Authors: E. E. 'Doc' Smith
‘Me, too. You can pilot us to the Fenachrone system now without any trouble. You also absorbed some ethnology and kindred sciences. What d’you think – with Dunark and Urvan, do we know enough to go ahead or should we take a chance on holding things up while we get acquainted with some of the other peoples of these planets of the green system?’
‘Delay is dangerous, as our time is already short,’ Crane replied. ‘We know enough, I believe. Furthermore, any additional assistance is problematical; in fact, it is more than doubtful. The Norlaminians have surveyed the system rather thoroughly, and no other planet seems
to have inhabitants who have even approached the development attained here.’
‘Right – that’s exactly the way I dope it. As soon as the gang assembles we’ll go over the top. In the meantime, I called you over to take a ride in this projector – it’s a darb. I’d like to shoot for the Fenachrone system first, but I don’t quite dare to.’
‘Don’t
dare
to? You?’ scoffed Margaret. ‘How come?’
‘Cancel the “dare” – make it “prefer not to”. Why? Because while they can’t work through a zone of force, some of their real scientists – and they have lots of them – not like the bull-headed soldier we captured – may well be able to detect fifth-order stuff – even if they can’t work with it intelligently – and if they detected us, it’d put them on guard.’
‘Sound reasoning, Dick,’ Crane agreed, ‘and there speaks the Norlaminian physicist, and not my old and reckless playmate, Richard Seaton.’
‘Oh, I don’t know – I told you I was getting timid like a mouse. But let’s not sit here twiddling our thumbs – let’s go places and do things. Whither away? I want a destination a good ways off, not something in our own back yard.’
‘Go back home, of course, stupe,’ put in Dorothy. ‘Do you have to be told every little thing?’
‘Sure – never thought of that,’ and Seaton, after a moment’s rapid mental arithmetic, swung the great tube around, rapidly adjusted a few dials, and kicked in the energizing pedal. There was a fleeting instant of unthinkable velocity, then they found themselves poised somewhere in space.
‘Well, wonder how far I missed it on my first shot?’ Seaton’s crisp voice broke the stunned silence. ‘Guess that’s our sun, over to the left ain’t it, Mart?’
‘Yes. You were about right for distance, and within a few tenths of a light-year laterally. That is very close, I would say.’
‘Rotten, for these controls. Except for the effect of relative, proper, orbital, and other motions which I can’t evaluate exactly yet for lack of precise data, I should be able to hit the left eye of a gnat at this range; and the uncertainty in my data couldn’t have thrown me off more than a few hundred feet. Nope, I was too anxious – hurried too much on the settings of the slow verniers. I’ll snap back and try it again.’
He did so, adjusting the verniers very carefully, and again threw on the power. There was again the sensation of the barest perceptible moment of unimaginable speed, and they were in the air some fifty feet above the ground of Crane Field, almost above the testing shed. Seaton rapidly adjusted the variable-speed motors until they were perfectly stationary relative to the surface of the Earth.
‘You are improving,’ commented Crane.
‘Yeah – that’s more like it. Guess maybe I can learn to shoot this gun, in time.’
They dropped through the roof into the laboratory,
where Maxwell, now in charge, was watching a reaction and occasionally taking notes.
‘Hi, Max! Seaton speaking, on a television. Got your range?’
‘Exactly, chief, apparently. I can hear you perfectly, but can’t see anything.’ Maxwell stared about the empty laboratory.
‘You will in a minute. I knew I had you, but didn’t want to scare you out of a year’s growth,’ and Seaton thickened the image until they were plainly visible.
‘Please call Mr Vaneman on the phone and tell him you’re in touch with us,’ directed Seaton as soon as greetings had been exchanged. ‘Better yet, after you’ve broken it to them gently, Dot can talk to them, then we’ll go over and see ’em.’
The connection established, Dorothy’s image floated up to the telephone and spoke.
‘Mother? This is the weirdest thing you ever imagined. We’re not really here at all, you know – we’re actually here in Norlamin – no, I mean Dick’s just sending a kind of talking picture of us to see you on Earth here … Oh, no, I don’t know anything about it – it’s something like television, but much more so – I’m saying this myself right now, without any rehearsal or anything … we didn’t want to burst in on you without warning, because you’d be sure to think you were seeing ghosts, and we’re all perfectly all right … we’re having the most perfectly gorgeous time you ever imagined … Oh, I’m so excited I can’t explain anything, even if I knew anything about it to explain. We’ll all four of us be over there in about a second, and tell you about it. ’Bye!’
Indeed, it was even less than a second – Mrs Vaneman was still in the act of hanging up the receiver when the image materialized in the living-room of Dorothy’s girlhood home.
‘Hello, mother and dad,’ Seaton’s voice was cheerful, but matter-of-fact. ‘I’ll thicken this up so you can see us better in a minute. But don’t think that we are flesh and blood. You’ll see simply three-dimensional force-images of us.’
For a long time Mr and Mrs Vaneman chatted with the four visitors from so far away in space, while Seaton gloried in the perfect working of that marvelous projector.
‘Well, our time’s about up,’ Seaton finally ended the visit. ‘The quitting-whistle’s going to blow in five minutes, and they don’t like overtime work over here where we are. We’ll drop in and see you again maybe, sometime before we come back.’
‘Do you know yet when you are coming back?’ asked Mrs Vaneman.
‘Not an idea in the world, mother, any more than we had when we started. But we’re getting along fine, having the time of our lives, and are learning a lot besides. So-long!’ and Seaton clicked off the power.
As they descended from the projector and walked toward the waiting airboat Seaton fell in beside Rovol.
‘You know they’ve got our new cruiser built of dagal,
and are bring it over here. Dagal’s good stuff, but it isn’t as good as your inoson, which is the theoretical ultimate in strength possible for any material possessing molecular structure. Why wouldn’t it be a sound idea to flash it over into inoson when it gets here?’
‘That would be an excellent idea, and we shall do so. It also has occurred to me that Caslor of Mechanism, Astron of Energy, Satrazon of Chemistry, myself, and one or two others should collaborate in installing a very complete fifth-order projector in the new
Skylark
, as well as any other equipment which may seem desirable. The security of the universe may depend upon the abilities and qualities of you Terrestrials and your vessel, and therefore nothing should be left undone which it is possible for us to do.’
‘That would help, and we’d appreciate it. Thanks. You might do that, while we attend to such preliminaries as wiping out the Fenachrone fleet.’
In due time the reinforcements from the other planets arrived, and the mammoth space-cruiser attracted attention even before it was landed, so enormous was she in comparison with the tiny vessels having her in tow. Resting upon the ground, it seemed absurd that such a structure could possibly move under her own power. For two miles that enormous mass of metal extended over the countryside, and while it was very narrow – for its length, still its fifteen hundred feet of diameter dwarfed everything nearby. But Rovol and his aged co-workers smiled happily as they saw it, erected their keyboards, and set to work with a will.
Meanwhile a group had gathered about a conference table – a group such as had never before been seen together upon any world. There was Fodan, the ancient Chief of the Five of Norlamin, huge-headed, with his leonine mane and flowing beard of white. There were Dunark and Tarnan of Osnome and Urvan of Urvania – smooth-faced and keen, utterly implacable and ruthless in war. There was Sacner Carfon Twenty Three Forty-Six, the immense, porpoise-like, hairless Dasorian. There were Seaton and Crane, representatives of our own Earthly civilization.
Seaton opened the meeting by handing each man a headset and running a reel showing the plans of the Fenachrone; not only as he had secured them from the captain of the marauding vessel, but also everything the First of Psychology had deduced from his own study of that inhuman brain. He then removed the reel and gave them the tentative plans of battle. Headsets removed, he threw the meeting open for discussion – and discussion there was in plenty. Each man had ideas, which were thrown upon the table and studied, for the most part calmly and dispassionately. The conference continued until only one point was left, upon which argument waxed so hot that everyone seemed shouting at once.
‘Order!’ commanded Seaton, banging his fist upon the table. ‘Osnome and Urvania wish to strike without warning, Norlamin and
Dasor insist upon a formal declaration of war. Earth has the deciding vote. Mart, how do we vote on this?’
‘I vote for formal warning, for two reasons, one of which I believe will convince even Dunark. First, because it is the fair thing to do – which reason is, of course, the one actuating the Norlaminians, but which would not be considered by Osnome, nor even remotely understood by the Fenachrone. Second, I am certain that the Fenachrone will merely be enraged by the warning and will defy us. Then what will they do? You have already said that you have been able to locate only a few of their exploring warships. As soon as we declare war upon them they will almost certainly send out torpedoes to every one of their ships of war. We can then trace the torpedoes, and thus will be enabled to find and to destroy their vessels.’
‘That settles that,’ declared the chairman as a shout of agreement arose. ‘We shall now adjourn to the projector and send the warning. I have a tracer upon the torpedo announcing the destruction by us of their vessel, and that torpedo will arrive at its destination very shortly. It seems to me that we should make our announcement immediately after their ruler has received the news of their first defeat.’
In the projector, where they were joined by Rovol, Orlon, and several others of the various ‘Firsts’ of Norlamin, they flashed out to the flying torpedo, and Seaton grinned at Crane as their fifth-order carrier beam went through the far-flung screens of the Fenachrone without setting up the slightest reaction. In the wake of that speeding messenger they flew through a warm, foggy, dense atmosphere, through a receiving trap in the wall of a gigantic conical structure, and on into the telegraph room. They saw the operator remove spools of tape from the torpedo and attach them to a magnetic sender – heard him speak.
‘Pardon, your majesty – we have just received a first-degree-emergency torpedo from flagship Y427W of fleet 42. In readiness.’
‘Put it on, here in the council chamber,’ a deep voice snapped.
‘If he’s broadcasting it, we’re in for a spell of hunting,’ Seaton remarked. ‘Ah – he’s putting it on a tight beam. That’s fine; we can trace it,’ and with a narrow detector beam he traced the invisible transmission beam into the council room.
‘’Sfunny. This place seems awfully familiar – I’d swear I’d seen it before, lots of times – seems like I’ve been in it, more than once,’ Seaton remarked, puzzled, as he looked around the somber room, with its dull, paneled metal walls covered with charts, maps, screens, and speakers; and with its low, massive furniture. ‘Oh, sure, I’m familiar with it from studying the brain of that Fenachrone captain. Well, while His Nibs is absorbing the bad news, we’ll go over this once more. You, Carfon, having the biggest voice any of us ever heard uttering intelligible language, are to give the
speech. You know about what to say. When I say “go ahead” do your stuff. Now, everybody else, listen. While he’s talking I’ve got to have audio waves heterodyned both ways in the circuit, and they’ll be able to hear any noise any of us make – so all of us except Carfon want to keep absolutely quiet, no matter what happens or what we see. As soon as he’s done I’ll cut off our audio and say something to let you all know we’re off the air. Got it?’
‘One point has occurred to me about handling the warning,’ boomed Carfon. ‘If it should be delivered from apparently empty air, directly at those we wish to address, it would give the enemy an insight into our methods, which might be undesirable.’
‘Hm … m … m. Never thought of that … it sure would, and it would be undesirable,’ agreed Seaton. ‘Let’s see … we can get away from that by broadcasting it. They have a very complete system of speakers, but no matter how many private-band speakers a man may have, he always has one on the general wave, which is used for very important announcements of wide interest. I’ll broadcast you on that wave, so that every general-wave speaker on the planet will be energized. That way, it’ll look like we’re shooting from a distance. You might talk accordingly.’
‘If we have a minute more, there’s something I would like to ask,’ Dunark broke the ensuing silence. ‘Here we are, seeing everything that is happening there. Walls, planets, even suns, do not bar our vision, because of the fifth-order carrier wave. I understand that, partially, But how can we see anything there? I always thought that I knew something about communications and television hook-ups and techniques, but I see that I don’t. There must be a collector or receiver, close to the object viewed, with nothing opaque to light intervening. Light from that object must be heterodyned upon the fifth-order carrier and transmitted back to us. How can you do all that from here, with neither a receiver nor a transmitter at the other end?’
‘We don’t,’ Seaton assured him. ‘At the other end there are both, and a lot of other stuff besides. Our secondary projector out there is composed of forces, visible or invisible, as we please. Part of those forces comprise the receiving, viewing, and sending instruments. They are not material, it is true, but they are nevertheless fully as actual, and far more efficient, than any other system of radio, television, or telephone in existence anywhere else. It is force, you know, that makes radio or television work – the actual copper, insulation, and other matter serve only to guide and to control the various forces employed. The Norlaminians have found out how to direct and control pure forces without using the cumbersome and hindering material substance …’