been an anxious hour for the forces of the Solar System.
They were in the last fine stages of Earth"s defense when the general staff received notice that a radio message of tremendous power had penetrated the ray screen, with advice for them. It was signed "Arcot."
"Bringing new weapon. Draw all ships within the atmosphere when I start action, and drive Thessians back into s.p.a.ce. Retire as soon as a distance of ten thousand miles is reached. I will then handle the fleet," was the message.
"Gentlemen: We are losing. The move suggested would be eminently poor tactics unless we are sure of being able to drive them. If we don"t, we are lost in any event. I trust Arcot. How vote you?" asked General Hetsar Sthel.
The message was relayed to the ships. Scarcely a moment after the message had been relayed, a tremendous battleship appeared in s.p.a.ce, just beyond the battle. It shot forward, and planted itself directly in the midst of the battle, brushing aside two huge Thessians in its progress. The Thessian ships bounced off its sides, and reeled away. It lay waiting, making no move. All the Thessian ships above poured the full concentration of their moleculars into its tremendous bulk. A diffused glow of opalescence ran over every ship--save the giant. The moleculars were being reflected from its sides, and their diffused energy attacked the very ships that were sending them!
A fort moved up, and the deadly beam of destruction reached out, luminous even in s.p.a.ce.
"Now," muttered Morey, "we shall see what cosmium will stand."