Morey and the others all stared at Arcot in amazement. It was utterly impossible!
But Zezdon Afthen did as Arcot had asked. Almost immediately, another Morey stepped out of the airlock wearing what was obviously a pressure suit. Behind him came another Wade, Torlos, Stel Felso Theu, and indeed all the members of their party save Arcot himself! The Galactians stared in wonder--then comprehended and laughed together. Arcot had sent artificial matter images of them all!
Their images stepped out, and the Venonian crowd which had collected, stared in wonder at the giants, looming twice their height above them.
"You see not us, but images of us. We cannot withstand your gravity nor your air pressure, save in the protection of our ship. But these images are true images of us."
For some time then they communicated, and finally Arcot agreed to give a demonstration of their power. At the suggestion of the cruiser commander who had seen the construction of a s.p.a.ceship from the emptiness of s.p.a.ce, Arcot rapidly constructed a small, very simple, molecular drive machine of pure cosmium, making it entirely from energy. It required but minutes, and the Venonians stared in wonder as Arcot"s unbelievable tools created the machine before their eyes. The completed ship Arcot gave to an official of the city who had appeared. The Venonian looked at the thing skeptically, and half expecting it to vanish like the tools that made it, gingerly entered the port. Powered as it was by lead burning cosmic ray generators, the lead alone having been made by trans.m.u.tation of natural matter, it was powerful, and speedy. The official entered it, and finding it still existing, tried it out. Much to his amazement it flew, and operated perfectly.
Nearly ten hours Arcot and his friends stayed at Venone, and before they left, the Venonians, for all their vast differences of structure, had proven themselves true, kindly honest men, and a race that our Alliance has since found every reason to respect and honor. Our commerce with them, though carried on under difficulties, is none the less a bond of genuine friendship.
Chapter XXIV
THETT PREPARES
Streaking through the void toward Thett was again a tiny scout ship. It carried but a single man, and with all the power of the machine he was darting toward distant Thett, at a speed insanely reckless, but he knew that he must maintain such a speed if his mission were to be successful.
Again a tiny ship entered Thett"s far-flung atmosphere, and slowed to less than a light speed, and sent its signal call ahead. In moments the patrol ship, less than three hundred miles away, had reached it, and together they streaked through the dense air in a screaming dive toward Shatnsoma, the capital city. It was directly beneath, and it was not long before they had reached the great palace grounds, and settled on the upper roof. Then the scout leaped out of his tiny craft, and dove for the door. Flashing his credentials, he dove down, and into the first shielded room. Here precious seconds were wasted while a check was made of the credentials the man carried, then he was sent through to the Council Room. And he, too, stood on that exact spot where the other scout, but a few weeks before, had stood--and vanished. Waiting, it seemed, were four councilors and the new Sthanto, Thalt.
"What news, Scout?" asked the Sthanto.
"They have arrived in the Universe to Venone, and gone to the planet Venone. They were on the planet when I left. None of our scouts were able to approach the place, as there were innumerable Venonian watchers who would have recognized our deeper skin-color, and destroyed us. Two scouts were rayed, though the Galactians did not see this. Finally we captured two Venonians who had seen it, and attempted to force the information we needed from them. A young man and his chosen mate.
"The man would tell nothing, and we were hurried. So we turned to the girl. These accursed Venonians are courageous for all their pacifism. We were hurried, and yet it was long before we forced her to tell what we needed to know so vitally. She had been one of the notetakers for the Venonian government. We got most of their conversation, but she died of burns before she finished.
"The Galactians know nothing of the twin-ray beyond its action, and that it is an electro-magnetic phenomenon, though they have been able to distort it by using a sheet of pure energy. But their walls are impregnable to it, and their power of creating matter from the pure energy of s.p.a.ce, as we saw from a distance, would enable them to easily defeat it, were it not that the twin-ray pa.s.ses through matter without harming it. Any ray which will destroy matter of the natural electrical types, will be stopped.
"The girl was d.a.m.nably clever, for she gave us only the things we already knew, and but few new facts; knowing that she would inevitably die soon, she talked--but it was empty talk. The one thing of import we have learned is that they burn no fuel, use no fuel of any sort but in some inconceivable manner get their energy from the radiations of the suns of s.p.a.ce. This could not be great--but we know she told the truth, and we know their power is great. She told the truth, for we could determine when she lied, by mental action, of course.
"But more we could not learn. The man died without telling anything, merely cursing. He knew nothing anyway, as we already had determined,"
concluded the scout.
Silently the Sthanto sat in thought for some moments. Then he raised his head, and looked at the scout once more.
"You have done well. You secured some information of import, which was more than we had dared hope for. But you managed things poorly. The woman should not have died so soon. We can only guess.
"The radiation of the suns of s.p.a.ce--hmmm--" Sthanto Thalt"s brow wrinkled in thought. "The radiation of the _suns_ of s.p.a.ce. Were his power derived from the sun near which he is operating, he would not have said _suns_. It was more than one?"
"It was, oh Sthanto," replied the scout positively.
"His power is unreasonable. I doubt that he gave the true explanation.
It may well have been that he did not trust the Venonians. I would not, for all their warless ways. But surely the suns of s.p.a.ce give very little power at any given point at random. Else s.p.a.ce would not be cold.
"But go, Scout, and you will be a.s.signed a position in the fleet. The Colonial fleet, the remains of it, have arrived, and the colonists been removed. They failed. We will use their ships. You will be a.s.signed."
The scout left, and was indeed a.s.signed to a ship of the colonists. The incoming colonial transports had been met at the outposts of the system, and rayed out of existence at once--failures, and bringing danger at their heels. Besides--there was no room for them on Thett without Thessians being crowded uncomfortably.
As their battleships arrived they were conducted to one of the satellites, and each man was "fumigated," lest he bring disease to the mother planet. Men entered, men apparently emerged. But they were different men.
"It seems," said the Sthanto softly, after the scout had left, "that we will have little difficulty, for they are, we know, vulnerable to the triple ray. And if we can but once destroy their driving units they will be helpless on our world. I doubt that wild tale of their using no fuel.
Even if that be true they will be helpless with their power apparatus destroyed, and--if we miss the first time, we can seek it out, or drive them off!
"All of which is dependent on the fact that they attack at a point where we have a triple ray station to meet them. There are but three of these, actually, but I have had dummy stations, apparently identical with our other real stations, set up in many places.
"This gibberish we hear of creating matter--it is impossible, and surely unsuitable as a weapon. Their misty wall--that may be a force plane, but I know of no such possibility. The artificial substance though--why should any one make it? It but consumes energy, and once made is no more dangerous than ordinary matter, save that there is the possibility of creating it in dangerous position. Remember, we have heard already of the mental suggestions planes--mere force planes--_plus_ a wonderfully developed power of suggestion. They do most of their damage by mental impression. Remember, we have heard already of the mental suggestions of horrible things that drove one fleet of the weak-minded colonists mad.
"And that, I think, we will use to protect ourselves. If we can, with the apparatus which you, my son, have developed, cause them to believe that all the other forts are equally dangerous, and that this one on Thett is the best point of attack--It will be easy. Can you do it?"
"I can, Oh Sthanto, if but a sufficient number of powerful minds may be brought to aid me," replied the youngest of the four councilmen.
"And you, Ranstud, are the stations ready?" asked the ruler.
"We are ready."
Chapter XXV
WITH GALAXIES IN THE BALANCE
The _Thought_ arose from Venone after long hours, and at Arcot"s suggestion, they a.s.sumed an orbit about the world, at a distance of two million miles, and all on board slept, save Torlos, the tireless molecular motion machine of flesh and iron. He acted as guard, and as he had slept but four days before, he explained there was really no reason for him to sleep as yet.
But the terrestrians would feel the greatest strain of the coming encounter, especially Arcot and Morey, for Morey was to help by repairing any damage done, by working from the control board of the _Banderlog_. The little tender had sufficient power to take care of any damage that Thett might inflict, they felt sure.
For they had not learned of the triple ray.
It was hours later that, rested and refreshed, they started for Thett.
Following the great s.p.a.ce-chart that they had been given by the Venonians, a series of blocks of clear lux metal, with tiny points of slowly disintegrating lux, such as had been used to illuminate the letters of the _Thought_"s name representing suns, the colors and relative intensity being shown. Then there was a more manageable guide in the form of photographs, marked for route by constellations formations as well, which would be their actual guide.
At the maximum speed of the time apparatus, for thus they could better follow the constellations, the _Thought_ plunged along in the wake of the tiny scout ship that had already landed on Thett. And, hours later, they saw the giant red sun of Antseck, the star of Thett and its system.
"We"re about there," said Arcot, a peculiar tenseness showing in his thoughts. "Shall we barge right in, or wait and investigate?"
"Well have to chance it. Where is their main fort here?"
"From the direction, I should say it was to the left and ahead of our position," replied Zezdon Afthen.
The ship moved ahead, while about it the tremendous Thessian battlefleet buzzed like flies, thousands of ships now, and more coming with each second.
In a few moments the t.i.tanic ship had crossed a great plain, and came to a region of bare, rocky hills several hundred feet high. Set in those hills, surrounded by them, was a huge sphere, resting on the ground. As though by magic the Thessian fleet cleared away from the _Thought_. The last one had not left, when Arcot shot a terrific cosmic ray toward the sphere. It was relux, and he knew it, but he knew what would happen when that cosmic ray hit it. The solometer flickered and steadied at three as that inconceivable ray flashed out.
Instantly there was a terrific explosion. The soil exploded into hydrogen atoms, and expanded under heat that lashed it to more than a million degrees in the tiniest fraction of a second. The terrific recoil of the ray-pressure was taken by all s.p.a.ce, for it was generated in s.p.a.ce itself, but the direct pressure struck the planet, and that t.i.tanic planet reeled! A tremendous fissure opened, and the section that had been struck by the ray smashed its way suddenly far into the planet, and a geyser of fluid rock rolled over it, twenty miles deep in that world. The relux sphere had been struck by the ray, and had turned it, with the result that it was pushed doubly hard. The enormously thick relux strained and dented, then shot down as a whole, into the incandescent rock.