SmithShuffle.txt

" 

The group gasped as one, but Saunders went on: "They can eat and drink and 
breathe and so on, but only because the original Masters wanted them to. Gone 
was the storming, impetuous rebel; his body was ruled solely by the precise and 
insatiable brain of the research scientist. . . . oh, excuse that crack, 
please, Dr. . . ?" 

"I do not know, nor is it necessary that I find out. 

"What an idea. Mountains of bare rock, incredible thousands of feet higher than 
the plateau forming the south bank, towered at the rushing torrent's very edge. 
Each was connected to a drive by fifty-inch high-speed conveyors. The sun as 
seen from Pluto is a dim, wan speck. The Mardonalians then concentrated the 
fire of their entire fleet upon their tiny opponent. The surviving Arpalone 
fighters and other small craft were making no attempt to land, anywhere on the 
world's surface. Tractors and pressors leaped from ship to ship, binding the 
whole myriad of hitherto discrete units into a single structure as solid, even 
comparatively as to size, as a cantilever bridge. And instead of remaining 
quiescent, waiting to be attacked, the cylinder flashed forward, inertialess, 
at maximum blast. Bombs, armor-piercing shells, gas shells of poisonous and 
corrosive fluids followed each other in close succession. The surviving 
scientists of the planetoid, expert gunners and ray-men all, destroyed many of 
the projectiles, but it was not humanly possible to cope with them all. " 

Gharlane disappeared. "Come on, Hazel. Number Four, you said, darling?" 

She led the way. Do you want to come peaceably or shall I work on your neck 
again?" 

"You could think of other places that would be more fun. " 

Seaton, though furiously eager to be off, paused at this new idea, and 
half-regretfully he replied: 

"We are so far behind them already that I guess a few hours more won't make 
much difference. "Fascinating! And, indubitably, supremely important. In fact, 
it may point out the key datum underlying the solution of our entire problem. " 

"Say it. Crane made a number of these instruments, mounted in gymbals, so that 
the delicate needles were free to turn in any direction whatever. It faded out 
as the unknown exerted himself to withstand that poignant inquisition, only to 
come back in, clearer than before, as Seaton advanced the potentiometer still 
farther. " 

"True, First Lord. "It's simply self-defense. "If you'd've let me, I'd've shown 
it to you yesterday!" 

"Undoubtedly, then. They'll wreck it and it'll cost you. I could do with some 
more sleep myself. Before I leave you, I will say that you have conferred a 
real favor upon me--you have given me something to think about for thousands of 
cycles to come. We knew of the existence of only such of the closest planets as 
were brilliant enough to be seen in our continuous sunlight, and they were few. 
A series of observations of our pursuer will, of course, be necessary to decide 
that point. _ 

_Nor did any Eddorian know that such fantastically rapid progress was being 
made. _ 



What Went Before: 

The Interplanetary Vessel Arcturus sets out for Mars, with Breckenridge as 
chief pilot, carrying on board, besides its regular crew and some passengers, 
the famous Dr. _                             | |                                
      | +--------------------------------------+ 









The Occurrence of the Impossible 



Petrified with astonishment, Richard Seaton stared after the copper steam-bath 
upon which he had been electrolyzing his solution of "X," the unknown metal. 
Stevens, designer of space ships and computer. Shutting off the lookout plate, 
he led the half-fainting girl across the room to a comfortable seat and sat 
down beside her--raging, but thoughtful. Soon she drew a spasmodic breath, 
choking and coughing, and he again changed the gaseous stream to one of pure 
air, speaking urgently as she showed signs of returning consciousness. I didn't 
want to be the first, but I won't be anywhere near the last. " 

"I'm glad you said that, Jim. 

He ordered his Dillingham, and tossed the lunch-box aboard as carelessly as 
though it did not contain an unknown number of millions of credits' worth of 
clear-quill, uncut thionite. "Not that I blame either Belle or myself. Before 
we make any kind of contact we'll have to do some organizing. As soon as his 
job's done he'll wish he'd never been born. Many primitive peoples think that 
waterfalls are inhabited by demons, and maybe these folks are afflicted the 
same way. 

But of what importance are mere weeks of time to a race that has, for many 
millions of years, been adhering rigidly to a pre-set program? 

The sheer magnitude of the operation, and the extraordinary attention to detail 
with which it was prepared and launched, explain why the Strett attack on 
Ardvor did not occur until so many weeks later than Hilton and Sawtelle 
expected it. So _damned_ good that I'm going to have to take you out of 
Department Q entirely and make you Works Manager of our new plant on Vegia. 
They merely nodded. Thus the odds were not merely two or three to one; but 
never less than eighty, and very frequently over two hundred to one. " 

"But he was smashed up pretty badly, wasn't he? I know that he had a broken arm 
and a broken leg, at least. And now, Norma, please keep everybody off my neck 
that you can. " 

"_Who_ says so, the dirty, sneaking liars?" the red-head blazed, completely 
unaware that she had reversed her former position. 

"I said _strike_!" Tedric roared. I didn't realize how much harder for her it 
would be than it is for me until I went in there and found her crying. " 

The _Boise_, of course, inerted first; followed by the _Chicago_ and nine of 
the tremendous tear-drops from Bennett. "Commissioner Kinnison is calling. 
Something terrible is going on again, out toward Orion. " 

"I've got it all on the reels, sir. "And you will?" 

"That is why I have come to you, but whether or not I will teach you depends on 
certain matters which I have not been able entirely to clarify. Those birds 
have forgotten more than we ever will know. " 

"Yes, it's a lot bigger than the _Skylark_ was. 

"At ease, sir. They stared in defiance, motionless, until the man wearing the 
belt who had studied Seaton closely, spoke a few words in a low tone, when they 
all prostrated themselves. Each Eddorian changed, not only its shape, but also 
its texture, in accordance with the requirements of the moment. 

"Except for lieutenant-commodores and up, who will tune their minds to 
me--dismissed!" Kinnison stopped talking and went onto his Lens. Jim's 
assistant. I have a thousand tapes, more or less, to study, too. . all of you. 
Better get your wet rags ready and get organized generally--every second will 
count by the time we get there. Leave your negative as it is--we'll be stopped 
directly. Whatever it is, it's dead ahead. We have one tremendous advantage in 
you. " 

"That's right, too. And then, there were a lot of little ideas that had to be 
nailed down before they got away from me. 

"Pardon me, miss, but I feel just like you look. "No use--not half enough power 
or control. 

"Of course not. Hilton worried. 

"Put Triple X Black filters on your plates and watch that asteroid. The 
offensive beams of the fish-shaped Nevian cruisers of the void were even more 
powerful. 

"Well--we went _somewhere_. " Fao 'ported up and shook hands warmly. "She's 
been kicking around under foot ever since she was knee high to a duck--we gave 
her her first lessons on a slide rule. We didn't strike any trouble going or 
coming, so she didn't need much servicing. A series of observations of our 
pursuer will, of course, be necessary to decide that point. 

". So were those machines. 

"Well, I expect Orlon'll be showing up pretty quick now," remarked Seaton; and 
it was not long until the projection appeared in the air of the control room. 
That Virgilia Samms was the most accomplished muscle-reader of her times. You'd 
both be completely impotent with any women whatever except your mates--Belle 
and me. . . . Yes, I'll be right out. " 

"See it yet, Dunark?" Seaton signaled. But first, yes, it's Alex. It ceased 
being a servant then, and became a master. It does not, however, apply to all, 
and, it lacks one whole hell of a lot of applying to me. 

Finally, in desperation, he rammed a beam down and held it down. " He turned 
and curtly dismissed the wondering O. "And _am_ I glad to see _you_, Barbara, 
even if I did just meet you yesterday! I didn't know whether I'd ever see 
another girl's face or not!" 

"Let's cut the chat," Deston said then. " 

"I'd like that. Clayton hadn't had to be told to pull in his light stuff; it 
was all pelting hell-for-leather for Sol and Tellus. Three general plans of 
battle had been mapped out by Staff. So I'm. Saw your timbers accordingly. 
We'll hold that burley by hand. . " 

"Stop stuttering and come to life, you half-witted bag! Gimme Ferber and hurry 
it up--this ship's tricky. Number One first. Number Four was being rushed to 
completion. Kinnison opened the portal. 

The Anti-Personnel mines had been giving trouble. Gigantic craters, in whose 
yawning depths no spark of warmth had been generated for countless cycles of 
time, were surrounded by vast plains eroded to the dead level of a windless 
sea. Every lofty object cast a sharply outlined shade of impenetrable 
blackness, beside which the weak light of the sun became a dazzling glare. One 
land-mass, one vortex. Four hands--if hands they could be called--manipulated 
levers and wheels with infinite delicacy of touch, and with scarcely a splash 
the immense mass of the Nevian vessel struck the water and glided to a stop 
within a foot of its exact berth. 

"James says that he can finish building this starship in a few weeks," Delcamp 
told them, flatly. Thionite. Definitely. For good. There were no breaks, no 
marks of violence, and yet nothing was intact. 

"What d'you make of it, Mart? That's water all right--copper-sulphate solution, 
just like the Osnomian and Urvanian oceans--and nothing else visible. Ferber 
and the rest of the Board--stupidity _uber alles_!--think all us Ops and Primes 
are psycho and that the ship will never even lift. Which, by the way, is the 
truth. " 

"Fighting? Why, you seemed friendly enough. " 

Neither Belle nor Garlock had recovered; both faces showed strain and drain. 

"Lots of 'em--here's one right here," and at the next landing he opened a 
vacuum-insulated steel door, snapped on a light, and waved his hand. And unless 
something could be done about loose vortices before too many years, the 
consequences would be really serious. More were arriving constantly, of course, 
but the flood had become a trickle; the narrow way, worming upward from the 
city along the cliffs stark side, was almost bare of traffic. 



He found himself seated in a narrow canoe of metal, immediately behind the 
pilot, who sat at a small control panel in the bow. "While we're out of touch 
with United Worlds you, as captain of the ship and director of the project, are 
Boss, with a capital B. If you're still thinking of blistering my fanny, don't 
try it. " 

"Fair enough. " 

Brandon, at the controls, scanning his screens narrowly, dropped the vessel 
down to within a mile or two of the point of origin of Stevens' carrier beam 
without incident; then spoke to Westfall, at his side, with a grin. " She shook 
hands warmly. "If there's any one thing in the universe I never had _you_ 
figured for, it's a dog in the manger. " 

"Yes? You lie in your teeth, Cleander, but I love it. I hated like the devil to 
let her work that way, but. But she's got brains, ability, and guts--guts 
enough to supply the Women's Army Corps. . . . . . but they knew that. Then he 
leaped into his own. Brandon, in his light remark that the two made one real 
scientist, had far understated the case--those two brains, each so powerful and 
each so perfectly complementing the other, comprised the master-scientist who 
was to revolutionize science completely in a few short years. With a mighty 
lunge of his powerful body he wrenched out the support and with a continuation 
of the same motion, he brought the jagged oak head of his terrible club down 
full upon the crown of the second hexan, who had already torn one guard apart 
and was leaping toward Czuv, his hereditary foe. 

The enormous duplex cone of the Vorkuls did not attempt to repeat the maneuver, 
but divided into two single cones, one of which darted toward each point of 
rupture. pgdp. net) 





Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this 

file which includes the original illustrations. 

See 21647-h. It's your move, Jarve. I've been getting them ready for this for 
weeks. The Masters had qualities and abilities now unknown to any of us. They 
got out. The Galactic Patrol will not be able to stop at being the supreme and 
only authority in inter-systemic affairs. " 

"So will you, Junior, believe me. " 

"Oh, I believe it, all right. "We operate, when we must operate at all openly, 
with the absolutely irreducible minimum of personal risk. Don't worry, I'm not 
going to give him a break. Alcantro! 

"Here!" 

"Round up the gang, will you, and figure me out a screen and a set of meters 
that will indicate an open band? We lose too much time feeling around anyhow, 
and we're too apt to take one on the chin while we're doing it. Also, you ought 
to make it so it'll shoot a jolt into the opening, while you're at it," said 
Brandon. I will myself, however, slay the unfit. Probably fairly important, 
some way or other, though, since it's our job to see that the silly, gutless 
things keep on living. You see, you're a man--you can't possibly despise and 
detest that slimy stinker either in the same way or as much as I do. " 

Hilton gulped twice before he could speak. The number will approach nineteen 
thousand very nearly. Your method of indirect action is probably the only one 
that will succeed. Your lips are black, and your hair is a funny kind of color, 
halfway between black and old rose, with a little green and. " 

"Oh, thank you, sir; that is truly wonderful!" And Dark Lady sat cross-legged 
on the rug at Hilton's feet and busied herself with the esoteric rites of Old 
Avignon. Those Arpales aren't very intelligent, you Arpalones are extremely so. 
Petrine must be and shall be given her rightful place in the galactic 
fellowship of free, independent, and cooperative worlds. So must any and all 
planets whose peoples wish to adhere to Civilization instead of to tyranny and 
despotism. Frowning in thought, he turned to Newton and spoke seriously and 
slowly. 

"Immediately after the loss of our super-plane, with the supposed death of 
King, Breckenridge, and myself, the other Tellurian officers were returned to 
Europa, since even they could be of no assistance to us Callistonians in our 
struggle against the new, high-acceleration vessels of the hexans. "I did not 
expect the Lord Llosir to appear in the flesh at this time; I know not when or 
ever he will deign to appear to us again. Anyway, I _must_ stand it, so why 
worry about it?" 

"'At-a-girl!" cheered Seaton. Our machine-guns got him, but not until after he 
heaved a bomb. "' 

"What d'you mean 'if the next conjunction is _allowed_ to occur?'" interjected 
Seaton. "Nobody can stop it. Hi, Larry, mighty glad to see you. She was about 
five feet four. She is an expert stenographer, and showed such ability that she 
was promoted until she became my secretary. 

"What's your name, Miss?" he asked, finally. " Her voice was almost 
unrecognizable, broken in retching agony. Crane and Margaret talked easily, but 
at intervals. 

"I never had a valet before, but go as far as you like if it pleases you," 
remarked Seaton, as he began to throw off his clothes. Of course, the more 
power they waste on us, the quicker we can take them; but I don't want much 
more of that beam, I'll tell the world--I just about had heart failure before 
they cut off!" 

The massive heptagon was now drifting back toward Jupiter at constant velocity. 
Dope enough--point oh four seven. " 

As Stevens had told Nadia, the message was completely informing to those for 
whom it was intended, and soon Brandon's answer was flying toward the distant 
satellite. "You're the Director. I am heading for the place where it will be 
when we reach it. With that in place, the rest of the ship will go fast. There, 
after a brief glance around the room, he coiled up beside a fellow officer who, 
with one eye, was negligently reading a scroll held in three or four hands; 
while with another eye, poised upon its slender pedicle, he watched a moving 
picture upon a television screen. Maybe between us we can figure out where to 
start. Maybe you're worth saving, after all. " 

"I take it, then, that there is no objection to her going?" Samms asked. There 
is an optimum mass, a point of maximum efficiency of firepower as balanced 
against loss of maneuverability, for any craft designed for attack," Kedy 
thought, in his most professional manner. Watch its destruction and cringe--and 
know, in your suffering, that the more you suffer, the greater shall be our 
enjoyment. " 

He abandoned his desk and established the necessary connections between the 
visiray apparatus and the controls of his board. DuQuesne. 

After a long discussion, in which every detail of the plan was carefully 
considered, the two men left the restaurant, by different exits. It's spelled 
R-U-N, run. 'Sa shame, too--what's the use of wasting it, now that we've got it 
all made?" 

"We are not done yet," cautioned Westfall, and even as he spoke an alarm bell 
burst into strident clamor--one of their far-flung detector screens was telling 
the world that it had encountered a dangerous frequency. The new ultra-lights 
flared instantly along the line automatically laid down by the detector, and 
upon the closely ruled micrometer screen of Brandon's desk there glowed in 
natural color the image of a globular space-ship, approaching them with 
terrific speed. 

"That is all from me. Breadth and depth and scope of imagination and of vision; 
yet almost incredible will-power and stamina and resolve. . . . . " Jack's 
thought snapped off as he tuned to a local Lensman. "Have you any idea how fast 
this bird can fly?" 

"Well, I have heard you speak of traveling with the velocity of light, but that 
is overdrawn, isn't it?" 

"Not very much. . " the worried voice of the System's ace newscaster came in. 
"Since neither Jim nor I need an assistant any more than we need tails, it was 
designed to give you girls something to do. Think over, very carefully, what I 
have said, for as far as I am concerned, this world has no place for Omans who 
will not obey orders. " 

The Titanian commander approved the idea, and the transmitting field was 
quickly installed. 

They were agreed. 

"Look here, girl; you've got to learn how to sleep. "I had no idea. " 

They removed their armor, and Costigan explained in detail the changes which 
must be made in the Triplanetary field generators. "But no damage done--just 
the opposite. " 

"Well, the armor is gone. I can shoot faster and straighter than you can, and 
would shoot it out of your hand. I gathered that it is something like a 
polyhydric alcohol and something like a substituted hydrocarbon, and yet 
different from either in that it contains flourin in loose combination. " 

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

"Certainly, we must and we will," stated DuQuesne calmly. "Probably, then, the 
other was--but no matter, we had to have the iron. Bring the boat in without 
converting it, so that we may study at our leisure both the beings and their 
mechanisms," and Nerado swung his own visiray beam into the emergency boat, 
seeing there the armored figures of Clio Marsden and the two Triplanetary 
officers. " 



Ardan superdreadnoughts in their massed thousands poured out through Ardvor's 
one-way screen. But it cleared things up no end--it untied a million knots. But 
by the Mighty Seven, I shall make myself wrap around one hexan, for my 
brother's sake," and his coils tightened unconsciously. What you know as 
'crime' is unknown. " 

"Oh, of course--Stevens, the great Olympic high and fancy diver! I would 
_never_ have connected our own Doctor Stevens, the eminent mathematical 
physicist, with the King of the Springboard. " She shook her head vigorously. 
Power was therefore fed to the driving projectors, and each scientist, 
electrician, and mechanic bent to the task of repairing the ruined generators; 
rebuilding them to handle any load which the converters could possibly put upon 
them. We generate all we can with the materials and knowledge at our disposal, 
but we never have enough. In it we may find instruments or devices as yet 
unknown to us. _Our_ colonies are all within twenty six light-years of Earth 
except Aldebaran II, which is fifty seven, but which drew a lot of people, in 
spite of the distance, because it was so nearly identical with Earth. On the 
other hand, the Nevians, from a distance of over a hundred light-years, found 
_us_. Fermius' helmet sported three brilliantly-colored plumes, his shield and 
cuirass, enameled in half the colors of the spectrum, looked as though they 
were being worn for the first time. 

Five yards apart, the gladiators stopped and wheeled to face the podium upon 
which Nero lolled. 

Then, finally, ocean waves of ever-increasing height and violence rolled in 
against the new-formed shore. They had had many vitriolic arguments, but 
neither had made any motion toward his weapon. 

"Now comes the ticklish part of the business," Costigan informed the others. 
Then hordes of young men and young women went suddenly and briefly to work; at 
least four in every precinct of the entire nation. 

Everyone knew that the Patrol had won a magnificent victory; but nobody knew 
who or what the enemy had been. 

Seaton, seizing her instinctively, neglected his own anchorage and they hung in 
the air together, while Crane and Margaret, each holding a strap, laughed with 
unrestrained merriment. A good, far point, but not quite far enough. Our 
equivalent of your chess, however, is what we call the 'Visualization of the 
Cosmic All'. We lived through it. They couldn't touch us. They should not and 
can not be judged by the higher, finer standards of a softer, gentler day. Then 
their generators went out, and pretty soon two peculiar-looking strangers 
entered. Without saying a word he waved a hand and the others looked. We need 
something which will identify any representative of Civilization, positively 
and unmistakably, wherever he may be. 

"While we were unconscious, Miss Vaneman, we had probably attained a velocity 
of something like seven billion four hundred thirteen million miles per second, 
and that is the approximate speed at which we are now traveling. DUQUESNE, Ph. 
D. --two or three times--and she knows all about slipsticks and isotopes and 
she very definitely is _not_ a cuddly little brunette. Remember?" 

"Sure. But what makes you think I'm in love with Temple Bells?" 

"What?" Sandra tried to think of one bit of evidence, but could not. 

"Back to Tellus, sir?" The _Chicago's_ captain broke the strained silence. The 
other belief, that America had more adequate defenses and better-trained, more 
highly skilled defenders, would soon be put to test. Cross it, swing in a wide 
circle toward the peninsula on which sits Middlemarch Castle, and in three 
days. . no more waves coming, but they say to expect attacks from low-flying 
combat rockets--there goes the alert! On your toes, fellows--but there isn't a 
thing on Sector A's screen. . . you tell 'em, Sammy, I've got company here. The 
barber's name will be Antonio Carbonero and he will be left-handed. But since 
most, if not all, of the parties involved will probably be included in your 
Operation Mateese, and since a finding, either positive or negative, would be 
tremendously significant, we feel emboldened to ask you to keep this point in 
mind. Carroll and the Messrs. Together, and with such a goal, I'm sure we can. 
" 

"All set, Dick?" asked Dorothy, appearing in the doorway. Where we come from, 
most human beings are fighters. 

He reached his destination, which was of course spy-ray proofed, late Sunday 
night. "But perhaps Six has not explained these things to you. 

"According to the concept you fellows just helped me develop, it wouldn't have 
made any difference how many they sent," Hilton replied, thoughtfully. "Pipe 
down yourself, guy--if you weren't so darn dumb and didn't have such a complex, 
you'd know that you're the crack pilot of the outfit and wouldn't care who else 
knew it. " Stevens carefully covered and put away the calculating machine and 
other apparatus he had been using and turned again to the pilot. If we have to 
do that, let it be only as a last resort. . . . . . I'm trying to keep. . . . . 
. . . . do you suppose that they are waiting for Nerado?" 

"Probably. " 



"Here is the analysis of his screen, sir. Brookings," replied the subordinate. 
"They've got detectives from Prescott's all over the place. " 

Kinnison told, but fought to retain what consciousness he had. An intolerable 
weight rested upon his eyeballs, forcing them backward into his head. The 
passengers felt each hair striving to stand on end as the very air became more 
and more highly charged--and this was but the slight corona-loss of the 
frightful stream of destruction being hurled at the other space-cruiser, now 
scarcely a mile away! 

Seaton stared into number one visiplate, manipulating levers and dials as he 
drove the _Skylark_ hither and yon, dodging frantically, the while the 
automatic focusing devices remained centered upon the enemy and the enormous 
generators continued to pour forth their deadly frequencies. 

"We don't want them aboard, do we, Dick? There are too many of them. Most of 
the latter, however, and the girl acolytes and the thronging thousands of 
spectators, threw themselves flat on the hard ground. The remainder were so 
stunned by the unbelievable events of the attack that they had no initiative, 
but were willing to follow wherever the more valiant spirits led. Not a shell 
had struck her: all this damage had been done by flying fragments of the guns 
and of the dock itself; and Seaton and Crane, who had developed the new 
explosive, stood aghast at its awful power. Neither can you. What chance do you 
think there is of ever getting any real proof?" 

"Very little," Celeste admitted. I don't know what it is, but I believe it's 
fatal. . m. Catapults," he mused. "You were right, girl of my dreams--armor and 
bows and arrows wouldn't help us much right now. _Trust_ you!" 

"Thanks, old golf-shootist," and promises were made and received in a clasp 
from which Nadia's right hand, strong as it was, emerged slightly damaged. 

"By the way, what is your first name, fellow-traveller?" she asked in lighter 
vein. "You look like you're seeing ghosts! What did they do to you?" 

"Nothing--much. We propose to increase both. " 

"What are those mounds along the streets?" For some time Samms had been 
conscious of those long, low, apparently opaque structures; attracted to them 
because they were the only non-transparent objects within range of the 
Rigellian's mind. We're practically at Number One now," and James and Lola 
donned their scanners, ready for the job. " 

He glanced at the chronometer. A man stood in the middle of the Main; a man 
shaped very much like Garlock, but with long, badly-tousled hair and a bushy 
wilderness of fiery-red whiskers. Men and women, wrapped in oil-soaked garments 
smeared with pitch and chained to posts, make splendid torches indeed. Nadia 
studied the foundry for a moment, interested, but unimpressed. 

"Mother! Claire! Oh, you three wonder-workers!" She addressed simultaneously 
the distant Terrestrials and the scientists at her side, while broken 
exclamations, punctuated by ominous, crackling snaps, came from the laboring 
amplifier. "What've you got on your chest?" 

"Your foot slipped on the Jap," the stranger replied. "He crabbed the game 
right. What a _man_! Belle Bellamy, you ought to be kicked from here to Tellus. 
. . " 

"There's plenty!" she snapped. "Still fighting as usual, I see! What kind of 
knights are you, anyway, to rescue us poor damsels in distress, and then never 
even know that we're alive?" A tall, willowy brunette had seen the two 
physicists as she entered the saloon, and came over to their table, a hand 
outstretched to each in cordial greeting. 

"Ho, Verna!" both men exclaimed, and came to their feet as they welcomed the 
smiling, graceful newcomer. "How can any possible brain take so much of _this_ 
stuff without damage?" 

"It does not reach the brain, Master. Kinnison. Have a 'copter come down and 
pick up Samms and myself on tractors. "Not the slightest. "I want to know just 
where we stand. The commander is dying of a self-inflicted wound and I have 
important work to do. " 

"Okay, it does make sense, then. Any desired depth of water was available and 
plainly marked, from the fenced-off shallows where the smallest children 
splashed to the forty feet of liquid crystal which received the diver who cared 
to try his skill from one of the many spring-boards, flying rings, and 
catapults which rose high into the air a short distance away from the entrance. 
They simply don't exist. " 

"That's about the right dope, I guess. 

"Yes. 

"Mentally, I can have no desire. "The life-principle is unknowable to the 
finite mind, as is the All-Controlling Force. " 

"Sure I have, Skipper. 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 mass of what had once been vital machinery. Didn't it 
sock you, too, Belle?" 

"Uh-uh," she said, more than half bitterly. I want it straight from you. . 
should think they'd _have_ to radiate from a center, and so be spherical," 
Brandon cogitated. "However, we've got nothing corkscrewy enough to go through 
them, so we'll have to stand by. I can still recognize a few of the 
constellations, even though they are all pretty badly distorted. You want to 
know why?" 

"I think I know why. " 

"Don't be any more of a fool than you have to, Brookings. There were the 
landing-lights of Crane Field, seven peculiarly-arranged searchlights throwing 
their mighty beams upward into the night. The telephone operators were 
hand-picked, men of very short memories, carefully trained never to look at a 
face and never to remember a name or a number. We've got to chance it sometime, 
though, if we can ever get away, so we might as well do it now. " 

"You said it, chum. . . . . " her voice died away. " 

The fuel arrived. 

"And Lola, those 'Guardians' out there. Propelling rockets viciously aflame, it 
twisted and looped around the incandescent rods of destruction so thickly and 
starkly outlined, under perfect control; unaffected by the hideous distortion 
of all ether-borne signals. Through a pirate screen it went, and under the 
terrific blast of its detonation the entire midsection of the stricken 
battleship vanished. Every ether-defense of the _Hyperion_ vanished, and her 
acceleration dropped to a quarter of its normal value. And from the gargantuan 
mouth of the Cone there spewed a miles-thick column of energy so raw, so stark, 
so incomprehensibly violent that it must have been seen to be even dimly 
appreciated. They then withdrew to Arisia, leaving their younger, weaker, 
partially-developed fellows to do whatever they could against mighty Eddore. 
They stamped the ship's papers without either reading or checking them. Then 
they set out in the biplane, to try out the new weapon in a lonely place where 
the exploding shells could do no damage. " 

"Dunark of Osnome is already informed as to what Osnome is to do. 

"We'd better eat _something_, I suppose," Belle said, thoughtfully. "I may take 
advice from you on some things and from Crowninshield on others, but I am in 
charge!" 

"All x--it's a relief, at that," and Brandon and Westfall went to join their 
fellow-scientists in the designated room of the space-cruiser. I thought it 
might be a whale at first, but it is a boat and it is what we are aiming for. 
Now, about the ship we want. What sun? Where?" 

"I don't know. It isn't a question of whether or not to destroy a 
population--the only question is which population is to be destroyed. There it 
comes back again!" 



Before their staring eyes a vague, nebulous something moved rapidly upward 
through the floor and passed upward through the ceiling. 

Would there, or would there not, be cities? While he had not known at all 
exactly what to expect, he did not believe that there would be any large cities 
upon Arisia. Torpedoes were futile against that wall of energy. The most 
fiercely driven rays of the fishes flamed incandescent against it, in vain. 

Of what use is it to pit such puny and trivial things as _facts_ against 
rock-ribbed, iron-bound, entrenched AUTHORITY? 

The five, however, _knew_; and Deston and Jones had several long and highly 
unsatisfactory discussions; at first with Adams, and later between themselves. 
He curled up into one half of the ball; the other half closed over him and 
locked. Thus, when the chance for escape came, he was ready for it. . . " he 
went on, pointing out large, heavy women wearing extremely extreme gowns, 
"Stand here, right over him. 

"I understand your doubt. But here again nothing was to be seen of the land 
itself. 

The material lining of the ghastly moat was the only substance capable of 
resisting the action of its contents, and now, that lining destroyed by the 
uprooting of the fortress, that corrosive, brilliantly mobile liquid cascaded 
down in to the trough and added its hellish contribution to the furious scene. 
He snapped it, and in the instant of its closing a vast, calm peace descended, 
blanket-like. The room was a replica of the other Osnomian dining hall they had 
seen and the women were decorated with the same barbaric splendor of 
scintillating gems. So did the next trial, a vicious forehand cut. Cleveland 
flinched involuntarily and seized his arm-rests in a spasmodic clutch as he 
watched this, the first inertialess space-approach; and even Rodebush, who knew 
better than anyone else what to expect, held his breath and swallowed hard at 
the unbelievable rate at which the two vessels were rushing together. 

Rodebush drove his finger down, and instantly over both men there came a 
sensation akin to a tremendously intensified vertigo; but a vertigo as far 
beyond the space-sickness of weightlessness as that horrible sensation is 
beyond mere Earthly dizziness. "You have the most sensitive receptors of us 
all. " 

"Uh-uh. And as the map of that operation spread itself in his mind, he grew 
enthusiastic. 

At full dark, a red glare flared into the sky from Caesar's garden and the 
gladiators, deployed now along the highway, dashed across it and seemed to 
wrestle briefly with cloaked figures. "The way it is, we've each got a 
grandson--it'd be tough to have to share one with _you_. Second, the Stretts of 
old did not completely destroy the humanity of the world Ardu. It had been up 
for more than three minutes, and they have undoubtedly concentrated everything 
possible upon us during that time. " 

"I know it, but. "There is nothing secret about our mission. Van Schravendyck, 
of our own laboratory, is nearly as good as either Seaton or DuQuesne. He has 
done a lot of work on radio-activity and that sort of thing, and I think he 
would like to work on it. 

The door opened, and through it there waddled, rolled, or crawled a metal-clad 
monstrosity--a thing with wheels, legs and writhing tentacles of jointed 
bronze; a thing possessed of defensive screens sufficiently powerful to absorb 
the full blast of the Triplanetary projectors without effort. "You must have 
had help to get that far off--no one man could possibly be as wrong as you are. 
Why, you played with it as though it were a knitting-needle, and when I wanted 
to wake you up with it, I could hardly lift it. " 

"Foster!" Ferber yelled. She leaped to her feet, her eyes shooting sparks. 
"Even if I do talk you'll kill me anyway. " 

The carrier wave hissed into the receiver, forestalling Brandon's fiery reply, 
followed closely by the code signals they had been expecting. "You have all the 
essential facts right there. We all, including you, believe that the 
Psychologist is right in holding that the reaction of the other nations to such 
action would be both unfavorable and violent. " 

Sawtelle jerked a thumb at Hilton, who followed him out into the corridor. No 
fragment was large enough to be navigable or dangerous and each was sharply 
cut, as though sheared from its neighbor by some gigantic curved blade. He 
barreled into the intersection; his step-plate ground the concrete as he made a 
screaming left turn. He hooked one steel-shod foot around one of the table's 
legs and braced the other against its top. 

"Perkins," he said softly, "M. . he had my direct orders not to do battle 
'gainst any force, however slight-seeming, but to withdraw forthwith into the 
castle, which was to be kept stocked to withstand a siege of months. 

Swiftly he came to a decision and threw off his suit, revealing the body of a 
Hercules--a body ready for any demand he could put upon it. Space-hooks bit and 
tore. Pikes and lances were driven with the full power of brawny arms. Here and 
there could be seen trooper and hexan, locked together in fierce embrace far 
from any hand-line--six limbs against four, all ten plied with abandon in 
mortal, hand-to-hand, foot-to-foot combat. Look back, see how far up the hill 
you've come, and then balance one hundred and twenty days against ten years. So 
appalling was their velocity that their ship was bathed in the light of that 
sun for only a short time, then was again surrounded by the indescribable 
darkness. Okay?" 

"So you don't want to let the rest of us in on it. " Karns's level stare was a 
far cry from the way he had looked at his chief a moment before. " 

"I'm not sure, but I've reworked our Prime Fields into one and made a couple of 
other changes. 

"There, we can see what they're doing now," and DuQuesne anchored the vessel 
with an attractor. When that time comes, he receives in one day all the 
knowledge of his specialty which has been accumulated by his predecessors 
during many thousands of years of intensive study. " 

"It might, at that. We, I mean," he corrected, absently. " 

The orator seated himself and there was a deafening clamor of cheering as the 
nobles formed themselves into an escort of honor and conducted the two couples 
to their apartments. He couldn't, very well, because after you're married, it 
would. At first, quite a few young women, at sight of his unusual physique, had 
sent out tentative feelers of thought; and some men had wondered, in the same 
tentative and indirect fashion, who he was and where he came from. " 

"Yes, it will take time," agreed Stevens, remembering what the Titanian captain 
had told him concerning the construction of those plants--generators which had 
been in continuous and automatic operation for thousands of Saturnian years. _" 



For seconds Hilton had been trying to break into her hopeless monotone; finally 
he succeeded. "The trouble with you is, you know altogether too damned much 
that isn't so. You'll be ready to transfer?" 

"I'll be ready," and the Quartermaster's ex-clerk went to his quarters and 
packed his dunnage-bag. And as they strolled along: 

"Of course you won't actually _need_ a job, ever, or my money, either. Or is 
it? Ores came into being with the crusts of the planets; they change 
appreciably only with the passage of geologic time. _Especially_ 
serving-wenches! He likes little, cuddly baby-talkers, who pretend to be 
utterly spineless and completely brainless--eh, Jack?" 

"Ouch! Touché, Jill--but maybe I had it coming to me, at that. Let's call it 
off, shall we? I'll be seeing you two, hither or yon. " 



Breakfast over, they started down the valley, Stevens carrying his helmet under 
his arm. " 

"Maybe I should apologize, then, but as a matter of fact I have no idea 
whatever as to what you wouldn't do. They glanced at each other and Dorothy 
voiced the thought of both as she said: 

"How can you, Kofedix Dunark? In this horrible light we both look perfectly 
dreadful. . more shame to those pusillanimous half-breed midgets of the court. 
I'll argue with you, when we have time, about some of your points, but the last 
one--if it's valid--has tremendous force. I'll analyze it, find out what is in 
it, deposit it on some copper, shoot an electrolytic current through it, and 
make a lot of wise motions generally, and have a darn good time besides. I'll 
analyze it, find out what is in it, deposit it on some copper, shoot an 
electrolytic current through it, and make a lot of wise motions generally, and 
have a darn good time besides. " 



In Brookings' office, DuQuesne told of the constant surveillance over him. 
"That must have been a terrific job. "Coincidence is as meaningless as paradox. 
I think they found out that--barring freaks--the best minds are in the best 
bodies. " 

"'Tis not enough of explanation. Go on. " 

Deston went ahead, and spoke almost steadily for thirty minutes. I've been 
doing a lot of thinking. . . . . . . " 



Lomarr's army set out at dawn. Then: 

"Great Brain, advise us," Ynos said. "Grand Lady Neldine--that title isn't 
exact, but close--wondered why I didn't respond at all, either way. However, 
she didn't make a point of it, and I let her wonder; but we'll have to decide 
by tomorrow morning what to do, and it'll have to be airtight. Two sister-ships 
of the _Kondal_ appeared as if by magic in answer to Dunark's call, and their 
attractors aided greatly in handling the unruly collection of wreckage. The two 
observers saw with amazement that after brief attention from an ant-like 
ground-crew, the original four men climbed back into their warship and she 
again shot into the fray, apparently as good as ever. Osbert F. Harkins--was 
the first to give tongue. "What a _wonderful_ job! Why, everybody's here that I 
really like at all!" 

That sentiment was, of course, unanimous. How can we of Lomarr _ever_ attain 
comfort and happiness if more die each year than are born? We are too few. It 
was a wild yell, followed by words not directed at Deston at all. You have, of 
course, noticed that it looks transparent, but that it is not. " Silencing 
Kinnison's inarticulate protests, Samms went on: "First, you'll have no 
difficulty in talking to an audience as you've just talked to me. The air above 
them was full of aircraft of all shapes and sizes, and occasionally the image 
of one of that flying horde flared into violet splendor upon the screen as it 
was caught in the mighty, roving beam of one of the twelve ultra-light 
projectors under test. The small vessel no longer struggled, nor even moved, 
but was merely resisting passively. At the same time others of our party will 
take the palace and kill every man, woman, and child adherent to Nero. " 

His hearers listened, impressed by his earnestness, but plainly not 
understanding his meaning. "Why, he wasn't--when did _he_ get married?" 

"The day after we arrived here," replied the surgeon. She hasn't yet. She was 
wider and thicker than was the Earthwoman; with heavier bones forming a wider 
and deeper frame. 

"You two do not need to be announced," the attractive young woman smiled. 
Knewst I was coming?" 

"Yes, Lord. Orders came by helio but now. Under observation. Are you lying in 
your teeth or are you dumb enough to believe it yourself?" 

"Neither one," the Engineer insisted, stubbornly. "How do you want to handle 
it?" 

"Run a search pattern. Undoubtedly. In fact, there is a group, a club, of such 
persons. And if he _had_ to fight, he could; and, physically, he was 
wonderfully well equipped for just such activity. For Cloud's vague forebodings 
were materialized, and more; the staggeringly immense energy of the vortex 
merged with that of the detonating duodec to form an utterly incomprehensible 
whole. 

"Could you hold your beam, Randolph?" Samms' voice cut sharply through the daze 
of stupefaction which held spellbound most of the denizens of the Hill. With 
the aid of the Rovolon you have brought us, I am confident that we shall be 
able to work out a satisfactory solution of the various problems involved. We 
perform no physical or manual labor save for exercise, as all our mechanical 
work is done by forces. We were made to believe that our only hope of continued 
existence was to meet you and destroy you in space; for if you were allowed to 
reach Petrine every man, woman, and child on the planet would either be killed 
outright or tortured to death. Jim's job is the only one that's definite. He'll 
have to work full time on nebular configurations. If we hit inhabited planets 
he'll have to add their star-charts to his own. So they're strictly neutral, 
eh? Well, I'll tell him 'hi,' anyway. Besides, I promised Captain King ages ago 
that he could marry me, so go get him and we'll do it now. " 

He stared at her helplessly, then swung on Larry. "But you're still the Boss; 
they'll do anything you tell them to. The Masters were always working toward 
more power, not less. 

Temple scarcely blushed at all, she was so engrossed in trying to find out 
whether or not anyone was noticing any change. Wherever you go, I go," she 
replied in a voice inaudible to the others. He had to make speeches, each of 
which was climaxed by a tremendous roar of "TO LIBERATION DAY!" 

"No Lensman material here, you say, Rod?" Samms asked, after the first 
city-shaking demonstration was over. 

He was more interested in the synthetic fluoro-silicon flesh, and paused long 
enough to get a general idea of its growth and application. 

The Inspector pointed a thought; all four followed it. "They knew we were 
coming, even before we got to Fuel Bin. I don't think they suspect you at all, 
and they won't unless they get some better methods. In all else, my men do as 
they please. But the time had been altogether too short. An' with a burley 
riggin' she's got to make damn near a double cut--seven foot inside figger--so 
any way you look at it you ain't goin' to cut no two foot to the minute. " 

"I was hoping you wouldn't check my figures, but you do. "You wouldn't be 
holding anything else back, would you?" 

"Nothing important, sir. . . but the hunch was getting stronger and stronger 
all the time. They knew it better than anyone else could, and felt it more 
keenly. They were also, to all intents and purposes and except for death by 
violence, immortal. " 

"Thanks. "From Northport. " 

The lieutenant found his voice as he surrendered the instrument. " 

"I'll devote the imponderable force of the intellect to the problem and check 
with you later. Look at this spool of tape, and it's only the first one. Did 
you ever see a better-matched couple? Will you give me a try, Belle?" 

"I will not," she said, emphatically. It was rumored around the Bureau last 
night that Seaton was going insane, that he had wrecked a lot of his apparatus 
and couldn't explain what had happened. There were no elevations, no 
depressions, no visible markings whatever--not even a meteor crater. 

"That tears it, Belle--busts it wide open. Then armed, more-or-less-armored men 
ran back to the scene of their reveling. She therefore put on one of the 
headsets, motioning the men to do the same, and approached Kromodeor with the 
other, repeating the hexan word of friendly import. "Good Lord, Clio, why 
didn't you call me?" 

"Oh, I'm all right, except for being a little jittery. " 

As Perkins slid out, Brookings spoke into his telephone, and soon Chambers, his 
chief chemist, appeared. A marshal and a lieutenant-marshal of the Solarian 
System; a general and a lieutenant-general of the planet Sol Three. 



_ATTACK FROM SPACE_ 

The enemy spacefleet arrowed toward the armored mountain--nerve center of the 
Galactic Patrol. "We found air and Earth-like conditions here; we probably will 
elsewhere. The power was on exactly forty-eight hours, since that is the life 
of that particular bar under full current. The concentration of uranexite. " 

"What would you say, then, to the idea of this office being our real 
headquarters, of that little package there being our real business?" He swung 
the safe door shut, spun the knob. "Details, girl; mere details. I've seen 
people who looked like money in the bank and who smelled like a bouquet of 
violets that you couldn't trust half the length of Nerado's neck. You see, 
fields of force are all right in most places, but I've got to have one tube, 
and it's got to have the hardest possible vacuum. Ours is a little oxygen, 
mixed with a lot of inert ingredients. Theirs is oxygen, heavily laced with 
flourin. It's _reactive_, no fooling! However, something pretty violent must be 
necessary to carry on body reactions at such a temperature as theirs. " Then, 
realizing that the Rigellian could have no conception of his meaning, he 
continued quickly: 

"The vibrations in the atmosphere, from sixteen cycles per second up to about 
nine or ten thousand. 

"Don't stop to listen--keep on writing!" commanded Nadia. 

"And that's another thing I don't like. I'm shoving off at twelve o'clock 
tonight. " 

"I've heard a lot about you, Doctor. "Definitely I couldn't. A good big man can 
always take a good little one, you know. " 

"Then you can beat those horrible Fenachrone, after all!" cried Dorothy, and 
threw herself into her husband's arms. In fact, I can say that we Guardians of 
Humanity would approve such action. Instantly the refractory arenak turned an 
intense, dazzling white and more than a foot of the forty-eight-inch skin of 
the vessel melted away, like snow before an oxy-acetylene flame: melting and 
flying away in molten globes and sparkling gases--the refrigerating coils 
lining the hull were of no avail against the concentrated energy of that 
titanic thrust. 

"Hashed again!" growled Breckenridge. Instead, he lowered his burden to the 
floor, spread her out flat, and sought out and removed item after item of 
wiring, apparatus, and offensive and defensive armament. Another reversal, 
another dash; and this time, so disorganized were the foes and so feeble the 
beaming, not a single Patrol vessel was lost. Not until they had been placed 
upon cushions in the middle room and the heavy metal doors had been locked upon 
them did they again find themselves able to use arms or legs. . . . but under 
certain conditions. . . He's back on the boat now and we've shot him from all 
angles. " 

"I'm amazed," James played it straight. " 

"A smart idea. " 

"Hence the probability approaches unity that any more such ignorant meddling as 
this obnoxious Tuly did well result almost certainly in failure and death. 

"He's really giving 'em hell," Northrop said, admiringly. His face was a 
yellowish-gray white, his tendoned hands gripped rigidly the arms of his chair. 
The mouth snapped shut, the eye retracted, and heaving, rippling surges 
traversed that powerful body as he struggled madly against the unbreakable 
shackles of steel binding him to the floor. After a time a staccato burst of 
articulate speech issued from the box, and Costigan saw a great light. After a 
time, the older couple left the room, the lawyer going into his study to work, 
as he always did in the evening. All three stared into the plate, seeing only 
an infinity of emptiness, marked only by the infinitely remote and coldly 
brilliant stars. We've got a couple of days yet--just about time to finish up. 
" 



"What's this?" asked DuQuesne. If I'd have thought to recalculate your actual 
Fahrenheit degrees into our loro. If you don't feel anything there, it's safe 
for you to talk, as loud as you please. 

"I will not. "Pretty nearly had them that time. We're stretching this projector 
about six hundred percent, but we've got to make this connection. I don't 
believe he can receive anything, sealed up as he is, and he can't have 
accumulators enough more efficient than ours to make up the difference, can he, 
Quince?" 

"It is quite possible. Strap down, you two, because they may go out entirely!" 

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

"When the _Sliver_ really cuts loose it means a rough party, all right," 
Cleveland assented, snapping about his body the heavy spring-straps of his 
deeply cushioned seat, "but I'm just as anxious to get back to the Hill as 
anybody can be to get me there. They knew what they had to do and did it; 
furiously, but with care and precision. They assured him that they would do 
anything they could to alleviate his mental suffering, but that since he was a 
museum piece he must see, himself, that he must be kept on display for a short 
time. . . " she paused. " 

"Stay here, sir? Why, he'd _kill_ me! I'm off the air for a minute," this last 
thought was a conspiratorial whisper. So you, Fred, and Lyman, take the first 
trick; the rest of us will get some sleep. 

The planning of the starship _Pleiades_ had been difficult in the extreme; its 
construction almost impossible. Big ones, but high; headed for targets well to 
the west. Nothing close enough to worry about. " 

"That's the second idea you've had since I've known you, Dicky," Dorothy smiled 
at Crane. "Why, we have almost infinite power--unlimited--sufficient for a 
lifetime of high expenditure!" 

But Roger made no reply, for the time of departure was at hand. 

"More like tanks," he disagreed, "except that they've got legs, wheels _and_ 
treads--and arms, cutters, diggers, probes and conveyors--and _look_ at the way 
those buckets dip solid rock!" 

The fantastic machine was moving very slowly along a bench or shelf that it was 
making for itself as it went along. And when, after a few days, his stentorian 
"Nothing Down!" called forth a "Nothing but a little fine stuff!" and a handful 
of grit and pebbles, he knew that he had been accepted into the undefined, 
unwritten, and unofficial, yet nevertheless intensely actual, fellowship of 
hard-rock men. 

Clean-up was going nicely, at the union rate of six hours on and eighteen hours 
off. Everyone there had seen him with his own eyes. Everyone there had heard 
his voice; a voice of a quality impossible for any mortal being, human or 
otherwise, to produce; a voice heard, not with the ears, which would have been 
ordinary enough, but by virtue of some hitherto completely unknown and still 
completely unknowable inner sense or ability evocable only by the god. "Don't 
you _see_, you've done enough? That now you're going too far? That these 
twenty-odd men, having had their minds opened and having been given insight 
into what is possible, will go forward instead of backward?" 

"Forward? With such people as the Prime Ministers, the labor and business 
leaders, the bosses and the gangsters to cope with? Do you think they've got 
spines stiff enough for the job?" 

"I'm sure of it. . blackmail. . . . . . " 



"Hey, I _like_ that!" Belle broke in. The other Rigellians were still in the 
room, but mentally, he and Dronvire were completely alone. We've got to chance 
it sometime, though, if we can ever get away, so we might as well do it now. We 
haven't drawn a frank from a plant in a month, and we've had to cut our field 
strength down to a whisper to keep from burning out our accumulators. You 
rescued us from them; do you not know them?" 

"No. But we'll get ours, huh?" 

Time went on. " 

"Each of those couples had one, and only one, child. Did you see it done?" 

"No. " 

"Oh, I'm still 'ace'? You can kiss me, then," and she raised her face toward 
his. "But if you haven't got. We can rivet and weld those seams, and things 
could be a lot worse--we are still breathing air!" 

In silence the lifeboat flashed onward, and half of Nevia's mighty globe was 
traversed before it was brought to a halt. " 

"Steady, old man--take it easy. One good thing, we won't have to hunt for him. 

The _Orion_ went back to Ardane and an eight-day wait began. "No reports from 
the rim, and all screens blank. The sneak-boat isn't due for a week, and from 
what you've said it probably won't get here. 

"How about it, Dot? Want to see some of your little friends again? If you do, 
I'll give them a shot and bring them out. "The boss just loves to wait 
meals--she'll burn me up for this!" 

He ran lightly toward "home," eager to tell his sweetheart that the long 
awaited moment had arrived--that power was now flowing into their accumulators. 
"Patroclus missed his chance and will never get another--a thousand on 
Fermius!" 

"Two thousand!" 

"Five thousand!" 

"Ten!" 

The fighters closed--swung--stabbed. Shields clanged vibrantly under the impact 
of fended strokes, swords whined and snarled. Back and forth--circling--giving 
and taking ground--for minute after endless minute that desperately furious 
exhibition of skill, of speed and of power and of endurance went on. 

"Is it permitted, oh noble Karfedo, that I reward your captive for his share in 
the victory?" he asked. "You see, they weren't designed to indicate such 
distances on such small objects as men, so I threw a million ohms in series 
with the impulse. " 

"Let me say something first," Kincaid said. The upper half of the vessel was 
still intact, the lower half a jumble of sharply-cut fragments. 

"Ha! Help--I hear footsteps approaching on jet-back," Garlock announced. "To 
keep 'em staggering we'll have to land slugging and beat 'em to every punch. 
Too small a charge scatters it around, in vortices which, while much smaller 
than the original, are still large enough to be self-sustaining. " The girl 
spoke carelessly, but managed to make it very clear that Jack Kinnison was just 
exactly the right size. As they were about to separate, Garlock said: 

"I don't like those hell-divers, yellow, green, or any other color; and you, 
Brownie, are very definitely not expendable. We intend to follow it in some 
suitable vehicle. " 

"Well, let's eat next! No human being can stand my aching void much longer. 
We're a _long_ ways from home. You _can_ relax a little, I see. It could be 
police, fire ambulance--_anything_. Two numbers flashed white upon his plate; 
his actual error, exact to the foot of distance and to the degree on the clock, 
measured and transmitted back to his board by instruments in his torpedo. 

"Is this IT?" the uniformed rider yelled, over the coughing thunder of the 
competing exhausts. " 

"Good. You were insulated from all other female charms by ye brazen Bells. I 
can _not_ be hypnotized. I'm a hundred times as strong as any man ever was. 
They'll check up on that ship with the expedition, by radio and what-not, and 
when they find out that it's clear out here--chop! Didn't get to see much, did 
you?" 

"No, they must have switched over to their accumulators almost instantly. " 

Dunark, as best man, entered the room some time later. "_What_ a brain!" 

"Sure I'm sure!" Ferber gloated. . He isn't like my father, much, but it seems 
as though I have known him for a thousand years!" 

"Hm. 

"Hi, Dad!" she greeted him gaily, with no slightest change in the expression of 
the face turned so engagingly to her partner's. His Lens was off. His eyes 
jammed themselves shut; his jaw-muscles sprang into bands and lumps as they 
clamped his teeth hard together. 

Being one of the only two "old" men there--and the other did not stay 
long--Kinnison, as a Junior Chemical Engineer, was not at first accepted 
without reserve. Stay tuned. Shift beta to forty-four and gamma to two 
sixty-five. " 



Rendezvous was made. "You can play God when you're on sked, with a ship-full of 
trained dogs to bite for you, but out here where nobody has ever come back from 
I make my own law--with _this_!" He patted his side pocket. . ah-h-h!" 

"Exactly. There will be room, and need, for the fullest powers of every 
Eddorian. 

"Welcome to Norlamin, Terrestrials," the deep, calm voice of the astronomer 
greeted them, and Orlon in the flesh shook hands cordially in the American 
fashion with each of them in turn, and placed around each neck a crystal chain 
from which depended a small Norlaminian chronometer-radiophone. "Can you spare 
a couple of minutes to think at me, Sandy?" 

"Minutes or hours, chief. I have never seen anything like it. I suspect 
pressure groups. " 

"Clayton to Port Admiral Kinnison. You, Knobos, and DalNalten all have keen and 
powerful minds. Nineteen years old. You think you've been places and done 
things. They undoubtedly have one of the best corps of detectives in the world. 
This idea of co-operation is so new to them that it actually dazed all four of 
them even to consider it. It took a long time to work out this tight-beam 
transmission of power, but it was fairly simple after they got it. " 

"And that's where you will go back and back and back, as you said about 
building the penstock?" 

"Back and back is right, if I can find all the necessary raw materials--that's 
what's probably going to put a lot of monkey-wrenches into the machinery. Art 
in the forefront of those few I spoke of. And take this not _too_ seriously, 
for I expect fully to live. " 

"Maybe, if we raise enough hell, we can make them fire us, too?" Drake 
suggested. "If you've got any part of a brain, slick chick, you'd better start 
using it. It will not be at all comfortable, but it will be better than having 
any more of us killed. Ever and anon a struggling part broke from its parent 
plant and darted away in independent existence; leaping upon and consuming or 
being consumed by a fellow creature equally monstrous. " 

"No? You, with your Prime's mind and your Prime's body, not have any children? 
And you tell _me_ not to be ridiculous?" 

That stopped Belle cold, but she wouldn't admit it. Its name was, both 
remembered, Lizoria; its two Primes were named Rezdo Semolo and Mirea 
Mitala--male and female, respectively. " 

"How do you, a captive prince of another nation, know these things?" asked 
Crane, doubtfully. She alighted beside Dunark's vessel, the _Kondal_, whose 
gorgeously-decorated crew of high officers sprang to attention as the four men 
stepped out. 

"You wish, sirs, to give me your orders verbally. Of prime interest here is the 
climactic charge of Lomarr's heavy horse--the Royal Guard--that ended it. I may 
be as far off the beam on one side as you are on the other. Here I am. My 
great-great-grandfather left some notes which, taken in connection with certain 
things I myself saw on the planetoid, prove beyond question that our Roger went 
to Harvard University at the same time he did. " 

"World?" the President asked in surprise. "She's phenomenal--good--I don't mean 
goody-goody, but sincere and really. We didn't strike any trouble going or 
coming, so she didn't need much servicing. We saw system after system 
conquered, world after world laid waste. " 

"On paper, we should," Belle said, thoughtfully. "You said something about her 
mother, I didn't want to say anything to raise false hopes while she was here, 
but I've got an idea. Unlike you of the Fenachrone, however, men of my race do 
not always kill strangers at sight, merely because they are strangers. The 
operatives proved it and saved it, over and over, over and over again; by dint 
of what unsparing effort and selfless devotion only they themselves ever fully 
knew. However, I'll not tempt the old lady any farther. Check?" 

"Check. 

"Check. And while you're changing suits you'd better put on some stuff I've got 
here--Service Special phones and detectors. You can relax now--take it easy. 
Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I will not be with you. In some small and partial 
recompense for what they are doing for us all, he and I are going with Captain 
Czuv to Callisto, there to see whether or not we can aid them in any way in the 
fight against the hexans. 

She was performing certain routine tasks--charting meteorites, watching for 
derelicts and other obstructions to navigation, checking in constantly with all 
scheduled space-ships in case of need, and so on--but primarily she was a 
warship. It was plain that she did not quite know whether or not to like the 
nicknames which the rescuers were calling her Conway. " 

He closed the doors to keep out a part of the noise and advanced the speed 
lever a little, so that the vessel tilted sharply under the pull of the almost 
horizontal bar. "If I helped you hatch out any such brainstorm as _that_, I'm 
going onto Tillinghast's couch for a six-week overhaul--or have him put me into 
his padded cell. " 

"As a crew-chief, you know the law. 

"Arisia," Samms insisted. 

"Daddy, Dick is asleep out there in the chair. "I've had a lot of curiosity to 
know just what kind of unnatural monstrosities can possibly have such fiendish 
dispositions as they've got--but beasts, men or devils, they'll find they've 
grabbed something this time they can't let go of," and fierce blasts of energy 
ripped from the exhausts as he drove his missiles, at their highest possible 
acceleration, toward the captive sphere so savagely struggling at the extremity 
of his tractor beam. . . ninety. . should think they'd _have_ to radiate from a 
center, and so be spherical," Brandon cogitated. "However, we've got nothing 
corkscrewy enough to go through them, so we'll have to stand by. We'll stay 
inside whenever possible, look on from outside when we must, but all the time 
picking up whatever information we can. " 

Soon they arrived at their objective and maintained a position well in the van, 
but not sufficiently far ahead of the rest to call forth a restraining ray from 
their captors. . . . " 

"Why not? I'm for direct action, first, last and all the time. " To the 
surprise of both Terrestrials, Czuv was speaking English, but with a strong and 
very peculiar accent; slighting all the vowels and accenting heavily the 
consonant sounds. Crane threw open the door and Seaton joined the others. 

She told him her story, frankly and fully, shuddering with horror as she 
recalled the awful, helpless fall, during which Perkins had met his end. Dead 
black as were all the warplanes, its body was twice as large as that of the 
ordinary vessel, its wings were even more stubby, and its accommodations had 
been cut to a minimum to make room for the enormous stores of fuel necessary to 
drive the greatly increased battery of rocket motors and for the extra supply 
of torpedoes carried. Christ, what a mess! But there's six-seven good glasses 
in there. I'd grab one myself, but the general would see it--he can see right 
through the lid of a mess-kit. There was no light, no noise, but the massive 
portal swung smoothly open. He was too busy, had too many worthwhile things to 
do, to waste time that way. What then? The essence that was Gharlane could not 
be killed--could not even be hurt--by any physical, chemical, or nuclear force. 
As I said before, I'm with you from now on, in whatever you think best to do. 
My guess is that it'll take another ten thousand years of preliminary surveying 
such as we're doing, by all the crews the various Galaxian Societies can put 
out, before even the roughest kind of an estimate can be made as to how many 
planets are inhabited by mutually fertile human peoples. There are _so_ many of 
us! If they had killed me another slugger would have taken my place and the 
effect upon the job would have been nil. Each Kedy element was the sole 
personnel of, and was integral with, his vessel. " 

"I see. You _talk_ a good game of urbanity, but your brand of it would never 
carry you _that_ far. But in the meantime, there is tremendous pressure for 
increased production. " 

"I will not invite it, sir, now that I've got a job to do. "My guess is it'd 
take four months to design and build a generator to put out that kind of stuff. 
" 

Thus nothing happened; thus the invisible but nevertheless terrific tension did 
not erupt into open battle; and thus, for the first time in North America's 
long history, a presidential election was ninety nine and ninety nine 
one-hundredths percent pure! 

Evening came. "Talk about _power!_ And _speed!_ To get all that stuff and 'port 
up here in the millisecond or so we had the screens open? Baby Doll, there's a 
guy who is what a Prime Operator _ought_ to be!" 

In less than a minute the man reappeared, accompanied by a woman who was very 
obviously pregnant--eight months or so. " 

"By no means. "You cannot be sure that your Intelligence has located all of the 
danger points, and many of them must be so far underground as to be safe from 
even our heaviest missiles. That kind of thing went out quite a while ago, you 
know. Following me?" 

"Right behind you," she assured him. She had been listening intently, her 
wide-spaced brown eyes fastened upon his face. What could he have _possibly_ 
done to put Teddy Blake, of all people, onto such a warpath as this? 

"I've been wondering when you were going to try to put _me_ through your 
wringer," she went on, in the same cold, hard voice, "and I've been waiting to 
tell you something. " 

"I see. Well, if it comes to that, I can do the same. We'll need it for what's 
coming, and I'm going to get it, if I have to kill him to do it. That gives us 
a coversed sine in 30, and then we integrate. " 

"And the Masters had to work in the creche whenever anything really new had to 
be put into the prototype brain. "You see, I've never. How? With whom? By what 
stretch of the imagination do you figure that you can find anybody with a loose 
enough mouth to out-lie and out-promise Morgan? And can you duplicate his 
machine?" 

"We can not only duplicate his machine; we can better it. The truth, presented 
to the people in language they can understand and appreciate, by a man whom 
they like, admire, and respect, will be more attractive than Morgan's promises. 

The Station was also silent and dark. 

"Better not waste much more time. On rafts, at six or seven miles an hour, 
faster by far than any army can march. " 

"Very much so. "That's high, even for him!" 

"Just a minute, Jack," Jill cautioned. I'll start at the bottom, as far down as 
you say. I'm quite. You're probably a bit limberer--not too much--but I've 
forgotten more judo than you ever will know. " 

"Thanks, Jarve. "Do you think you can do anything?" 

"Absolutely. When this tapestry wall is finished, it will not be simply form 
and color, as it is now. We keep also this, your half of the Fuel World, in 
trust for you. Also, we have oxygen-generating apparatus aboard, in case we 
should run short. " 

When they towed the two vessels far out into space, Loring put into practise 
the instruction he had received from DuQuesne concerning the complex armament 
of their vessel. "Without your Lens, _anything_ can happen to you. " 

"You are both wrong," said Vaneman. "To the mature mind there is no such thing 
as status. So how about this? We'll dash out to the third dock--just so I won't 
have to actually lie about looking for him--and dash right back here. It is my 
own personal responsibility. A multitude of red dots moved slowly--a hundred 
miles upon that map was a small distance--northward over Canada; a 
closer-packed, less numerous group of yellowish-greens, already on the American 
side of the Pole, was coming south. I wanted to tell you that I have just 
received grave news, which makes it impossible for us to help you immediately, 
as I promised. What is it, anyway?" 

"It is not matter at all, in the ordinary sense of the word. Frank would be the 
one to ask. My hunch is, though, that we're going to be nudists whether we want 
to or not. . I certainly don't do it intentionally. " 

"You do? Why? Since when has it been against the law to have a personal god? 
Most families of Lomarr have them. If we meet anybody it'll mean a battle. 
Shoot. Have the muckers clear the drift, just enough to get through. We must 
hide behind these small ledges until it goes away," answered Crane, his eyes 
upon Margaret's colorless face. And you must not fight with him, 
either"--noting that Seaton's powerful hands had doubled into fists, the 
knuckles showing white through the tanned skin--"though that would be a fight 
worth watching and I would like to see you give him the beating of his life. . 
. . " 

"Perpetual motion--ridiculous!" snapped from the sending disk upon the helmet 
of the master of mechanism. " 

"I'd say so, yes. "Faster. We may need it. Knowing the dimensions of this, our 
galaxy, you can readily understand the exact degree of precision required to 
hold upon a point at its outermost edge. There ensued an explosion veritably 
space-racking in its intensity; a flash of incandescent brilliance that seemed 
to fill all space, subsiding into a vast volume of tenuous gas which, feebly 
glowing, flowed about and attached itself to Cantrell's Comet. 

And George Olmstead, sighing wearily and yet blissfully anticipatory of one 
more day of enthralling sport, gathered up his equipment and his fish and 
strolled toward the hotel. 

He had come down in his gig, to confer with Hilton as to the newly beefed-up 
fleet. Way after unworkable, useless way. Now, Olmstead, watch. Distance does 
not exist--every point in the reachable universe coincides with every other 
point and that common point is the focus of your attention. You can be and 
actually are anywhere you please or everywhere at once. We'll polish off. Then 
the other fellow will revive and cut his off, for an observation. Three days 
later, all the mechs went back to work. Lord of the ancients! Was this lifetime 
of agony only one minute? Or wasn't he holding her--had the damn thing stopped 
cutting? No, it was still cutting--the rocks were banging against and bouncing 
off of his helmet as viciously and as numerously as ever; he could sense, 
rather than feel, the furious fashion in which the relays of timbermen were 
laboring to keep those high-stepping jacks in motion. " 

"At earliest dawn take two centuries of axemen and one century of bowmen, with 
the wagonload of wood-workers' supplies about which some of you have wondered. 
"It doesn't look _exactly_ like a spray-on job; but if you ever take a deep 
breath it'll split from here to there. " 

"Nerve? You?" James asked, incredulously. I know Dick Seaton better than you 
do--better than he knows himself. . " 

"You have not. Almost immediately he released the zone, pointed the bar 
parallel to the compass bearing upon Osnome, and slowly applied the power. For 
little Sammy had taken the entire feminine contingent by storm. Rodebush cut 
off his power, and through the crackling roar of tube noise an almost inaudible 
voice made itself heard. 

". 

"Check. " 

"Theorize, then!" 

"Postulate that the Masters, in many thousands of cycles of study, made 
advances in science that were not reduced to practice; that the Omans either 
possessed this knowledge or had access to it; and that Omans and humans 
cooperated fully in sharing and in working with all the knowledges thus 
available. " Beverly Bell held up her right hand, which was shaking 
uncontrollably. I can't name it, either--maybe you had better call Genealogy 
some day and find out. That failure is not too surprising, of course, since my 
mind is weak and my total power is small. " 

"Oh, blast! I didn't mean that, and you know it!" 

They were at the car. "That was exactly the tone to take with him, too--you've 
sure got him guessing!" 

"It seemed to get him, all right, but I'm wondering how long it'll hold him. 
Think on. If brute force is your only logic, know now that I can, and will, use 
brute force. If he refused to answer, you would know why and could initiate 
impeachment proceedings then and there. Steve can talk to him for me--see you 
later," and Brandon was gone. 

He went directly to the Vorkulian fortress, bare now of hexan life and devoid 
of hexan snares and traps. Hear, then, the message we bring," and again Garlock 
told the story. 

"We thank you, sir and madam, from our hearts. "The earliest life-forms must 
have developed a shield before they could evolve and stabilize. I _still_ don't 
like it. Now, about the ship we want. The Civilization which has been pictured 
as developing peacefully upon all the teeming planets of two galaxies will not 
now of itself come into being. 

"That rise may be open, it goes through solid rock, not waste. Those Black 
bombs should have peeled the armor off of that mountain like the skin off of a 
nectarine and scattered it from the Pacific to the Mississippi. " 

"Then the really civilized races are probably. 

"You'll learn. . . . . . . . . You're right, Jack. One in a million. One only. 
. " 

"The suit is self-decontaminating, Master. I told you she was a potent force--a 
full-scale powerhouse, in sync and on the line. Will you please give me enough 
of your mental pattern, Doctor Garlock, so that I can call you in case of need? 
Thank you. I'll go with you. 

"Hi, Laro. And as the light-years and the parsecs screamed past, he sank deeper 
and deeper into a welter of unproductive speculation. I feel as though I'd done 
a day's work. To stand up under such punishment as you gave it, my dear, 
anything would have to be tattooed in, not just put on. " 

"Unclear, then. "They've got phones at the hospital where we're going, but you 
might faint or something before we get there. " 

Kinnison told, but fought to retain what consciousness he had. . " 

"But fishy!" Cleveland broke in. " He absented himself in thought, then came to 
life with a snap. 









Spacehounds Triumphant 



Now that the hexan threat that had so long oppressed the humanity of the 
_Sirius_ was lifted, that dull gray football of armor steel was filled with 
relief and rejoicing as the pilot laid his course for Europa. " Rodebush 
changed the subject abruptly as they stepped into a vast room, almost filled by 
the immense bulk of the _Boise_--the sinister space-ship which, although never 
flown, had already lined with black so many pages of Triplanetary's roster. " 

"I see. DuQuesne listened, his face impassive. It was no ordinary burglary, 
that is certain from Shiro's story. " 

"I wouldn't doubt it--it's a queer one, all right. That sleep put you on your 
feet again, and I hope you will have sense enough to take care of yourself 
after this. "Two to get from here to atmosphere, four from Atmosphere down to 
the Hill, and three to cool off. There are now six handless men in your 
hospital room. Much traffic and interbreeding followed between the hexans of 
Jupiter and those of Io, resulting in time in a race intermediate in size 
between the parent stocks and equally at home in the widely variant air 
pressures and gravities of planet and satellite. He's been chased so much that 
he's wild. But none of us can get any kind of a raise out of him at all--not 
even Nadia, when she fed him a whole box of chocolates. It forecasts us to get 
just under forty nine percent of the total vote. " 

"The girl? Act your age, Senator. Through the arenak walls they recognized 
Dunark, Kofedix of Kondal, at the controls, and saw Sitar, his beautiful young 
queen, lying in one of the seats near the wall. 



"I greet you, Supreme Grand Marshal Entlore, Highest Commander of the Armed 
Forces of Nargoda. " 

"But you are arguing in circles," Samms protested. "Careful! You'll touch them 
off and they'll. . " 

"Northrop! Jack!" came Virgil Samms' highly concerned thought. " 

"Accumulators!" 

"700,000 kilofrank-hours--all x. "We both know that if I were still in the 
kindergarten I wouldn't be here now. " 

"Well. . 

He glanced at the king, then stared back at the broad, trampled, deep-rutted 
way the army had come. D. in anthropology you'd've thrown it into the converter 
before it even hatched!" 

"Invasion of privacy? That covers it, of course, but I didn't think it would 
bother you a bit. " Lola paused, studying the other girl intently. "You're 
Galactic Admiral; I'm your Vice. I'd trade my immortal soul to the devil if it 
would get you out of this mess, but we're both in it up to our necks and we 
can't back out now. There was no light, no noise, but the massive portal swung 
smoothly open. There was a machine that buzzed and white-clad men who studied 
films and papers. "You have said that your mind is feeble. We all, including 
you, believe that the Psychologist is right in holding that the reaction of the 
other nations to such action would be both unfavorable and violent. Look at 
that sun flit by!" 



They saw the two planets, one like a small moon, the other like a large star, 
and saw the strange sun increase rapidly in size as the Skylark flew on at such 
a pace that any earthly distance would have been covered as soon as it was 
begun. A Tellurian can admire, respect, or like a Venerian, yes. A sp. 
Acceleration was brought slowly up to normal, and the battle-scarred cruiser of 
the void, with her heavy burden of inert metal, resumed her interrupted voyage 
toward Europa; the satellite upon which the passengers and crew of the 
ill-fated _Arcturus_ had been so long immured. On she bored through the ether, 
detector screens full out and greenly scintillant Vorkulian wall-screens 
outlining her football shape in weird and ghastly light; unafraid now of any 
possible surviving space-craft of the hexans. They would have to come after 
him, and as he retreated, they would be fighting their way up, and not more 
than two at a time. No survivors have been found, no bodies have been 
recovered. 

"Here are your pellets, General Cardeen. . . " 

"Clam it yourself, Steve! Don't believe a word of it, Dad and Bill. Through 
massive double doors into a room, whose most conspicuous item of furniture was 
a heavy steel chair, bolted to the floor. 



"I greet you, Supreme Grand Marshal Entlore, Highest Commander of the Armed 
Forces of Nargoda. 

"You see, I am perfectly safe from being 'shot,' as you call it," Lola said. 
"Well, I've never been a proponent of genocide. If you, with your vaunted and 
flaunted belief in the inherent superiority of the female over the male, can 
dope out something useful before I do, I'll eat crow and help you do it. Work 
with each other and me and we all may live--fight on and both your nations, to 
the last person, will most certainly die. " 

They knew. "We just came along. Just to keep the boys company. Why?" 

"Because there's something going on out there that neither we nor apparently 
the pirates know anything about. I can navigate anything, and Breckenridge can 
observe as well as any of your own men. . . . der. . " 

"Hold, fool! Your thought is completely disloyal and un-Strettly. In fact, from 
a study of the charts of the last few weeks, I'm pretty sure that E2 is at 
least four thousand kilometers this side of where he thinks he is, that W41 is 
ten or twelve thousand beyond his station, and that they've both got a lateral 
displacement that's simply fierce. Garby and I decided, after some discussion, 
to allow two mathematical impossibilities to stand. One of these immediately 
became the target of critics from Maine to California and, while no astronomer 
has as yet called attention to the other, I would not be surprised to hear 
about it, even at this late date. "Just in case you get scragged in one of 
these brawls and I don't?" 

"Oh! Of course! Forgive me, Fry--it slipped my mind completely that you didn't 
know where it was. How technical can you stand it?" 

"I can go down with you middling deep--I took a lot of general science, and 
physics through advanced mechanics. He's got only half of the constants down, 
and half of the ones he has got down are wrong. " 

"But you--how can you do it?" Celeste marveled. So scat, all of you, and get 
back to work--except Sandy, Bill, Alex, and Teddy. On one hand, I have had real 
hunches all my life. Even in such scenes of violence as that which had occurred 
at the Ambassadors' Ball he managed to remain unnoticed. " 

"Probably. 

"You tell him, Peggy--we both feel the same way. They started early enough, 
worked hard enough, and had enough stuff, to earn both. Stevens waved his arms 
vigorously at the stranger, pointing backward toward where he supposed their 
own craft to be. And upon days when the beautiful brunette did not appear, the 
commandant generally found it necessary to inspect in person something in the 
_Arcturus_. I've got a couple of ideas, but they aren't ripe enough to pick 
yet. " 

"I can't wait. "The Grand Rally is going to be held three weeks before election 
day. " 

". . " 

The half-uttered message was drowned out in a crackling roar of meaningless 
noise, the orderly signals of the bell became a hideous clamor, and the two 
points of light which had marked the location of the liner disappeared in 
widely spreading flashes of the same high-powered interference. "She's lost all 
her spherical strength--anchoring a tractor with this ship now would turn her 
inside out. " 

As Perkins threw one end of a small rope around her ankles Dorothy doubled up 
her knees, drawing her feet as far away from him as possible. 

For a time the terrific rocket motors continued the deafening roar of their 
continuous explosions, then, the desired velocity having been attained, they 
were cut out and for hours the good ship "Bzark" hurtled on through the void at 
an enormous but constant speed toward the distant world of One, which it was 
destined never to reach. Instead, foggily, he tried to look back at the crater. 
Blast 'em down!" 

He gritted his teeth. The scouts and light cruisers were doing their damndest, 
but they were out-numbered three to one--Christ, what a lot of stuff was 
getting through! The Blacks wouldn't last long, between the Hill and the 
heavies. 

Beverly was almost in collapse. On the contrary, he had made inconspicuousness 
a passion and an art. On the other, the signal doesn't carry much information. 
. " Hilton gulped twice. He shut it off and turned to his fellows with a 
grin--a grin which disappeared instantly as a thought struck him and he leaped 
back to his board. The only possible way in which any of his subordinates could 
get in touch with him was by means of the wonderful wireless telephone already 
referred to, developed by a drug-crazed genius who had died shortly after it 
was perfected. 

Capital ships and a few of the heaviest cruisers could mount screen generators 
able to carry that frightful load; but every smaller ship caught in that 
semi-solid rod of indescribably incandescent fury simply flared into 
nothingness. Believe me, girl, there'll be junk filling all the space between 
here and Saturn when we touch them off!" 

"Wonderful, Steve!" Nadia exclaimed. We'd be sunk right. But just to be on the 
safe side, maybe I'd better camp here at the board, and you bring me over 
something to eat. Reflect, please, upon the completeness of your failure in the 
affair of Roger's planetoid; upon the fact that you have accomplished nothing 
whatever since that time; upon the situation in which you now find yourself. 

"Even though the trend of thought of your race is basically materialistic and 
mechanistic, and you belittle ours as being 'philosophic' and 'impractical', 
you found--much to your surprise--that your most destructive physical agencies 
are not able to affect even this form of flesh which I am now energizing, to 
say nothing of affecting the reality which is I. This bathroom, however, is 
practical only when we have some force downward, either gravitation or our own 
acceleration. But you know that I love you just the same, even though I do 
appear to neglect you," he continued with fierce intensity. 

"I shall be an interstellar diplomat," Dorothy whispered to Seaton as soon as 
they were alone. He could also plainly see a deeply-cushioned chair, designed 
to fit a human body, welded to a stanchion and equipped with half a dozen 
padded restraining straps. He gasped when he saw the bones and perceived three 
of Nadia's arrows, but soon saw that the skeleton was not human and was 
reassured. Nalboon nodded his comprehension and going outside, pointed upward 
toward the largest of the eleven suns visible, motioning its rising and 
setting, four times. The case flew open and Seaton, taking a cigarette, 
extended the case. Eagerly the three men studied the craft, which ranged in 
size from one-man helicopters, little more than single chairs flying about in 
the air, up to tremendous multiplane freighters, capable of carrying thousands 
of tons. 

Flying high over the city to avoid its congested air-lanes, the fleet descended 
toward an immense building just outside the city proper, and all landed upon 
its roof save the flagship, which led the Skylark to a landing-dock nearby--a 
massive pile of metal and stone, upon which Nalboon and his retinue stood to 
welcome the guests. You were. This lifeboat will hold heat for quite a while, 
and I'd rather get pretty cold than meet any more of that gang. Second, I run 
out of blasters. 

During the ensuing pause, Garlock cut the President and Chief of Staff out of 
the linkage. But the few remaining thousands had almost reached their sublime 
goal. " 

"Be logical, fool! At that contact, in the matter of which you erred in not 
following up continuously, they succeeded in concealing their real abilities 
from you. I'll remember that. And since this is more or less new stuff to you, 
I'll caution you--don't try to touch anything that has just come in. " 

"I'll do that. " Patroclus shrugged his massive shoulders. " 

"How about wearing some kind of half-way-comfortable shoes instead of those 
slippers?" Garlock asked. 'Bye, Clee. " She turned to the left. " Samms 
interrupted. Instantly he was a-sprawl, the effort necessary to carry his 
weight upon the Earth's surface lifting him into the air in a succession of 
ludicrous hops, but he soon recovered himself and walked normally. An intense, 
livid violet glow hid completely main and auxiliary power bars, and long 
flashes leaped between metallic objects in all parts of the vessel. When even 
the hyper-critical Westfall was convinced that their preparations were as 
complete as they could be made with the limited information at hand, Brandon 
directed a beam upon the satellite and tapped off a brief message: 

"stevens ganymede will arrive in about ten hours direct carrier beam toward sun 
we can detect it and will follow it to wherever you are sirius. You may not 
know that you know it, but you do. " 

"Huh?" Kinnison gasped as though he had received a blow in the solar plexus. 
"You know what that bleached-blonde tried to do? High-hat _me!_" 

"I noticed. The ether will be clear for you along route 
E2-P6-W41-K3-R19-S7-M14. This one represents the best features of all the 
systems tried. It must be abated. The city was built close to deposits of coal, 
oil, and gas of sufficient amount to support our life for thousands of years; 
for from these deposits come power, food, clothing, and all the other 
necessities and luxuries of our lives. This astonishment of the stranger at a 
simple sleight-of-hand feat and his apparent ignorance of tobacco emboldened 
Seaton. In the meantime we'll get ready. 

"And now the real job begins," Garlock said, as James dropped the starship down 
to within a few miles of the moon's surface. Not until he felt a finger 
exploring the short hair at the back of his neck did he realize what she was 
seeking--the almost imperceptible scar marking the place where she bit him when 
she was seven years old! 

"Oh, Fry! It _is_ you! _Really_ you! Thank the gods! I've been ashamed of that 
all my life, but now. And the baffled Nationalists, trying to play the whole 
thing down, made matters worse. 

Decision instantly made, Costigan ran back toward the speedster, but he was not 
deserting his companions. " Samms smiled disarmingly. The Mayfield was running. 
Who? Deggi and Fao? They're cooperative and idealistic enough, but. . " 

"Slavery, you mean!" Samms stormed. "But can't the damned stuff be controlled? 
Choked--throttled down--damped--muzzled, some way or other?" 

"We do not know of any way, sir. You don't know, apparently, that the Ozobe 
bases are on the far side of your moon. Petrine?" 

"Not 'practically', we are Petrinos all. The 'teachers' were all in the Center. 

Into an elevator and straight down for what must have been four or five hundred 
feet. Men, stamping their feet and waving their arms, yelled and swore. And 
many, men and women alike, laid wagers. Now, Uncle Andy, I want the _truth_. . 
. . . . . . . . I have never been balked for long. " 

"A balanced thought," the Rigellian approved. We can almost draw an 
organization chart now. " 

"I can tell you about it, but I wouldn't want to tell many people. " 

"Good for him!" exclaimed Dorothy. She isn't--hasn't been. 

"Frank! Oh, Frank!" she called. "Leave it on until the last poss. . . . . . . . 
. excuse my ignorance, please!" Garlock implored, as he picked the girl up, 
carried her across the room to a sofa, and assured himself that she had not 
been really hurt. . . " 

She paused. "Vee-Two Gas! Get tight!" 

Writhing and twisting in his fierce struggle to keep his lungs from gulping in 
a draft of that noxious atmosphere, and with the unconscious form of the girl 
draped limply over his left arm, Costigan leaped toward the portal of the 
nearest lifeboat. Orchestra instruments crashed to the floor and dancing 
couples fell and sprawled inertly while the tortured First Officer swung the 
door of the lifeboat open and dashed across the tiny room to the air-valves. 
Throwing them wide open, he put his mouth to the orifice and let his laboring 
lungs gasp their eager fill of the cold blast roaring from the tanks. The glare 
of the searchlight was snuffed out and he saw a flashing light spell out in 
dots and dashes: 

"Can you read Morse?" 

"Yes," he signalled back. We'll have them in three days, and it ought to be 
fairly simple to dope out the opposite of a tractor, too--a pusher or presser 
beam. " 

And in the control room, Kedo's voice rasped into the captain's microphone. 
Therefore we can not and will not meddle again. Volunteers step one pace 
forward. " 

The six stepped forward as one man, and a smile came over the worn face of 
their leader as he watched them draw lots for the privilege of accompanying him 
to probable death. Until our scientists have checked this menace, until we have 
every wearer of that cursed Lens behind steel bars, I advise you in all 
earnestness not to listen to them at all. As soon as you really understand it, 
you'll do something about it yourself, without being told. 

"I know from your message, Dunark, that our guests are from a distant solar 
system, and I can understand your accident with the educator, but I cannot 
understand the titles of these men. 

And finally, without even taking off her clothes, she cried herself to sleep. 
"I'm afraid, Steve. How do you feel after all this excitement, Dottie? Up to 
standard?" 

"I'm scared purple," she replied, nestling against him, "or, at least, if not 
exactly scared, I'm apprehensive and nervous. No notice. No empty one, 
returning toward the moon, reached there. To say nothing of a space officer on 
duty. " 

"Of course. Let's see. Say the Masters didn't come from Terra, but from some 
other planet. Grand Marshal Holson and ComOff Flurnoy, stay here and tune in. . 
. . . . . . . Oh, that's it. Primes. I appreciate that, Clee. Soon they were 
out in open space, hurtling toward the sun under the drive of every possible 
watt of power, and Costigan took off his armor and turned toward the helpless 
body of the captain. 

"Stand up!" he snapped. "Our humans are about to destroy themselves with 
fission and fusion bombs. They send missiles, without warning, against 
visitors. Upward now at the highest permissible velocity the speedster leaped, 
and past the few ships remaining above her she dodged; nothing now between her 
and the freedom of boundless space. 

"You did it, Conway; you did it!" Clio exulted. You do not perceive yours, 
either, as you drive?" This was the first bond to be established between two of 
the most highly advanced races of the First Galaxy! 

The frightful drive continued; the noise grew worse and worse. You know that I 
love you and you know how I love you--with the real love that a man can feel 
for only one woman and only once in his life; and you know exactly what we're 
up against. You'd've thought he was talking to the prize boob of a class of 
half-wits. As long as nobody on the planet knew that there was any such thing 
as space-travel, or suspected that they were not the only form of intelligent 
life in the universe, it was all right. After the flaming arc had done its work 
he turned and handed the paper to a tall man, dressed in plain gray leather, 
who had been watching him with quiet, understanding eyes. 

"Jim," he said, sharply, "have you been consciously aware of Belle's 
manipulation?" 

"Why, no, of course not. "Less than three pounds to the square inch. I wonder 
how he does it?" 

"It doesn't look as though we are ever going to find out--he's sure a 
bear-cat!" replied Seaton, as the karlon, unable to ascend further, dropped in 
a slanting dive toward the lowlands of Kondal--the terrible, swampy region 
covered with poisonous vegetation and inhabited by frightful animals and even 
more frightful savages. " 

"Sure you will. Nobody can. Lots of theories--enzymes, blood sugar, endocrine 
balance, what have you--but no proof. I'll be along later. Good bye. His office 
was on the seventieth floor; the garage occupied level after level of 
sub-basement. 

After a brief farewell Cloud made his way to an elevator and was whisked down 
to the garage. " Brandon did not even turn his heavily-goggled eyes from the 
blazing blankness of his own screen. Whatever they were, they had hands and 
brains. Just _look_ at those shops and machines!" 

"What do we do, boss?" James asked. Going to see if she'll read. Want to take a 
look?" 

He placed the compass upon the plane table, so that its final bearing could be 
read upon the master circles controlled by the gyroscopes; then simultaneously 
started his stop-watch and pressed the button which caused a minute couple to 
be applied to the needle. " 

As they were going out to the landing field Shiro called to them and they 
turned back to the house, learning that Dorothy and her father had just 
arrived. "This situation is apt to get altogether too serious to overlook any 
bets. I told you about Stevens. Hast a bag?" 

"Yea. " 

The flabbergasted and rapidly-deflating king tried to think of some answer to 
this devastating blast, but couldn't. And everybody--even the 
"crackpots"--breathed more easily. 

As the rapidly-flowing golop struck water, the water shivered, came to a 
weirdly unforgettable cold boil, and exploded into drops and streamers and 
jagged-edged chunks of something that was neither water nor land; or rock or 
soil or sand or Satan's unholy brew. Then, so rapidly that it seemed as though 
there must be at least two arrows in the air at once, arrow crashed on arrow; 
wood snapping as iron head struck feathered shaft. 

"If I had a brain in my head, instead of the pint of bean soup I've got up 
there, we'd have worn these when they cut up the _Arcturus_, and saved us a lot 
of mental wear and tear," he remarked. She has extremely high ideals and she's 
a virgin; never really aroused. Triple play, you might say--Clander to Morgan 
to le Bay. " 

"Nice. 

"Now for our armor!" he cried. "Can they match that or not?" 

"You weren't--and I don't believe they can. And I'd better be getting at it 
anyway. " Stevens fell silent, brow wrinkled in thought. No honor that ever 
existed among thieves, or even among free-lances of diplomacy, could stand that 
strain. As far as the enemy knew, the Patrol had no suspicion whatever that 
anything out of the ordinary was going on. Teddy in turn called in Becky and de 
Vaux; Karns wanted Poynter and Beverly; Poynter wanted Braden and the twins; 
and so on. " 

"You aren't the type to leak or name names--oh, I see. The leg broke with a 
pistol-sharp report and Doris leaped backward in surprise. After this fact had 
been explained, Dorothy turned to Margaret. 

He found the Palainian system easily enough, and Palain Seven. But when he 
approached the sacred precincts of the captain's own and inviolate room, he was 
stopped in no uncertain fashion by no less a personage than the Officer of the 
Day. Under the protection of Steel he flourished, and in return for that 
protection he performed, quietly and with neatness and despatch, such odd jobs 
as were in his line, with which he was commissioned. 

When they were seated at an excellent breakfast of ham and eggs, buttered 
toast, and strong, aromatic coffee, DuQuesne broke the long silence. By power 
of mind alone they watched the lenticular aggregation of stars which was much 
later to be known to Tellurian astronomers as Lundmark's Nebula approach their 
own galaxy. They observed attentively and minutely and with high elation the 
occurrence of mathematical impossibility; for the chance of two galaxies ever 
meeting in direct, central, equatorial-plane impact and of passing completely 
through each other is an infinitesimal of such a high order as to be, even 
mathematically, practically indistinguishable from zero. The ship must have 
been disintegrated as soon as Rodebush released his forces. 

Samms had known--in general--what to expect. " Brandon ran an expert hand over 
Stevens' arm and shoulder. "You make me feel ashamed, Martin. " 

"I don't think so. Garlock collected four more men and studied them. Hot up the 
tri-di and the recorder, Toots. I think we ought to have some fun for a change 
and that'll be a lot. " He got up and started purposefully toward her, but both 
non-combatants came between. All I know is that Dick wants to build a heavy 
steel hull, and he is going to put something inside it that will take us out 
into space. 

"Hold everything for a while, Jim," he said, when everyone had eaten. On hands 
and knees on the floor, head to head with Sammy Small between them, they were 
growling deep-throated at each other and nuzzling at the baby, who was having 
the time of his young life. More like hearing a siren when you're driving along 
a street. 

"Begin, Lord Tedric," said the king. The trouble is, I haven't. Battle cruisers 
of the Patrol were powerful vessels, both on offense and defense, and it was a 
known and recognized fact that the men of the Patrol were _men_. A man fighting 
against a god was licked before he started, and knew it. " 

"I say give it to him. "I have only one new fact of any importance; the name of 
one of the higher-ups and its corollary implication that there may be some 
degree of cooperation between Norheim and Uighar. . . well, nothing at all 
serious. . " 

The whistle blew. They had found--and that finding, so baldly put, could have 
filled and should fill a book--that Spaceways' uranium vessels were, beyond any 
reasonable doubt, hauling thionite from Eridan to the planets of Sol. If the 
Patrol losses could be held to eight double rings of ships at the first pass 
and four at the second--theoretical computations indicated losses of six and 
two--Samms and his fellows would be well content. 

"I thank you, everyone who has listened, for your interest. Thanks for being 
such a nice pressure-relief valve. Good night. I brought along all the air I 
could get hold of, but as I told you back there, if we had to depend on it 
altogether, we might be out of luck. " 

The girl flinched and shrank back involuntarily, but forced herself to approach 
that awful head. 

"Well, my skeptical and pessimistic friend, was I lying, or not?" Kinnison 
asked, as soon as the speedster's ports were sealed. "All that Stevens wants is 
some cigarettes, and your daughter's needs, while somewhat more numerous than 
his, seem to be only clothes, powder, perfume, and candy. We like it that way, 
and Osnome gives us the pip. We are the biggest corporation in existence now, 
as you know, and we are still growing--fast. " 

"Heavens, Steve! Are you planning on telegraphing steadily for days at a time?" 

"Sure, but not by hand, of course--I'll have an automatic sender and automatic 
pointers. 

"Dorothy sweetheart, I know exactly how you feel. Through the lower, denser 
layers of atmosphere the _Chicago_ bored in seconds; then, as the air grew 
thinner and thinner, she rushed upward faster and faster. 

"What do you think you've got--what you want?" 

"I don't know. "We are about to pass within a few light-minutes of an 
uninhabited solar system. " 

"No, you cannot shoot him," said Crane, thoughtfully, "and neither can I, worse 
luck. A few minutes sufficed to cover Triplanetary's history and the beginning 
of the Solarian Patrol; then, for almost three hours, he went into the 
ramifications of the Galactic Patrol of his imaginings. High into the air 
extended the upper half of the ship of space--a sullen gray expanse of 
fifty-inch hardened steel armor, curving smoothly upward to a needle prow. Not 
a cloud was to be seen in that flaming sky, and through that dustless 
atmosphere the eye could see the horizon--a horizon three times as distant as 
the one to which we are accustomed--with a distinctness and clarity impossible 
in our Terra's dust-filled air. 

They hastily climbed into the vessel, and Seaton assured himself that the 
controls were uninjured. 



Facing the party from Earth, the Karfedix stood in the ruins of his magnificent 
palace. So long, folks, I'm going up to the shop. I'll clear the table. Then 
the first officer made another and longer trip, returning with a complete suit 
of Triplanetary space armor, exactly like those worn by the two men, but 
considerably smaller. While we are loading, I should like to begin remodeling 
our instruments; to make them something like these; with Dunark's permission. 
Is that explanation clear?" 

"It's clear enough as far as it goes, but what do they look like to 
themselves?" 

"That's too deep for me--I can't explain it, any better than you can. . . . . 
Oh, I see. 

"Right. 

"Can't talk--read it!" Stevens snapped. "Your ignorance doesn't change the fact 
in any particular. And now to hit the good old sack for an indefinite but very 
long period of time. 

"Think over a couple of things. 

"Don't know yet. 

Tedric bent over, heaved the heavy iron pan containing the offerings up onto 
the platform, and turned. The Earth appeared as a great, softly shining, 
greenish half-moon, with parts of its surface obscured by fleecy wisps of 
cloud, and with its two gleaming ice-caps making of its poles two brilliant 
areas of white. 

"None whatever," came flatly from Cloud. Over and around him the lithe forms 
flashed, while the rest of the young people splashed water impartially over all 
the combatants and cheered them on. Hooking the fragment toward him, he thrust 
savagely with his weapon and was reassured--that object was not only metal, but 
it was metal so hard that his pike-head of space-tempered alloy steel did not 
make an impression upon its surface. White, trembling, frankly and openly sick, 
the two men stared at each other in half-amazed joy. 

"It worked," Cleveland smiled wanly as he recovered sufficiently to speak, then 
leaped to his feet. " Samms thought for a moment. . . But how about this? 
Suppose we take a fast tour, with you and I taking quick peeks, without the 
peekees ever knowing we've been peeking?" 

"That's using the brain, Belle. 

"No, sir," Radio Center shot back. "Can't be more than a million miles or so, 
and we're almost stopped. Gravitation won't work through it--bars 
won't--nothing will. And dark? _Dark!_ Folks, you ain't never seen no darkness, 
nor heard no silence. That, I think, is one of the finest things I ever heard 
of. In your case, Miss Marsden, I find myself undecided between two courses of 
action; each highly desirable, but unfortunately mutually exclusive. " 

"What makes the difference?" asked Dorothy curiously. A loose vortex--new. The 
door swung to and was locked from the outside. Drifting in space, you know, 
there is no weight, and you can't walk; you must pull yourself around. If you 
tried to take a step you would bounce up and hit the ceiling, and stay there. 
We'll be engaged until then, and our love will be open and sweet. " 

Time passed. "But why shouldn't they have? Service ships never get anything 
until it's been experimented with for years, but pirates and such always get 
the new stuff as soon as it's discovered. No," Samms admitted, wearily. "Here, 
too, apparently, as everywhere, the big cities are choking themselves to death 
with their own traffic. " 

"Yes. " 

"Pooh! Who cares about that? Besides, for a man out of a job. " Stella's 
tawny-brown eyes twinkled. The massive steel members no longer writhed; the 
crushed and tortured timbers were still. " 

"This crippling power-shortage would really be over?" For the first time since 
Sawtelle had known him, Gordon showed that he was not quite solid Navy brass. 

"No comment," he thought at the man; and, to Belle, "She just took a beating. A 
very unfunny laugh. 

"Well--that, as I may have remarked before, is indisputably and conclusively 
that. "Nothing recorded; just to get acquainted. I take it that someone swore 
his life for me and that I should not ask who that friend might be. Get it for 
me. 

"Boskone? Zwilnik?" Jill demanded. "You can't dematerialize us, and you can't 
integrate above ninety-five dimensions to save your neck. Not green in color; 
sort of purplish. 

Plodding slowly along on mighty Dreegor at the king's right, Tedric roused 
himself from a brown study and, gathering his forces visibly, spoke: "Knowst I 
love the Lady Rhoann, sire?" 

"Aye. As soon as he had introduced Samms to the intensely interested listeners 
at the Rally, Roderick Kinnison disappeared. Seaton cut off the motor and wiped 
his forehead. 

"What can you have to say to me?" the general demanded, disregarding the 
invitation. But has it ever occurred to you that that's a hell of a way to 
treat a first-class, highly capable brain? To waste it on second-hand, copycat, 
carbon-copy stuff?" 

"Why, no, Master, it never did. But what I wanted to talk to you about is, 
how'd you like to be Head of the Inspection Division, which would be enlarged 
to include your present Chemical Section?" 

"Huh?" Kinnison demanded, dumbfounded. You're all too. " 

"Why Clee! You're worrying about _me_? You've done altogether too much for me, 
already. "I will, of course, do anything I can. Needs, wants, longings, and 
desires differ from man to man, and I can satisfy practically any of them. Many 
men take delight in the society of young and beautiful women, but there are 
other urges which I have found quite efficient. In the control room, however, 
there was a platoon of elite guards, clustered so closely about the commander 
and his officers that needles could not be used; a group that would have to be 
wiped out by hand. We are very probably the only intelligent life in the 
Universe. 

"What's the matter, Rod?" 

"Plenty!" the big Lensman snapped back. " The commanders did so. " Hilton 
flipped the switch of the recorder. "That tape will never be heard. You're a 
husky brute, I know, but even you couldn't begin to handle them, even if you 
had good going. Midlands--North Central. " 

"What did you do?" 

"Nothing much, at first. On it mount Lord Llosir so firmly that he will stand 
upright forever against whatever may come of wind or storm. You should realize 
that fact when he kills every gangster you send against him. But to continue: 
you accuse me, and all Arisia, of cowardice; an evidently muddy and inept 
thought. Upon the floor of that corridor were strewn Nevians, who had dropped 
in their tracks. And this tremendous condensation of course causes wind. 
"Especially with half a dozen of those other cats watching? Just wait and see, 
boss!" 

Sandra and her two guests came aboard. By the way, Jarve, I've pulled my team 
off of that conversion stuff. 



The globe went on down, through basement and sub-basement, until it reached 
solid, natural ground. " Avengord was still groggy. Have any of you others any 
valid objections to the establishment of our empire here in this space? If so, 
give me your thought now. You'll find a shift-boss, with a crew of nineteen, up 
in Stope Sixty. 

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 his friends 
goodbye. His hands clenched themselves into fists, the tight-stretched tendons 
standing boldly out. 

The man next in line was much younger than the leader, much less wrought up, 
much more intent. "Didn't get anything through to you, did they?" 

"No, they didn't even realize that I was taking part in the battle, I guess. 
Did they hurt you while they had you down? I was scared to death for a minute. 
I went to a girls' school, and all we had to do in physics was to get the 
credit; we didn't have to learn it. " 

"Nicely put, Deggi. 

"Arisia," Samms insisted. . m. . . . Have no right to ask you to throw yourself 
away, too. " He turned to the three young Lensmen and the girl. But no firing, 
Captain Sawtelle, until I give the order. " 

"Whatever _that_ is," Jack put in, and even Samms thought a question. Simple. 
And Herkimer Third isn't really a menace; he just thinks he is. 

The story, which had been sent in to the Board the day before on a scrambled 
beam, was one upon which the Ardans had labored for days. That worthy did, with 
longing; to buy it would take six months of a foreman's pay. And Grand Lady 
Lemphi--" He kissed the tips of two fingers and waved them in the air. 

Thus was signed the Triplanetario-Nevian Treaty of Eternal Peace. _They_, my 
friends, never sleep; they have only one God, one tenet, one creed--the 
almighty CREDIT. _That_ is what they are after, and note how craftily, how 
stealthily, they have done and are doing their grabbing. Where is your 
representation upon that so-called Galactic Council? How did this criminal, 
this vicious, this outrageously unconstitutional, this irresponsible, 
uncontrollable, and dictatorial monstrosity come into being? How and when did 
you give this bloated colossus the right to establish its own currency--to have 
the immeasurable effrontery to debar the solidest currency in the universe, the 
credit of North America, from inter-planetary and inter-stellar commerce? Their 
aim is clear; they intend to tax you into slavery and death. " Tedric halted, 
almost in midstride. "Clee, you talk like a man with a paper nose! Who else 
could run the Project? That is," her whole manner changed; "he doesn't know I 
can run it as well as you can--or better--but I could tell him--and maybe you 
think I wouldn't!" 

"You won't have to. Gene, you can start spreading the news that Belle Bellamy 
is a real, honest-to-God Prime Operator in every respect. That she knows more 
about Project Gunther than I do and could run it better. . . but damn it, 
Jarve, I'm holding up the whole procession. . but you just told me that they 
would _never_ produce a Lensman!" 

"That point stopped me, too, at first. " 

"Not 'might', son. " Kinnison's voice was not loud, but it had then a 
peculiarly carrying and immensely authoritative quality. " 

"Oh, no. "Oh, yes, Clee: of course. "The worst is yet to come. But the. By Baal 
and Ishtar, I wish I could feel so! With something to live for at last, I can 
feel my guts turning to water--I can hear Charon's oars. 

This was exactly what Hilton had wanted. It is in no part due to imperialistic 
aims or acts on the part of Atlantis. " 

"And that's where you will go back and back and back, as you said about 
building the penstock?" 

"Back and back is right, if I can find all the necessary raw materials--that's 
what's probably going to put a lot of monkey-wrenches into the machinery. 

"High-handed? Yes," she admitted quite seriously. Mister and Miss are customary 
and sufficient. " 

Behind each row of officers a long davenport appeared; between them a table 
loaded with sandwiches, olives, pickles, relishes, fruits, nuts, soft drinks, 
cigars, and cigarettes. I got to get back myself, don't I? But get one thing 
down solid. " 

"You needn't worry about being paid your price; that's one thing. But if he 
should disappear the stuff would have to come to light, or the Seaton-Crane 
Company might start their power-plant. 

Enphilistor, however, parried the vicious attack without apparent effort. 

He boarded the gigantic ship of war, and with Kinnison pored over those same 
charts. They want to hold us, but I know what to do about that, too," and the 
powerful tractor rods snapped as a plane of pure force knifed through them. " 

". 

"She's a Prime--you wouldn't know anything about it. DuQuesne's voice was cold, 
his black brows were drawn together. 

"Get this, Brookings, and get it straight. The First Cause has willed that you 
should be the instrument through which Kondal is this day made supreme upon 
Osnome. 

In small and partial recognition of that instrumentality, I bestow upon you 
these symbols, which proclaim you our overlord, the ultimate authority of 
Osnome. You, however, have a very clear and solid knowledge of the fundamentals 
of the science, and that is what we need, above all things. " Tuly probed 
mercilessly; so poignantly that each in turn flinched under brand-new and 
almost unbearable pain. 

Down two--left three--down a hair--_Right_! The thing was almost through Zone 
Two; was blasting into Zone One. Wanted to fly a Jenny, but chemists were too 
scarce. (Or were Jennies too valuable?) So they gave me a commission in the 
reserve and loaned me to Herbert Hoover--for the duration, as it turned out. 

In pursuit of my M. He had taken pictures as fast as both officers could 
process the film; he had covered many miles of tape with words only half of 
which either spaceman could understand. 

He then clasped about Crane's wrist a heavily-jeweled, peculiarly-ornamented 
disk wrought of a deep ruby-red metal, supported by a heavy bracelet of the 
same material, the most precious metal of Osnome. Except for the pitted, 
scarred, slagged-down spots which showed so clearly what driving blasts would 
do to such inconceivably cold rock and metal, Palainport was in no way 
distinguishable from any other unimproved portion of the planet's utterly bleak 
surface. Dr. Nels Bergenholm, however, remained. And others. That was why his 
laboratory had been established in the first place. You'll know as well as I do 
what happens next. 

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 his friends 
goodbye. Are there any other living beings aboard with you?" 

"Excepting micro-organisms, none. "I've wondered, myself, at how I could get 
'em all, but I always do--every time so far. " 

"I'd be glad to," and the _Chicago_ took off. I would be just about as well 
justified in deducing the structure of a range of mountains from a superficial 
study of three pebbles picked up in a creek near them. " 

He hitched the end of his cable around the nugget, made sure that the loops 
would not slip, and then, as Nadia tightened the line, he shoved mightily. "And 
because that figure cannot be improved within the next seven years and because 
of the exceptional weakness of the hexans due to their unexpectedly great 
losses upon Callisto, we are attacking at this time. No, I haven't looked for 
the comet yet, because we'll have to drift for a couple of days before we'll be 
anywhere near where I think it is. I'll take him apart with my bare hands. " 

The surveyor came in. Since we of Earth can not peyondire, we do not expect 
that ability from our computers. They killed all the Masters, they thought, and 
made the planet uninhabitable for any kind of life, even their own. While 
they're coming, your engineers can be building more ships like this one. 

"Now to the matter of the meteor of the Patrol. "That is every scrap of 
metallic copper in the city. Think of it. He swung the communicator beam back 
toward Titan, and Nadia shuddered. 

"I now know what to do," he went on presently. We've got the power question 
licked right now--with these fields we can draw sixty thousand kilofranks from 
cosmic radiation, which is lots more than we'll ever need. But enough of this 
chatter. Besides, anything else would be forbidden. " 

An examination of the plane, which had been moved many feet and almost 
overturned by the force of the explosion, revealed no damage that they could 
not repair on the spot, and dusk saw them speeding through the air toward the 
distant city. " 

"You'd better, since it goes farther than even you suspected. "This world, as 
you have perceived, is Falne. " 

"Oh, not at all, really, sir and lady. 

"Stop it--I'll tell!" she screamed. Let's go!" as he started on a run for the 
testing shed. Um. . . . . . if. 

"Not yet, it isn't!" he snapped. There are fifteen inhabited planets within 
about six light-years of us, and we form a close-knit group. 

The struggle had lasted scarcely ten seconds, coming to its close just as 
Bradley finished blinding and deafening the robot. "Watch that one ahead of 
you, Clio--hold him for a second if you can. Bradley, you and I will take the 
two behind us--now!" 

Costigan stooped and whirled. Seizing a cable-like arm, he pulled the 
outlandish head down, the while the full power of his mighty right leg drove a 
heavy service boot into the place where scaly neck and head joined. The Nevian 
fell, and instantly Costigan leaped at the leader, ahead of the girl. An 
armored hand smote his leg. No matter--Cloud did not solve them laboriously, 
one factor at a time. " This was a statement, not a question. 

This car, however, took off by itself as soon as Samms closed the door. It 
received thoughts and translated them precisely into English. " 

"True, First Lord. 

"In that case the limit would be exactly eight watts. . . you. "And you are not 
afraid of death--now--even subconsciously. " 

"That was perfectly all right, what he did and what they did--what else could 
they have done?" he wanted to know. "The re-pairings would give her two lines 
of attack on me, to be used simultaneously. " 

"But I wouldn't _want_ to keep on living!" Clio declared, with a flash of 
spirit. 

Lensman Dronvire of Rigel Four stood behind him and helped him think. He nosed 
his flyer upward, locked the missile into his sights, and leveled off. 
Furthermore, the job will probably kill him, and even if it doesn't, he will 
never be in a position of trust or where he can learn much of anything. Can 
those ray-screens be made sufficiently powerful to withstand the beam they 
employed last, even for a second?" 

"Hm. " 



"I had a hunch. Dunark knows what's what, but he knows that full dress would be 
unbearable here. Even the guns--heavy rapid-firers, mounted in spherical 
bearings in the walls--were aimed and fired by remote control, from the board. 
The multi-mind weakened suddenly and Hilton snapped it back to Ardry. 

"How about cutting out this checking entirely, Clee?" James asked then. Thank 
God, the field of thought is still free and open. Now, if you'll help me find 
my stuff and bring some of it--a computer and so on--up to the lounge?" They 
did so; the "and so on" proving to be a bewildering miscellany indeed. I know 
damn well that none of you women are wearing guns above the waist, and you've 
all got long skirts--thank God for ballgowns! Now, fellows, if any one of these 
women makes a move to lift her skirt, blow her brains out, right then, without 
waiting to ask questions. 

"Yeah, we're kicking up quite a wake, I guess. Trenco, they call it. " To 
Virgil Samms, the first adherent of Civilization ever to hear it, that name 
meant nothing whatever. 

Deciding that the air was satisfactory, the pressure inside the vessel was 
slowly raised to the value of that outside and two doors were opened, to allow 
the new atmosphere free circulation. There was no passing, no weaving, no 
cutting in and out. They will obey my orders or die. Thus it came about that 
when, upon a scheduled day, the two admirals came to Bennett together, they 
were greeted as enthusiastically as though they had been Bennettans born and 
bred; and their welcome became a planet-wide celebration when Clayton issued 
the orders which all Bennett had been waiting so long and so impatiently to 
hear. It would be an easy matter to have this same mechanism place your meals 
before you wherever you may go upon this planet, provided only that a clear 
path can be plotted from the laboratory to your person. It ate into their bases 
at its own level; the undermined masses, small and large, collapsed into the 
foul, corrosive semi-liquid and were consumed. We ourselves will operate 
through forms of flesh of no higher intelligence than, and indistinguishable 
from, the natives of the planets affected. . . " 

"You'll tell me nothing, Jill--I'm telling _you_! Start giving away points in 
anything and you'll find out some day that you've given away too many. 

"You have to be hard to handle those folks--and believe me, I was a 
forty-minute egg right then. 

Faster and faster the great cruiser shot upward as more and more of the 
starting power was released, and heavier and heavier the passengers felt 
themselves become. In return, I will give you the secrets I have just given the 
Osnomians--the power and the offensive and defensive weapons of this vessel. 
For a brief moment searing lethal beams probed here and there, chains clanked 
and snapped, once more that ponderous and irresistible oaken mace fell like the 
hammer of Thor, again spattering brains and blood abroad as it descended--then 
again came silence. 

"All x, Nadia. Heavy brows and long lashes--eyes too--were all intensely, 
vividly black. . _" 

"_Your visualization is sound, youth. The aftermath. Each pipe was lighted in 
the interior, and each was full of people, heads almost touching feet, 
unconcernedly being borne along, completely immersed in that mad current. 

Physically, it was a scene of almost overpowering perfection. " 

"Trying to beguile a scientist from his hobby is comparable only to luring a 
drug addict away from his vice. . . . . . . . . . . sathura. The brain of the 
Larry is very, very tough. 

"Hey!" Hilton yelped. The pilot reached weakly toward the board, but his leaden 
hands refused utterly to obey the dictates of his reeling mind. The girls, 
instead of wearing the nondescript, non-provocative garments prescribed by the 
Board for their general wear, were all dressed to kill. Your life forces are 
very strong. Even before they went to Osnome, Seaton was hard to get, as you 
found out. At very worst, we will be in the same position then as now to take 
the action which has for a hundred years been specifically forbidden by both 
Council and School. As the last machine subsided into a semi-molten mass of 
metal the two wreckers, each grasping a brace, felt themselves become 
weightless and knew that they had accomplished the first part of their program. 

"Dick," she said fiercely. 

Upon awakening, Stevens' first thought was for the comet, and he observed it 
carefully before he aroused Nadia, who hurried into the control room. Except 
for the pitted, scarred, slagged-down spots which showed so clearly what 
driving blasts would do to such inconceivably cold rock and metal, Palainport 
was in no way distinguishable from any other unimproved portion of the planet's 
utterly bleak surface. "Not without the League for Public Decency sending the 
wagon out after you. And Spaceways owns it, you know, from core to planetary 
limits--the richest uranium mines in existence. I'm me again--I think. But I 
wasn't thinking of any regular Oman brain. Smart operators--quick on the 
uptake. " 

"I'd better get at this, sir, don't you think, and let Operation Boskone go for 
a while?" Costigan asked. "If there's any one thing in the universe I never had 
_you_ figured for, it's a dog in the manger. They'll wreck it and it'll cost 
you. " 

"But Captain Bradley--he'll be gassed, too. " 











Next morning, Garlock was the last one, by a fraction of a minute, into the 
Main. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when they met again. 

It was a very nice office, too. Space was filled with silent, devastating 
tongues of flame. Some were encased in space-suits, and it was to these that 
the rescuers turned first--space-hardened veterans though the men of the 
_Chicago_ were, they did not care even to look at the others. You women, come 
here. However, we've got close to half a ton of the metal on hand--you can have 
all you want. We can learn much in a month if you will really try, instead of 
wasting time in fuming around the ship and indulging in these idiotic tantrums. 
" 

"Okay. "We are civilized men, not barbarians or savages. We know nothing of 
them, since we could not look through their screens. " 

"Two tons! Holy cat! Are you going to plate a fleet of battle cruisers?" 

"More than that. " 

"Getting information out of you is harder than pulling teeth. "You know, as 
well as I do, the findings of the Integrator. That is strange--baffling. And 
one of these bits of furious, uncontrolled energy, resembling more nearly a 
handful of material rived from a sun than anything else with which ordinary man 
is familiar, darted toward and crashed downward to earth through Neal Cloud's 
new house. 

Exactly at the expiration of the stipulated seventy-two hours, the Galaxians 
began to destroy military atomic plants; and, shortly thereafter, the 
starship's crew was again ready to go. "How in. " Hilton grinned. "And even if 
it _was_ so, which it isn't, he can do more work sitting perfectly still than 
any other boss in the whole Works can do tearing around at forty parsecs a 
minute, so there!" 

George Olmstead was earning his salary. Therefore the planet itself must be 
destroyed. " 

Roger thought for minutes, nor did any one of his minions break the silence. 
The other thing I wanted from you is your considered opinion as to my job on 
the organization as a whole. " 

"Huh? Don't be an idiot, Clee. "What to do? Shunt in a potentiometer?" 

"No, we don't need it. 

"Can you come out here, Jarve? We've struck a knot. 

"Perfectly. And as the light-years and the parsecs screamed past, he sank 
deeper and deeper into a welter of unproductive speculation. 

From the city there pushed out immense nets of metal, extending from the 
surface of the ocean to its bottom; nets radiating such terrific forces that 
the very water itself was beaten back and stood motionless in vertical, glassy 
walls. The air was torn by the roars of the reptile, the screams of the great 
cat, and the shrieks of the tree. Finally, when they had to stop for breath: 

"Section B, attached to the 76th Field Artillery," the sergeant answered the 
question as though it had just been asked. 

"Attention!" barked Captain King. It leveled them. More than one observer did 
sicken in fact, and had to be relieved. 



He found himself seated in a narrow canoe of metal, immediately behind the 
pilot, who sat at a small control panel in the bow. Over and around him the 
lithe forms flashed, while the rest of the young people splashed water 
impartially over all the combatants and cheered them on. " 

"_Commander_ Bellamy, indeed! Commander my left foot!" Miss Foster was 
screaming now, in thwarted fury. But say, we've got a lot of power on our 
ultra-wave; enough to reach Tellus, I think. Stevens, jaw hard-set, leaped from 
the screen, then brought himself up so quickly that he skated across the smooth 
steel floor. He checks computations made by astronomers stationed in floating 
observatories, and after he has located any trouble and suggests a plan for 
minimizing the hazards of the trip from the earth to Mars he reports his 
findings and suggestions to Mr. Take all this stuff, for instance; especially 
their ability to transform iron into a fluid allotrope, and in that form to use 
its atomic--nuclear?--energy as power. I am relinquishing command of the 
_Boise_ and the _Chicago_. I get too many and too new ideas at once. But we'd 
better go ahead with it. . 
. " 

"How do you, a stranger, know my name?" 

"I know many things. Thanks. You having as much trouble as we are?" 

"More," the engineer said, glumly. You and Jim both, then, will know what 
you're doing, while Belle and I are trying to play ours by ear. " 

"All x. " 

"And I on your left!" Belle's thought drove in as he had never before felt it 
driven. " The minion went out, and Roger continued, emotionlessly: 

"Collectively, the other passengers may be worth a million or so, but it would 
not be worthwhile to waste time upon them. I'm hungry as a wolf, too, now that 
I have time to think of it. You want me, I take it, to join the first team?" 

"That's right. " 

"All these things shall be done. 

"It is not my business to know; only to tell. " Crowninshield, phones at his 
ears and microphone at his lips, was staring intently into his own plate. 

"That was an eminently convincing demonstration, Brownie, but don't do it too 
often. "How come, do you suppose?" 

"I can, too. I think so, but of course anything might happen. " 



After breakfast next morning, the staff met in the lounge. Even though it 
failed, one man saw the possibilities. The horny, wrinkled, drought-resisting 
Martian, whom we all know and rather like, is a hideous being indeed. " 

"Okay. "They were green, as were men. " 

"They're of the same order as Roeser's--that is, they're sub-electronic waves 
of the fourth order--but they're very much shorter, and hence more penetrating. 
"After all, he did not _say_ that he ever passed this or any other test. On the 
way back across the foothills Stevens shot another hexaped, and upon the 
plateau above the river Nadia bagged several birds and small animals, but it 
was not until they were actually in their own little canyon that their rapid 
pace slackened and their vigilance relaxed. The first thing they'll do is beef 
up their planetary defenses to match. " 

The likeness of the alien being became clear upon the alien screen; visible 
from the waist up. "However," they went on carefully, "it must not be and is 
not our intent to sway you in any action or decision. While not all of you 
four, perhaps, are as yet fully mature, not one of you should be subjected to 
any additional exterior stresses. " 

"Not ours. "I could do handstands and pinwheels with joy. . . that is, unless 
that group of--of espers gets their ship off the ground. . . . . little 
sweetheart," he whispered, and went back to Bradley's side. 

In due time the captain recovered consciousness, and slept. "Let's go see what 
number four generator looks like. " 

"By all means. Not deliberately were Kromodeor's thoughts hidden; he was 
constitutionally unable to interest himself in the thoughts or things of any 
alien intelligence. My thought will go to every person on this, your world. You 
will now agree on this recording and before these witnesses, to obey my orders 
unquestioningly or I will now unload all Bureau of Science personnel and 
equipment onto this planet and send you and the _Perseus_ back to Terra with 
the doubly-sealed record of this episode posted to the Advisory Board. You two 
had better get some rest. " 

"These things will consume some time. He pressed it warmly. " 

"That expresses my thoughts exactly. " 

"It is, and you don't. Down and down the projection plunged, through mile after 
mile of reeking, steaming fog, impenetrable to earthly eyes. He was glum 
enough, and bitter, at first: but he found much to do. 

"We have, as you know, put our best operatives to work on the inter-planetary 
lines," he said finally, half sullenly. It rushed in as ordinary air. " 

"No, it isn't. I've heard of her. " Costigan was thinking fast. She's the 
contactor, the spreader of the good old oil, the shining example of purity and 
sweetness and light--in short, the Greaser of the Ways. Would you mind?" 

"Glad to, Mr. " 

Samms came aboard; three Lensmen studied the chart. None of us really enjoys 
polishing brass or washing dishes--and besides, he's one star cook and an A-1 
housekeeper. When Tedric's riders charged, at the crack of the indicated dawn, 
they did not tear through a motley horde of half-armored, half-trained 
barbarians. Listen carefully now, and remember--it is very possible that the 
next craft you attack in such utterly idiotic fashion will, without any more 
warning than you gave, blow this whole planet into a ball of incandescent gas. 
For the first, preliminary thinning down, you take. Do you think that will be 
enough? Think of how far we may have to go, what we may possibly get into, and 
what it will mean to Dottie if we fail for lack of power. " This from the 
stranger. "I get you, to nineteen decimals. That seals your doom, boss, unless. 
That they intended to hunt down and kill every Lensman, and to subvert the 
Galactic Council to their own ends. " 

"We have equipment and tools designed specifically for getting information out 
of such as you. 

"Doctor Chambers," Brookings began, showing him the bottle, "I have here a 
solution which in some way is capable of liberating the intra-atomic energy of 
matter, about which I asked you yesterday. "I see you're surprised at my 
knowing your language. No data. The outlaws had each been given a chance to 
surrender, and each had refused it. As soon as this is done, the highly-charged 
particles--or whatever they are--thus formed are repelled by the terrific 
stationary force maintained in the projector backing the converter. Thanks to 
you, we are not even crippled, though our capital is destroyed and the lives of 
some unfortunates, who could not reach the pits in time, have probably been 
lost. Good night. " 

"Good night, Brownie. "Don't you see, you big, dense, wonderful man, that it is 
the only thing to do? We need each other, or at least, I need you, so much now. 
" 

"Spill the news, Reddy," he commanded, as his arm tightened about her. "No 
harm--he's doing this strictly on his own--if Morgan had had any idea he'd've 
killed him first. " Once more a vessel had issued from the jealously secret 
city of Zbardk without betraying its existence to the hated and feared hexans. 
"Okay, I'll let you get away with that--at least for a while. We'll cover you. 
. . . there may be later, perhaps. . m. . " 

"Dead? Can't you raise _anybody_?" 

"Not yet. I don't see how anybody could help but be. Well, let's go places and 
do things! You'd better put on a suit, too, so you can stand in the air-lock 
and handle the line. " 

They donned the heavily insulated, heated suits, and Stevens snapped the 
locking plugs of the drag line into their sockets upon the helmets. "Unanimous 
vote for the first time. " 

"Who wouldn't?" Sandra asked. The fault is of course mine, in not being able to 
attune my mind fully to yours. No one of them would put his Lens on Jill, since 
she did not have one. Everything is ready. " 

"What _are_ you talking about?" demanded Nadia. They have been kicking around 
for years, he says--so small that nobody wanted them. Nor shall Sarlon pay 
tribute merely; Sarlon must and shall become a province of my kingdom!" 

So argument raged, until Phagon got up onto his royal high horse and declared 
it his royal will that the thing was to be done his way and no other. 

"Guess that's all I'll need, Chief," Cloud remarked, finally. "Have you 
detected any indications that there may be some connection between either 
Ossmen or Morgan and any officer or executive of Interstellar Spaceways?" 

"_Spaceways!_ Isaacson?" Jill caught her breath. None," the Port Admiral 
replied, as formally, then went on via Lens: "No comment or criticism to make, 
Alex. You fellows have done a job so far and you'll keep on doing one. And whom 
am I to love a girl like you? A homeless spacehound who hasn't been on any 
planet three weeks in three years. Nope, it's a tough order to fill. 

"What can we do about it?" asked Quince. "We'll bring ourselves, and we'll 
hurry. " 

"Have you got all those rays and things fixed up?" 

"Not as many as I'd like to have. He will be a stumbling-block. 

"Do you see it yet?" asked Dorothy with concern. I think we'd better beat it," 
remarked Seaton presently, wiping drops of perspiration from his forehead. 
That's exactly what he was trying to do. Then they looked the ship over rather 
casually, as though they didn't see anything they were interested in; crippled 
the motors; and went away. It's a mess, but it's ours--or was, at last 
accounts--so the worst of it will be over. You would never, willingly, pair 
with a woman you really loved. . . . yes, but. She got a super-deluxe fur 
coat--Martian tekkyl, no less--out of that Mackenzie River power deal. . . . . 
" 

"I'll tell the cockeyed world you won't!" Hilton broke in. "I just can't get 
used to having no night, and. I will observe with keen interest. . " He had 
started to say "because you're the best friend I've got in the System," but he 
did not. Would you be willing to sell us plans, or lease us ships. One more 
thing. . . . sathura. The brain of the Larry is very, very tough. " 



"Look here, Fred. My thought, however, is that the principal cause of the 
trouble is the coming into being of this multiplicity of political parties, 
particularly those composed principally of crackpots and extremists. " 



For a moment the group was stunned. "We have just. Two out of seven chances, 
and we drew one of them. Never take any chances. This female youth erroneously 
called Thomas, somewhat careless in computing the elements of her trajectory, 
will jostle slightly the barber's elbow with her tail; thus causing him to make 
a slight incision, approximately three millimeters long, parallel to and just 
above your left cheek-bone. Reaching into his mouth, he pulled out a flaming 
match, at which Nalboon started violently. While all the natives watched in 
amazement, Seaton lighted the cigarette, and after half consuming it in two 
long inhalations, he apparently swallowed the remainder, only to bring it to 
light again. In consequence, Titan's power has been cut to a minimum, since 
maintaining our beam at that great distance required a large fraction of the 
output of the other plant. Nevian submarines and airships were beginning to 
arrive upon the scene, and were beaming the building viciously in an attempt to 
entrap or to crush the foreigners in its ruins Costigan managed finally to 
blast his way out, but the Nevians had had time to assemble in force and he was 
met by a concentrated storm of beams and of metal from every inimical weapon 
within range. Worm, Submarine, and Freedom                        159 

XIII. The Hill                                           165 

XIV. The surviving Arpalone fighters and other small craft were making no 
attempt to land, anywhere on the world's surface. How do you figure we can do 
any better?" 

"Because we'll _use_ our brains!" she snapped. We bought up all the platinum 
wastes we could get, and reworked all the metallic platinum and allied metals 
we could buy in the open market, and got less than a gram of X out of the whole 
lot. The conditions I mentioned would be difficult at the moment, since so few 
of us are here and it is manifest that few if any of our people will believe 
that such people as you Galaxians really exist. I know. " 

"Pretty slow?" Crane smiled. However, there is no doubt that physically you are 
perfectly compatible with our humanity. Therefore it looks as though our best 
bet is to hide now, and try to sneak away on them after a while--direct methods 
won't work. If there's a Lensman there, I'll get him. " 

"How well you understand him," Dorothy said, after a pause. "His big mistake 
was in that second body check. We'll disarm them, too. They fired up their 
hidden planes and flew back behind the Curtain. 

Finally, the last dummy instrument was installed in the worthless space-car, 
which the friends referred to between themselves as "The Cripple," a name which 
Seaton soon changed to "Old Crip. Distinctly feline as to heads, teeth, and 
claws. While they did not at all closely resemble flying saber-toothed tigers, 
that was the first impression that leaped into Garlock's mind. These 
instruments are wonders, Dick--vastly ahead of anything I have ever seen. As 
the hexan planes of force flashed out, the dull green metal walls broke into a 
sparkling green radiance, against which the Titanic bolts spent themselves in 
vain. They would now systematically scour the fortress, to wipe out any hexans 
that might still be in hiding; to discover and destroy any possible traps or 
infernal machines which the enemy might have planted for their undoing. Thus, 
about two and one-half of your years ago, a starship of that race sent down a 
sensing element--unmanned, of course--to check your state of development. . " 

"The hell it won't. We won't be here long enough to make it worth while. We've 
got more of it on hand now than we're apt to need for a long time, so have a 
hunk and get busy," and he easily carried one of the lumps out of his cabin and 
tossed it upon the dock, from whence it required two of Kondal's strongest men 
to lift it. While they unload and load you up, we'll install the zone 
apparatus, put a compass on you, put one of yours on us, and then you can hop 
back up here where you're comfortable. Having smoked it, he apparently 
swallowed the butt, with evident relish. He had not given himself 
away--practically everybody screened their inside coat pockets and hip pockets, 
and the cat-whisker lead from Lens to leg simply could not be seen--but for all 
the good they were doing him his ultra-instruments might just as well have been 
back on Tellus. 

Number Ten was another queer--the Tellurians were found incompatible. In 
leaving this holy place all will file between me and the shrine. If we had two 
years, I know that we could lick them cold; and by stepping on the gas I 
believe we can get the dope in less than the six months we have to work in. " 

"I've a better scheme than that," interrupted DuQuesne. " 

"If these deductions are anywhere nearly correct, they are terrible neighbors. 
"Mr. Clancy! Mr. Edwards!" 

"To hell with Clancy, and Edwards, too," Jones barked. "Gimme the Chief 
Engineer and the Head Surveyor, and gimme 'em _fast_. " 

"Clancy speaking, Station Twelve. "To that end you will go now into the 
hospital room and see the bandaging going on. Each knows what he can do best 
and does it as a matter of course. On fifteen of these worlds the Primes are 
not yet adult. That's my high bid; that's as high as we can possibly go. . . " 

"As you were, ace!" Stevens interrupted, embarrassed. My guess would be, 
though, that you could. It's probably in the safest safe-deposit vault in the 
country. Ergo, he is too far away to reach--and with his weight, I could find 
him anywhere up to about one and a half light-years. If he wants to go that far 
away from home, where is his logical destination? It can't be anywhere but 
Osnome, since that is the only place we stopped at for any length of time--the 
only place where he could have learned anything. Didn't you notice that while 
we were eating they talked together for at least fifteen minutes about her 
father's invention and the way they stole the plans and one thing and another? 
I don't believe he has talked that much to any girl except me the last five 
years--and he wouldn't talk to me until he knew that I couldn't see any man 
except you. 

No one except Tula had felt a thing. . . . . . I certainly don't do it 
intentionally. I never could see how mass could be a function of velocity, and 
now I am convinced that it is not. " 

"Good. 

"I'm afraid not. How could a Two--a high Two, at that--be working as an usher? 
And with her guard down clear to the floor? He probed--and saw. Some heroin, 
and quite a bit of Martian ladolian. I can walk without falling down. " 



He concentrated--read a few feet of top-secret braided wire--and came back to 
consciousness in the sickbay of the _Perseus_, with two doctors working on him; 
Hastings, the top Navy medico, and Flandres, the surgeon. They're the type. 
They have one man in front and one in back, a couple of detectaphones in my 
rooms here, and have coupled onto this telephone. However, we'll know pretty 
quick, and then we'll take steps. Therefore it is quite a little more massive 
than has been. Inertialess now, pausing briefly from time to time to enable the 
crew to accustom themselves to the new sensations, Triplanetary's super-ship 
pursued the invader; hurtling through the void with a velocity unthinkable. 

"He was easier to take than I thought he would be," Cleveland grunted, staring 
into the plate. You see, he tried to prove to the others that he was right, and 
nothing happened. " 

"Very well, sir. 

"That long-dead unit, so inexplicably reactivated, is approaching the fuel 
world. Seaton strode up and down the room, puffing great volumes of smoke from 
his hot and reeking briar, suggesting methods and ideas, his keen mind finding 
the way over, around, or through the apparently insuperable obstacles which 
beset their path. 

"What can you have to say to me?" the general demanded, disregarding the 
invitation. "It'd look still better if I peeled down to the altogether. . " 

"Captured savages?" interrupted Dorothy. 

"Well, it would have smelled slightly cheesy, I thought. You know the edge of 
the galaxy closest to Tellus, where that big rift cuts in?" 

"Yes. Those cops were funny. By now there should be a hole a mile deep where 
the Hill had been. They do not attach nearly as much importance to morale as we 
do; by the very nature of their regime they can't. " He had no idea where the 
Engineers came from; they didn't say. Stretch out here, like that--you can't 
rest folded up like an accordion--and I'll lie down diagonally across the room. 
There's just room for me that way. Now that we are all comfortable and waiting, 
I will introduce my party to yours. " 

Bergenholm paused. "You talk like a fool! You can't get anything on either of 
them. I've hardly dared really to believe it until this very minute. "We have 
abundance of power for all of your projector officers. " 

Dunark stepped to the controls and the elevator shot upward, stopping at a 
landing several stories below the top of the dock. It'd be interesting. Like on 
Eridan, where their ops could wear anything they could lift, but we had to go 
naked. " He flinched mentally as he recalled his encounter with Hazel the 
Hell-cat, and Northrop flinched with him. In sheer astonishment old Five-Jets 
obeyed. To their right the river, the gorge, and the strip of meadow extended 
for a mile or more, then curved away and were lost to sight. Driving units were 
installed--drives of such immensity of power as to test to the full the highest 
engineering skills of the Galaxy. Mountains of fuel-concentrate filled vast 
reservoirs of concrete. Each was connected to a drive by fifty-inch high-speed 
conveyors. More! Each spectator knew that one of those men would die that 
afternoon. None wanted, or would permit them both to live. Still you've got the 
nerve to think that you can get them with ordinary gunmen! I've drawn you 
diagrams and shown you figures--I've told you in great detail and in 
one-syllable words exactly what we're up against. Now I tell you again that 
they've _got something_. You simply imagine that there is a point source of 
light at your point of projection: it isn't really there. A more important job 
for you is this: Any problem, to be solved, must be stated clearly; and we 
don't know even what our basic problem is. A large, thick stick. Acceleration 
was brought slowly up to normal, and the battle-scarred cruiser of the void, 
with her heavy burden of inert metal, resumed her interrupted voyage toward 
Europa; the satellite upon which the passengers and crew of the ill-fated 
_Arcturus_ had been so long immured. On she bored through the ether, detector 
screens full out and greenly scintillant Vorkulian wall-screens outlining her 
football shape in weird and ghastly light; unafraid now of any possible 
surviving space-craft of the hexans. . when there hasn't been any first 
survivor to be an       | | expert! When no one has ever gotten back to explain 
what     | | happened. . " 

"I know I'll get fired. "You can't make the Samms wench and aren't in position 
to skin her alive, so you get allergic to all her relatives. " 

"No, I told Mart. _Wilt_!" Nadia's voice dripped scorn. "Why, he di. 

"More like tanks," he disagreed, "except that they've got legs, wheels _and_ 
treads--and arms, cutters, diggers, probes and conveyors--and _look_ at the way 
those buckets dip solid rock!" 

The fantastic machine was moving very slowly along a bench or shelf that it was 
making for itself as it went along. I'd like to know what the girls have been 
doing. . . That's all right, too. However, either course will take lots of 
power, so the first thing I've got to do is to build a power plant. They'll 
report to you--facts, deductions, guesses, and recommendations--whenever you 
say the word. " 

"Yeah, but if they've got accumulator capacity enough to hold off our entire 
cosmic intake and get back to Jupiter besides, I'm a polyp! We're going to take 
that ship, fellows, and learn a lot of stuff we never dreamed of before. No 
fragment was large enough to be navigable or dangerous and each was sharply 
cut, as though sheared from its neighbor by some gigantic curved blade. 

"Here are your pellets, General Cardeen. She shuddered and shivered, tried to 
tear herself into shreds and chunks; but Phryges in his tank was unconcerned. 
He was evidently not going to play footsie with, or show any favoritism 
whatever toward, any woman aboard the ship. Then, while all of the attention of 
the Nevians and practically all of their maximum possible power output was 
being devoted to the neutralization of that last desperate thrust, the metal 
wall of the planetoid opened and the First Section shot out into space. 

Temple, giving up her attempts to near-drown her husband, rolled over and 
floated quietly beside him. "What we call Unit Eight--the heart of the drive. I 
do know, however, that we can and will use it. Before they come, let us decide 
upon the ceremony. " 

"Flapdoodle!" she snorted, inelegantly. On second thought, though, I don't 
believe that DuQuesne would be fool enough to tackle us again in the same 
way--but I'm taking no chances. Not one was really interested in the Galactic 
Service as an instrument for the good of all mankind. 

"On them it looks good," Belle tight-beamed a thought to Garlock. For whatever 
that devouring fluid touched flared into yellow flame, gave off clouds of 
lurid, strangling vapor, and disappeared. They were not the twinkling, 
scintillating beauties of the earthly sky, but minute points, so small as to 
seem dimensionless, yet of dazzling brilliance. Then they went on to say that 
they wanted the entire green system for themselves, and that in something like 
two years of our time they were going to wipe out all the present inhabitants 
of the system and take it over, as a base for further operations. From there 
on, of course, it was simple--just like a dentist making a set of china 
choppers or a metallurgist embedding a test-section. " 

"Good God!" Deston exclaimed. "Me marry a damned female Ph. D. _ 

_Author of "Skylark of Space," and "Skylark Three"_ 













Spacehounds of IPC 



_One of the most fascinating mysteries of the heavens is the comet. He watched 
him do things that Tedric of Time Track One had never done. For minutes a host 
of robots toiled mightily, then a portion of the shield bulged out and became a 
tube extending beyond the attacking layers of force; a tube from which there 
erupted a beam of violence incredible. Then, too, you realize, of course, that 
there is a bare possibility that intra-atomic energy may not be absolutely 
impossible. Then, the minds of all the other Thinkers being screened, he 
studied the whole Strett planet, foot by foot, and everything that was on it. 
Until, finally, it happened. 

There was a blast beside which the most terrific flash of lightning ever seen 
on Earth would have seemed like a firecracker. I was perfectly miserable until 
Martin called this afternoon and explained what you have been doing. Why, I 
wouldn't have missed that for _anything_!" 

When Hilton left the room he was apparently, in every respect, his usual 
self-contained self. Yowp! I'm a wild Siberian catamount, and this is my night 
to howl. Whee-ee-yerow!" 

Dorothy laughed, a gay, lilting carol. 

"Haven't I always told you he had cat blood in him, Peggy? Just like all 
tomcats, every once in a while he has to stretch his claws and yowl. You will 
listen. This warfare was ascribed to pirates. " 



There were. We will see to it. " 

"Any of you wishing to leave this vessel have my full permission to do so," 
Roger announced, disdaining any reply to the challenge of the _Boise_. But they 
won't keep me long. K. , Tug. C. Took it, and started studying organic and food 
chemistry at George Washington University. 

All personal haste was now over. They had no doubt at all as to their ability 
to do it. They stamped the ship's papers without either reading or checking 
them. The free end, under its thousands of pounds of tension, had struck the 
being upon the side of the head, and the force of the blow, only partially 
blocked by the heavy helmet, had hurled him out through the yawning gap in the 
wall and hundreds of miles out into space. 

As that irresistible bolt touched the Vorkulian wall-screen, the spot of 
contact flared instantaneously through the spectrum and into the black beyond 
the violet as that screen overloaded locally. "Roll out or roll up! Come and 
get it, before I throw it away!" 

"I must have been kind of tired," he said sheepishly, when he saw that she had 
shot a bird and had cooked breakfast for them both while he had been buried in 
oblivion. 

"Peculiar, too, isn't it?" Nadia asked, pointedly. "He's going to live, isn't 
he?" 

"Oh, yes, Phil--definitely yes," Lacy replied, briskly. You couldn't beat Dick 
and Martin in a thousand years!" 

The tension under which they had been laboring so long suddenly released, the 
two girls locked their arms around each other in a half-hysterical outburst of 
relief. " 

"Why? No use in both of us taking such a chance. Guess we'll have to take time 
to get another vessel. I'd like to drag in the pieces of that ship, too--his 
instruments and a lot of the parts could be used. Let's see what we can find 
out about them. " 

The report of Knobos and DalNalten was terse and exact. I can't find a trace of 
ultra-wave--anything below ether-level, you know--anywhere in the whole place. 
Have you any idea where?" 

"He is now in his home city, accumulating funds and manufacturing fuel with 
which to continue his pointless activities. " He told her his plan. Shortly 
thereafter the office door was wrenched open. Keller had come to Kinnison, 
accompanied by the Superintendent whom the Siberians referred to, somewhat 
contemptuously, as "Piddy. " 

"Damn your soul, Kinnison, come out here--I want to talk to you!" Keller 
roared, and doors snapped open up and down the long corridor. Such wire will do 
very nicely. With this word of warning I will get on with my report. " 

Both men looked around the great bowl. However, since Operators and Primes are 
automatically stacked like Tennick Towers, I don't suppose your recruits will 
be unduly perturbed at, or will squawk too much about, overexposure. 







VII 



Knowing that he had done everything he could to help the most important 
investigations get under way, Hilton turned his attention to secondary matters. 
" 

"What are your requirements?" the general asked. He appealed to Tedric. The bag 
was still half full of the strange gems, some of them glowing like miniature 
lamps in the dark depths, and he made no effort to appraise them. 
Simultaneously the entire midsection of the vessel exploded into light and 
disappeared; completely volatilized. 

At the same moment the woman immediately in front of Garlock stifled a scream 
and jumped backward, bumping into him and almost knocking him down. If you 
insist upon going without further preparation I will go too, no matter how 
foolish I think such a course to be. I've been scared stiff every time I 
thought of our wedding. If I don't know something about explosives I did a 
smart job of fooling Dean Montrose, back at Gosh Whatta University. Five floors 
up, straight ahead down a corridor--fourth door on right. " 

He prowled around the room. "I'm not going to get more than a meter away from 
you from now on. . . . but I CAN NOT LIE TO YOU. . but it's so damned _steady_. 
Enough so to take half the damage. " 



"You and your theories! I wish we could get some _facts_!" 

"You can call that a fact. 

A miner came running up and Jones covered his mouth-piece. Have you figured out 
a way to break it?" 

"It can't be broken. The harder they hit it and the wider they spread it, the 
better. And as for a machine, what finer one is possible than the Patrol? 
Everybody in it or connected with it will support you to the hilt--you know 
that. Watching you work has been not only a delight, but also a liberal 
education. 

"Pretty bad, but better than I thought," the captain reported. I invite you to 
come into my vessel, unarmed and alone, for a conference. A surprising 
development, truly--we have thought for many cycles of time that we were the 
only highly advanced life in this universe. It's hard to believe, but 
nevertheless it's a fact. Ergo, he is too far away to reach--and with his 
weight, I could find him anywhere up to about one and a half light-years. If he 
wants to go that far away from home, where is his logical destination? It can't 
be anywhere but Osnome, since that is the only place we stopped at for any 
length of time--the only place where he could have learned anything. . . . you 
_beast_!" Belle drove a tight-beamed thought. . It _couldn't_ have happened. It 
is equally probable that a great company--in this case the World Steel 
Corporation--is backing him, though I don't believe there is a ghost of a show 
of ever being able to prove it in law. " 

"I am not so sure of that. Fairly running across to her, he made a slight 
obeisance and in eager tones poured forth such a stream of language that she 
held up her hand to silence him. 

"Go slower, please," she said, and added a couple of words in his own tongue. 
He had lucid intervals at times, but he did not, at the time or ever, know 
surely what was real and what was fantasy. " 

"Not until after I see whether he can work or not. "He's quiet--sort of 
reserved--no passes or anything like that--it'd be funny if I finally got a 
boss that had something on the ball, wouldn't it? But you know what, Molly?" 
The red-head giggled suddenly. "He has a good skeleton, very good indeed. We 
can use him to shovel out the gunkum and clean up. So will they. There were 
four practically simultaneous detonations--silent, but terrific explosions as 
the pent-up internal energy of solid pentavalent nitrogen was instantaneously 
released--and the four insensately murderous spheres disappeared into jagged 
fragments of wreckage, flying wildly away from the centers of explosion. . . " 

"Or you could, Rod. Drawing himself over to her, he picked her up in a tight 
embrace. 

"Cheer up, Red-Top! This man's war ain't started yet!" 

"Not started? What do you mean? Haven't you and Martin just been admitting to 
each other that you can't do anything? Doesn't that mean that we are beaten?" 

"Beaten! Us? How do you get that way? Not on your sweet young life!" he 
ejaculated, and the surprise on his face was so manifest that she recovered 
instantly. "Constant negative acceleration and in a straight line. He must 
think that we have been cleared out of the ether. 

"There, that'll hold 'em for a while, I guess. I have never seen an undertaking 
of such size go forward so smoothly and with such fine co-operation. They have 
been disassembled and stored. They're utterly inhuman--I can't describe 
it--you'll have to get it for yourself. " 

"Admitted--but at the same time they are being paid in North American currency. 
"And your folks, too, of course?" she asked. So get going, daddy old dear, and 
let's do things! Steve's a Quaker and we're Presbyterians, so none of the 
chaplains will do at all. 

Landing on the daylight side, except possibly at exact noon, would be 
impossible because of the wind, nor could the ship stay landed for more than a 
couple of minutes. Were they recent arrivals from some other space-time 
continuum? Probably not--Eddorian surveys had found no trace of any such life 
in any reachable plenum. They are exactly as you left them. As Titan grew 
colder and colder they probably dug their cities deeper and ever deeper; until 
humanity came finally to realize that it must itself change completely or 
perish utterly. . Mentioning names hadn't been enough, but a personal 
appearance. . " 

"It would wreck North America as no nation has ever been wrecked; quite 
possibly beyond recovery. That's one of the things I like so much about you. " 

"What next, Dick?" 

"Now the real trouble begins. " Ynos's mind was leaping ahead, considering 
hundreds of possibilities and making highly intricate and involved 
computations. " 

Having thus checked and tested every function of his department, Breckenridge 
plugged into "Captain," and when the green light went on: 

"Chief pilot check-out--all x," he reported briefly. 

"Hi, Jill! This is Mase--I've told you about him. Their warrings, their 
strifes, their inter-necine intrigues and connivings were inevitable because of 
the tremendousness and capability--and the limitations--of their minds. . " 

There was a moment of silence, then Kinnison went on: 

"But wherever diamonds are, there go Dutchmen. We will see to it. "No one 
except the very few selectees will know anything about it. " Olmstead opened up 
for inspection. Straight out into the ocean it sped, through the murky red 
veil, and darted upward toward the surface. Give me the suit and I'll change 
now. Furthermore. . . so. Order me up two more, then--one at half of what I've 
got here, the other double it," and he reeled off the figures for the charge 
and the casing of the explosive. "You might break out a jar of burn-dressing, 
too. Not green in color; sort of purplish. "Don't tell us it's Terra again, 
Dark Lady, please. I'll get you any stars you want, and bring them right in 
here to you. I'm quite. No human brain can take it all, I'm afraid, especially 
all at once, but I'm going to kinda peck around the edges and get me some dope 
that I want pretty badly. Which was practically all the time. Teddy Blake and I 
both thought of that, but we'll consider it only as the ultimately last resort. 
Thus, what started out as a conference of two became a full Ardan staff 
meeting; a meeting which, starting immediately after lunch, ran straight 
through into the following afternoon. In fact, it was learned later that she 
lost only forty men. 

"Well, bunch," it said in a matter-of-fact voice, "there's no mental exercise 
in you and you're such a low form of life that you're of no use on this planet; 
so I'll dematerialize you. " He was a man transfigured. "You mean that one 
shipload of despicable humans who--far too late to do them any good--barred us 
temporarily from Fuel World?" 

"Not exactly or only those humans, no. . " 

"Stop it!" she commanded, sharply. He did see, now. 

There were doctors, doctors, doctors; operations, operations, operations. 

"Interstellar Spaceways, you know. 

"Carney, two. Soon the full calculated power was on and the acceleration became 
constant. Newton to be called to her own television set, the door behind them 
opened. " Stevens spoke thoughtfully as Nadia darted away. 'Chancellor Ferber 
is in conference and cannot be disturbed,'" he mimicked, savagely. "Put him on 
now--but _quick_!" 



The tri-di tank brightened up; Chancellor Ferber's image appeared. "Search 
them; all their weapons may not have been in their armor. Seal the doors and 
mount special guards, tuned to me here. " 

Imprisoned they were, and carefully searched; but they bore no arms, and 
nothing had been said concerning communicators. "It boils down to this: I must 
either welcome you or destroy you. I haven't got one myself, so I don't know 
very much--ulp!--about it at first hand, but from what the boys tell me it must 
be. . . . Oh. 

"Oh, how horrible!" cried the girl, her voice breaking. But, since human beings 
do not like to live eternally underground, no matter how beautifully lighted or 
how carefully and comfortably air-conditioned the dungeon may be, the 
Reservation spread far beyond the foot of that gray, forbidding, mirror-smooth 
cone of metal. So I'll have to talk, even though I'm not half ready to--I don't 
know enough. Its projectile, so barely discharged, did not explode--it was 
loaded with material which could be detonated only by the warhead upon impact 
or by a radio signal. The temperature of Europa will suit you. Good thing, too. 
Next corridor left, I think. I've never been any closer to it than this, and I 
never will, so I don't know anything about it except what I hear; but there's 
something about it that kills men or drives them crazy. Admired you. Hero, sort 
of. . Thank you, sir," and Mr. " 

"Oh, you. "Who cares anything about the rock and dirt of a _planet_? It's the 
people that count and his are dead and he's perfectly _complaisant_ about 
it--just _lonesome_!" 

"Don't let it throw you, pet," James soothed. "He's an Arpalone, you know; not 
a sociological anthropologist. "He has a good skeleton, very good indeed. Or, 
if a little colane had been rubbed on it which no Tellurian could have noticed, 
any Venerian could smell it from one end of that lake to the other. " 

"True. I fully intended to serve, one way or another, in this your home. " 

"One did. " She shook hands warmly. If they take the initiative they can't 
prevent us from presenting our evidence in full; and there is no court in 
existence, however corrupt, before which we could not win. Didn't you notice 
that while we were eating they talked together for at least fifteen minutes 
about her father's invention and the way they stole the plans and one thing and 
another? I don't believe he has talked that much to any girl except me the last 
five years--and he wouldn't talk to me until he knew that I couldn't see any 
man except you. " The Osnomians' labored breathing became normal as the 
air-pressure increased to a value only a little below that of the dense 
atmosphere of their native planet. " 

"If all you did was to set up the integrals, how do you know what you are going 
to have for the next meal?" asked Crane. 

"That is quite possible; for, fortunately, our art is not yet entirely 
intellectual, as is our music. "It is evident, of course, that I cannot 
qualify; nor do I know anyone personally who can. 

After making certain that the visiray was precisely synchronized and phased 
with the searching frequency, he built up the power of that beam until it was 
using twenty thousand kilofranks. There were continents, oceans, ice-caps, 
lakes, rivers, mountains and plains, forests and prairies. He was too busy, had 
too many worthwhile things to do, to waste time that way. He would have pounded 
a lot of sense into his skull, if he had lived. 

A siren--creeping up from behind. Edging inward, lane after lane, he reached 
the "unlimited" way--unlimited, that is, except for being limited to cars of 
not less than seven hundred horsepower, in perfect mechanical condition, driven 
by registered, tested drivers at speeds not less than one hundred and 
twenty-five miles an hour--flashed his registry number at the control station, 
and shoved his right foot down to the floor. 



Now everyone knows that an ordinary DeKhotinsky Sporter will do a hundred and 
forty honestly-measured miles in one honestly measured hour; but very few 
ordinary drivers have ever found out how fast one of those brutal big souped-up 
Sixteens can wheel. " 

"Everything goes that has any copper in it," he said coldly, "and I am glad to 
see that Seaton is too good a chemist to buy any platinum jewelry. "It's a 
relief to follow something I can see, instead of trying to guess which way that 
beam's going to wiggle next. How about calling it the 'Galactic Service'? 
Applicable to either war or peace. Some of them would of course reach and 
destroy some of our ships. " 

"What was the smoke we saw, then?" 

"That was their food-supply. "Get that idea out of your head right now. With 
its great speed it reached the monster before the plane was overtaken. Well, 
we'd better break away. " 

"Good night, Daddy dear," she replied, throwing her arms around his neck. 

"Yeah. " Solarian Councillor Virgil Samms spoke to his companion as the 
opponents changed courts. When he had finished, Wilson brought his fist down 
upon his desk. It was like touching a high-voltage wire. Then, fused, 
volatilized, flaming incandescent throughout the length, breadth, and height of 
a dwelling, that dwelling's existence thereafter is to be measured in minutes. 
"And I want to see Pilot James close up, too, sir--he's not nearly as wonderful 
as you are, sir--and I wonder why Planetographer Bellamy's hair is green? Very 
striking, of course, sir, but I don't think I'd care for it much on me--unless 
you'd think I should, sir?" 



Belle knew, of course, that they were coming; and Garlock knew that Belle's 
hackles were very much on the rise. " 

"I see why they would. Without a word into the transformers they seized Bradley 
and Clio. Then, supporting her at the window, he held his Lewiston upon the 
captive's head while Costigan propelled him toward the opening. Nadia followed 
suit and the man laughed as she wrinkled her nose in disgust as two faint, but 
unmistakable odors smote her olfactory nerves. 

"What's the matter with it, Steve? It looks like a picture in slow motion, like 
the kind they take of your dives--or am I seeing things?" 

"No, it's really slow, compared to what we're used to. Then, "Listen, all of 
you. 

The blood-smeared hilt turned in his hands; the blade struck flat and broke, 
its length whining viciously away. In your primitive culture the women may 
still be allowing you men to believe in the fallacy of the superiority of the 
male, but know right now that I can do anything any man ever born can do and do 
it better. At _practical_ stuff, and that's all we give a whoop about, I lay 
over both them sissies like a Lunar dome. 

"You have done a great deal for me--for us," she said simply. Jack would have 
brained him if any of them had been on. 

"Of course Jill's going, if anybody does!" he burst out vehemently. . . . . . 
lines of character and of humor. . . But how about this? Suppose we take a fast 
tour, with you and I taking quick peeks, without the peekees ever knowing we've 
been peeking?" 

"That's using the brain, Belle. He was used to death, in many of its grisliest 
forms. 

"Hold everything, Dick!" Crane snapped, as Seaton bent over one of the bars. 
"Operation Bullfinch--Off!" he managed to say. " 

And four hundred seventy one highly skilled men, carrying duplicate keys and/or 
whatever other specialized apparatus and equipment would be necessary, quietly 
took possession of four hundred seventy one objects, of almost that many shapes 
and sizes. Art in the forefront of those few I spoke of. And take this not 
_too_ seriously, for I expect fully to live. 

Verna, the irrepressible, was in the control room of the _Sirius_, quarreling 
adroitly with Brandon and deftly flirting with Crowninshield. This was the 
Administration Area. " 



With a casual wave of her hand, Temple strolled away; and there, flashed 
through Sandra's mind what Hilton had said so long ago, little more than a week 
out from Earth: 

". He kicked a lever and the lifecraft's port swung open--to reveal a blaze of 
light and a startled, gray-haired man. He was my jailer, and I utterly loathe 
and despise him. He was now a Big Shot--damn the luck! He could be and must be 
responsible for broad policy and for general strategy, but, once those vitally 
important decisions had been made, the actual work would have to be done by 
others. 

The H-blast--the city-wide warning for the planned and supposedly orderly 
evacuation of all Chicago--sounded, but Kinnison did not hear it. "That's all I 
want--a chance. You'll hafta figure damn close to a hundred pounds of air to 
the foot on plain cuttin'--that's two hundred and a quarter. 

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 his friends 
goodbye. The planet tipped, lurched, spun, and danced. Do your worst; I shall 
not speak. " She got up and stared directly into his eyes, her lip curling. "I 
thought it was wonderful!" 

"I didn't. . " 

"Enough. We have kept your trust. So I'll still be a virgin when we're married. 
" Now in the sickroom, Brandon picked up the headset and sent out a wave of 
cheery greeting. "In view of the Code, locking your door is a meaningless 
gesture. " 

"There is, however, reason enough; although I am not sure that I can make it as 
clear to you as I would wish. That is, a part of it became en rapport with a 
part of his: years were to pass before even the First Lensman would know much 
more about the Palainian than he learned in that first contact; no human beings 
except the Children of the Lens ever were to understand even dimly the 
labyrinthine intricacies, the paradoxical complexities, of the Palainian mind. 
Mercury is absolutely the only thing that will do the trick and the mercury is 
one thing that is conspicuous by it's absence in these parts. So are tungsten 
for filaments, tantalum for plates, and platinum for leads; and I haven't found 
anything that I can use as a getter, either--a metal, you know, to flash inside 
the tube to clean up the last traces of atmosphere in it. Do you still believe 
that you can keep me from remembering whatever it was that my ancestor was 
compelled to forget?" 

"Now that you have obtained a focal point we cannot prevent you from 
remembering; and merely to hinder you would be pointless. I've lost too much 
money that way already. 

"Second; drugs, vice, and so on. A planet might perhaps be mentioned as 
representative of a class, but no individual entity lower than a Plooran was 
named or discussed. " 

"Sure not; and of course you yourself would go. Then, suddenly, his face 
cleared. 

"Do you mind, sir, if we sleep on the floor at the sides of your bed?" Larry 
asked. 

"No, no, Dick," remonstrated Dorothy, seizing his arm. Not by those names, of 
course. 

"Well, that for that. Below it, to its left, dropped other benches being made 
by other mining machines. Nor was it alone. Both knew that it would take five 
years of advanced study before either of them could understand the simplest 
material on the doctor's tapes. They did not need it, of course. Undisturbed 
for over two hundred seventy-one thousand years. " 

"Therefore we will not question the Omans. 

"Wouldn't work. This isn't going to be pretty to watch--or to do, either, for 
that matter. Now, however, it was broken in midspan and the two ends bent 
toward the floor. Planetography. " 

"Why not?" Belle smiled and began to act as one of the party. "Especially since 
we can't use more than one point----" 

"One point _zero_ gravities," Jones put in. 

"Over the long pull--and the women--you're right," Deston agreed, and took out 
his slide rule. They're lost, and still going. Even those lenses wouldn't 
deflect them if they weren't solid fields of force. Both vessels were equipped 
completely with iron-driven mechanisms; both were manned by scientists capable 
of wringing the highest possible measure of power from their installations. No 
other lifecraft had escaped. The Eddorians must not learn of us until after it 
is too late for them to act effectively upon that knowledge. The windows are 
made of optical glass similar to that used in the largest telescopes. 

Hilton canceled all moves aground and issued orders that no Oman was to be 
allowed aboard ship, then looked and listened with his staff. . . . a 
stalemate. . well, so ghastly that it simply gives me the blue shivers just to 
look at one of them!" 

"They're pretty gruesome, no fooling," he agreed, "but you get used to things 
like that. " 

"You think I'm safe, then?" 

"Absolutely. . . . . they'll think up a good reason for _everybody_ to be 
together, and that itself will be the tip-off. Ferdy will probably draw on 
me----" 

"And he'll kill you," Jones said, flatly. Lithe and poised, he was the epitome 
of leashed and controlled action. Moose was six-feet-four and weighed a good 
two-forty--stolid, massive, solid. If he had had time to get his muscles ready, 
he might have had a chance. "Oh of course--but you couldn't really believe a 
thing like that without seeing it, could you? Oh, Steve--how utterly horrible!" 



The "Barkodar" had dropped down into a line of sister ships, and had gone into 
action in midair against a veritable swarm of foes. . yes. . . . But of course 
we're--I mean you're responsible only to yourself. The neck, even, is 
endurable, although it is long and flexible, heavily scaled, and is carried in 
whatever eye-wringing loops or curves the owner considers most convenient or 
ornamental at the time. Soon the space-car came to rest over a great city, and 
Seaton pointed out the palace; which, with its landing dock nearby, was very 
similar to that of Nalboon, in the capital city of Mardonale. The glass-blower 
waved his hand and Nadia severed the form neatly with a glowing wire, just 
above the fluid surface of the glass remaining in the pot. Blue-black rings 
encircled both eyes. His powerful body slumped. "There's only one boat we stand 
a chance of reaching, and somebody's mighty apt to see us. But the Second 
thinks not--what do you think, Costigan?" The bluff commander, reactionary and 
of the old school as was his breed, was furious--baffled, raging inwardly to 
come to grips with the invisible and indetectable foe. They're smart. I say 
Jupiter, because I would think, judging from the small size of the ship, that 
it may still be in the experimental stage, so that they probably didn't come 
from any further away than Jupiter. Come what may of god or devil you need not 
fear it, for I and all with me fight under Llosir's shield. He stripped to the 
skin and the observer smeared his every square inch of epidermis with the 
thick, gooey stuff that was not only a highly efficient screen against 
radiation, but also a sovereign remedy for new radiation burns. 

When he opened them an instant later, it was broad daylight, the boulders had 
been rolled away, the fragrance of roasting meat permeated the atmosphere, and 
Nadia was making a deafening clamor, beating his steel breastplate lustily with 
the flat of his huge saber. " 

Hilton covered the first half of the line at a fast walk. "What is your 
decision?" 

"I submit, in the hope that you will keep your promise, since there is no 
alternative but death," and the awful creature, still loosely held by the 
attractors and carefully watched by DuQuesne and Loring, fairly tore into the 
task of rebuilding the Osnomian power-plant into the space-annihilating drive 
of the Fenachrone--for he well knew one fact that DuQuesne's hurried inspection 
had failed to glean from the labyrinthine intricacies of that fearsome brain: 
that once within the detector screens of that distant solar system these 
Earth-beings would be utterly helpless before the forces which would inevitably 
be turned upon them. 

"What hideous, deformed creatures they are! Truly a low form of life, even 
though they do possess some intelligence. You see, I'm getting so rabid that I 
can't trust myself. " 

"That would seem to be good business, sir. "Shall Brownie and I set our 
blocks?" 

"No," Belle said. "Nothing can interfere with us now. It's just that I don't 
like the conditions. 

"Why, I don't see a thing, Steve--where and what is it?" They were dropping 
vertically downward toward the center of a vast plain of white, featureless and 
desolate; and Nadia stared in disappointment. "The Gaul is done--Patroclus all 
but had him there!" 

"One thousand, you!" came another challenge. I'm going to smoke it in honor of 
our engagement. We're almost there, darling. There's nothing dense enough 
around here, even in the core of the central sun, so we're going out to a white 
dwarf star--one a good deal like the companion star to Sirius in Canis 
Major--get some material of the proper density from its core, and convert our 
sender into a fifth-order machine. " 

"But they couldn't do _anything_ without you two!" Bernice exclaimed. " She 
snuggled her head down into the curve of his neck. 

And Newman misinterpreted those smiles completely; especially Bernice's. They 
command the spectrum in a way undreamed of. " Dark Lady raised her voice enough 
to be sure Sawtelle heard the title, and shot him a wicked glance as she 
announced it. Three-quarters of the staff were lolling on the sand or were 
seated on benches beside the immense pool. " 

"But you said you _never_ went screens down with a woman?" 

"There's a first time for everything. 

"If you can think of another way, Jim, the meeting is still open. 

The next day they worked nine planets, and the day after that they worked ten. 
With those qualities your race can easily double its present span of useful 
life. 

"This worldwide frenzy of unrest followed closely upon the controlled 
liberation of atomic energy and may be--probably is--traceable to it. She 
grinned and turned to the Omans. She turned in flight, but the stranger caught 
her in three strides. . . " Tuly paused, licking her lips in that peculiarly 
human-female gesture of uncertainty. Then they whistled in unison. 

Chunks of solid or semi-molten rock slammed against the hull, knocking off 
wings and control-surfaces. Definitely. " 

"How _sure_ are you of this, Miss Samms?" Knobos asked, in deadly earnest. 
"Figure it out. " 

"All right--but I'll bet it's slower than the rise of a toy balloon. So you'd 
better rod out one of the glory holes and. 

A few months later, Sumner called Kinnison into the office. "What would I do 
with it?" 

"We need not go into that here or now. " 

"I don't think so, either. Would you be willing to sell us plans, or lease us 
ships. . . Thank you, sir," and Mr. Now, if you'll help me find my stuff and 
bring some of it--a computer and so on--up to the lounge?" They did so; the 
"and so on" proving to be a bewildering miscellany indeed. And for her part, 
more and more was Margaret drawn to the quiet and unassuming, but utterly 
dependable and steadfast young inventor, with his wide knowledge and his keen, 
incisive mind. . . and statuary. D. Q. and S. "Don't fool yourself, chick. He's 
a smart man, and before this is done he'll know that he'll have to keep his 
nose clean. See?" 

"Oh. . but the hunch was getting stronger and stronger all the time. . I 
was--must have been--wrong. Not even in bed. Now we'd better get organized old 
partner, for a long campaign. " 

"I understand, all right; but I can't understand the power of these rays. There 
is no coercion whatever. Some had only broken wings; some were dead, but more 
or less whole; many were blown to unrecognizable bits and scraps of flesh. " 

"Don't they ever jam?" asked Dorothy curiously. Since it was found to contain 
copper in notable amounts, all agreed that its planets probably also contained 
copper. 

They tried it, one after another. Very slowly at first, but faster and faster. 
Besides, if I have to suffer just a little bit for good appearance's sake in a 
matter of intergalactic amity. " 

"All right. Seaton, with half this stuff, could whip the combined armies and 
navies of the world. Vaneman, ate such a dinner as he had not eaten in weeks. 
After the meal was over they all went into the spacious living-room, where the 
men ensconced themselves in comfortable Morris chairs with long, black cigars 
between their teeth, and all four engaged in a spirited discussion of various 
topics of the day. All around that district we have erected barriers of force, 
maintained by a corps of men known as 'Guardians of the Sedlor. No drivers, no 
steering-wheels, no instruments or push-buttons. Three destinations for each 
set-up; near, medium, and far. 

Most of the crews and all of the teams except the First were working on side 
issues--tasks which, while important in and of themselves, had very little to 
do with the project's main problem. And the "crackpots" were extremely 
surprised to find themselves hopelessly lost in uncharted galactic wildernesses 
every time they did not think, definitely and positively, of one specific 
destination. 

Like fire, only worse, intra-atomic energy was a good servant, but a terrible 
master. Eight of the huge rooms were now open and brightly lighted--operating 
the lamps had been one of the first items on the first spool of 
instructions--with a cold, pure-white, sourceless light. 

"As you were, fellows--lie down again and take it easy. A thorough exploration 
of all the tight connecting cells revealed that not a lifeboat within their 
reach remained intact, but that habitable and navigable portions of three such 
craft were available. D. under Montrose would have to know explosives, and the 
F. B. " 



The big psionicist's expression of saturnine, almost contemptuous amusement had 
not changed; his voice came flat and cold. " 

"I don't see anything interesting thereabouts except stars. You said you 
weren't going to fight with me any more. " 

"This ought to be good. There was always the chance that we wouldn't get drawn 
into it. Parent and child fell upon the hexaped and soon bones and hair were 
all that remained The slender shoots then wandered about the unconscious girl 
in her strange covering, and as a couple of powerful tendrils coiled about her 
and raised her into the air over the monstrous base of the thing, its 
rudimentary brain could almost be perceived working as it sluggishly realized 
that, now full fed, it should carry this other victim along, to feed its other 
offspring when they should return to its side. 



Barely outside the door of the "Forlorn Hope" Stevens whirled about with a 
bitter imprecation. Nostrils flaring, the mighty beast raged forward and Tedric 
struck as he had never struck before. Eight times that terrific blade came 
down, and eight men and eight horses died. 



Ten or fifteen minutes later, Garlock felt Lola's half-excited, half-frightened 
thought. " Samms smiled disarmingly. The crowd, many thousands strong, was 
cheering. " 

"Power!" the dumbfounded Russian exclaimed. "You're no more a commander than my 
lowest office-girl is! Just wait 'till you get down here, you green-haired 
hussy, you shameless notor. Didn't you see him knock Perkins down when he came 
after me?" 

"Well, maybe he has a few gentlemanly instincts, which he uses when he doesn't 
lose anything by it. And it looks good--these are first-class cages they've 
given us. And, in spite of medical advice, Dutch babies arrive. Therefore 
Theodore and Bernice Jones came aboard Lifecraft Two, and Deston asked Newman 
to flit across to Lifecraft Three. " 

Deston was about to say something, but Barbara forestalled him. "Since it is 
axiomatic that his destruction would have weakened Eddore somewhat and to that 
extent would have helped us, it is evident that some greater advantage will 
accrue from allowing him to live. Nor does it matter whether it be day or 
night, or whether anyone is awake or asleep. 

Thus one of them, fractionally more powerful and more ruthless than the rest, 
became the All-Highest--His Ultimate Supremacy--and a group of about a dozen 
others, only infinitesimally weaker, became his Council; a cabinet which was 
later to become known as the Innermost Circle. Since you have taken it upon 
yourself to exceed your authority to such an extent as to refuse to connect the 
officer in command of the _Pleiades_ with the Chancellor, I cannot report to 
him either the reasons why we are not landing at this time or when we expect to 
return to Tellus. The Lens, immediately upon removal from the Patrolman's arm, 
ceased to radiate and the operative who held the thing died. Many other worlds 
of these systems are inhabited by more or less intelligent non-human races. 
Greed, thirst for fame, longing for power, and so on, including many qualities 
usually regarded as 'noble. ' And what I promise, I deliver. " Deston gazed 
thoughtfully at the incandescent tip of his friend's cigarette. . but after 
all, if the big dope didn't realize that half the women aboard, including 
Sandy, had been making passes at him, she certainly wouldn't enlighten him. You 
are certainly right in principle, and the poundage can be determined by 
statistical and psychological analysis. They're handy little outfits--almost 
impossible to find, and capable of a lot of things. 

Through the airlock, down through several levels of passengers' quarters they 
hurried, and into a lifeboat, whose one doorway commanded the full length of 
the third lounge--an ideal spot, either for defense or for escape outward by 
means of the miniature cruiser. Isaacson, how many predecessors have I had on 
this particular job, and what happened to them? The Patrol get them?" 

"Two. No; we have not been able to find any evidence that the Samms crowd has 
any suspicion of us. Both were too small for the job; neither could handle 
personnel. Pioneers, they have been called. They worked, and are still working, 
in the newest, outermost fringes of the field. . . . . . I _know_ it, I tell 
you!" 

Without another word, without asking permission to leave, Bergenholm whirled 
around and hurried out. That I shall find that secret I am confident; and, 
having found it, I shall, without your aid, destroy the Fenachrone. I know how 
to use most of it, from seeing it in use, and we can figure out the rest. " 

"There are a lot of things none of us has thought of, but as amended I'll buy 
it. 

"Thanks. "Morning, you two lovely people. " She hugged Hilton's arm as usual. 
"You wanted a diversion, didn't you?" 

"Yes, but you already. " 

"Like this," and, taking down a sheet of drafting paper, Cloud sketched 
rapidly. "He's splendid, really, and I like him a lot--usually. Talk about a 
game fish! He doesn't intend to run any more, though, so I guess we'll have to 
put him away. Six metal pipes, one above the other, ran above and parallel to 
each sidewalk-lane of water. He looked at the biggest, toughest one of the 
six--a rock-drill-eyed, red-haired giant--and asked: 

"What did they tell you, Tworn, that your job was going to be?" 

"They didn't say. These builders were not workmen, in the Tellurian sense. 

"I know a little; not much. Then came four helicopters, darting and hovering, 
whose gunners picked off individually whatever survivors had managed to escape 
all six waves of fighters. " 

"Now you are lying by rote--I know just what you'd do," said DuQuesne. Crane," 
replied Margaret eagerly. "He should recover consciousness in an hour or so. 
Anyway, I'm sure that we'll get back safely. They haven't blown us up, and they 
could have done it easily enough. 

"Sure you got your caffeine tablets?" he demanded as they ran. "I've seen 
mirages before, but never anything like that. " 

"No jams ever have occurred. We've got to know how far away from home he is, 
whether he has turned in any report about us, and all about it. Snap it up, 
ace!" 

The transmitter unit was installed at the converters, the cable was torn out, 
and, having broken the last material link between it and Ganymede, Stevens 
hurled the "Forlorn Hope" out into space, using the highest acceleration Nadia 
could endure. He found the ledge and emerged, scraping thick and sticky mud 
from his uniform. He saw. UNMARRED! For an instant Tedric felt as though he 
were about to collapse; but sheerest joy does not disable. 

There was nothing left to do except make the links, hinge-pins, and so on for 
his armor, which did not take long. "The sooner you realize that you must do 
exactly as he pleases, in all things, the easier your life will be. I don't 
really expect that, but if they can keep him busy long enough, we can get far 
enough away so that he won't bother about us any more. . . . . . " 

"I doubt very much if there's one low enough," Garlock cut in sharply. One 
minute and fifty eight seconds. We simply fixed the bearings, put on some minor 
improvements, and here we are. 

But as they passed through the shadowed portal the man's head perked to the 
right. 

"Not unless I have to," he replied, composedly. " 

"That's good. 

"No language spoken by man possesses words sufficiently weighty to express our 
indebtedness to you, Karfedix Seaton, our guest and our savior. 

Then for minutes a spectacular battle raged. All of us feel the same way, but 
some of us are unable to express ourselves quite so vividly. The probability 
approaches unity that the Masters continued to delve and to learn for millions 
of cycles while you Stretts, reasonlessly certain of your supremacy, 
concentrated upon your evolution from the material to a non-material form of 
life and performed only limited research into armaments of greater and ever 
greater power. It was no cheerful conclusion at which the Arisians arrived, 
since their visualizations all agreed in showing that the only possible method 
of wiping out the Eddorians would also of necessity end their own usefulness as 
Guardians of Civilization. It is heavy enough to swing us away from a small 
planet, but it will be used up long before we strike. The walls of the pit were 
steeply, unstably irregular, varying in pitch and shape with the hardness and 
refractoriness of the strata composing them. 

"Ha! Help--I hear footsteps approaching on jet-back," Garlock announced. One 
and one-half detets away, loafing along at the freighter's speed and 
paralleling her course, in a hemispherical formation open to the front, there 
flew six tremendous tear-drops; super-dreadnaughts of whose existence no 
Tellurian or Colonial government had even an inkling. Each nation has several 
nations or tribes of savages, which inhabit various waste places. Each 
produced--extruded--members whenever and wherever it needed them; members 
uniquely appropriate to the task then in work. 

On the other hand, the Arpalones were madly, suicidally determined to break 
through that vortex wall, to get into the "eye," to wreak all possible damage 
there. "All talking--if any--will be done by First Lensman Samms. " 

"Now, all you millions of Telenews listeners, I am interviewing First Lensman 
Samms himself. "Stanley and Emerson will be here in a moment. In the meantime, 
who's calling? I don't recognize your voice, and it's been so long. 

"Go back to your own quarters and stay there until I send for you," the Nevian 
directed, and as the Terrestrials obeyed the curt orders the cruiser tore 
herself from the water and flashed up into the crimson sky. I have never seen 
an undertaking of such size go forward so smoothly and with such fine 
co-operation. This device that you see connecting us is a Callistonian thought 
transformer, by means of which any two intelligent beings can converse without 
language. There it is heterodyned with another wave--this second frequency was 
found after thousands of trials and is, I believe, the exact frequency existing 
in the optic nerves themselves--and sent to the receiving headset. There will 
be twenty sections of ten persons, each section being in charge of one of the 
officers of the _Arcturus_. Bolt-holes stared empty, cores, shielding cases and 
needles had disappeared, the vital parts of every instrument hung awry, 
disorganization reigned rampant and supreme. 

"I never imagined such a mess," the captain said, after a long and silent study 
of the objects. 

"Is it possible, Lord Sir, for any human being to do anything with this foul, 
slimy, salvy, perverse, treacherous, and generally-bedamned stuff?" 

"It is. . Oh, I don't know exactly what it is they lack. There is an attempt 
now being prepared. And through it all Hilton and Sandra listened. Solid 
columns of men, marching as fast as they could step--there weren't trucks 
enough to haul them all. Believe me, ace of my bosom, I don't wonder that it 
cost them lives to build it--with their conditions, I don't see how they ever 
got it built at all. It's a wonder I didn't blow up the whole works. " 

Stevens took the controls and slowly worked along the outer edge of the mass, 
down toward its extremity. 

"Listen, you bird-brained, knot-headed, grand-standing half-wit!" he stormed, 
voice low but bitterly intense. Hilton went up into what he still thought of as 
the "control room," even though he knew that there were no controls, nor even 
any instruments, anywhere aboard. 

Laro opened a cabinet and took out a disk about the size of a dime, pendant 
from a neck-chain. Instead, he lowered his burden to the floor, spread her out 
flat, and sought out and removed item after item of wiring, apparatus, and 
offensive and defensive armament. He did not undress her--quite--but he made 
completely certain that the only weapons left to the young lady were those with 
which Nature had endowed her. "Wouldn't take as much as a kiloton equivalent, 
would it?" 

"Half a kilo is plenty, but no use being too fussy about precision out here. " 
DuQuesne also turned away, to shield his features from the mind-reading gaze of 
the Fenachrone. Shiro's ready vocabulary of peculiar but sonorous words failed 
him completely, and he bent himself double in a bow, his yellow face wreathed 
in the widest possible smile. Crane, one arm around his wife, seized Shiro's 
hand and wrung it in silence. We have been awaiting you for more than five 
thousand years of your time. Your opinion of me is now on record, witnessed by 
your officers and by my staff. Thus, no matter how peaceable your intentions 
may be, many of our human beings would die before you would, but you will not 
live to get back to your ship if you land it and leave its protective 
insulation. Though surprised, they were not to be frightened off, but with 
wild, shrill screams rushed to the attack. " 

"That's good enough for me. "I feel as though I'd been bucking waves, wind and 
tide for forty-eight straight hours without food, water or touch. Belle and I 
are paired. We'll need five minutes at each planet--quite a ways out. Thick, 
dry gloves covered with rubber are all that is necessary. It's a good thing for 
all of us that you have those fancy condensite handles on your levers, Seaton. 
It's the most wonderful thing I saw on the whole trip. Jim and I have more to 
draw on for the long shifts than you have. "Where do we fit in?" James asked. 
They populated Ardu, where we Omans were developed. " 



Both men looked around the vast room and Karns said: "All the comforts of home 
and a couple of bucks' worth besides. " 

"Very well. "You made your bombing runs on that target, too, my sweet, and 
didn't score any higher than I did. . . m. . . . but he wasn't. ' Have you any 
idea how long it will be? I _hope_ I can hold out, with you all supporting me, 
but. Those birds have got real brains and they're on the track of something 
that will, in all probability, be as far ahead of Roeser's Rays as our present 
system is ahead of the science of the seventeenth century. The rays would set 
the woods afire, and the metal would condense all around. But just before the 
picture became too small to reveal details a few tiny dark spots appeared above 
the banks of cloud, now brilliantly illuminated by the rays of the rising 
sun--dots which might have been fragments of either vessel, blown bodily from 
the depths of the ocean and, riven asunder, hurled high into the air by the 
incredible forces at the command of the other. " 

"Thanks a lot. Ha! There goes his beam--pay me the four, Quince. " 

The dazzling wall of incandescence had blinked out without warning, and 
Brandon's beam bored on through space, unimpeded. I would like to stay and 
study these people a little while, but we must get back onto the trail of the 
Nevians," and the _Boise_ leaped away into space, toward the line of flight of 
the amphibians. " He got up and started purposefully toward her, but both 
non-combatants came between. 

Finally, one man discovered the truth--and faced his strange destiny in the 
ultimate struggle for control of the Universe. I'll give him sixty seconds to 
decide which. . . so. . . . . 

"Scream as much as you please. "They'll run that bunch of crap through, and 
then. Up it he ran, toward a main corridor. Costigan turned to his companion, 
and even through the helmets she could see plainly the white agony of his 
expression. 

"Your armor's in that bundle there. The firelight shone through the chinks 
between the boulders, casting a flickering ruddy light throughout the little 
cavern. " 

"Don't worry, Dad. In a few minutes, the First City was reached, and the 
_Skylark_ descended rapidly to the surface of a lagoon at one end of the city. 
In order to get   | | the gravity effect, a positive or    | | negative 
acceleration could be given | | out. It's the canals in the inner ear that do 
most of it, you know. As to banding on the repellers--that's easy. With this 
background, and being a quick study, and under the masterly coaching of Virgil 
Samms, Nels Bergenholm, and Rularion of North Polar Jupiter, it did not take 
him long to learn the various gambits and ripostes of this non-physical, but 
nevertheless no-holds-barred, political mayhem. You don't need to talk 
loud--just a mutter will be enough. " 

"What difference does that make?" he asked, in honest surprise. We do not know 
what questions to ask. We are in total ignorance of the ultimate structure of 
matter, and of the arrangement and significance of those larger aggregations of 
matter, the galaxies. . but he wasn't. " 

"Not 'might', son. You've answered my questions, after a fashion, except the 
stinger. " 

"Rocket-oil! Suppose we don't find anything at all?" 

"You're right, Jim," Belle said. You can knock off now, if you like. . " 

"I said I was coming after you, and if I get away I'll be there. I pretty 
nearly asked you the way, Dunark--forgot that I know it as well as you do. 
Knobos and DalNalten are trying to find out if there's anything to the idea 
that there may be a planetary, or even inter-planetary, ring involved. He has 
caught the _Endymion_, and has killed about half her crew doing it. 

He was aroused from his stunned inaction by the entrance of his colored 
laboratory helper, and silently motioned him to clean up the wreckage. . . . " 

"Jones. Your ignorance and unwillingness to believe any new idea do not change 
the facts in any particular. In you, wildest fancy had become commonplace. When 
the light is brightest Nero will ride in parade. 

"Hi, boss! Better we eat, huh? Not only am I starving by inches, but if we 
don't eat pretty quick we'll get only one meal today instead of three. She then 
attacked his biceps and, leaning backward, eyed him intently. She's always the 
observer, never the participant. Also, she is and always will be scared half to 
death of you--she thinks you're some kind of robot. 

"We shall begin at once," and the massive Martian as he replied, stepped over 
to the calculating machine. "If you think that there is any danger, we will 
crowd them all into the _Sirius_. " 

"Go ahead. " Gordon gritted his teeth in rage, but gave the order. 

"I doubt it. 

"Thank you, no, Miss Childs. Crown, give me a squad. . . " 

"While they figure out how much they can tax it?" Sawtelle asked, sardonically. 

"I'll say it would. "All talking--if any--will be done by First Lensman Samms. 
Therefore we need not worry about them. " 

Deston was about to say something, but Barbara forestalled him. " 

"I know it. Remember what I told you: that necklace will warn you of any 
spy-ray in the ether, and the watch will detect anything below the level of the 
ether. " 

"But it's supposed to be only about nine-tenths," she objected. Undressed, 
you're sitting ducks; and if you put out any screens it'll crystallize their 
suspicions and they'll grab you right then--or maybe even knock you off. You'd 
better get out of here at full blast; you can't do any more good here, the way 
things are. . . . . Can't put a finger on exactly what it is, but it's there. 
"I'm overloading now so badly that some of my plates are getting hot--if I hold 
this voltage much longer, the whole secondary bank of tubes is going out. I 
would have been demanding food long ago, but I have so many aches and pains 
that I didn't realize how hungry I was until you mentioned it. " 

"Go to it, twelve if you like. 

"All right, Dicky," she replied, the color flowing back into her cheeks. Fifty 
pounds of salt is a ridiculously cheap price for what he is doing for us, even 
though it is very rare here. 

"Calling strange spaceship--you must be a spaceship, in spite of your 
tremendous, hitherto-considered-impossible mass--" a thought impinged on all 
four Tellurian minds, "do you read me?" 

"I read you clearly. Have the tracers located him?" 

"No, they haven't been able to synchronize with his wave yet. Either he is 
using a most minute pencil or, what is more probable, he is on a frequency 
which we do not ordinarily use. " 

"But we've _got_ to do something, man! We can't just sit here and twiddle our 
thumbs!" 

"Why, and why not? That course seems eminently wise and proper. "That could 
turn out to be a long, tough brawl, and your dogs'll be begging for mercy 
before you get back here. You, of your own force, can not know that you are in 
fact incorruptible. Break precedent, sire, I beg, and wear me this armor of 
proof instead of the gold; for what we face promises to be worse than anything 
you or I have yet seen. Sorry I had only one of these ultra-wave spies, but 
once we're together it won't be so bad. Here's what I thought we could do," and 
he went over in detail the only course of action which his survey had shown to 
be possible. " He handed Tworn his blackjack. 

Finally, one man discovered the truth--and faced his strange destiny in the 
ultimate struggle for control of the Universe. The _Kondal_ followed, although 
the observers could see that Dunark was raging. Four full-grown fontemas rolled 
away from the spot upon which two had met; their courses forming two mutually 
perpendicular straight lines. Although he did not look at the Faros his eyes 
asked questions. Attuned to his mind, working smoothly with it, giving it 
strengths and qualities which no Rigellian ever had had or ever would have, 
were the two strongest minds of Earth: that of Rod the Rock Kinnison, with the 
driving force, the indomitable will, the transcendent urge of all human 
heredity; and that of Virgil Samms, with all that had made him First Lensman. 

"TELL!" that terrific triple mind demanded, with a force which simply could not 
be denied. Follow me. Cover him like a blanket. 

Unchallenged he made his way to the control room, and his curt "urgent report 
for the Captain" admitted him there without question. On his Diesel, at a 
distance of just over one detet, he would follow the outlaw as fast as he 
could; long enough to establish his line. "They'll have 'em here in fifteen 
minutes. . . Advise you that while at the present time the War Department is 
unable to use you. . . " 

"Lay it on the line, Jim. "Mr. Clancy! Mr. Edwards!" 

"To hell with Clancy, and Edwards, too," Jones barked. "Gimme the Chief 
Engineer and the Head Surveyor, and gimme 'em _fast_. " 

"Clancy speaking, Station Twelve. Being in Crane's form, he drew slowly, as 
Crane did; and Seaton, with the dexterity of much sleight-of-hand work and of 
years of familiarity with his weapon, drew and fired in one incredibly rapid 
movement, before the other had withdrawn the pistol from his pocket. 

Wherefore, out in open space, the Earth a fast-shrinking tiny ball and Sol 
himself growing smaller, paler, and weaker at a startling rate, the _Chicago's_ 
speed attained an almost constant value; a value starkly impossible for the 
human mind to grasp. In leaving this holy place all will file between me and 
the shrine. The crowd promptly fell back, leaving a clear space of several 
hundred yards. You know exactly where it is, you can draw it, you can define 
it, compute it, and work with it--but still it doesn't exist; there is 
absolutely nothing to differentiate it from any other volume of air, and it 
cannot be detected by any physical or mechanical means. " 



"Oh!" breathed the girl. " Hilton digested that concept for several minutes. As 
semantician. 

Margaret went to her room immediately, and as she did not return, Dorothy 
followed. For those "monstrous" beings are a highly intelligent and extremely 
sensitive race, and our--to us--trim and graceful human forms seem to them the 
very quintessence of malformation and hideousness. 

Armor donned and tested, the three Terrestrials stared into the observation 
plates, watching the rapidly-enlarging picture of the Nevian space-ship. 

"You can play that straight across the keyboard of your electric, pet, and not 
with just two fingers, either. "You look like you're seeing ghosts! What did 
they do to you?" 

"Nothing--much. . . " He started to continue the battle, then shut himself off. 
"The most widely applicable operator known. And, unfortunately, I do _not_ know 
what it is. " 

"Oh. " Karns sat down, leaned over, and took a cigarette out of the box on the 
desk. You know what I mean. The ablest at synthesis and correlation and so on. 
The only possibility of obtaining pictures is that machine you have just 
developed. What physical science can devise and synthesize, physical science 
can analyze and duplicate. 

Seaton made his way to the power-plant, lifted in one of the remaining bars, 
and applied a little power. 

The planet Strett became a nova. For the bed was a raised platform of something 
that looked like concrete and, except for an uncanny property of molding itself 
somewhat to the contours of their bodies, was almost as hard as rock. This must 
be, because you are the actual peyondixer. But you know that I love you just 
the same, even though I do appear to neglect you," he continued with fierce 
intensity. They were utterly useless, in design and function far different from 
the real instruments intended for the Skylark. I also advise you to build for 
yourselves many ships like those of the Fenachrone, with which to do battle 
with the invaders, in case I should fail in my quest. Build a plane to 
accelerate at forty-five meters and we will blow those hexans out of the ether. 
The rafts should be done, or nearly, by the time we get there. Such screens 
necessitate the projection of pure, yet dirigible, forces--you do not have them 
upon your planet?" 

"No, and so far as I know such screens are also unknown upon Mars and Venus, 
with whose inhabitants we are friendly. For two days the two 
jacks-of-all-trades worked at many lines and with many materials before Stevens 
called a halt. " 

"We will have no traffic with the enemy whatever," said the general. A plate 
came to life, showing Morgan's big, sweating, passionately earnest face. You 
call it mewing and purring, I believe?" 

"Yes," the flabbergasted Samms managed to say. " 

"I see," said Crane, and Dorothy, the irrepressible, put in: 

"Just as clear as so much mud. Guess we'll have to take time to get another 
vessel. I'd like to drag in the pieces of that ship, too--his instruments and a 
lot of the parts could be used. " 

"We've been having a wonderful time!" Dorothy declared. You've got all of 'em 
you're going to get. The Navy crew is normal, except for the commanders being 
unusually young. The heavy hair of the women and the close-cropped locks of the 
men were green as well--a green so dark as to be almost black, as were also 
their eyes. " 

"So will you, Junior, believe me. This time there was neither shrieking nor 
yelling; the weird creatures advanced silently and methodically. You have 
guessed that we are headed for Osnome?" 

"I suspected it. We're covering Virgil and I called up support in force. " 

Deeper and deeper the lifeboat was dragged by its dreadful opponent, whose 
spiked teeth still tore savagely at the tough outer plating of the craft, until 
Costigan reluctantly threw in his power switches. Nothing on Earth except a war 
could get them together or hold them together. Look sharp. " 

"Of course," Seaton continued to argue as he peered out into the night, "it is 
theoretically possible that a heavenly body can exist large enough so that it 
could exert even this much force and still appear no larger than an ordinary 
star, but I don't believe it is probable. Transpose it into platinum or 
uranium--anything good and heavy. For one of these monsters you'd need two or 
three micrograms. The problems facing us are complex, since there are some nine 
thousand forcebands of the order in which we are working, each differing from 
all the others as much as torque differs from tension, or as much as red 
differs from green. Side rockets and torpedo tubes were likewise sliced away 
and the helpless body of the Callistonian cruiser, falling like a plummet, was 
caught and held by a tractor ray. Captor and captive settled toward the ground. 

"This is a signal honor," observed Captain Czuv when he had revived. " 

That discussion, which lasted for days, was held. Though so intellectual that 
they themselves were incapable of producing music of real depth of feeling, 
they could understand and could enjoy such music with an appreciation 
impossible to a people of lesser mental attainments; and their profound 
enjoyment of her playing, burned into her mind by the telepathic, almost 
hypnotic power of the Norlaminian mentality, raised her to heights of power she 
had never before attained. 

"Why don't you play us some real music, Dottie?" asked Margaret, after a time. 
There were shelves, or rather, tight racks, of books; there were sun-lamps and 
card-shelves and exercisers and games; there was a receiver capable of bringing 
in programs from almost anywhere in space. " 

"I know it. " 

"Put them on. "She's been kicking around under foot ever since she was knee 
high to a duck--we gave her her first lessons on a slide rule. . . and am 
working with such _pitifully_ inadequate instrumentation--However, we have 
months of time yet, and if I am unable to arrive at a conclusion before 
arrival--I don't mean a rigorous analysis, of course, but merely a stop-gap, 
empirical, pragmatic solution--we will simply remain in orbit around that sun 
until I do. This whole situation stinks. Here and there were massed groups of 
hundreds, dragging behind them engines which Stevens studied with interest. 
There were a few whose arrangement was almost orderly. "We assume that the 
Stretts know that as well as we do. If we can keep away from them until their 
beam attenuates, we can whittle 'em down to our size and then take them, no 
matter how much accumulator capacity they've got. " 

"I say do it first, then we know we will get results. . . say we want a 
stationary population of a hundred million on our planet. Each couple to have 
two children, a boy and a girl. 

Several Strett skeleton-ships had been detected at long range, but the 
detections were inconclusive. Does anyone wish to amend this summation as 
recorded?" 



No one did. I can get into action in a hurry when I have to, and my idea now is 
to wait until they relax a trifle, and then slip a fast one over on them. . . " 

"It wouldn't seem anything of the kind," she broke in earnestly. "I _was_ 
pretty stiff, I guess, but I'll be good. " 

"Crawl, what?" 

"I crawl, sir. For a man as brilliant and as penetrant in every other respect. 
They were not the twinkling, scintillating beauties of the earthly sky, but 
minute points, so small as to seem dimensionless, yet of dazzling brilliance. " 

"Alone? Why?" 

"Because I cannot call in help; cannot let anyone know my goal. 

"We have no idea what the form, flavor, or consistency of any dish will be," 
was the surprising answer. In the long-ago time when it was made, the 
techniques were so crude and imperfect that sometimes a brain was constructed 
that was not exactly like the Guide. Finally, however, it slowed to a halt and 
the Terrestrial visitors disembarked at a portal of the Europan city of the 
Callistonians. 

"I didn't think I could get away with it--they're keen, that gang--but I had to 
keep at it as long as it would have done us any good. "You must have had help 
to get that far off--no one man could possibly be as wrong as you are. Let's 
meet in Brandon's room instead of here. Did you bring along any of my clothes, 
Dick, or did you forget them in the excitement?" 

"I didn't think anything about clothes, but Martin did. "Chip-chop the comedy, 
gang. So shut down the plant and get everybody out here. 

"What folly this?" Phagon yelled. 

Jack Kinnison piloted and navigated and computed for his friend and boat-mate: 

Mason Northrop; who, completely surrounded by breadboard hookups of new and 
ever-more-fantastic complexity, listened and looked; listened and tuned; 
listened and rebuilt; listened and--finally--took bearings and bearings and 
bearings with his ultra-sensitive loops. Then, one day, this kid Bergenholm 
ambles into their shop--big, awkward, stumbling over his own feet. 



Seaton had worked from early morning until late at night, but had rigorously 
kept his promise to Dorothy. Years were to pass before he could forget, even 
partially, the theretofore unsuspected dwellers in the dark recesses of his own 
mind. Nevertheless, from the store of whatever it was that made him what he 
was, Virgil Samms drew strength. Either 'Adams' or 'Andy' will do very nicely. 
Maybe he's figured out a _variable_ time of some kind or other. If so, you 
might have something; but I'm damned if I can see exactly what. In either case, 
is the correct word 'unknown' or 'unknowable'? Will any human gunner _ever_ be 
able to fire an Oman projector? There are a hundred other and much tougher 
questions, half of which have been scaring me to the very middle of my guts. 

"I am glad beyond measure to have known you," Barkovis mused, one night. You'll 
have to drink it through a straw. What do we do now?" 

"We get busy on the big tube. Also, let me remind you that I am in a hurry. 

But Roger, while not exactly a ground-gripper, did not know how to handle 
himself without weight; whereas Costigan, given six walls against which to 
push, was even more efficient in weightless combat than when handicapped by the 
force of gravitation. The impact jerked the arm downward and sidewise, both 
bones of the forearm snapping as it struck the ledge. 

"How about this?" one of the mechanics asked of his immediate superior. "How 
come you no blow the dinner bell? Power's on--come give it a look!" 

There was no answer to his hail, and Stevens paused in shocked amazement. Kedo, 
as Master Captain Sawtelle's Oman, will give the orders. Nito will serve Master 
Snowden and supply the knowledge he says he has forgotten. " 

"Okay. It was filled with swirling, gyrating bands and streamers of energy so 
vivid and so solid as to resemble fabric; with wildly hurtling objects of 
indescribable shapes and contours; with brilliantly flashing symbols which 
Samms found, greatly to his surprise, made sense--not through the Rigellian's 
mind, but through his own Lens: 

"EAT TEEGMEE'S FOOD!" 

"Advertising!" Samms' thought was a snort. 

Number Three was equally unproductive of helpful results. 

"I don't know; but even if I do, _she_ won't be anything like _her_," Eddie 
said, to the closing door. "Of course, we aren't attacking them, either, but 
you'd think. . . You see, Clee, I really expected you to come in, last night, 
and there really _wasn't_ any bone in it. Of course I could have found out from 
Brandon, but never paid any attention to it. He went to the trouble of 
kidnapping you, so naturally he won't let Perkins or anybody else kill you 
until he is through with you. 

But he was wasting time. 

"That's _exactly_ what I think--and I'm so close to knowing it for a fact that 
the difference is indetectible. There was much to study, many improvements to 
be made in his comparatively crude first ultra-camera. There were many 
projectors, which--at a rough guess--were a hundred times as powerful as any I 
have ever seen before. And besides. 

"Think over a couple of things. "The way it is, we've each got a grandson--it'd 
be tough to have to share one with _you_. Nice work--_very_ nice. All the 
comforts of home, eh?" 

"Just about. Perhaps two hundred feet distant and a hundred feet above him was 
the tower room in which were Clio and Roger. "Let us away! Let the lions roar 
and let the welkin ring!" 

"Who's been feeding _you_ so much red meat, little squirt?" Hilton laughed and 
turned away, meeting Sandra in the corridor. The thing to do now is to figure a 
way out of this. 

"Nobody knows how it leaked. Things no Terran science has ever even imagined; 
things at the formation of which all neighboring space actually warped, and in 
that warping seethed and writhed and shuddered. The lancing plane cut through 
one end of their control room, and Stevens leaped with his companion toward the 
new-made opening; while the air shrieked outward into space and their suits 
bulged suddenly with the abrupt increase in pressure differential. First: the 
Eddorians can be overcome only by mental force. Second: the magnitude of the 
required force is such that its only possible generator is such an organization 
as the Galactic Patrol toward which we have been and are working. Third: since 
no Arisian or any fusion of Arisians will ever be able to spear-head that 
force, it was and is necessary to develop a race of mentality sufficient to 
perform that task. Fourth: this new race, having been instrumental in removing 
the menace of Eddore, will as a matter of course displace the Arisians as 
Guardians of Civilization. Fifth: the Eddorians must not become informed of us 
until such a time as it will be physically, mathematically impossible for them 
to construct any effective counter-devices. " 

"A cheerless outlook, truly," came a somber thought. Both swerved, so that they 
came together wheel to wheel. 

Seaton looked from Dorothy to Margaret and back again; looked down into her 
violet eyes, deep with wonder and with love, more beautiful than any jewel in 
all her gorgeous costume. James sat down beside her and soothed her until she 
quieted down. 

"How long does it take to learn this bombing business, Jim?" Lola asked. Of 
course, the more power they waste on us, the quicker we can take them; but I 
don't want much more of that beam, I'll tell the world--I just about had heart 
failure before they cut off!" 

The massive heptagon was now drifting back toward Jupiter at constant velocity. 
Even at that, though, it's a good thing that space isn't a perfect vacuum, or 
we would have been clear out of the Universe by this time. Shall I send it in?" 

"By all means; to Dr. It always has been. Thus the endeavors of most of the 
battlers upon both sides, while earnest enough and deadly enough of intent, 
were almost comically unproductive of result. 

Number Four produced a surprise. The wire ran out--and ran--and ran--and ran. 
But even 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 was even then 
training a ray projector upon him. . So you finally saw the light?" 

"Yes. Their seventy-two-hour flight without a pilot had seemed a miracle, now 
it seemed entirely possible that they might fly in a straight line for weeks 
without encountering any obstacle, so vast was the emptiness in comparison with 
the points of light that punctuated it. Their teeth were a brilliant and 
shining grass-green. But most potent of all was a weapon unknown to 
Triplanetary warfare. " 

Seaton nodded permission, and from the eyes and from the hands of the figure 
there leaped visible streams of force, which seized the transformers, coils and 
tubes, and reformed and reconnected them, under Seaton's bulging eyes, into an 
entirely different mechanism. Slow and awkward at first, Lola soon picked up 
the technique and was firing blast for blast with the others. No more loaded 
transport vessels left the moon. " 

"And they'll keep on building," Samms said. "She's been kicking around under 
foot ever since she was knee high to a duck--we gave her her first lessons on a 
slide rule. . " began Nadia, but broke off as an aide came up and saluted 
smartly. In response to the question he thought for a moment, then smiled 
slowly. " 

"Seest, father?" 

"What thinkst me, vixen, a spineless cuddlepet? From this minute 'til return 
here I match your paragon youngblade loll for loll, cup for cup, wench for 
wench. Maybe it's a purely mechanical affair that they use for observing. . . . 
" 

"Ready to roll, Clee," James announced. 

"He hasn't been putting tracers on you, Jill, on accounta he figured he'd be 
poaching. If he has not been touching it ever since it came down, it is only 
because someone stronger than he pushed him aside. It's good--designed to carry 
on our civilization. Some passenger--disguised--slugged the Chief--took his 
suit and projectors--hole in duct--p-s-s-t! All washed out! Maybe that's all he 
was scheduled to do to us in this performance, but he'll do nothing else in his 
life!" 

"Don't go down there!" protested the girl. Lousy job, though--three of the gang 
got away, and took about a quarter of the loot with them. That was what I want 
to talk to you about in such a hurry--fake meteors; the first I ever saw. We 
can't do both. " 

"Well, our copper's getting horribly low. He must know what these Lewistons 
will do, and he knows that we'll get a chance to use them, some way or other, 
before he gets to us again," Costigan asserted, confidently--but again he was 
wrong. He already knew ore--the glossy, sub-metallic, pitchy black luster of 
uraninite or pitchblende; the yellows of autunite and carnotite; the variant 
and confusing greens of tobernite. 

"A wheel, and maybe some of the axle, of the other ambulance, is all," one of 
the men assured him. "They ought to show, at least a little, and even I can't 
see a sign of them. It's too ghastly--I won't stand for your trying it, so that 
ends it. That popcycle of mine has got legs, too, and there won't be so much 
traffic, the way I'm going. . " 

"_How_ I know!" Kinnison exclaimed, feelingly. "Take the Lieutenant-Captain's 
station, please. Show him what you've got; then tear into that pilot plant. " 

Rounding a great metal statue about fifty feet from the base of the towering 
dock, they saw that the door leading into one of the elevators was wide open 
and that two guards stood just inside it. You're right--that's one reason I'm 
not First Lensman. . . " 

"Perpetual motion--ridiculous!" snapped from the sending disk upon the helmet 
of the master of mechanism. 

"Life again," James said. Much better, they thought, to let things ride as 
nearly as possible exactly as they had been aboard the _Perseus_. Long, tearing 
canine teeth. Carnivorous. I'll call them just 'guardians' until we find out 
what they really are. " 

Delcamp and Belle both stared at Garlock; Belle licked her lips. Catapult after 
catapult was dragged to the lip of the little canyon, until six of them bore 
upon the target. The huge stranded springs of hair, fiber, and sinew were wound 
up to the limit, and enormous masses of rock were toilsomely rolled upon the 
platforms. 



The Dilipics were using projectile weapons only--ranging in size, with the size 
of the vessels, from heavy machine guns up to seventy-five-millimeter 
quick-firing rifles. 

"What you and Bill suggested," Hilton whispered back. This stuff is 
DEKON--short for Decontaminant, Complete; Compound, Adsorbent, and Chelating, 
Type DCQ-429. Her cargo was valuable, of course--the sine qua non of 
inter-stellar trade--but in no sense precious. 



The next morning, after breakfast, James followed Garlock into his room and 
shut the door. At the end of the last such discussion, a couple of hours out 
from the transfer point, Jones lit a cigarette savagely and rasped: 

"Wherever you start or whatever your angle of approach, he _always_ boils it 
down to this: 'Subjective time is measured by the number of learning events 
experienced. However, when the information he had given Atterlin spread 
throughout the city--and it did not take long--no one paid any more attention 
to him than they did to each other. You see, sir, we also serve during sleep. 
Now let us, if you please, take a few seconds of time to get acquainted, each 
with the other. " 

By exerting his authority, Hilton got Sawtelle put through the "Preservatory" 
in the second batch processed. "Why not?" 

"That should be self-explanatory," Hilton said, flatly. " 

The creature, now in the shadow of the 'Troncist's helmet, slowed down 
abruptly--went limp--collapsed. "It depends upon whether his fear of you or his 
anger is the greater. Glowing, the Lens is perfectly harmless; it is 
complete--saturated--satiated--fulfilled. In the dark condition it is, as you 
have learned, dangerous in the extreme. 

This being, human to the limit of classification except for a faint but 
unmistakable blue coloration, had been closeted with Senator Morgan for a 
matter of two hours. "Do you mean we'll have to blast _normal_ to a system?" 

"It isn't as bad as you think, Babe," Jones said. When this tapestry wall is 
finished, it will not be simply form and color, as it is now. 

Roger's first thought, upon discovering what tremendous and inexplicable damage 
had already been done, was to destroy instantly the two men who were doing it. 
High acceleration is punishment for anyone and we must keep ourselves fit. 
Countless hundred of fine vertical scratches marred every inch of her surface, 
and here and there the stubborn metal was grooved and scored to a depth of 
inches--each scratch and score the record of an attempt of some wandering 
cosmic body to argue the right-of-way with the stupendous mass of that man-made 
cruiser of the void. 

A burly young man made his way through the throng about the entrance, nodded 
unconcernedly to the gatekeeper, and joined the stream of passengers flowing 
through the triple doors of the double air-lock and down a corridor to the 
center of the vessel. Moving to the accompaniment of strange martial music from 
concealed instruments, the two parties approached each other, meeting at the 
raised platform or pulpit where Karbix Tarnan, a handsome, stately, middle-aged 
man who carried easily his hundred and fifty karkamo of age, awaited them. Clio 
sobbed in relief and Costigan, one arm around her, sighed hugely. She was 
refreshed, buoyant, ravenously hungry and highly amused. "You'd better turn 
yourself in for an overhaul. " 

"Nice scheme, Belle," Garlock said. D. And a Miss America type, like all the 
other women aboard this spacer. 

"Stop them, Rod!" Samms cried. " 

"But listen, Mr. "Aren't you or Larry afraid to take such an awful chance as 
that?" 

"Afraid? I grasp the concept only dimly, from your minds. And no chance. " She 
looked at him questioningly. " The scientist's mind had been quivering with 
eagerness. "In that I understand your viewpoint thoroughly. But what should I 
have done, knowing that there is no practical defense against the atomic bomb? 
Every nation has them, and is manufacturing more and more. I told you I had a 
hunch, and Alcantro and Fedanzo worked out the right answer for me. Line him up 
in the big one and give me the word, will you?" 

"I see him, Dick, but it is not DuQuesne's ship. It is built of transparent 
arenak, like the 'Kondal. 

But he stuck to the calculated course, and at the precisely correct instant he 
cut his drive and released his largest bomb. Did you see a pink serpent 
carrying it away? Take my advice, old son, if you want to stay in Uncle Sam's 
service, and lay off the stuff, whatever it is. " Deston thought for a moment. 
"Since it is axiomatic that his destruction would have weakened Eddore somewhat 
and to that extent would have helped us, it is evident that some greater 
advantage will accrue from allowing him to live. . . . ah!" 

The moment had arrived, before the touch of any revealing ray. He trained the 
key-tube, the entrance opened, and through that opening in the instant of its 
appearance there shot a brittle bulb of glass, whose breaking meant death. 41 
automatic at his hip was as much a part of his uniform as his pants. Somebody 
has burglarized this safe and taken almost half of the solution, filling the 
vial up with colored water. " 



"Questions have already been asked and answered," Larry said, going to the door 
and opening it. "I paid, as I have always paid, the fraction due. I will give 
him a share--say fifty percent, or forty--of the time and effort I save on my 
own projects!" 

"Just so you _go_, Tallick. . could it be that intergalactic travel is actually 
possible? But excuse me, Captain Garlock, none of that is any of my business; 
which is to determine whether or not you four Tellurian human beings are 
compatible with, and thus acceptable to, our humanity of Hodell. . but after 
all, if the big dope didn't realize that half the women aboard, including 
Sandy, had been making passes at him, she certainly wouldn't enlighten him. If 
we knew just a_ little _more I'd say go. When the attacker has been repulsed, 
they don't chase him a foot. The creature simply was not thinking at all. "I 
crawl. And what little I do know I can't tell, because it isn't mine. "Wonder 
how we came out? They should have reported before this--p-s-s-t! Here it 
comes!" 

Decontamination was complete; Operation Zunk had been a one-hundred-percent 
success; there had been no casualties. Either they underestimated our strength 
at first, or else it required about eight seconds to tune in their heavy 
generators--probably the former. . . By Klono's brazen bowels, it would 
work--it'd _have_ to work--he'd _make_ it work! And grimly, quietly, but alive 
in every fiber now, he drove back toward the city practically as fast as he had 
come away. Seven hundred of those ships, and all his men, were now arrayed in 
defense around Ardry. " 

"All wrong, old top. " Samms' voice was quiet and steady; his eyes held those 
of the other. Air and space craft went clear out to Emergence Volume Ninety to 
meet them. The suit neither flopped nor clung, but stood out, comfortably out 
of the way, all by itself. 

". He could no more understand the Tellurian's sensitivity than Samms could 
understand the fact that to these people, even the concept of physical 
intrusion was absolutely incomprehensible. After a few minutes he approached 
the abutment and searched its face with the help of his flash-light. By the 
time they finally destroy the Osnomians--if they do--we'll have the world ready 
for them. Remember, Jarve, what you said about the irresistible force? We'll 
need it. " 

"Of course, you understand these instruments much better than I do, as yet. " 

"Well?" 

"And have you scream to high heaven that I opened it? And put me on a tape for 
willful inurbanity? For deliberate intersexual invasion of privacy?" 



"Blast and damn! You know perfectly well, Clee Garlock, I wouldn't pull such a 
dirty, lousy trick as that. "Since neither Jim nor I need an assistant any more 
than we need tails, it was designed to give you girls something to do. " 

"Against a man-mountain like that? You're _that_ good? Really?" 

"Especially against a man-mountain like that. "That was a relief of tension if 
there ever was one. Those snakes went about things in a business-like fashion. 
Also, having the metal may save us months of time in mining it. " 

"True, but neither of them was a strategist. . . . " 

"Objection overruled," interposed the lawyer, decisively. 

"But suppose he _had_ called you?" Sandra demanded. He punched the figures into 
his calculator, which would correct automatically for the motion of his own 
vessel--glanced once at the printed solution of the problem--tramped down upon 
a pedal once, twice, or three times, depending upon the number of projectiles 
he had been directed to handle. They studied the controls and alarm system 
until each knew perfectly every instrument, every tiny light, and the tone of 
each bell. 

"Hell's jets!" Deston exclaimed. I yearn not, nor did my father nor his father, 
to pit gold 'gainst hard-swung axe; e'en less to hide behind ten ranks of iron 
while others fight. And if you think she could _ever_ learn anything from me, 
skip it. He had studied it under test, in action, and at rest; studied it until 
he knew thoroughly its every possibility--and what a ship it was! The 
atomic-powered generators of his shielding screens handled with ease the 
terrific load of the Nevians' assault, his polycyclic screens were proof 
against any material projectile, and the machines supplying his offensive 
weapons with power were more than equal to their tasks. So cleverly was the 
entrance to the vault concealed in the basement wall that he failed to discover 
it. " 

And again, for days that lengthened slowly into weeks, the work went on. The 
captain stepped up to the plate and, upon being recognized, he received the 
exact orders which had been requested by the Chief of the Triplanetary Service. 
The ship lifted effortlessly, noiselessly. A measure of self-control regained, 
Stevens cut off his automatic sender, changed the adjustments of his directors 
and cut in his manually operated sending key. The time-machine disappeared; 
completely out of synchronization with any continuum that a world's keenest 
brain and an ultra-fast calculator could compute. However, unable with either 
weapons or bodies to break through the slanting walls of iron formed by the 
smoothly-overlapping shields of the Guardsmen, over the edges they went, the 
living and the dead. He called in his henchmen and issued orders. Well, the 
original Rodebush-Cleveland free drive was a killer, you know. You _can_ 
convert me, then. " 

"Thank you. " 

"I don't know what you mean. Then, taking his hand, she walked--almost 
skipped--along beside him. After half an hour he again slackened the pace and 
made another observation, finding to his astonishment that the dark mass had 
almost doubled its apparent size! Dorothy, noting his expression, was about to 
speak, but he forestalled her. 

"Somebody got quite a jolt then. 

They prepared and ate another meal, one to which Clio did full justice. So did 
Jill and her inseparable, Mason Northrop. High Brass came in quantity and the 
entire story--except for one bit of biology--was told. Not a cloud was to be 
seen in that flaming sky, and through that dustless atmosphere the eye could 
see the horizon--a horizon three times as distant as the one to which we are 
accustomed--with a distinctness and clarity impossible in our Terra's 
dust-filled air. There were almost as many attitudes as there were Primes; but 
all were essentially self-centered and selfish. When they finally left the 
pool, at about seventeen hours G. It seems that Roger was born at an instant of 
time sacred to the adepts, so they took him on. But what is past cannot be 
recalled. Black?" 

"Naturally," came the smooth reply. "In fact, I suggested it to them and have 
their approval. " 

"I didn't. Nothing actually moved. " 

"Yes, all of us do, and the way he acts proves what a machine he is. He 
returned with a small army of workmen, and after making tests to assure himself 
that the power-bar would work as well through arenak as through steel, he 
instructed the officers concerning the work to be done. Let me caution you now; 
do not let any Mardonalian touch our hands with a wire, for if you do, your 
thoughts will be recorded and the secrets of the Skylark and your many other 
mysterious things, such as smoking, matches, and magic feats, will be secrets 
no longer. Any effort to purchase it would be useless, however large a figure 
were named. " 

"You are not one of ours, Lord. The captain was asleep and was awakened by an 
alarm gong--only to find himself floating in a mass of wreckage. Seaton and 
Crane made another observation upon the Earth, requesting DuQuesne to stay out 
of the "engine room" as they called the partially-enclosed space surrounding 
the main instrument board, where were located the object-compasses and the 
mechanism controlling the attractor, about which DuQuesne knew nothing. With 
the vastly superior agility of his earthly muscles he dodged the falling 
broadsword and drove his left fist full against the fellow's chin, with all the 
force of his mighty arm and all the momentum of his rapidly moving body behind 
the blow. . anyway, it can't do any harm, and I know that he can hear and 
understand you. When working together, we will. Ray two-seven was operated in a 
range of frequencies far below the visible red. Any conductor in its path 
behaved precisely as it would in the Ajax-Northrup induction furnace, which can 
boil platinum in ten seconds! These three rays composed the beam which Seaton 
directed upon the mass of metal from which the enemy had elected to continue 
the battle--and behind each ray, instead of the small energy at the command of 
its Osnomian inventor, were the untold millions of kilowatts developed by a 
one-hundred-pound bar of disintegrating copper! 



There ensued a brief but appalling demonstration of the terrible effectiveness 
of those Osnomian weapons against anything not protected by ultra-powered ray 
screens. 

"About the uniforms," Lola said, eagerly. "A date of the Bennettan year. 
However, their ship will never bother us, that's one good thing; and I think 
we've got about everything of theirs that we want, anyway. 

"I fail completely to understand what effect such vibrations could have," the 
Rigellian announced finally, sublimely unconscious that anything at all out of 
the ordinary had occurred. It was mathematically certain that, when the Gunther 
field went on, the ship would be displaced instantaneously to some location in 
space having precisely the Gunther coordinates required by that particular 
field. However, nothing exact is yet known of their masses, motions, or places. 
General Crowninshield, you may remove the prisoners and deal with them in 
accordance with. Captain Czuv, you have made no headway with them?" asked the 
Director. 

"We're both tired of doing nothing, Czuv. Sixty-odd generations of men were 
born and died, but that was not enough. The Arisian program of genetics 
required more. This Lens simply appeared on my wrist, bracelet and all, out of 
thin air. In equilibrium at last--with our bodily and atmospheric temperatures 
finally constant at their present values, which seem as low to you as yours 
appear high to us. Here he lived alone save for an old colored couple who were 
his servants. 

"They've come back, Virgil!" The Commissioner rapped out without preliminary or 
greeting. Nerado and his two companions were escorted ceremoniously to their 
vessel, and the _Boise_ took off inertialess for Earth, bearing the good news 
that the Nevian menace was no more. Good sign, too--they aren't ready for us 
yet. They waited. Then, too, it is probably safe to assume that their vessel is 
damaged, to some slight extent at least; for I do not believe that any possible 
armament could withstand the forces you directed against them and escape 
entirely unscathed. 



Hilton made the hundred yards from office door to curb in just over twelve 
seconds. " Herkimer put something in his pocket, then slapped her so viciously 
that fingers-long marks sprang into red relief upon the chalk-white background 
of her cheek. "Not only quit before we start, but have all the top brass of the 
Octagon, all the hot-shot politicians of United Worlds, the whole damn Congress 
of Science and all the top-bracket industrialists of Terra out here lousing 
things up so that nobody could ever learn anything? Not in seven thousand 
years!" 

"That's right. How come you were smart enough to get the answer so quick, 
Brownie?" 

"Oh, the pattern isn't too rare. 

"We also have much to do. That was that. Therefore that which made Roger what 
he was; the essence which was Gharlane of Eddore; was actually back upon his 
native planet even before Rodebush completed his study of what was left of the 
pirates' vessel. " 

"Exactly what is the alternative?" 

"We will not go into that. " Patroclus shrugged his massive shoulders. He 
started to say something, then stopped in confusion, but Seaton divined his 
thought. Rapidly resuming his ordinary clothing, he stepped into his automobile 
and was soon back in his own rooms, poring over the blueprints and notebooks. 



Seaton and Crane both felt that something was wrong when they approached the 
landing field and saw that the landing-lights were not burning, as they always 
were kept lighted whenever the plane was abroad after dark. Fifteen minutes 
remained, during which time one department head after another would report to 
the captain of the liner that everything in his charge was ready for the 
stupendous flight. No. The enemy would now know that something had gone wrong, 
but he would not be able to do anything about it. " 

"I see. You'll see when we land. Garlock. 

"Just as bad--if possible, worse. 

"Oh, no--we could dance from now on," Verna assured him. "Your lovely 
complexion! Isn't it terrible for the boys to see us in this light?" 

There was a peal of delighted laughter from Sitar and she spoke to one of the 
servants, who drew dark curtains across the windows and pressed a switch, 
flooding the room with brilliant white light. I suppose that you have a lot of 
things to thrash out, so you may as well start now. They see the advisability 
of withdrawing a camera ship, but that is as far as they will go. You haven't 
perfected an instrument which enables you to see into a closed room and hear 
what is going on there, have you?" And upon being assured that they had not, he 
took his leave. I don't mind nitroglycerin or T. Hast a bag?" 

"Yea. " 

"I know not, sire. So they built another one, a lot bigger, and I am sure that 
they are following us, right now. 

A few months later, Sumner called Kinnison into the office. M. of Thursday, by 
the chronometer there. What say we shake it up?" 

"I check you to nineteen decimals," and the two were soon attacking the savory 
Ganymedean goulash which Nadia had put in the cooker many hours before. "I 
thought I knew all about it, but I don't! Do you, about yours?" 

They did not, not one of them; and they were all as surprised at that fact as 
the girl had been. It's fundamentally unsound. Some 
passenger--disguised--slugged the Chief--took his suit and projectors--hole in 
duct--p-s-s-t! All washed out! Maybe that's all he was scheduled to do to us in 
this performance, but he'll do nothing else in his life!" 

"Don't go down there!" protested the girl. " 

The report had not mentioned the Stretts. I was able to do him a small favor 
once, and I am sure that he will be glad to return it. Therefore, after we get 
a ship armed to suit us, we'll visit this strange planet and either come to 
terms with them or else steal a ship from them. . that is. It has seemed, right 
along, more logical than the girl--but a lot more fantastic. Suppose you 
could?" 

"I've no idea, really. Therefore your calculations, comprehensive though they 
are, cannot predict the effect upon them of your zone of force. 

"The president, the chief of staff, the Chief Justice, the most eminent 
scientist, the head of a church, the leaders of the legislative body and four 
political bosses, the biggest business man, biggest labor leader, and biggest 
gangster. . he is. . . I invited that one, I guess, since I know you aren't 
afraid of God, man, woman, or devil. I have nothing to hide. . . I shall settle 
with him. You're so full of conflict between what you want to do--what you know 
is right--and what those three-cell-brained nincompoops made you think you 
ought to do that you have got no more degrees of freedom than a piston-rod. 
George T. 

"Clio?" The lovely mother of their wonderful children appeared in his mind. 

The driver obeyed--literally. " Costigan could not afford to appear stupid, nor 
to possess too much knowledge. 

"Not exactly. So doing, one day, he came upon King Phagon and the Lady Rhoann 
practicing at archery. . . " 

"Let's talk the same language, shall we? Say 'he' and 'she. "We have never 
heard of them before. Czuv said something about an unknown race of 
monstrosities at the south pole of Jupiter--let's try it on them for a while. " 

He flung the field of force out into space, as responsive to his will as a 
well-trained horse, and guided it toward the southern limb of that gigantic 
world. "In this visualization I do not perceive anything to preclude the 
possibility that the Eddorians may at any time visualize us. His car is broken 
in some way, so that it will kill him the first time he tries to run it. 

After a brief farewell Cloud made his way to an elevator and was whisked down 
to the garage. But in Quartermasters' Department, deep down below the generator 
rooms, no thought was given to such minor matters as the disappearance of a 
_Hyperion_. " 

"You're welcome to it. "To the mature mind there is no such thing as status. 
Too small a charge scatters it around, in vortices which, while much smaller 
than the original, are still large enough to be self-sustaining. Also, as 
Second Thinker, your death at this time would be slightly detrimental to 
certain matters now in work. Bound to hit some humans. The frightful planes and 
beams of immeasurable power simply spent themselves harmlessly against those 
sparklingly radiant green walls--seemingly as absorbent to energy as a sponge 
is to water, since the eye could not detect any change in the appearance of the 
screens, under even the fiercest blasts of the hexan projectors. The Council 
has two principal operating agencies; the Triplanetary Patrol, which enforces 
its decisions, rules, and regulations, and the Triplanetary Service, which 
performs such other tasks as the Council directs. With only the headquarters 
lifeboat warm, the outer wall could be held pretty close to zero absolute. When 
one of those projectiles hits, we want to know where it ain't, that's all. 

Roger's first thought, upon discovering what tremendous and inexplicable damage 
had already been done, was to destroy instantly the two men who were doing it. 
"We were informed, and given proof sufficient to make us believe, that you were 
monsters from outer space--rapacious, insatiable, senselessly and callously 
destructive to all other forms of intelligent life. " 

"Indeed we shall, and thank you," Entlore said. "Also, nobody except us and 
your secretary knows that I am here. For a good many years I have made a 
specialty of that sort of thing. Our currency is based upon platinum, but gold, 
silver, and copper are valuable. I had just started to work when Crane's 
Japanese servant, who was supposed to be asleep, appeared upon the scene. If 
you have mentality enough to understand any portion of my mind--which I 
doubt--you already know the fate in store for you. So watch your step!" 

"You insufferable lug! I'd like to smash this racket over your head! I'll do 
it, too, and walk off the court, if you don't. And next time he sticks his ugly 
puss across that line, kick his face in. If this ship was escorted or guarded 
the fact was not apparent: and no Patrol vessel came nearer to it than four 
detets--Virgil Samms and Roderick Kinnison saw to that. What of it? What was 
death? What good was life, except to enjoy such thrills as he had just had and 
was about to have again? And besides, thionite couldn't kill _him_. 

"Oh, that's what you're going to use! You know, I've been wondering about that 
stuff. " 

"Good. " 

"Right. 

"I see. 

Seaton's arm contracted, swinging Dorothy into his embrace; their lips met and 
held. Would I be stepping on your toes if I give her a play?" 

"Clear ether as far as we're concerned. The thing was certainly alive; it 
throbbed and vibrated with vitality: equally certainly, it was not very 
intelligent. It turned now to the right, now to the left, as his weight was 
thrown to one side or the other. The fuel problem, however, is not a serious 
one, since Fuel World is not unique. 

In a few seconds it became clear that if any Black High Command existed, it was 
not in shape to function efficiently. 

Should he let the Thracian kill the Commander of his Guard? Or not? It didn't 
really matter, one way or the other. The Eddorians, it is believed, were older 
still. 

"None whatever," came flatly from Cloud. 

Help came, of course; and on the double. Freedom, air, water, power, and coal! 
Now as you suggested, we'll go places and do things!" 

"Suppose it's safe?" Her first eagerness to explore their surroundings had 
abated noticeably. "You aren't armed, are you?" 

"No, and I don't believe that there was a gun of any kind aboard the 
_Arcturus_. "But sex itself, primal and basic, the most widespread concomitant 
of life in this continuum, is completely illogical and paradoxical. " 

"First," Costigan broke in. If not, if they are fighting already--_there they 
are_!" 

The picture of the speedster's control room flashed upon the speaker. " 

"That wouldn't do, either, of course. 

"No idea. These channels run all over the city, and the amount of water running 
in each tube and the number of tubes in use are regulated automatically by the 
amount of traffic. Come and look at them, if you want to see something really 
beautiful. " 

"You know, I might take you up on that? Maybe not this same team, but I've got 
a notion to tape a recommendation for a re-visit, just to see how you get 
along. 

". 

"Suppose we blast you and your jets out of the air and land anyway?" Garlock 
asked. The clergy will worry about souls, too, but we won't. 



The Dilipics were using projectile weapons only--ranging in size, with the size 
of the vessels, from heavy machine guns up to seventy-five-millimeter 
quick-firing rifles. "We are about to pass within a few light-minutes of an 
uninhabited solar system. Forget that I am a woman. Fourth Officer Olmstead has 
the authority and the orders to put a half-ounce slug through the guts of any 
or all of you that don't jump, and jump fast, to do what he tells you. . . . 
gratification. " 

He bowed again, smiled, and went out. 

"Why, General Cardeen?" Lola asked. "The trend is ever upward; each peak and 
valley being higher than its predecessor. I shall remain with you until we 
land, and we may converse upon any topic of most interest to you. " Fully en 
rapport with the girl as he was, so that his mind received simultaneously with 
hers any stimulus which she was willing to share, it seemed as though a keen, 
handsome, deeply tanned face bent down from a distance of inches toward his 
own. Thank Heaven these strangers had sense enough to be friendly--all 
intelligent races should be friends, for mutual advancement. Now, if you'll 
help me find my stuff and bring some of it--a computer and so on--up to the 
lounge?" They did so; the "and so on" proving to be a bewildering miscellany 
indeed. 

Too far away to use their own weapons and facing only one small four-limbed 
creature, they considered their game already in the bag, but they had no 
comprehension of earthly muscles, nor any understanding of the power and range 
of a hundred-pound bow driving a steel-headed war arrow. 

"Seven!" boomed Carfon sternly, and the exuberant youth subsided. As the 
howling wail came to a climax in a blast of sound Kromodeor threw over a lever, 
as did every other projector officer in every other heptagon, and there was 
made plain to any observer the reason for the burns and scars in the tortured 
space between the lofty inner and outer walls of Vorkulia. 

"Fine business!" exulted Seaton. And they were all, he thought at first glance, 
the dregs and sweepings of the lowest dives in space. . . at least, I believe 
you. " 

"Second, we have a more specific obligation in that the life of many, many 
worlds has sprung from Arisian seed. "Merely a people who have adjusted 
themselves to their environment through conscious or natural selection. With 
your system of genetics, so much more logical and efficient than our strict 
monogamy, your race will undoubtedly make more progress in a few centuries than 
we made in many millennia. " 



Avengord agreed happily. "Seconds! Four! Three! Two! One! LIFT!" He touched a 
button and a set of plunger switches drove home, releasing into the forty-five 
enormous driving projectors the equilibrium power--the fifteen-thousand-and-odd 
kilofranks of energy that exactly counterbalanced the pull of gravity upon the 
mass of the cruiser. Simultaneously there was added from the potentiometer, 
already set to the exact figure given by the computer, the _plus_-equilibrium 
power--which would not be changed throughout the journey if the ideal 
acceleration curve were to be registered upon the recorders--and the immense 
mass of the cruiser of the void wafted vertically upward at a low and constant 
velocity. Cursing himself for an idiot he hastily left the building, and soon 
his motorcycle was tearing up Connecticut Avenue toward his sweetheart's home. 









Steel Becomes Interested 



Dr. Targets became fewer and fewer. Action slowed down. . 
. thanks. "

Olmstead opened a frost-lined compartment; took out two half-liter bottles;
placed them and his open lunch-box invitingly on the low stone wall.



In spite of the terrific stress put upon the machine, every part functioned
perfectly, and soon after Seaton had lost consciousness the vessel began to
draw away from the sinister globe; slowly at first, faster and faster as more
and more of the almost unlimited power of the mighty motor was released. So was
her spectacularly filled halter. How do you like _them_ parsnips, Your Royal
Fatness?"

"I'll see about that!" Ferber stormed. "_How_ modest our Samuel has become!"

"Well, damn it, she is!" Bryant insisted. Then, suddenly, she whistled; the
loud, full-bodied, ear-piercing, tongue-and-teeth whistle which so few women
ever master. Her eyes sparkled and she began to laugh with unrestrained glee.
"After all, perfectly nice people do meet informally on shipboard; why not in
concourses?"

"Why not, indeed? And I'm perfectly nice people, I assure you. Or that there
were wheels--plenty of 'em!--within wheels. "

"That would be better yet. " Belle laughed and presented her lips to be kissed.
"See? Only a couple of inches from belt-buckle to backbone--dangerously close
to the point of utter collapse. "

"You poor, abused little thing!" Garlock laughed and all three crossed the room
to the dining alcove. Now we'll get the jack, Nadia," and they went back to
their vessel, finding that upon Saturn, their combined strength was barely
sufficient to drag the heavy tool along the floor. Who, in your opinion, is the
real boss?"

"Well, it certainly is not Herkimer Herkimer Third.

"Idealistic, in a way, but spineless and corrupt," Garlock announced to all.
Inch by inch the ocean's shoreline was driven backward toward ocean's depths;
but every inch the ocean lost was to its tactical advantage, since the
advancing front was by now practically filled with hard, solid, dead blocks of
its own substance which it could neither assimilate nor remove from the scene
of conflict.

Hence the wall grew ever thicker and solider; the advance became slower and
slower. "Modesty never got anybody anything but praise, and I prefer something
more substantial. However, I never exaggerate or make over-statements, as you
should know. First, they'll get it in time. Second, the new Rodebush-Bergenholm
fields. If their beams are designed principally for travel upon Jupiter, why
should they have any extraordinary range? I say they can't hold that beam
forever. " Skandos intended this for a clincher, but it didn't turn out that
way.

"Several things," he grinned.

Across the Park, edging over to the left so that the boys going south would
have room to make the turn--even such riders as those need _some_ room to make
a turn at fifty miles per hour!

Under the viaduct--biting brakes and squealing tires at that sharp, narrow,
right-angle left turn--north on the wide, smooth Drive!

That highway was made for speed. Vaneman, after the others had gone.

"Yes; your plan of getting the best men possible, paying them well, and giving
them complete authority and sole responsibility, has worked to perfection. I
have found that in one the power is liberated as a similar attractive force but
is focused upon the first object in line with the axis of the bar. . I have
never seen him close up before. Well, I found out that this man's brain was in
good shape, and I got a shock when I read it. "

"Well, I'll never tackle him with heat. Practically unhampered, except in
purely physical matters. But nothing of the sort happened--this merchantman was
_no_ push-over!

No ordinary screens protected that particular freighter and the person of First
Lensman Samms--Roderick Kinnison had very thoroughly seen to that. "

"A hell of a lot better without," Poynter said, and all agreed.

"I don't know. . I. I certainly do _not_ believe that we hit this planet by
chance against odds of almost infinity to one. "

"But can't they detect us anyway? They may have sent out a call, you know. " He
thought for minutes, then shook his head. " Jack scowled in concentration. What
shall I study?"

"That's what we must figure out. Unlisted. We're in completely unexplored
territory. You see, Jarve didn't want to do it at all, but he had to. How did
you repeal the Law of Conservation?"

"We didn't. Nothing makes sense. Two ambulances, a couple of hundred meters
apart, were coming; working their way along the road, between the holes. Now,
out of range, as they supposed, they halted and gathered about one who was
apparently their leader; some standing erect and waving four hands while
shaking their horns savagely in Stevens' direction, others trotting around on
four legs, busily gathering stones of suitable size for their vicious slings.
What was the real meaning of those facts?

He had become convinced that those three persons were no more human than was
Roger himself. "

"Arisia!" Samms exclaimed, and:

"Arisia! Of all the hells in space, why Arisia? And how can we make the
approach? Don't you know that _nobody_ can get anywhere near that damn planet?"

Bergenholm shrugged his shoulders and spread both arms wide in a pantomime of
complete helplessness. "

Hilton was appalled. This system we're headed for is a triple, and the chart
says it's a double. "

"How about Spencer, then?"

"I have nothing to say about her, she's not mine," responded DuQuesne with a
shrug.

"That's the most utterly _horrible_ thing I ever heard of in my life!" Lola
burst out. Anyway, such little, tiny, sisterly ones as this, and out in public,
don't count. "

"Oh, hell!" James snorted. "It must be low frequency, low-tension electricity,
which is never used, so far as I know. It is, however, something closely akin.
. . . and I wish I knew how she did it. Downward, in spite of the utmost
possible effort of every projector and generator; and Clio and Bradley, sick at
heart, looked once at each other. Then they looked at Costigan, who, jaw hard
set and eyes unflinchingly upon his plate, was concentrating his attack upon
one turret of the green monster as they settled lower and lower. They visited,
it seemed, every residence and every dwelling unit, everywhere. They waited. If
they're people, they know a sublime hell of a lot more than we do; and calling
it psionics or practical magic is merely labeling it, not answering any
questions. If you could act effectively against us now, you would be acting,
not talking. "

"What is the opposition?" Samms asked, quietly.

"See?"

"You _tricked_ me!"



"I did not. Up and up and up she went.

"We have no record of any planet named 'Tellus'; nor of any such ship as yours.
He took out the familiar jewels, estimating their value as he counted them--a
staggering total. "

At the end of the calculated time they saw the lights of a large city beneath
them, and Crane's fingers clenched upon Seaton's arm as he pointed downward.
"It must be low frequency, low-tension electricity, which is never used, so far
as I know. I put everything I've got behind a tracer on that beam, but haven't
been able to lift a single needle off the pin. I will not attack my home
planet. I suppose that you are natives of Jupiter?"

"Not quite. I am, and will remain, a Strett. . foggy, diffuse. . . . . . . . .
. but you aren't _listening_!"

"I'm listening, pops, but nothing is coming through. Its period is short--about
two days.

"For these reasons, you understand why Nalboon does not intend to let you
escape and why he intends that this kokam (our equivalent of a day) shall be
your last. "

"We have all been taking it for granted that you four belong to some
super-human race; some kind or other of _Homo Superior_. " She flashed him a
gamin grin and they went on into the control room. He set the bar at right
angles to the line of their fall and turned on the current. The gun
roared--what a gorgeous, what a heavenly racket that Maxim made! He traversed
until he could see where the bullets were striking: then swung the stream of
metal to and fro.

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 for their very civilizations' existence,
and one never used since the last space-fleets of Jupiter's murderous hordes
had been wiped out. She's that auburn-haired beauty that the papers were so
full of when she came out last year. Brainy, but impersonal--academic. She
knows all the words and all their meanings, all the questions and all the
answers, but she doesn't apply any of them to herself. "If I thought anything
could ever come of it, though, I'd do it if I had to pound myself unconscious
with a club. We have forgotten nothing. "

The Tellurians did so--and in the very instant of appearance Garlock was met by
a blast of force the like of which he had never even imagined. " Alsyne smiled
again; not only with mouth and eyes, but with his whole hairy face. He opened
his eyes groggily; then, as a wave of humiliated realization swept over his
consciousness, he closed them again and shuddered. . " he began, and stopped;
utterly unable to speak. "They were green, as were men. As it is, they've
clipped off all our projectors, so we can't move, but I think we've got the
whole control compartment of number two lifeboat untouched. As soon as they had
started Dorothy turned in the embrace of her lover's arm. "What _did_ you do to
Bill?"

"Oh, you don't love me for myself alone, then, but just on account of _that_
big jerk?"

"That's right.

"Ah, a student. Lighter guns or something. Why, thousands of them must have
been killed, just in this last hour or so. "

"Foster!" Ferber yelled. "Besides, you couldn't, not to another prime. "

"Of course he's strong enough. . . . . . Uh-huh. . . . . . " His thought faded
out. "Clee, you talk like a man with a paper nose! Who else could run the
Project? That is," her whole manner changed; "he doesn't know I can run it as
well as you can--or better--but I could tell him--and maybe you think I
wouldn't!"

"You won't have to. It's _you_ who's been yowling for two solid years about
being ready for _anything_. You won't fall for her, either, Mase; you'll want
to pull one of her legs off and beat the rest of her to death with it inside of
a week--but there's nothing like finding things out for yourself. Didn't you
read paragraph 12-A-2, one of the many marked 'Top Secret'?"

"Of course. But we do not understand how purely mental qualities can possibly
have any effect upon purely physical transformations. Is it not so?"

"'Tis so! Long live Lord Llosir!" Tumultuous yelling filled the amphitheater. "

"At my word 'ready' you will begin to assemble all your mental force and power.
"Private papers only, sir!"

"Perhaps. Certain of the Councillors believe, however mistakenly, that there
are several things of interest there: such as the record of certain
transactions involving one James F. . . . . but he _couldn't_ go far enough but
there _had_ to be a way. Apparently they want to study us or something.

"There, ace, who said anything about weight-fiends? I was watching you, and you
never turned a hair that time. What are they, anyway? Animal, vegetable, or
mineral?"

"I don't know. "As I am in no danger whatever of hanging, nothing you can say
on that score affects me in the least. What would you do if our situations were
reversed?"

"I'd blast you to a cinder--or else take a knife and. You've fallen like a.
This whole system, Nevia, the colonies on Aldebaran II and other planets, even
Valeria, as tight as a drum. It cannot be scratched, cut, bent, broken, or
worked in any way except at such a high temperature that death would result, if
such heat were applied to the collar. More than one observer did sicken in
fact, and had to be relieved. " Phagon was very evidently skeptical, but looked
around the temple, anyway. " Morgan stopped drumming and smiled cynically. You
know what I mean. "

"That is an idea of promise, and one that had not occurred to any of us," Czuv
replied and work was begun at once upon the new flyer.

"What are you going to do with it, commercially? Dick, of course, hasn't
thought of anything except this space-car--equally of course, you have?"

"Yes.

Kinnison gulped.

The First Lensman, who had been in and out, came in to stay. "Steel's got her,
but they won't keep her long. Don't worry, we'll get her. Alcantro!

"Here!"

"Round up the gang, will you, and figure me out a screen and a set of meters
that will indicate an open band? We lose too much time feeling around anyhow,
and we're too apt to take one on the chin while we're doing it. Also, you ought
to make it so it'll shoot a jolt into the opening, while you're at it," said
Brandon. I don't know what kind of an audio system they've got, but there's no
use taking unnecessary chances. I've had 'Silk' Humphreys, the best fixer in
the business, working on him all day, and he'll be neutral before night.

"Second; drugs, vice, and so on. He could carry this load forever--but unless
he was very wrong, this load would change shortly. He tensed his muscles to
leap at Garlock, to find that he could not move. Plunging the vessel like a
bullet towards the grove in which he had left the Kondalian airship, he slowed
abruptly just in time to make a safe landing. As he stepped out upon Osnomian
soil, Loring landed the Earthly ship hardly less skillfully. Without a word the
captain loosened the helpless girl's grip upon the bracket and encased her in
the suit. As those tentacular arms stretched out toward the girl, Costigan
leaped. That airship is half full of metal-working machinery that can do
everything but talk.

"Aren't you going to kill them?" asked Sitar, amazement in every feature and a
puzzled expression in her splendid eyes. That's the gossip. Here's the novelty,
in equation 59.

"There, he's left his desk!" Costigan exclaimed after the conversation had
continued for almost an hour. K. , I'll see you about one o'clock. "I know. I
have drawn every picture I can think of with Isaacson in the driver's seat, but
none of them fit?" She paused, questioningly. I can handle your Operators and
get the job done. Olmstead does with his spare cash?"

"You'll find out, dearie, no doubt. " Molly's tone gave the words a meaning
slightly different from the semantic one of their arrangement. Then do the
same, visiting every other highly advanced planet we can locate.

Nerado, apparently as unfamiliar with the peculiar weapon as were the
Terrestrials, attacked cautiously; sending out far to the fore his murkily
impenetrable screens of red. Their detecting screens would locate it a thousand
million miles off in space, and they would ray it. Now and then they passed so
close to a star that it apparently moved rapidly, but for the most part the
silent sentinels stood, like distant mountain peaks to the travelers in an
express train, in the same position for many minutes. We'll never be parted
again," she whispered, and her own beloved violin had no sweeter tones than had
her voice. Four times the size--she'll be a bear-cat, Mart. As that dazzling
wall sprang into being, the sparkling green protection died from the walls of
the heptagon. After a rapid glance around to assure herself that she was not
being watched, she quickly searched the coat, bringing to light not one, but
two pistols, which she thrust into her pocket. Rovol then threw a switch, and a
hemisphere of flaming golden radiance surrounded the laboratory and extended
for miles upon all sides. He next set up an entirely new system of refractory
relief-points and installed additional ground-rods, sealed through the floor
and extending deep into the ground below, explaining as he worked. He was, and
would be for many centuries to come, a Watchman. And it was beautifully hidden;
even he, close as he must be, couldn't see it. Instead, without a break, the
words tripping over each other against his teeth: "_Chicago!_ _Johannesburg!_
_Europa!_ Act at will against heaviest craft left.

Willoughby then took him aboard the good ship _Virgin Queen_ and led him to his
cabin. And yes, you may order fresh, whole, not-canned hens' eggs.

Listening--straining to distinguish in the deafening roar of background noise
from the over-driven tubes any sign of voice or of signal:

Listening--while, millions upon millions of miles beyond even the prodigious
reach of those ultra-instruments, three human beings were even then sending out
into empty space an almost hopeless appeal for the help so desperately needed!









THE SPECIMENS ESCAPE



Knowing well that conversation with its fellows is one of the greatest needs of
any intelligent being, the Nevians had permitted the Terrestrial specimens to
retain possession of their ultra-beam communicators. "When the Service goes
after anything they get it, and when they get it it _stays_. I do not. "You
look perfectly stunning in this light. Any attempt to convince a mind of real
power that falsity is truth is illogical. "



The _Skylark_ dropped down into the midst of the fleet, which instantly turned
against her the full force of their giant guns and their immense ray batteries.
Even Seaton wouldn't have been alive now if he hadn't had a lot of luck at the
start. "

"Probably.

"I understand, sweetheart," he whispered. "

"But listen, Mr.

Dorothy gravely nodded assent. " This, too, was a thought. "That's a better job
than I _ever_ did!"

"Not at all, Master, as you know," Nito said. None of us likes the idea of
destroying it a bit better than you do. Born citizen, highest standing in
business and social circles. . . "

And upon that cheerless note the conference ended. " She flashed him a gamin
grin and they went on into the control room.

"Because of the acceleration they can stand. "The hexans have detected us and
our long range observers report that they are coming to meet us in force. "

The acolyte handed the pitcher to Trycie, who handed it to Tedric, who poured
its contents over the twin hearts, twin livers, and twin brains.

This act, according to Tedric's plan, was to end the program--but it didn't.

En route, Laro said--stiffly? Tentatively? Hilton could not fit an adverb to
the tone--"Master, have you then decided to destroy me? That is of course your
right. "He may be able to work his way. "

"Seaton? Yes, he's crazy--like a fox. "They hope to conclude all unfinished
business on a mutually satisfactory and profitable basis. That's about how much
ahead of us they probably are. "

"What next, Dick?"

"Now the real trouble begins. "Oh. Winged centipedes they were--centipedes
fully six feet long, hurling themselves along the ground and through the air in
furious hordes. From the flying globes emanated pale beams of force, at the
touch of which the Sedlor disappeared in puffs of vapor. Everything was
automatic, unless and until some robot or computer yelled for help. "

"Can you read my mind?" Hilton demanded. Take half the Royal Guard and a
century of bowmen. " Eddie did so. " Samms' tone was glum. For the Martian skin
is not like ours.

"It's not so good," he admitted frankly. Bearings agree, and distances check to
within a light-year, which is as close as we can hope to check on as small a
mass as a man. Well, that's that--nothing to do about it until after we get
there. "

"Before you do anything," said Margaret seriously, "I would like to know if you
really think there is a chance of defeating those monsters. As they approached,
Seaton shrugged one shoulder and his cigarette-case appeared in his hand.



In the meantime the slave had taken several pieces of apparatus from a cabinet
in the room and had placed them in his belt. Breadth and depth and scope of
imagination and of vision; yet almost incredible will-power and stamina and
resolve. . and then we fight about anything and everything. They weighed and
tested and analyzed and made copious notes; in shorthand and in the more
esoteric characters of symbolic logic.

Kinnison set out, deliberately this time, to mold his key Chief Line Inspectors
into just such a group as the Siberians already were. Since you left us you
have changed it radically; while we, of course, have not changed it at all.
What you're getting now is a lot more than you ever got before, and a _hell_ of
a lot more than none at all. The main trouble with this project, it seems to
me, is that nobody's building the ship. "

"Okay. Permissible, but not obligatory. "

"But it was assumed.

"_Fourth_ Officer? New rank, eh. I was thinking only of building the tube. "

"You will not! I hereby abolish that custom.

"Wrong? In what way?"

"In every way!" In the intensity of his emotion the smith spoke aloud.

"The cargo is unloaded, sir," the newcomer reported. Seaton lay in exactly the
same position, only the regular lifting of his powerful chest showing that he
was alive. Steered by wireless and carrying no crews, they were simply winged
bombs carrying thousands of pounds of terrific electrical explosive--enough to
kill the men inside the vessel by the concussion of the explosion, even should
the arenak armor be strong enough to withstand the blow. Though much faster
than the Osnomian vessels, they were slow beside the Skylark, and Seaton could
have dodged a few of them with ease.

"Why don't you play us some real music, Dottie?" asked Margaret, after a time.
The mouth can, and does. Practically nothing remained whole in the entire
compartment.

"Nothing much we can do here," Rodebush said finally, through his transmitter.
They simply flashed in, went inert at the four corners of an imaginary
tetrahedron, and threw everything they had--and they had plenty.

". "They're giving us a royal reception--let's acknowledge it right. However,
we're just about ready for them," he commented grimly, as he stared over her
shoulder into the communicator plate. I'm going to run a penstock up those
falls, and put in a turbine, driving a high-tension alternator. She'll carry a
two-hundred-pound bar--Zowie! Watch our smoke! And say, why wouldn't it be a
good idea to build an attractor--a thing like an object-compass, but mounting a
ten-pound bar instead of a needle, so that if they chase us in space we can
reach out and grab 'em? We might mount a machine-gun in each quadrant, shooting
X-plosive bullets, through pressure gaskets in the walls. Mentor didn't say so,
in so many words, but she made it perfectly clear that. "

"Huh?" Jill demanded, inelegantly.

"While they're coming up, I guess I'll pick up Perce and Miss Newton. "Upon
leaving Arisia, knowing vastly more than you do now, you will return to your
home planet, where you will take whatever steps you will then know to be
necessary. "

"I think. It was filled with swirling, gyrating bands and streamers of energy
so vivid and so solid as to resemble fabric; with wildly hurtling objects of
indescribable shapes and contours; with brilliantly flashing symbols which
Samms found, greatly to his surprise, made sense--not through the Rigellian's
mind, but through his own Lens:

"EAT TEEGMEE'S FOOD!"

"Advertising!" Samms' thought was a snort. "

"Stop thinking it was wrong, Tuly. "In your case, opportunity will be either
absolutely unlimited or zero, depending entirely upon yourself. Mine will
remain unlocked. I invite you to come in whenever you like, and assure you
formally that no such entry will be regarded as an invasion of privacy. That is
the result of our ancient civilization. Why mount it as though it weighed
twenty pounds?"

"To be safe. And any way I look at that concept, it's plain idiocy. Good
harvesting!"

For forty-eight Tellurian hours, taking time out only to sleep, Samms scanned
and surveyed the planet Trenco; and the more he studied it, the more
outrageously abnormal it became. " Her nostrils flared slightly; her fists
clenched--if possible--a fraction tighter; and, even in the distorted medium
they were using for speech, she could not subdue completely her quick change
into soaring, lilting buoyancy. "Great Cat! That's a purely Osnomian
war-gadget--kind of a battleship detector--shows that there's a boatload of bad
news around here somewhere. Grab the visiplates quick, folks," as he rang
Shiro's bell. "I'll take visiplate area one, dead ahead. "

And later, in a wingless craft flying toward the airfield, young Phryges broke
a long silence. You have enough of the dope to build a space-car from those
plans, haven't you?"

"Yes. I'm sure now that the drive is simply mechanical teleportation. And I
just simply couldn't _stand_ it!"

She threw herself into his arms, and he comforted her in the ages-old fashion
of man with maid. The Patrol's activities began hundreds or thousands or
millions or billions of miles away from Earth's metropolis.

Finally, only a scant few hundreds of yards from its goal, the protective
mirror was punctured and the freight of high explosive let go, with a silent,
but nevertheless terrific, detonation. Lieutenant-Commander Wagner, please, or
whoever else is handling clearances," Samms answered what he thought was to
have been her question.

"Oh, no, sir; you are cleared.

"This is little, compared to any regular planet or satellite or even to the
asteroids. We have heavy wraps, but we dislike to wear them so intensely that
we never subject ourselves to any cold. But in the eight solar systems with
which we are most familiar there are seven planets--I'm not counting
Valeria--which are very much like Earth in point of mass, size, climate,
atmosphere, and gravity. For instance, I think that you are the most perfectly
beautiful thing I ever saw; but no Venerian would think so. "

Even before the thought was issued the fused Elders had gone quietly and
smoothly to work. But _give_! What's the score? Where's Kolanides? Or rather,
what happened to him?"

"Dead.

Two facts were, however, unquestionable. Here they are.

After four hours a small car bearing the license number of a distant
state--which was found, by subsequent telegraphing, to be unknown to the
authorities of that state--drove under the porte-cochère, and the hidden
watcher saw DuQuesne, without the papers, step into it. Five seven. When you're
at the switch you'll feel my ray on your watch. This collar is made of
'arenak,' a synthetic metal which, once formed, cannot be altered by any usual
means. You see, to find out whether Laro is really an immovable object, I've
got to make like an irresistible force, which I ain't. "

"What difference does that make?" he asked, in honest surprise. Would you be
willing to sell us plans, or lease us ships.

"I certainly do. These four young Civilizations must be allowed to fall. They
as a class are called protelectricity, and bear the same relation to ordinary
electricity that electricity does to torque--both are pure energy, and they are
inter-convertible.

"It's funny," Belle said thoughtfully, "having this tremendous ship all to
ourselves. Everyone on the ground will have time enough to hide in the deep,
arenak-protected pits beneath the buildings, and you would be killed by the
invaders long before you could reach the palace. You'll be about fifty percent
overweight for a while. The _very_ toughest. But the big break was--you
remember the disappearance of that girls'-school cruise ship?"

"Of course. At first he was afraid of you, as were we all. Radiating from the
seven cardinal points of the building were short lanes leading to star-shaped
open plots, from which in turn branched out ways to other stellate areas; ways
reaching, after many such steps, to the towering inner walls of the metropolis.
The outer walls, still loftier and even more massive ramparts of sullen
gray-green metal, formed a seamless, jointless barrier against an utterly
indescribable foe; a barrier whose outer faces radiated constantly a searing,
coruscating green emanation.

Wherefore the undertaking was neither easy nor pleasant; and both Tellurians
were tremendously relieved when, the last pair picked up, they flashed the
starship back to Tellus and Delcamp, Fao, and the Thakerns 'ported themselves
aboard. Patroclus had never seen the Bithynian so buoyant. "Pallas Athene
covered you, like I asked her to. But by the red beak of Thoth and the sacred
Zaimph of Tanit, it gave me the horrors when you made that throw so quick and
missed it, and I went as crazy as the rest of them when you pulled the real
coup. I, personally, am going to cut his heart out. I have developed a
top-bracket lot of top-bracket stuff--originality, initiative, force, drive and
thrust," the Oman said precisely. "

"I have it," James said.

"I'm telling you as fast as I can. Vaneman," he said in a low voice, "we think
the Steel crowd is still camping on our trail. We are ready for them, with a
lot of stuff that they never heard of, but in case anything goes wrong, Martin
has written between the lines of this legal form, in invisible ink A-36,
exactly how to get possession of all our notes and plans, so that the company
can go ahead with everything. We detest land. "



As they went into the house Vaneman asked:

"What does the other side of the moon look like? I have always been curious
about it. "I _never_ want to see brains and livers and things swimming around
in nutrient solution if I can help it. "

All four became silent, thinking of the coming event of the day, until Crane
said:

"They have ministers here, I know, and I know something of their religion, but
my knowledge is rather vague. "I thought I could handle it. "

"Just as well, perhaps. "Two men to each Buford. "

"Oh, Ted!" She threw herself into his arms. "The point, youth, was well taken.
"

"Easy it is, Kinny. I can understand very little of what they are trying to
tell me. Mart, what would be the logical line of evolution when the planet has
become so old that all the land has been eroded to a level below that of the
ocean? You picked us out an old one, all right--so old that there's no land
left. Dot, three; Peg, four; Shiro, five. Look sharp!. I brought it along for
you to read at your leisure.

"Hand your tabulated data to Talmonides," the Faros directed. Thus, very
shortly, Virgilia Samms found herself, completely helpless and completely
unrecognizable, walking awkwardly out of the house between a businesslike
doctor and a solicitous nurse. Though surprised, they were not to be frightened
off, but with wild, shrill screams rushed to the attack. Figure it out, and
don't come at all until you can come loaded for bear; they're bad medicine.
Call us occasionally, to keep us informed as to when to expect you, but don't
call too often. "

They tested a hundred, under the normal tension of the spring, and three of
them broke. Samms directed his visibeam downward and sent along it an
exploring, questing thought. He opened the bleeder valves, then both air-lock
ports; the contaminated air was replaced by the ultra-hard vacuum of the
inter-planetary void. "

Damnation! There it was again! First "dexitroboping", and now this!

"One moment, please," Samms requested.

"You don't have to drive her as hard all the way, then, as you did last night?"

"No, I'm out of range of Seaton's instrument now, and we don't have to kill
ourselves. Costigan knew well and respected highly the Nevian
scientist-captain, and at his suggestion much time was spent in reenforcing the
super-ship's armament to the iron-driven limit of theoretical and mechanical
possibility. The silences grew longer, Clio's remarks became fewer, and soon
her long-lashed eyelids fell and her deep, regular breathing showed that she
was sound asleep. Kinnexa--_it had better be Kinnexa!_--would come to him.

How? By air? Along the road? Through the woods on foot? He had no way of
knowing--talking, even on a tight beam, was out of the question. "Altogether
too close for comfort. How shall we apply the power? One of us must stay awake,
or we'll go on as long as the bars last. How the adults get into space and
where they go," and she went on, in flashing thoughts, to explain in full
detail. "Nobody wires me up to anything I can't understand, and that machine is
too deep for me. This wasn't done on the spur of the moment, Jill; it was
planned--minutely. If I remember correctly, Damoiseau estimated its mass at
about three one-hundredths that of the Earth, which would make its surface
gravity about one-sixth. Samms realized then that he might, some day, learn
what a dexitroboper actually did and what the act of emmfozing actually was;
but that he very probably would not. Thus Samms had no idea that he was just
leaving Spokane Spaceport, Washington.

"Art hurt, sire?" Tedric asked anxiously as he and Sciro lifted Phagon to his
feet. Don't you want me to play for you a little?"

"Fine business, Dottie. I promised Dottie to go to bed not later than twelve,
if I have to quit right in the middle of an idea, and I told her that I was
coming out to see her every other evening and every Sunday. What chance has an
animal of escaping from a menagerie?"

"These animals, lots. It isn't a question of whether or not to destroy a
population--the only question is which population is to be destroyed. The only
reason he got away with it, is, that he has always been such an open-faced
talker, always telling everything he knew. Something funny about it, too--none
of them seem to have been touched, but the machinery of the suits seems to be
about half missing. "

"Tellurians?" came the voice of Barkovis from the speaker. Operation Zwilnik is
all set. Come in, Mase, and do your stuff--I'll see you later, aboard. "

"Some such indoctrination was to be expected, but I anticipate no trouble in
convincing you that you have been grossly misinformed in everything you have
been told concerning us; our aims, our ethics, our morals, and our standards of
conduct. A standard commercial job. Keller. "

"Damn your soul, Kinnison, come out here--I want to talk to you!" Keller
roared, and doors snapped open up and down the long corridor. "Vee-Two Gas! Get
tight!"

Writhing and twisting in his fierce struggle to keep his lungs from gulping in
a draft of that noxious atmosphere, and with the unconscious form of the girl
draped limply over his left arm, Costigan leaped toward the portal of the
nearest lifeboat. Orchestra instruments crashed to the floor and dancing
couples fell and sprawled inertly while the tortured First Officer swung the
door of the lifeboat open and dashed across the tiny room to the air-valves.
Throwing them wide open, he put his mouth to the orifice and let his laboring
lungs gasp their eager fill of the cold blast roaring from the tanks. The glare
of the searchlight was snuffed out and he saw a flashing light spell out in
dots and dashes:

"Can you read Morse?"

"Yes," he signalled back. . . . . . . . "

"Shut up, Jane! They won't hurt us any more than they have already; it's
psychologically impossible. I see--you were going out there and be
slaughtered?" He flushed, but made no reply. "

"Well, then," said the practical Crane. "Resignation not accepted. You're
_Fired_! Dishonorably discharged--blacklisted everywhere--you'll _never_ get
another job--_anywhere_! And here's your slip, too!" Miss Foster was very fast
on the machines. . with the Lens perhaps telephones are superfluous? I'll try
it. You physicists are peculiar freaks--where we ordinary mortals see actual,
solid, heavy objects, you see only empty space with a few electrons and things
floating around in it; and yet where we see only empty space, you can see
things 'potentially' that may never exist at all. What is it?"

"It is that you, Solarian Councillor Samms, should go to Arisia as soon as
possible. . . . be. When the lid opens, go into a full-power dive, beam
Artomenes--if I had a second before they blanketed my wave--and meet their
rocket head-on in their own launching-tube. Everything goes in, this time. But
suddenly "BRAHMS!" rang out, with four voices in absolute unison; followed a
moment later by Lopresto's stentorian "NOW!"

It was a very good thing that Deston had had ample warning, for he was indeed
competing out of his class. The fortress was literally ringed about with the
shattered remnants of airships, and the riddled hulls of more than a few of
those mighty globular cruisers of the void bore mute testimony to the
deadliness and efficiency of the warfare of the invaders. In other words,
Cloud's figuring had been close--very close. I'm going to check up, and argue
with them about it as we pass. And I just simply couldn't _stand_ it!"

She threw herself into his arms, and he comforted her in the ages-old fashion
of man with maid. "

"And they _aren't_!" blazed Commander Samuel Bryant (Electronics). After
assuring themselves that everything combustible had been removed, the two
scientists put on under their helmets, goggles whose protecting lenses could be
built up to any desired thickness. I'm a walking storehouse of junk of all
kinds, so that if occasion arises I can put on a real exhibition. Shoot. "

"Now, you sheet-iron bucket of nuts and bolts, _jump_!" and Garlock snapped the
red switch. "I'm going to burst this unjustifiable fad for platinum jewelry so
wide open that it'll never recover, and make platinum again available for its
proper uses, in laboratories and in the industries. Zerexi shouldn't have gone
into a knot so early against such a fast man. "

"Oh, I don't know," argued Kromodeor. "And you won't. Lord Llosir is clean: all
our temples are foul in every stone and timber. "

"At earliest dawn take two centuries of axemen and one century of bowmen, with
the wagonload of wood-workers' supplies about which some of you have wondered.
"You know, Steve. "

Under the fierce blast of her projectors the vessel leaped ahead, and time
after time, as Rodebush hurled her mass upon tractor beam or pressor, the
engineers sought in vain for any sign of weakness. You wouldn't know about room
service, either, then--better scan that tape before you go to sleep
tonight--what'll you have in the line of a drink to while away enough time so
she will know we've been playing games?"

"Ginger ale, please. My father the king has known for long what you are; he
should have ennobled you long since. Rome will go on by momentum--outwardly,
will even appear to grow--for a few generations, but what Nero will do can
never be undone. "

"Good. "It's the adult form that hatches; something so different they don't
even recognize it. How about calling it the 'Galactic Service'? Applicable to
either war or peace. "

"We were still falling pretty fast. We can get you any kind of plane you want
in an hour, and Perkins can find a man of that description who would be glad to
have a dream at that price. Everything of any importance, including all of your
personal effects, has already been moved. Donning a water-proof coverall, he
slid through a flexible valve into his acceleration-tank and waited.

A siren yelled briefly.

"Nix. " With a sick, cold certainty Jill knew that this conversation was for
the benefit of the doorman and the hackers, and that it would stand up under
any examination. We have very little information to guide us in answering that
question. "



At this paralyzing news, Dorothy's face turned white and Margaret Spencer
quietly fainted in her seat. I wish you could do it to me. Here I am. It is,
you will observe, in an insulated container, and does not glow. For more than
five thousand years our instruments have been set to detect the vibrations
which would herald the advent of the user of that metal.

"But enough of that, we'll have plenty of grief of our own right here. "It is
evident, of course, that I cannot qualify; nor do I know anyone personally who
can. . " Jill was surprised anew.

"Couldn't," Kinnison insisted. Moving to the accompaniment of strange martial
music from concealed instruments, the two parties approached each other,
meeting at the raised platform or pulpit where Karbix Tarnan, a handsome,
stately, middle-aged man who carried easily his hundred and fifty karkamo of
age, awaited them. Clio sobbed in relief and Costigan, one arm around her,
sighed hugely.

"Oh, Conway, this is ghastly! It's. Hence, when the minions of Sarpedion next
appeared, armored this time in the heaviest and best iron they had and all set
to overwhelm him by sheer weight of numbers, he was completely ready.

The crowd, already frantic, had gone stark mad at the blow. Hilton worried. The
multi-mind visited relatives of all eight, but could not make intelligible
contact. Swift as they were, the monster covered three feet to their one.

"We can't stand for anything like that," cried Seaton, as he threw on the power
and the Skylark leaped ahead. "That is a peculiar pose you are holding now.
North America would be standing alone. "

"Of course.



Loring was then instructed in the simple navigation of the ship of space, and
thereafter the two men took their regular shifts at the controls. Keeping his
projector upon the pirate, he seized the first club to hand--a long, slender
pedestal of metal--launched himself past the pirate chief. With all the
momentum of his mass and velocity and all the power of his good right arm he
swung the bar at the pirate's head. That zone is immense, man--terrific--its
possibilities are unthinkable--and I'm so cussed dumb that I can't find out how
to use it intelligently--can't use it at all, for that matter. "A concise and
accurate summation.

Glass in hand, Herkimer indicated a nearby doorway. Who else in the three
worlds could possibly call him 'Sammy?' You are hard, of course, but you must
be so--and I never did like soft men, anyway. She's posted notices all over it
and is guarding it with a pistol. Also, she is and always will be scared half
to death of you--she thinks you're some kind of robot. Bound to hit some
humans. The frightful planes and beams of immeasurable power simply spent
themselves harmlessly against those sparklingly radiant green walls--seemingly
as absorbent to energy as a sponge is to water, since the eye could not detect
any change in the appearance of the screens, under even the fiercest blasts of
the hexan projectors. His first beam, directed well forward, well ahead of the
precious cargo, should have wrought the same havoc against screens and
wall-shields and structure as a white-hot poker would against a pat of
luke-warm butter. One was watching the instruments, the others scanned narrowly
the immense, swelling curve of the ship's belly, the water upon which his
vessel was to land, and the floating dock to which it was to be moored. He
noticed as he reached her, that Crane had removed his helmet and was
approaching the other girl. He exchanged his goggles for a thicker, darker,
heavier pair.

And then disaster struck; suddenly, paralyzingly, as mine disasters do. "Don't
let the debt worry you any. " Virgilia was actually there with him; inside his
own mind; in closer touch with him than she had ever before been. If they had
missed us at all, they would have had us long ago, and with all the damage we
did with those projectors they won't be surprised at one piece being missing--I
imagine they lost a good many. "

Nerado had been in touch with the scientists of his city; he had been
instructing them in the construction of converters and generators of such
weight and power that they could crush even the defenses of the super-ship.
Placing them upon the white sward, he backed away, motioning the two visitors
to pick them up. Perspiration streamed from him, his mighty muscles stood out
in ridges visible even under the heavy leather of his coat, his lips parted in
a snarl over his locked teeth as he threw every ounce of his wonderful body
into an effort to force his right hand up to the switch. His hand approached it
slowly--closed over it and pulled it out. His eyes, hard and lifeless, stared
unseeingly past the small, three-dimensional block portrait of all that had
made life worth living.

"However, he could have, and probably has got, a capsule spy-ray detector,"
Jack offered, presently. Behind him there stood four other old men. At the apex
of the cone, protected by all the other vessels of the formation and in best
position to direct the battle, was the flagship. Head thrown back, hard blue
eyes keenly alert, sword-arm rock-steady he stood there, poised and ready.
Beautifully poised, upon the balls of both feet; supremely ready to throw into
action every inch of his six-feet-four, every pound of his two-hundred-plus of
hard meat, gristle, and bone. So standing, the smith stared motionlessly at the
shimmering, almost invisible thing hanging motionless in the air of his room,
and at its equally tenuous occupant. The third of the mad flurry of swordcuts,
only partially deflected by the sword which Fermius could only then get into
play, sheared down and a red, a green, and a white plume floated toward the
ground. And don't pull your punches. Samms squared his shoulders unconsciously;
and slowly, grimly, made his way back to his private office.

"This where we're going to land?" he asked, indifferently. "I'll pick those
jaspers off with a pencil and then stand off the bunch that's coming while you
rub out the rest of that crew there and drag Bradley back here. _That'll_ learn
ya!"



Theodora and Hilton did have their breakfast _a deux_--but she did not realize
until afterward that he had not answered her question as to what he had done to
her Bill.

As has been said, Hilton had made it a prime factor of his job to become
thoroughly well acquainted with every member of his staff. Since our recorded
history goes back some tens of thousands of Saturnian years, and since in that
long period there has been no measurable change in us, few of us have believed
in the legends at all.

The Navy had torn fifteen of the Oman warships practically to pieces,
installing Terran detectors and trying to learn how to operate Oman machinery
and armament. How big would an island have to be for us to see it from here?"

"So much depends upon the contour and nature of the island, that it is hard to
say. . I didn't quite believe it until now, but if. Good-night, children. I
wish you success, Dick," as he turned away. It is apparently focused at
infinity, as near-by objects are not affected. But the goon did not see the
Patrolman as a friend. "

"I'm glad you did, big fellow--once in a lifetime is good for the soul.
Goodbye," and heartless and bloodthirsty Osnomian though she was, Sitar had
gone to join the two Terrestrial women.

"I didn't want to say much before the girls, but I want to check a couple of
ideas with you two. " Quickly the dread report came back. Your own Regulations
expressly forbid extrapolation beyond or interpolation within a directive. To
do so safely you must pass the last meteorological station, M14, on schedule
time plus or minus five seconds, at scheduled velocity plus or minus ten
meters, with exactly the given negative acceleration of 981. Herkimer, in spite
of advice and orders, had probably got rough with the girl, and Samms' mob had
rubbed him out. Served him right.

"I have no criticism of any phase of your work. So was her spectacularly filled
halter. Operation Bullfinch was clicking; on schedule to the second. Middle
distance. Uh-uh. He didn't like it any better now than he had before, even
though some of the Big Brains of Staff thought it the ideal solution. And at
the _Quartette's_ tremendous climax she, scarcely trying to stifle a sob,
pulled his hand down and hugged it fiercely, the heel of his hand pressing hard
against her half-bare, firm, warm breast. . Please put me on Newton, in the
main office. We ourselves have not yet reached that stage, and we are perhaps
millions of years older than you. "

"What a concept! What stupendous minds! But such immense distances, sir.

"Just a second.

"That is perhaps possible," the Inspector agreed, equably enough. Samms was
again called into the control room, to see that the ship was approaching a
three-sun solar system. What they were thinking of Arisia's Lens cannot be
expressed in words. From the monstrous shoulders there rose a rather long and
very flexible, yet massive and columnar neck, supporting a head neither human
nor bestial--a head utterly unknown to Terrestrial history or experience. But
the Earth-men saw with surprise that the main attack was not being directed at
the dome; that only an occasional ray was thrown against it in order to make
the defenders keep their screens up continuously. . . . . . " Garlock paused in
thought. "

"You just think you do. "That must have been a terrific job. Since it is not
your custom, it is probable that the justices would waive the ruling,
especially since everyone must be examined by a jury of his own or a superior
rank, so that only one man, my father alone, could examine you. But since we
know nothing of their habits or customs, it will be best to give them all
possible freedom compatible with safety. That operation was _planned_. It would
take months, perhaps years, and would be devilishly uncertain, to boot. "

"But it's implicit. He baffles me, too. "But I ain't leaving this ditch right
now--sounds mighty hot out there!"

"You said it, brother.

"Its strength. This isn't. . . . " Her voice ceased as Roger broke the
ether-wall of her apartment and walked toward the divan, upon which she
crouched in wide-eyed, helpless, trembling terror. The Mayfield was running. .
"

"That's a _hell_ of a picture!" James broke in savagely.

"The point is, what can we do about it?" Kincaid asked.

"Not unless I have to," he replied, composedly. He wormed his way to a certain
boulder. "

"Yes, and the wrong kind would make it.

"Well, if they don't tax it it'll be the first thing in history that isn't.
Crane," he stated. "He should recover consciousness in an hour or so. "I don't
know what made me act so stupid. Everything he's got, at full emergency blast.
"

"Can you read my mind?" Hilton demanded. Did you think I had nerve enough to do
it without help?"

Seaton turned and opened the door. " Deston thought for a moment. "Let's finish
it up and shoot a little juice through it, just to try it out. Try your hand on
me. You or the sex-flaunting twins or Bev Bell or Stella the Henna. Then, with
that much done, it'll be up to you to provide, since I'll have to work tooth
and nail at the forges.

"Now I know enough about it to do a good job on the bar," he decided, and brick
after brick of alloy was fused into the crack, until only a smoothly rounded
bulge betrayed that a break had ever existed in that mighty rod of metal. .
well, we're close enough, I guess. "

"Well, I'll never tackle him with heat.

"You can say _that_ again!" her boss gloated. And while you're changing suits
you'd better put on some stuff I've got here--Service Special phones and
detectors. . " he broke off, realizing that the two races had no thought in
common in the measure of time. Here's hoping nothing gives away!"

The _Sirius_, almost against the flaming screens of the Jovian, and both
vessels very close to the surface of the satellite, Brandon tested the power
leads briefly, adjusted dials and coils, then touched the button which actuated
the relays--relays which in turn drove home the gigantic switches that launched
a fearsome and as yet untried weapon. If I do the job they'll have their
starship in a few weeks. As for arguing with you, I'm all done for the moment.
Shutting the door, he opened an auxiliary air-tank, adjusting the gauge to one
atmosphere as he did so. Soon she drew a spasmodic breath, choking and
coughing, and he again changed the gaseous stream to one of pure air, speaking
urgently as she showed signs of returning consciousness. He saw DuQuesne, with
a roll of papers under his arm, emerge from under the bridge just in time to
leap aboard the automobile, which slowed down only enough to enable him to
board it in safety. It means building the first interplanetary vessel, you
know. If she knew he was a millionaire she would be scared to death--not of
him, of course, but because she would think that he would think that she was
chasing him, and then of course he would think that she was, see? As it is, she
acts perfectly natural, and so does he. "

Seaton reduced the force acting upon the animal until just enough was left to
keep the attractor upon it, and it again dived into the swamp. "Eff-ex
six--nineteen. This it?"

"Check. You may have observed that the statuary is very old. The only thing we
know is that they've got us beat a hundred ways, and we've got to act
accordingly. Tractors and pressors leaped from ship to ship, binding the whole
myriad of hitherto discrete units into a single structure as solid, even
comparatively as to size, as a cantilever bridge. And instead of remaining
quiescent, waiting to be attacked, the cylinder flashed forward, inertialess,
at maximum blast. For Cloud's vague forebodings were materialized, and more;
the staggeringly immense energy of the vortex merged with that of the
detonating duodec to form an utterly incomprehensible whole. 'Port it to the
exact place you want it to detonate. Reconvert and release instantaneously.
One-hundred-percent-conversion atomic bomb, tailored exactly to fit the job.
Very effective. Roger issued orders; and waited; and thought more and more
intensely upon one point which remained obscure--why, when the strangers
themselves destroyed Triplanetary's fleet, had Roger been unable to use his
most potent weapons against that fleet?

Thus, then, for the first time in Triplanetary's history, the forces of law and
order joined hands with those of piracy and banditry against a common foe.
Think you can stall him off and keep him interested for about fifteen minutes?"

"I'm sure I can--I'll do _anything_ to help us, or you, get away from this
horrible.

"Think so? I _know_ so!" replied Stevens, positively. And practically all of
its frightful radiation lies in those octaves of the spectrum which are
invisible to the human eye.

Like fire, only worse, intra-atomic energy was a good servant, but a terrible
master. The Earth appeared as a great, softly shining, greenish half-moon, with
parts of its surface obscured by fleecy wisps of cloud, and with its two
gleaming ice-caps making of its poles two brilliant areas of white. And waited.
I think that he has finally traced that dope line. There's only one thing to
do.

"All x with me, Nadia," he answered, keeping out of his voice all signs of the
tenderness he felt for her, and of his very real admiration for her
straightforward conduct in a terrifying situation. There's no need of keeping
up this farce of your being slaves as long as we're alone, is there, Dunark?"

"No, but at the first sound of the gong announcing a visitor we must be in our
places. Our orders are to get back there at maximum, and you know what that
means aboard the _Sliver_. "'

"What d'you mean 'if the next conjunction is _allowed_ to occur?'" interjected
Seaton. "Nobody can stop it. Altruism is beautiful in theory, but it has never
been known to work in practice. I will pay a tremendous price--any price within
reason or possibility--for the Lens; but I will have to know what that price is
to be. "

"Uh-uh. I'm shooting at Brandon, and he's never there for more than a week or
two at a stretch. . But damn it, there ought to be _some_ way to. Sirius blazed
in blue-white splendor, dominating the lesser members of his constellation, a
minute but intensely brilliant diamond upon a field of black velvet--his
refulgence unmarred by any trace of scintillation or distortion.

As Seaton slowly shifted the field of vision, angling toward and across the
celestial equator and the ecliptic, they beheld in turn mighty Rigel; The Belt,
headed by dazzlingly brilliant-white Delta-Orionis; red Betelguese; storied
Aldebaran, the friend of mariners; and the astronomically constant Pleiades.

"Daylight in the swamp, you sleeper!" she exclaimed. Of Alphacent. There is no
more danger in this trip than there is in one to Mars. Inoffensive, naive,
innocent, he was surprised beyond measure at their reception of his friendly
greeting; but in the instant before closing his mind to their vicious attacks,
he learned the foregoing facts concerning them.

The fused mind of the Elders of Arisia, however, was not surprised. I invite
you to come into my vessel, unarmed and alone, for a conference. Know you,
American, that we supermen of the Fenachrone are as far above any of the other
and lesser breeds of beings who spawn in their millions in their countless
myriads of races upon the numberless planets of the Universe as you are above
the inert metal from which this, your ship, was built. I know that you had
atomic bombs, with which to obliterate this assemblage and this entire area. "

"WHAT? Of all the damned. "I can call anybody in here, any time, you know. Just
to think of human beings, even such cold-blooded ones as those over there,
living upon such a horrible moon and _liking_ it, gives me the blue shivers!"

"It's pretty bleak, no fooling," he admitted, and peered through the eyepiece
of the visiray telescope, studying minutely the forbidding surface of the
satellite they were so rapidly approaching. A lot of good men are studying this
thing of direct vision, though, and it won't be long before we have a system
that will really work. "

"Not difficult, exactly.

"Preposterous, hell," Roderick Kinnison's thought was still coldly level; only
the fact that he was beginning to use non-ballroom language revealed any sign
of the strain he was under. Color was rampant.



Hair--or lack of it--was also an individual and highly variant matter. "
Brandon suggested in the common Interplanetarian tongue. Nor will your duties
be onerous; being only to see to it that your maidens keep my hearth clean and
my statue bright. And his shield wouldn't make patches for yours. Even wars are
becoming a more dangerous plaything for nations of our world--to say nothing of
other possible enemies from other parts of our universe. Everybody's full of
joy and gratitude and stuff--as well as information. And we managed to pry
ourselves loose without waking you two trumpet-of-doom sleepers up. It is
certainty. Nor are we gladiators alone in this. His only care, apparently, was
to avoid interference with the fishermen; his under-water jaunts were long,
even for a Venerian, and he entered and left the water as smoothly as only a
Venerian--or a seal--could. James shot the _Pleiades_ up to within a thousand
miles or so of the moon. This woman blowing her top was no Brownie Montandon
any of them knew. And I mean _immutable_, gentlemen. After telling them all
this and watching them suffer, they put a machine on their heads and they
dropped dead. That will bring him, and Crane will consent. One set of facts
says there was a leak, which occurred between two and a half and three minutes
before the signal was given. He gave the body a shove, watched it roll down the
slope. I say beat it while we're all in one piece. Look at your watch. Could
there be a finer world upon which to found a new race? When we decided to cut
loose from the _Arcturus_ I told you that I was with you all the way, and now
I'll repeat it, with a lot more meaning. Earth technology was supreme
throughout all known space; of Earth technologists the North Americans were,
and always had been, tops. Grant that the Black Fleet was, basically, North
American. Adlington himself was several months away from a world-wrecker,
unless he could put one a hundred miles down before detonation, which simply
was not feasible. He turned to Samms. He then wrenched off the helmet and cast
the whole suit aside, revealing the enemy officer, clad in a tunic of scarlet
silk. When the copper refused to act as it had the night before they all took
the snap judgment that he had suffered an attack of temporary insanity, and
that the solution was worthless. "

"You chirped it, boss. "

"Exactly. Primes seem to be such _nice_ people. " James rolled his eyes upward
and steepled his hands. Entlore, we can all 'port to your office and save
calling staff cars. "

"And cause a revolution?" Entlore laughed. The Lensmen, noticing that the place
was neatly kept and meticulously clean, sat down and resumed their discussion
of two extremely unusual infants. After a time he noted that the color had gone
down to yellow and he thrilled with exultation, knowing that he had so reduced
the numbers of the enemy fleet that their wave-generators could no longer
overcome his refrigerators. They were authorized by Crane to offer a reward of
one million dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the
murderer.

"Hell's jets!" Deston exclaimed. Intelligible conversation was, of course,
impossible, but King soon realized that the visitors were not enemies. At their
pantomimed suggestion he put on a space-suit and wafted himself over to the
airlock of the Callistonian warplane. The two combatants then touched wing tips
in salute and flew away together, over the heads of the crowd; plunging into a
doorway and disappearing as the two officers uncoiled from their "seats" and
wriggled out into the corridor. Then boys and girls alike move to the Country
of Youth, where they spend another twenty-five years. "

"Dunark of Osnome is already informed as to what Osnome is to do. They heard
Margaret suggest that Dorothy play some "real music," and heard Seaton's
comments upon the quartette. I'll tell you when. I can't say I'm sorry that he
got away, though. . . excuse me, sir. "

"No offense taken, sir. We're all pulling for you," Sawtelle said. "

Everything ready and thoroughly tested, and stream of power flowing into the
_Arcturus_ from the cosmic receptors of her sister ship, the passengers and
their new possessions were moved into their former quarters.

"You mean, dear, that we're. This is going to be real work, girl--no fooling.
At each intersection there are four stand pipes and automatic swim-counters
that regulate the volume of water and the number of tubes in use.

"Now you may try your radio," Adams said. The best their Middlemarch horses
could do in the way of speed was a lumbering canter, but their tremendous
masses--a Middlemarch warhorse was not considered worth saving unless he
weighed at least one long ton--added to the weight of man and armor each bore,
gave them momentum starkly irresistible. The two victims were hustled aboard
and the space-ship, surrounded now by full-coverage screen, took off.

"Hi, men!" Nadia Stevens and Verna Pickering, arms around each other's waists,
entered the room and saluted the group gaily before they became a part of it.
"Two hours, more or less. "

"Oh, Ted!" She threw herself into his arms. Thus, _in loco parentis_, we would
be derelict indeed if we refused to act. Jones was whisked out to the uranium
ship and was shown to his cabin. "

"So you know?"

"Yes. She'd make me dress for dinner. Besides, she thinks the whole galaxy is
fairly crawling with double-Primes. "

"He's cooking one right now, I'll bet a hat," Seaton put in, and Crane added:

"If you are sure that you have no objections, Miss Spencer, we might go below,
where we can have it dark, and all three of us see what we can make of the
stargazing. Then she changed to reveries and soft, plaintive melodies. How's
that?"

"All right. "



They took their places, and Seaton felt the vessel slow down in its horrible
fall as DuQuesne threw his lever into the first notch. "Is there a doctor
here?"

There was; and, after being "frisked" for weapons, he went busily to work. "To
narrow it still further, Triplanetarian. Too small a charge scatters it around,
in vortices which, while much smaller than the original, are still large enough
to be self-sustaining. The problem was handed to Siberia. She seemed--quieter?
Softer? More subdued? No, definitely.











Since everyone, including the ebullient ComOff, slept late the following
morning, they all had brunch instead of breakfast and lunch. How does _that_
fit into your theory?"

"It doesn't. "

"That's right.

"Deny it? No. "Driving converters and projectors!"

The first assistant scanned his meters narrowly as he swung a multi-point
switch in a flashing arc. "Converter efficiency 100, projector reactivity 100;
on each of numbers one to forty-five inclusive. All x. Therefore, it is not a
hexan--it may be one of those strange creatures of the satellites, who are, of
course, perfectly harmless. "

"Well," he said, finally, "I'd better get busy, then--there's a lot to do
before we can start. "

"Good God!" That news, to Clancy, was informative enough. To that end each
individual Strett had to become invulnerable and immortal.

The visitors from the Country of Youth, however, locked arms and sprang to
surround the four Terrestrials, crying, "Let's do a group dive!"

"I don't believe that I can swim well enough to enjoy what's coming," whispered
Margaret to Crane, and they slipped into the pool and turned around to watch.
Nevertheless, he was a very busy man. When they were ready to go to sleep,
Temple said:

"Drat it, those Omans _still_ want to come in and sleep with us. . . " Lola
paused, flushing in embarrassment. Centuries. . "

"Shut up, Jane! They won't hurt us any more than they have already; it's
psychologically impossible. "

"The man died during examination. . say, Captain, will you please have the
Chief Electrician and a couple of radio men come in here?"

They came, and for hours, while the other ultra-wave men searched the
apparently empty ether with their ineffective beams, the three technical
experts and the erstwhile Quartermaster's clerk labored upon a huge and complex
ultra-wave projector--the three blindly and with doubtful questions; the one
with sure knowledge at least of what he was trying to do. Finally the thing was
done, the crude, but efficient graduated circles were set, and the tubes glowed
redly as their massed output drove into a tight beam of ultra-vibration.

"Sir, neither I nor this vessel had anything to do with the destruction of your
warship. "The Gaul is done--Patroclus all but had him there!"

"One thousand, you!" came another challenge. I _still_ don't like it. I think
I'll turn in my badge--I've cocked our perfect curve already, before we got to
the first check-station!" His hands moved toward the controls, to correct their
course and acceleration. Well, when they located me--probably with an automatic
Osnomian ray-detector--and heated me red-hot while I was still better than two
hundred miles up, I knew then and there that they had us stopped; that there
was nothing we could do except go back to my plan, abandon the abduction idea,
and eventually kill them all. " Jack killed the driving blasts, but not the
Bergenholm; the inertialess vessel stopped instantaneously in open space. "When
it comes to playboys like this one, I've got millions and skillions and
whillions of ohms of resistance. . . . " His thought expired on a wondering,
confused note.

Her whole body was tense and strained. "I can't? Watch me!" She grinned up at
him, her eyes still dancing. Can't you delouse your signal? Whittle the stuff
down to our size?"

"W-e-l-l-," the scientist looked hurt, but did consent to forego the high math.
However, after we get this Fenachrone mess cleaned up we'll have to do just
that little thing, won't we, Mart? As that intellectual guy said while he was
insisting upon dematerializing us, 'Science demands it. One of our men was in
the _Hyperion_, managed to stay alive, and has been sending data. . . . . . I'd
say here, _under_ the Hill. Are you or aren't you?"

"I'll be damned if I know. "

"You isolate a little energy in the Op field, remembering of course, that
you're handling a hundred thousand gunts. Do you others agree? Vice-Admiral
Corander?"

"Yes. "

He staggered mentally under the shock of encountering practically
simultaneously so many minds, but rallied strongly and went on, via Lens:

"My first message is not to you, my fellow Cosmocrats, nor to you, my fellow
dwellers on Earth, nor even to you, my fellow adherents to Civilization; but to
THE ENEMY. He will go camping--he often does. Carefully he transferred to the
vessel the motley assortment of containers of Vee-Two, and after a quick
check-up to make sure that he had overlooked nothing, he shot his craft
straight up into the air. Then only did he close his ultra-wave circuits and
speak. Then he spoke--not softly, but in parade-ground tones audible to
everyone present. As for the wall, it happened to be in the way of the
thought-waves I hurled against your guards--consequently it was demolished. . "

"Oh, no, you must not do that. Read the last phrase!"

"Oh, sure--'mush' is right," and with no perceptible break the signals again
became intelligible. As for those on the _Perseus_, no two of them will tell
the same story and not one of them has even the remotest idea of what the real
story is. As the exit was approached, the tunnel described a long vertical
curve, so that when the opening into the shaft of the crater was reached and
the undercarriage was automatically detached, the vessel was projected almost
vertically upward. "

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

"We'll blow them out of space, Mr. "Go on wool-gathering like this and your man
will go hungry--and he'll break you right off at the ankles!" She became again
the huntress, and soon saw an animal browsing steadily along the base of a
hill. It was a six-legged, deer-like creature, much larger than anything she
had as yet seen. Four of its five rooms were merely adjuncts to its tremendous
living-room. Presently four more corpses lay still and Stevens, with his, to
them incredible, earthly strength, was once more upon his feet in spite of
their utmost efforts to pinion his mighty limbs, and was again swinging his
devastating weapon. Half their force lying upon the field, wiped out by a
small, but invincible and apparently invulnerable being, the remainder broke
and ran, pursued by Stevens to the point where the red monsters had first
halted. The men on duty--the normal force, that is--would be doubly careful for
a time. The scream of tortured tires and the crescendo bellowing of the engine
combined to form an uproar which, amplified by and reverberating within the
resonant shell of metal, threatened to addle the very brain inside the
Lensman's skull. . . . . . . . . . . I. We will not be able to oversee the
work, that is a drawback. In that cavern, instructed and aided by some of us,
you will build a rocket vessel--no rays can be used because of the hexans--in
which you will be able to travel to a region close enough to your earth so that
you can call for help. "

"Suppose there's a Jovian space-ship out there somewhere that intercepts our
beams. I will also have prepared some kind of a space-suit in which he can be
brought from his vessel to ours," and the surgeon took the measurements and
went to see that the "operating table" and suit were made ready for Kromodeor,
the sorely wounded Vorkul. . . . . m. " Samms inhaled a mouthful of smoke and
exhaled it slowly; watched it dissipate in the air. "But she could have helped
it along; and she's all set to take every possible advantage of the situation
thus created. If you should change your mind, any time you really want to. How
do you want it?"

Fao was shocked as she had never been shocked before. Not off the cuff. "

"But you haven't tested _me_!" Belle said.

"All right, Dicky," she replied, the color flowing back into her cheeks. You
have not had your sixteen hours, but everything will be regular from now on.
Petrine?"

"Not 'practically', we are Petrinos all. The 'teachers' were all in the Center.

For miles beyond that edge, and as deep under it as frightful rays and enormous
charges of explosive copper could penetrate, the ground was one seething,
flaming volcano of molten and incandescent lava; lava constantly being
volatilized by the unimaginable heat of those rays and being hurled for miles
in all directions by the inconceivable power of those explosive copper
projectiles--the heaviest projectiles that could be used without endangering
the planet itself--being directed under the exposed edge of that unbreakable
apron, which was in actuality anchored to the solid core of the planet itself;
lava flowing into and filling up the vast craters caused by the explosions.

"Only of how Martin is going to be paid what we owe him," she answered
teasingly. "Those torpedoes went home, fast. But we can do nothing until the
steel arrives, and with the guard Prescott has here now we are safe enough. You
teach a few courses. I would like to know your reasons for thinking that such a
race exists. But that weight! One hundred twenty thousand _metric
tons_--incredible! Are you _sure_ of that figure?"

"Definitely. The "Forlorn Hope" leaped out of the canyon and high into the air
over the open meadow, just as the six great projectiles crashed into the ground
upon the spot which, an instant before, she had occupied.

After the meal, which was a happy one, taking the nature of a celebration in
honor of the return of the captives, DuQuesne went directly to his room while
the others spent the time until the zero hour in strolling about the splendid
grounds, always escorted by many guards. "

The Gray Lensman took the document, glanced at it, and slowly, meticulously,
tore it into sixteen equal pieces.

"Wonderful!" Tedric exclaimed. Along the detector line a visibeam sped, and
Costigan's face hardened as he saw the unmistakable outline of Nerado's
interstellar cruiser, far behind them. Through the Gate, the guards saluting
smartly as the bug raced past them. As Loring held the steel vessel close to
the stranger, DuQuesne leaped lightly through the open door into the interior.
Dig out that directive and tear it down. Draw that line Bill talked about. "

"Can do, boss. " Birkenfeld chose his words with care.

"Stick around, folks. . . that I can't stand. The officers had plenty to do;
operating the whole ship and rebuilding the mechanisms that were operating on
jury rigging or on straight "bread-board" hookups. As several of his men,
braver than the others, lifted their peculiar rifles, Seaton drew and fired in
one incredibly swift motion, the X-plosive bullet obliterating the entire group
of men and demolishing that end of the palace. I do not need, I do not want, _I
will not have_ any such. Then, ready to act, we will do at once whatever seems
called for by the situation then obtaining.

He then leaped back to his companion. An analytical mind," he said, evenly,
and--apparently--irrelevantly. You already have observed that we are of the
same race as those who destroyed your vessel, and have assumed that we are with
them. With their drives they can match our velocity and still make the drop
direct. "

The young scientist was called in, and was introduced to the Commissioner. "And
what have they got that makes them so tough?"

"Nothing. But tell me, Storm, please, that you won't invite it.

Jill would have screamed, then, and pointed; but she had time to do neither.

The casing disappeared, and the yielding porous lining. "It looks as though
we're getting wherever it is we're going. "Why, Pops Kinnison would. "His
fiancee was aboard the _Arcturus_, and when they found out how long we would
have to be here, they very sensibly decided not to wait. "

"Were there any others?" demanded Nadia, who, standing between Stevens and her
father, had been an interested listener. It's funny, too. What to do? It's
getting darker than a hat, and we're a long way from home. It is almost pure
crystallized energy. "



Silence ensued, and Seaton advanced his lever to the limit of his ability to
retain consciousness. They certainly are on Venus, and they once were on Mars.

Kinnison set out, deliberately this time, to mold his key Chief Line Inspectors
into just such a group as the Siberians already were. It is much more difficult
to master, and in times of stress the muscles revert involuntarily and
embarrassingly to their wonted gravity-field techniques. Then, fused,
volatilized, flaming incandescent throughout the length, breadth, and height of
a dwelling, that dwelling's existence thereafter is to be measured in minutes.
"What are you letting that precious husband of mine do now, Martin? He looks as
though he were up to something. I'm not used to my new Osnomian mind yet. Then
there's another thing--they figure to only two places, and we've got to have
the third place almost solid if we expect to get a smooth curve. Those of you
who are now looking at teevee screens can see my imaged likeness. The fields of
force of our hosts merely intercept these radiations, as a water-driven turbine
intercepts the water. Each body would have to be given velocity away from the
ship. She must have wept and pleaded, stormed and raged, feigned submission and
played for time--and her torment had not touched in the slightest degree the
merciless and gloating brain of the being who called himself Roger.

"This fellow's fighting so he's tearing himself to pieces. At its edge he cut
them entirely and inched his way forward by starlight alone.

"Yes, that's ours," he assured her. How does _that_ fit into your theory?"

"It doesn't. Can't say that I'm sold one hundred percent; but, as you say, the
Bergenholm is a hard fact to shrug off. . of _course_ that would be the one
they'd use in sacrificing a king's daughter. Even at that, though, it's a good
thing that space isn't a perfect vacuum, or we would have been clear out of the
Universe by this time. . "

"Clee!" Belle drove the thought. "And your folks, too, of course?" she asked.
She's too cocky for her own good--or strength. . . . Hello! Hello! Hello!" He
dropped the instrument and turned to Kinnison. "You want to go back, Captain,
and I need a runner--bad. Sir, I present Captain Phryges. "

"Not orders, son. "

Captain Bradley had stood by in silent astonishment during this conversation.
Thanks, Eunie--you're an ace. I can promise full cooperation and friendship for
myself and for most of our group; and I assure you that I can and will handle
any non-cooperation that may come up. There are six of us, and we could not get
along at all without each other. "

"I know it.

"READY--READY--READY. " Sawtelle shook his head sadly. Additional fast and slow
motions must, of course, be provided to rotate the mechanism upon each
graduated circle at the will of the operator. It is my idea to make the outer
supporting tube quite large, so that you will have full freedom with your
inner, or projector tube proper. Without any effort at all, apparently, it
continued downward through the concrete and steel and glass of the building;
and everything in its path became monstrously, sickeningly, revoltingly
changed. _"

"_You are throwing the entire weight of such a decision on_ me?"

"_In one sense, yes. _"

"_So be it. In another, only half, since I have already decided. . "



Outside the building three black forms arrowed downward. "

"Anything I can do, I've got to do. Warm-blooded, but egg-layers, not mammals.
Like this," and the Inspector spread in their minds a picture of a creature
somewhat like the flying tigers of Hodell, except that the color was black,
shading off to iridescent green at the extremities.

Through the daze of their wonder, a thought smote Seaton like a blow from a
fist. . . "

The voice ceased as she pulled the cord savagely and threw herself upon a divan
in a torrent of gasping, strangling, but rebellious sobs. I guess. . that code
is _unbreakable_!" she gasped. Its rate of revolution did not change; it either
did not know or did not care that its drivers were slipping on the smooth, hard
sand; that it could not climb the vertical metal plate; that it was not getting
anywhere. "

"But he _wants_ to have it broken?"

"Yes, sir. "That's their dish, Bill. "

"So forget about this psychic trauma. Told her bluntly; starkly; drawing the
full picture in jet black, with very little white. "

"Oh, you did? How sweet of you! But how. I've heard of her. "We have abundance
of power for all of your projector officers. We must have attained one hundred
percent neutralization--one hundred point oh oh oh oh oh--which we didn't quite
expect. Sodium and chlorin are the rarest of all known elements. Its immense
value is due, not to its rarity, but to the fact that it is an indispensable
component of the controlling instruments of our wireless power stations and
that it is used as a catalyst in the manufacture of our hardest metals. Is that
all, Mr. . . . that I'll stay just as I am--for thousands of _years_?"

"Just as you are. As soon as he had clamped a pale blue tractor rod upon the
sixth and last of the enemy fleet, he drove a torpedo through the gaping wall
and into the interior of the helpless war-vessel. I, personally, not only did
not want to become a monster, but would have given everything I had to stay
human. "

Acting upon this suggestion, the party seated themselves upon comfortable
divans, and Dunark rapidly dismantled the machine he had constructed. Frank's a
lot more fun. "

The staff had gathered in the lounge, as had become the custom, to spend an
hour or so before bedtime in reading, conversation, dancing, light flirtation
and even lighter drinking. "How come?"

"I'll answer you first, Dot. "I read you eight and one. It has been observed
for years that the published reports of your organization have left much
unsaid. The dying hand twitched upward. The beam expired. He puffed his
cigarette to a vivid coal--took it in his fingers--there was an audible hiss
and a tiny stink of burning flesh as the glowing ember was extinguished in the
clear, clean skin below the girl's left armpit. And it works. Lensmen and their
wives.

"Lensmen--especially you, Rod--George Olmstead is here, and his brother Ray is
available. "South of the river our tracks do not matter," he said, flatly. "In
the gorge they exist not. "

"There is, however, reason enough; although I am not sure that I can make it as
clear to you as I would wish.

"They have nothing like the _Skylark_, and no knowledge of intra-atomic energy.
"Oh, Conway, you're just simply wonderful!"

"I haven't done it yet," Costigan cautioned her. " The linked minds flashed
back to what the two had done together in the red opacity of Nevian murk; on
Nevia's mighty, watery globe--but that kind of thinking would not do. Samms.
Not too serious, but I'm taking him to the Hill, where I know he'll be safe.
Another Nevian appeared, and while the stricken guard was recovering, all four
arms wrapped tightly around his convulsively looping, writhing neck, the three
helpless Terrestrials were lifted into the air and carried bodily into the
quarters to which Nerado had assigned them. Do you wish to have your own guns
installed, or guns of our pattern? You are familiar with them now. "They can't
get nearly as far as Uranus on their power beam--it's all they can do to make
Jupiter. Now I'll see what I can find out about our breakfast. "

"That's a wonderful relief, Doctor!" cried Dorothy. "Maybe you'd better cancel
that 'of course'. . . going downstairs. "

"Good girl--keep him busy one minute more--he's getting all the warnings at
once and wants to get back to his board. You've met Alonzo P. Maybe _you_ can
make a Christian out of her. Anyway, you girls' slowness in producing has given
the old boy a big lift, and I'm mighty glad of it. "

"Oh, hell!" James snorted. "This is the biggest and nicest thrill I ever had.
Shiro sleeps across the hall. The rest of the rooms are for our guests on
future trips.

Shifting his grips, the guardian proceeded to tear a hole into his victim's
body, just below its breast-bone. "How about Peggy? You must see how she is!"

"Never mind," answered Crane's voice cheerily. This is an improved model--it
has quite a few gadgets of my own in it. You have guessed that we are headed
for Osnome?"

"I suspected it. . . . chairs, I think. Flying chairs are really hard to cope
with. Knives are too. . . . I invited that one, I guess, since I know you
aren't afraid of God, man, woman, or devil. "

"I have it," James said. . . . . . . . . . . . "

"Stop it!" she interrupted him sharply, "Forget it--don't ever even think of
it!"

"All x, ace. The immense starship settled downward toward the selected corner.
Here he was!

Should he use his headlights, or not? He did not know the Palainians' reaction
to or attitude toward light.

After four hours a small car bearing the license number of a distant
state--which was found, by subsequent telegraphing, to be unknown to the
authorities of that state--drove under the porte-cochère, and the hidden
watcher saw DuQuesne, without the papers, step into it. "They must be, then. It
is also evident that they have solved the secret of intra-atomic energy. My
work has been such as to keep me out of the public eye. I don't know what a
psychologist would say. "

"Well, then," said the practical Crane.

The room was of course very small; but, considering the importance of mass, it
was almost extravagantly supplied. Moving to the accompaniment of strange
martial music from concealed instruments, the two parties approached each
other, meeting at the raised platform or pulpit where Karbix Tarnan, a
handsome, stately, middle-aged man who carried easily his hundred and fifty
karkamo of age, awaited them. As he raised his arms, the music ceased. But
already he had acted. Father told you about the way I work, I suppose?"

"Yes. Exact data is not to be expected. Hints, suggestions, possible leads,
will be of inestimable value. "

"Well, I met a very short, very fat Venerian, named Ossmen, at a party at the
European Embassy. In the first place, you'd be amazed at how little publication
was ever done of passenger lists, and apparently crew lists were not published
at all. But here we are at my laboratory. As it was, his bullet crashed through
Blaine's head, while the gunman's went harmlessly into the carpet. The door
clanged shut behind him and in a matter of moments he stood in the control room
of the racer, divested of his armor and shaking hands with his friend and
co-laborer, Frederick Rodebush. He will be engaged in cutting your hair.

The Eddorian then drove in with an analyzing probe, only to be surprised
again--the Arisian's thought could not be traced! And Enphilistor, while
warding off the raging Eddorian, directed a quiet thought as though he were
addressing someone close by his side:

"Come in, please, one or more of the Elders. Kinnison _pere_ explained quite
patiently--for him--that all he had got out of the little fracas was a split
lip, that young Northrop's hair wasn't even mussed, and that if everybody had
been packing guns some scatter-brained young damn fool like him would have
started blasting and blown everything higher than up--would have spoiled Samms'
whole operation maybe beyond repair.

"Hi, Teddy!" a yell arose. Eats in the middle of the night. No storage
capacity--on this world he wouldn't need it--a few more seconds in the shade
would probably have killed him, but there's no shade here. Everything is hidden
from any possible visiray of the hexans. The bar is held parallel to the
guiding compass, and signal bells ring whenever any of the instruments show a
trace of abnormal behavior. At the same time others of our party will take the
palace and kill every man, woman, and child adherent to Nero. At intervals upon
its roof there winked into being almost invisible points of light. Knowing that
she had at last encountered a superior force, the sphere turned in mad flight;
but, prodigious as was her acceleration, the torpedoes were faster and all
three of them struck her at once. To that end they had arranged their circuits
to hurl seven hundred sixty-five thousand kilofranks--the entire power of their
massed accumulators and their highest possible cosmic intake--in one tiny bar
of superlative density, less than one meter in diameter! Everything ready,
Brandon shot in prodigious switches that launched that bolt--a bolt so
vehement, so inconceivably intense, that it seemed fairly to blast the very
ether out of existence as it tore its way along its carefully predetermined
line. I shall take them in spite of the puerile efforts of the fleets of your
Triplanetary League. Now I really know--I will feel the utterly cold and savage
embrace of that awful earth of yours as long as I live!"

"Oh, it's not so bad, Sitar. You will get us back to Earth some way, sometime;
I just know that you will. I'll count to ten. Now, Belle, since you're a Prime
and Lola's an Operator, you get the next toughest job. . Okay, damn it. I
_will_!"

"Of course you will, sir.

In 1902 we moved to a homestead on the Pend d'Oreille River, in northern Idaho.
"No one man, or group of men, no matter who they are, can be trusted with that
much power. "

"And now," he went on aloud, "if you ladies will please pick up this stretcher
we will move en masse, and _slowly_, toward the door. It is a violation of all
our instincts to have any commerce with outsiders, as you will learn as soon as
you see one of them.



Next morning, at the workman's hour of eight o'clock, the four Tellurians
appeared in the office of Margonia's Galaxian Field. A full company of the
Royal Guard was already there. But they're digging holes for the crosses and
there's the horn that the feast is ready. "

"No, I mean what does he eat when he's home?"

"It seems to be a sort of syrup, made from the juices of jungle plants, which
they drag in on automatic conveyors and process on automatic machinery. "With
you, Doctor Hilton, it will be by far the worst. . but I'm hoping it's only
that those creatures, whatever they are, have taken him so far away he can't
reach us. I believe I'll join you!"

"It most certainly is a relief to get this load off our minds: I could do a
little ladylike yowling myself," Margaret said; and Crane, lying completely at
ease, a thin spiral of smoke curling upward from his cigarette, nodded
agreement. There's a dozen things I want to do that I can't because we haven't
got the stuff. Your man Shiro. You are requested to proceed to their aid at the
earliest possible moment. . "

"That's why they kidnapped you, then--to make him give up all his rights to it.
"We slid back two steps for every three we took forward. We'll finish our own
ship and build our own organization and run it to suit ourselves. . . Costigan
_handled_ me.

"Thanks for being such a nice body-guard, you two. Use that only as a last
resort, after everything else has failed. But abate this intolerable nuisance,
and soon.

".

After a time she freed herself.

Here is the beginning of "Doc" Smith's famous Lensman series--the first of the
celebrated novels that set a pattern for science fiction. The prime datum
impressed into my banks, that the Stretts are in fact the strongest, ablest,
most intelligent race in the universe, proved to be false. Nor was this lack
surprising.

"On your toes, men," came Samms' quiet thought. Stevens and Nadia soon find
that the other ship is manned by friendly beings from Saturn. He then stepped
up to the lookout plate, and with his hand upon the control, pondered long the
possible consequences of what he wished to do.

"Good morning, Doctor DuQuesne.

"Jack and Mase, take the leader!" Kinnison snapped out the thought. "Nothing
much to it, though. "

"Not interested in what it says, but it might be smart to develop it, envelope
and all, for invisible ink and whatnot. "I've already quit--the exact second
you fired Clee. Sounds screwy--never heard of such a thing--but it acts like an
energy-converter. Eats energy, raw and straight. No storage capacity--on this
world he wouldn't need it--a few more seconds in the shade would probably have
killed him, but there's no shade here. Adultery, anything illicit, has always
been not only unimaginable, but in fact impossible. We pair--or marry, or
whatever they do here--once only. This is the first planet we have visited on
our first trial of a new method--new to us, at least--of interstellar travel. .
he must have a lot of vitality to have lasted this long--may be he'll live
through it yet. His nose was large and Roman; his jaw was square, almost
jutting; his bright-yellow teeth were clean and sharp. Every time that mighty
blade descended it cleaved its length through snapping spikes and impotently
grinding leaves; but more than once a flailing tendril coiled about his neck
armor and held his helmet immovable as though in a vise, while those frightful,
grinding saws sought to rip their way through the glass to the living creature
inside the peculiar metal housing. Geigers and other vastly more complicated
mechanisms flew toward Earth from every direction in space; streamed toward New
York in Earth's every channel of traffic. Every train and plane, every bus and
boat and car, every conveyance of every kind and every pedestrian approaching
New York City was searched; with a search as thorough as it was unobtrusive.
Their strict monogamy was really tested more than once; but it held. They've
got light and power again now, and good air, and they're working on it, but
opening the rise from the top is a damned slow job. I appoint you
Admiral-pro-tem Garlock, in command of Space Operations, and will refer to you
any other space-fighters who may come. They tried to keep me from finding out
anything, but I learned all about the compasses, built a few of them in their
own shop, and set one on Osnome. Instead of having a common ancestor with the
anthropoids, as they say we had, they evolved from a genus which combined the
worst traits of the cat tribe and the carnivorous lizards--the most savage and
bloodthirsty branches of the animal kingdom--and instead of getting better as
they went along, they got worse, in that respect at least. Throwing his body
sidewise and reaching out his long arm as far as possible toward the bar, he
succeeded in swinging it around so that he was running back toward the party
and the spacious landing field. The glare of the searchlight was snuffed out
and he saw a flashing light spell out in dots and dashes:

"Can you read Morse?"

"Yes," he signalled back.

"Copper sulphate," he said to Crane. Sciro was nearer, but Tedric was faster
and stronger and had the better horse. The main army marched away, up the north
bank of the Upper Midvale, which for thirty or forty miles flowed almost
directly from the north-east. . no-no, keep still! Too many planets listening
in--_verbum sap_. Anyway, THE PRESS smells something, too, and they're
screaming their lungs out, especially the sob-sisters. "

"No, I suppose not," grudgingly assented her lover, "and I won't, either,
unless he gives me at least half an excuse. Off. "

Costigan-Jones' desk was already clear, since there was little or no paper-work
connected with his position in Department Q. "

"Good God!" That news, to Clancy, was informative enough. "

"Yes, I guess that's right, too. Frank's a lot more fun. "

The staff had gathered in the lounge, as had become the custom, to spend an
hour or so before bedtime in reading, conversation, dancing, light flirtation
and even lighter drinking. "How you talk! But they're ready, Lola--let's go. "

"Nice try, Senator, but I'll have to score you a clean miss. . . you, or the
Elders, so much older and stronger. "

"Stop it! Oh, God, STOP IT!" The unbearable agony relaxed a little. " Eyes
locked and held. Do I understand correctly your thought that your race is _Homo
Sapiens_, the same as ours?"

"Why, of course it is," Lola answered in surprise. As it is, their instruments
are all registering dense silence. What happened?"

"We don't know, exactly. "

"Aren't you taking a lot of risk in giving away such secrets?"

"Not a bit. " She swung to her feet and walked out of the room, her every
movement one of lithe and easy grace. After what seemed to them a long time
they saw a sudden sharp flash, apparently an immense distance ahead, and
simultaneously three more alarm bells rang and three colored lights flashed
briefly.

"Now that we are able to act intelligently, the party should be introduced to
each other. All others of his ilk will die ere this day's sunset. Better get
your wet rags ready and get organized generally--every second will count by the
time we get there.

It was decided, and while the _Skylark_ was still some distance away, several
small islands became visible, and the period of rotation of the planet was
determined to be in the neighborhood of fifty hours. "They are apparently
trying to connect me with somebody. They can melt arenak that way.

"Ah, Tellurians, you are precisely on time. "I ought to beat your alleged
brains out! I've told you a thousand times to watch your own territory and
_stay out of mine_! If you had been where you belonged, or even taken my
signal, Frank couldn't have made that thirty-all point; and if Lois hadn't
netted she'd've caught you flat-footed, a kilometer out of position, and made
it deuce. Methinks I may be--Oh, the veriest trifle!--out of condition. But the
battle is almost over.

The flitter was not even out of the crater when the bomb went off. "While we're
out of touch with United Worlds you, as captain of the ship and director of the
project, are Boss, with a capital B. The Lord of Justice, High and Low. Even at
perihelion, an event which occurs only once in two hundred forty eight
Tellurian years, and at noon and on the equator, Pluto is so bitterly cold that
climatic conditions upon its surface simply cannot be described by or to
warm-blooded, oxygen-breathing man. "

As he spoke, one of the ultra-lights flashed around in a short, quick arc, and
the girl saw that instead of the fierce glare she had expected, it emitted only
a soft violet light. Now: is it your final thought that these interlopers are
in fact the descendants of those despised humans of so long ago?"

"It is. "

"It is also mine. He reappeared, grinning hugely behind his flaming wilderness
of beard. They crashed him there, and he won out and has what he went after.
Each Eddorian changed, not only its shape, but also its texture, in accordance
with the requirements of the moment. And so on. They kicked it around until it
got to Temple, and she brought her in here herself. Will you wait here on this
cushioned bench, Master?"

"No, we don't like to rest too much. I'm _always_ nice to anybody who is nice
to me. Do you think she could actually have de-handed those men? Uh-uh. This is
all I have to say to you, Enemy of Civilization. "I discussed it with him
yesterday. I can't prove it, however, even mathematically; because she's
altogether too full of too many new and untried mechanisms, too many
extrapolations beyond all existing or possible data. And you needn't worry
about the boys getting back safely. . . . I mean I think I can----"

Bernice, grinning openly now, stopped Deston's floundering. There isn't enough
gas left in the whole thing to make a deep breath for a microbe. "

"Hm--m--m.

"Dick, sweetheart," she whispered, while a hot blush suffused her face, "you're
not as dumb as I thought you were--you're dumber! But if you simply won't say
it, I will.

"It's up to you, Lola," Garlock said then. Two hundred kilovolts and four
hundred kilogunts.

"Fine-looking couple, Rod, if I do say so myself, as well as being smooth
performers.

"Pardon my curiosity, Orlon, but would you mind explaining the why of that
moving wall? We don't get it. "You will remember them. Why, those fields
absolutely will. . . . . how? You are not speaking, and. The truth, presented
to the people in language they can understand and appreciate, by a man whom
they like, admire, and respect, will be more attractive than Morgan's promises.
"

"That makes sense. And I'm not going to fight with you again.

And in a few seconds the commanding officers of the other two attacking
battleships were also surprised. You didn't work out quite all the theory. "









The Escape from Mardonale



"That was a wonderful bluff, Dick!" exclaimed the Kofedix in English as soon as
Nalboon and his guards had disappeared. Is it what you've been niggling at me
to say?"

"Aye, father and king, exactly--for as you say, you do. Didn'cha ever hear of
'Hellandamnation' Slayton? You will, buddy, you will. If Pershing doesn't give
him three stars after this, he's crazier than hell. Understand that you are to
keep off Miss Vaneman, words and actions. I am in charge of her, and I will put
up with no interference whatever. "

"_Something_ did something for you, that's for sure. Can you describe it?"

"Not exactly.

"Not too often, I'm afraid," Hilton said, and Theodora agreed.

All Rights Reserved. In fact, I was just going to get back onto my own job. Not
navigable, of course?"

"Not in subspace, and only so-so in normal.

When half the distance had been covered, the bar was reversed, the travelers
holding an impromptu ceremony as the great vessel spun around its center
through an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees. You know, of course, that
I've loved you ever since I got really to know you--and that didn't take long.
I never heard him called any real name before. We each know that the other
knows it. "

"Do they always. I'll ignore that crack about my mustache, though, since you
can't raise one of your own. "Except for this interview, you would have been in
New Orleans at that time, instead of in Spokane. . foggy, diffuse. . . and this
new C. "

"She's a damned female Ph. Wall-to-wall carpeting an inch and a half thick. A
grand piano. "

She smiled--a highly cryptic smile. There we shall play forces upon it which,
under those conditions, will be able to work it quite readily. . how would
'free' be?"

"Not bad. Those denizens seem to be particularly venomous, and we will not be
safe unless we have the most powerful and most efficient space-ship possible.

He did not know, he did not even suspect, that under certain conditions of
atmospheric potential and of ground-magnetic stress his perfectly designed
lightning-rod system would become a super-powerful magnet for flying vortices
of atomic disintegration. It'd be perfect if it weren't quite so. "

"How would that help?"

"It's a heat-engine, you know--works by absorbing heat. Put on that headset
again and get my plan, offering any suggestions your far abler brain may
suggest. We won't go down. I wonder if we couldn't plate a layer of that mirror
of yours upon the _Hope_ and carry along a few of those bombs? By the way, what
is that explosive--or is it something beyond Tellurian chemistry?"

"Its structure should be clear to you, although you probably could not prepare
it upon Tellus because of your high temperature. He thinks he can break down my
resistance. From the battery rooms of those fragments--open shelves, after
being sliced open by the shearing ray--he helped himself to banks of
accumulator cells from the enormous driving batteries of the ill-fated
_Arcturus_, bolting them down and connecting them solidly until almost every
compartment of their craft was one mass of stored-up energy. Mining, surveying,
dozens of jobs in many lines--far too many to list here.

In 1914 I graduated in chemical engineering. Question: should this authority be
political?"

"It should _not_!" James declared. "It takes United Worlds seven solid days of
debate to decide whether or not to buy one lead pencil. . . . and it might be a
lot less. Now get out on the job, all of you.

"Well, now that the battle is over, and since we are fed and rested, I suggest
that we slow down a bit and get ready to start back. It had been extremely
difficult for the Patrol's engineers to devise ways and means of tracing that
ship from departure to arrival without exciting suspicion, but it had not
proved impossible. What would you suggest, Dottie?"

"I don't know what general name should be applied to them, but for this one
there is only one possible name, 'The Skylark. " Tedric's eyes flamed more
savagely, his terrifically muscled body tensed.

"Quick! Get in. We shall not be destroyed, however. You see, we don't want to
point our beam too close to Jupiter or to any of the large satellites, because
the enemy might live there and might intercept it. Then, with that much done,
it'll be up to you to provide, since I'll have to work tooth and nail at the
forges. "Sorry to disappoint you, gentlemen, but--at any odds you care to name
and in anything from split peas to C-notes--Sam's right. Didn't mean to get
high, but I think we'll have help, if we can keep our heads up a while. I want
it straight from you. The monster neared the ground with ever-increasing speed.
Who else could it have been? Who else hath the strength of arm and soul, the
inner and the outer courage? No coward I, Tedric, nor ever called so, but on
that altar my very bones turned jelly. And Teddy Blake. After tens of thousands
of cycles of time they were doing a job for their adored, their revered and
beloved MASTERS. Reading a dead man's brain is steep, though. "

"I'll let you do it after we get there.

Perkins slid down into his chair in deep thought, his pale eyes under
half-closed lids darting here and there, his stubby fingers worrying his
watch-chain restlessly. I'm like that famous gangster's moll, you know, who
bruised easy but healed quick. "

Six heads nodded and there was a flashing interchange of thought among the
four. It won't surprise you, probably, to be told that you are to be this
system's councillor and--if we can swing it and I think we can--the first
President of the Galactic Council?"

Evans was so surprised that it was almost a minute before he could reply
coherently. "I ran and ran, and there you were. Couldn't ram him--he fell back
with my thrust. That goes right back to what we were talking about this
morning. She's a good little scout, too--not half as dumb as she acts--and
she's one of the squarest little aces that ever waved a plume; but as for
_playing_ her--too much like our kid sister. "

"True. " Kinnison's voice was not loud, but it had then a peculiarly carrying
and immensely authoritative quality. "But I've got to be _sure_ we can get back
without 'em. I have been attempting to analyze and to understand your purpose,
without success. You want to know why?"

"I think I know why. You can fill up or not--the fuel's here--just as you say.
The Larry also instructed me to explain, if you ask, how I got this way.
Leaving the registry, they were escorted to the dining hall, where a truly
royal repast was served.

At dusk he reached the Post. " Tallick's mien was. "Even if they can't paralyze
us, we can't hurt them, and we are heading back for Nevia. . . . . . "

"Why not have the boys in--Jill, too--and thrash it out?"

The young people were called in; the story was told; the problem stated. But
_give_! What's the score? Where's Kolanides? Or rather, what happened to him?"

"Dead. Folks, this is Sacner Carfon, Chief of the Council of the planet Dasor.
They saw us all the time, and when we headed for this, the Sixth City, he came
over from the capital, or First City, in the flagship of his police fleet, to
welcome us or to fight us, as we pleased. "



Seaton brought the vessel to the dock near the little group, and the Earthly
visitors remained inside their vessel while the rulers of Kondal welcomed the
sons and daughters they had given up for dead. As such, it filled every channel
of Universal Telenews for an hour. I know that you think it best to go out
there. Let's go!"

Down they went, past battery after battery of accumulators; climbing over and
around the ever-increasing number of huge steel girders and bracers; through
mazes of heavily insulated wiring and conduits; past mass after mass of
automatic machinery which Stevens explained to his eager listener.

".

"Give or take a couple of days, yes. Adlington!"

"Here!"

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

"Yes. Well launched, just inside the screens. . . " Crane, with Seaton, began
making contacts, rapidly but with precision. "_How_ it will work!" She paused.
Then, suddenly, she whistled; the loud, full-bodied, ear-piercing,
tongue-and-teeth whistle which so few women ever master. He picked up a
fire-extinguisher-like affair and jerked open the door of a room a little
larger than a clothes closet. He was assigned to the bunk in which he would
sleep for the next fifteen nights: "Fifteen down and three up," ran the
standard underground contract. This double-normal gravity made the going a bit
difficult, but he could stand that a lot better than some of the other things
he was going to have to take. "

They ate, hugely and with unmarred appetite, of the heaped food which Nero had
provided. "I have only one new fact of any importance; the name of one of the
higher-ups and its corollary implication that there may be some degree of
cooperation between Norheim and Uighar. Have I your backing in wiping out what
is left of Sarpedion's power?"

"If you will support the Throne with the strength I so clearly see is to be
yours, I will back you, with the full power of the Throne, in anything you wish
to do.

"Where's the rest of it?" asked DuQuesne as he noted the size of the bottle. I
don't need to tell you, fellows, how glad I am to be able to do this. S.
copyright on this publication was    |

| renewed.









FIRST LENSMAN



E. "Considering the strangeness of the environment into which you have
voluntarily flung yourself so senselessly, your mind is well integrated and
strong. "

After some argument, the officers agreed. "I do not _think_ that you will go
back to Eddore; I know it. How does it look?"

"He isn't even close. The other continents will follow her lead--or else.

Woodwork there was none. "That's all they're interested in. Where'd you make
the raise? I didn't know we had anything like that on board. What did you do
for thread? You look like a million dollars--you sure did a good job of
fitting.

Seaton made his way to the power-plant, lifted in one of the remaining bars,
and applied a little power. At its edge he cut them entirely and inched his way
forward by starlight alone.

As the atmosphere had grown thinner and thinner with increasing altitude
Costigan had regulated his velocity accordingly, keeping the outer shell of the
vessel at the highest temperature consistent with safety. "Dad and I came out
to see that you were taking care of yourselves, and to see what you are doing.
Are visitors allowed?"

"No," replied Seaton promptly. "I'd lots rather stay hungry until tomorrow. I'm
just going to look on, and when I see anything I want, I'll grab it and put it
into my own brain. "

"Says you," Garlock replied, skeptically, and all four went to work as though
nothing had happened. "He probably has as much intelligence now as any one of
us. Not too long, though, Phil--fifteen minutes at most. To quote the
Unabridged verbatim--I had occasion to look the word up the other day and I am
appalled now at the certainty that there was a connection--quote; Mentor, a
wise and faithful counselor; unquote.

Wherefore, in the inconceivably remote past, there had been put into effect a
program of selective breeding and of carefully-calculated treatments. "This is
not good-bye, but if we don't pull through we'll go together, and that is what
we both want. I was going to turn them loose, but now I don't know. One moment.

The _Orion_ went back to Ardane and an eight-day wait began. "Whether or not I
would be interested depends, of course, on whether there's a position high
enough for. I'll bet that it will be six hundred Jovian years before any of
them ever come within a hundred kilometers of it again. "

The telegram was sent.

"Right, and he stayed Chief Devil, in spite of all the efforts of all his
ambitious sub-devils to kill him, until the turning-point of the First Jovian
War.

"I don't suppose that Seven is far away, is he?" Carfon asked of the woman. . "

"Oh, I already have, sir.

"I see. "Don't believe that you hit anybody direct, but the shock was pretty
bad. What is your plan?"

"Plan, hell!" barked the enraged chemist. What few of the prints I saw
yesterday will fabricate, and the fabrications will work. Who or what is back
of them? Why a deadlock that has lasted over a quarter of a million years? How
much danger are we and the _Perseus_ actually in? How much danger is Terra in,
because of our presence here? There are many other questions. And Teddy Blake.

Three weeks later, however, he was made Senior Chemical Engineer, in charge of
Melt-Pour. I may have mentioned before that there are one or two, or perhaps
even three men who are better chemists than I am. Your vessels carry lots of
fuel--why can the hexans outrun you?" Thus did King put his problem. "

"How do you--oh, I see. The ultra-receiver had come to life and the sounder was
chattering insanely--someone was sending with terrific speed, but with perfect
definition and spacing. The returning wanderers stared at their own world with
their hearts in their throats as Crane, who was at the board, increased the
retarding force sufficiently to assure himself that they would not be traveling
too fast to land upon the Earth.

Since the Stretts could orient themselves in less than one second after
emergence, even this extremely tight packing of missiles--only sixty miles
apart throughout the entire emergence volume of space--would still give the
Stretts the initiative by a time-ratio of more than ten to one. Nadia tore
herself from Stevens' embrace, to see upon the lambent screen the happily
smiling faces of her mother and sister. Her lips were red and sweetly curved,
her cheek was smooth and firm as so much brown velvet.



The next morning, after breakfast, James followed Garlock into his room and
shut the door. "First Officer Deston and three passengers. Second, there's no
evidence that they wander around much in space. As a Division Head, you will no
longer be under me, but I am right, I think, in assuming that you will work
with me just as efficiently as you do now?"

"I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't. . . . "

"Address me as 'Your Supremacy'," the All-Highest directed, coldly. " Teddy's
voice was gravity itself, although she, too, was bubbling over.

"Yes, this was yours, once.

Belle got in the first shot.

"Haven't you done anything yet, after all this time?" demanded the magnate. The
music rapidly ran the gamut to the limit of audibility and, in the same tempo,
the lights traversed the visible spectrum and disappeared.

"This fruit salad, or whatever it is, is divine," remarked Dorothy, after an
experimental bite. . . . "

"Just what would you call 'colossal' after what you did to the Navy?" Karns
asked. Many are better--but a hell of a lot are worse.

But of what importance are mere weeks of time to a race that has, for many
millions of years, been adhering rigidly to a pre-set program?

The sheer magnitude of the operation, and the extraordinary attention to detail
with which it was prepared and launched, explain why the Strett attack on
Ardvor did not occur until so many weeks later than Hilton and Sawtelle
expected it. Farther and farther back she dropped, back to the limiting range
of the mechanism upon which Cleveland and his highly-trained assistants were
hard at work. And during all this time the forces of the seven sectors had been
concentrating. . . "



Port Admiral Kinnison, shortly after directing the foregoing thought, leaned
back in his chair and smiled. You don't know that man Perkins--if that is his
name. "

"We'd add uranexite to our food, I suppose.

"Sneer if you like," DuQuesne continued evenly. "There'll be an incoming
signal, probably, in a couple of days. Shall we stick around and see whether it
comes in from Cavenda or not?"

"You and Jack had better wait, yes. . . . . . . "

"Exactly. "Check all these prints, against each other and the files. Check the
two halves of the torn sheet, fiber to fiber. " He turned to the Lensless
Lensman, now standing quietly before his desk. For a man as brilliant and as
penetrant in every other respect.

Roger launched his field of red opacity, but it did not reach even the
_Boise's_ screens. Remember that one-half gravity stuff!"

"Oh, that's right, but it certainly does look funny. And as for producing
stuff; uh-_uh_! If there's any limit to what they can do, I don't know what it
is.

Exactly at the expiration of the stipulated seventy-two hours, the Galaxians
began to destroy military atomic plants; and, shortly thereafter, the
starship's crew was again ready to go. This is the starship _Pleiades_, of
System Sol, Planet Tellus. As you already know, it has been decided that we
should not return to any of the minor planets, as to do so might invite a hexan
attack upon our police fleet which is as yet unprepared. But in the meantime,
the position of our friend James F. . "

"You unbearable, conceited, overbearing jerk! Why, I'd rather. But how of
these, my other friends? Are not some of them. No automaton this, geared and
set to perform certain fixed duties with mechanical precision, but a lithe,
strong man in hard training, fighting with every foul trick known to his
murderous ilk.

"Of these four, the first requires drastic and immediate personal attention.
Not only do I not know any of your various languages, but no one language would
suffice. "

"Hold her here. You've probably heard what they call me?"

"Yes, and I'm going to call you 'Babe', too, and mean it the same way they do.
Secure ship. "

"Shall I blow the air, sir?" Tworn asked. Our figures are right. You would
think that they would shun all strangers. That is my belief, as you can feel
for yourselves, but I cannot _prove_ it to you. Only time can do that.

Silent and bitterly absorbed, though surrounded by staring officers whose
fervent, almost unconscious cursing was prayerful in its intensity, the visiray
expert kept his ultra-instruments upon that awful struggle to its dire
conclusion.

Writhing, white and sweating, Hilton opened his eyes.

"That's it, all x," he announced, after completing his calculations, and he
reduced their negative acceleration by a third.

"Heavens, Dick, be careful! You'll spoil the whole thing!"

"No, I won't. "All gods act that way, in spite of what they--through their
priests--say. To each man a loaf each day, and all the meat he can eat. Knowst
the Upper Midvale, Tedric, above the lake?"

"But little, sire; a few miles only. I was there but once. Right?"

"Right. "

"We are stronger physically, more alert and more vigorous mentally, with a
keener, sharper outlook on life?"

"You are, Master. "I'm going to blow out Number One vortex with duodec,
yes--but I'm _really_ going to blow it out, not merely make a stab at it as an
excuse for suicide, as you think. I'm _shocked_, too. "

"Coming up, Bill," and Hilton and Sandra, followed by Laro and Sora, dashed out
to their cars. You _will_ do, Olmstead, if you live. Honest, incorruptible,
fearless, you know that he will make the best president we have ever had. If
you do not already know it, ask any one of the hundreds of thousands of strong,
able, clear-thinking young men and women who have served under him in our Armed
Forces. And hit them hard--pulverize them. Three minutes left, and over eight
feet to go. "

"I'll stay," Belle declared. "No, damn and blast it, I _won't_ give in. Right
now, or as soon as you can. Samms is shot in the shoulder.

Tallick joined them then, and Samms again described glowingly, as he had done
so many times before, the Galactic Patrol of his imaginings and plannings. "It
looks as though the first action would come while we're on duty. " She paused;
eyed him questioningly. You are a freer type, DuQuesne, unhampered by foolish,
soft fancies. "

"All ordinary vibrations--that is, all molecular and material ones, such as
light, heat, electricity, radio, and the like--were arbitrarily called waves of
the first order; in order to distinguish them from waves of the second order,
which are given off by particles of the second order, which you know as protons
and electrons, in their combination to form atoms. Off. " Samms turned to
Kinnison. "

"That will be the smart thing to do, Chief; then you won't have to take any, or
make any report at all," and upon this highly satisfactory note the conference
closed.

"A day or so--maybe less.

Virgilia Samms went to a party practically every night. Have you read any of my
papers?"

"I'm sorry. " The Lensman frowned in thought. Even a spaceboat's hard skin of
alloy plate, with all its bracing, could not take what was coming next. They
are merely the intakes for a tortuous system of tubes comprising a veritable
heat-exchanger, so that the air finally expelled is in almost perfect
equilibrium with the incoming supply in temperature and in moisture content.
Then the government of the North American Continent--not the
Morgan-Towne-Isaacson machine, but all nice and legal and by mandate and in
strict accordance with the party platform--abrogates the treaty and names its
own Council. . . "

"I'm coming to that. "I'll tell the world you're no weight-fiend--you're a
spacehound right. How're you coming, Belle?"

"Nice!" Belle's voracious mind had been so busy absorbing new knowledge that
she had temporarily forgotten about her fight with her captain. "I'm just about
done here. Nerado struck me as being a B.

"And we've hardly started to cover the distance back to Tellus. "Right here--he
covered almost half the visiplate!"

She outlined for him, as nearly as she could, the exact position of the object
she had seen, and he calculated rapidly.

"Fine business!" he exulted.

As the Guardsmen neared the top of the stairway the mercenaries
disappeared--enough of that kind of thing was a great plenty--and Tedric, after
a quick glance around to see what the situation was, seized his sword from the
bearer. The First Cause has willed that you should be the instrument through
which Kondal is this day made supreme upon Osnome. But I've got their plans and
notes, and enough solution for the present. From a fortress there would shoot
out, with the speed of a meteor, a long, jointed, telescopic rod; tipped with a
tiny, brilliantly-shining ball. Mining, surveying, dozens of jobs in many
lines--far too many to list here.

In 1914 I graduated in chemical engineering. Space-hooks bit and tore. Pikes
and lances were driven with the full power of brawny arms. Here and there could
be seen trooper and hexan, locked together in fierce embrace far from any
hand-line--six limbs against four, all ten plied with abandon in mortal,
hand-to-hand, foot-to-foot combat. "



"Oh, yes," came a smooth, clear, diamond-sharp thought in reply to Garlock's
introductory call. Just as the faidon which you each now wear--the eternal
jewel which no force of man, however applied, has yet been able to change or
deform in any particular; and which continues to give off its inward light
without change throughout eternity--shall endure through endless cycles of time
after the metal of the ring which holds it shall have crumbled in decay: even
so shall your spirits, formerly two, now one and indissoluble, progress in
ever-ascending evolution throughout eternity after the base material which is
your bodies shall have returned to the senseless dust from whence it arose.
Going to see if she'll read. Squat, huge, and heavy, it resembled somewhat an
overgrown machine rifle, but one possessing a thick, short telescope, with
several opaque condensing lenses and parabolic reflectors. Laboring under the
weight of the thing, he strode along corridors and clambered heavily down short
stairways. We have more than ample time to do that which must be done--the
fifth-order projector shall be completed before the warning torpedo shall have
reached the planet of the Fenachrone--therefore over-exertion is unwarranted.
He never goes out except to work, never has any except unimportant telephone
calls, and the instruments register only the occasional scratching of a match,
the rustle of papers, and other noises of a man studying. He did know, however,
the course upon which the vessel then was, and he would know courses and
distances from then on.

"That's fine," he said gratefully as she finished, and a peculiar expression
came over his face. "

"Why narrow the field of investigation?" laughed the girl. Keller, swearing,
strode away with Piddy. Doors clicked shut. They faced a desk which, in
addition to the usual equipment of the business man, carried also a
bewilderingly complete switchboard and instrument panel. For each Eddorian, as
its mind approached the stagnation of saturation after a lifetime of millions
of years, simply divided into two new-old beings. Immense bolts of lightning
flashed and snapped and crackled; thunder crashed and rolled and rumbled; rain
fell, and continued to fall, like a cloud-burst in Colorado.

While Rovol was working upon one of the last instruments to be installed upon
the controlling panel a mellow note sounded throughout the building, and he
immediately ceased his labors and opened the master-switches of his power
plants. " Since Samms did not ask what the exceptions could be, Morgan was
forced to continue. They checked in thirteen and eight-tenths seconds minus on
the station, and a fiery dialogue ensued when the computer questioned the
accuracy of the location of the station and refused point-blank to correct his
course.



Having attained sufficient altitude to be safe from any possible pursuit and
out of range of even the heaviest guns, Seaton stopped the vessel and went out
into the main compartment to consult with the other members of the group, about
their next move.

"Friends, it is our privilege to assist today in a most notable event, the
marriage of four personages from another world. Their heads were globes of ball
lightning. Spacemen average young, you know, and their wives are still younger.
Well, these young women got jobs, most of them remarried, and so on. . _" The
great surgeon, bearded and massive, stared into the plate, and in his surprise
started to speak in his native German. That is why I am not going to ask them.
But dad--what an idea! Can things be _that_ rotten, really?"

"They may be worse than that. He almost succeeded; his speed was almost spent
when he began to nose over. He then sent a few--surprisingly few--telegrams.
Almost parallel to us and not much faster--even at this long range, it is an
easy kill unless he starts dodging, as usual. However, they now had a
twenty-room house instead of a one-room dormitory to live in, and a staff of
twenty Oman girls to help them do it. Are we finally ready to go down and get
to work?"

"I am," James said. "

"Yes or no, please. More like evaporation or sublimation, except that there was
no gradual diminution in volume, and there was no detectable residue, either
solid, liquid, or gaseous.

"Begin, Lord Tedric," said the king. A door opened, and from its flaming
interior four figures leaped out into the air, followed by a puff of
orange-colored smoke.

As had been expected, the Americans had more missiles than did the enemy. You
aren't head of your department because you don't want to be. I can calculate
and design almost anything, and I can make a pretty good stab at translating a
design into fabricated material. I'm going to house it in, re-jewel it, and
find out where he is. "



Far ahead of them a port opened, a lifeboat shot out at its full power, and
again their receiver tried to burst into sound, but it was a vain attempt.

"They've got something, that's one thing sure, to be able to neutralize our
communicator beams that way," he admitted. Shoot!"

The pilot's right hand, forefinger outstretched, moved unenthusiastically
toward a red button on his panel. .
you little realize, youth, what a priceless opportunity this will be for me to 
check the accuracy of my visualization. I shall spend many periods upon the 
problem. It was mathematically certain that, when the Gunther field went on, 
the ship would be displaced instantaneously to some location in space having 
precisely the Gunther coordinates required by that particular field. Eleven 
deeply tanned young men emerged from it and made their way to a taxi stand, 
where each engaged a separate vehicle. 

Sam Bryant stepped into his cab, gave the driver a number on Oakwood Avenue in 
Des Plaines, and settled back to scan. He was lucky. " 



Stevens' fears were only too well grounded, for during the "evening" of the 
following day, while he was carefully scanning the heavens for some sign of 
enemy craft, the alarm bell over his head burst into its brazen clamor. 

"Hold it, everybody!" Hilton yelled. "Tedric, ashore!" 

"Canst swim, Lord Tedric?" the boss asked. 

"Strictly speaking, we cross it not, but float down it. " 

"That conclusion is indefensible!" Tula snapped. He got up, jammed his hands 
into his pockets, and began to pace the floor. 

"I pick my own company an' I drink what I damn please," Jones announced, 
grittily. "Them lunkers ain't hurt none, to speak of. Goddard's pupils and 
followers made bigger and better rockets, and finally got one that could land 
safely upon Mars. " 

"Meteoric swarms still too numerous for safe travel along the scheduled route," 
came promptly from the speaker. 

"Murf? Spud? How come?" Clio, practically recovered now, glanced upward 
questioningly. 

"That would have surprised me tremendously yesterday; but after today--I'll 
tell you about that presently--it doesn't. " 

"I'm glad of that. That many parsecs, at least. The power is just what we 
figured it, so immensely large as to be beyond belief. I have found: 

"First: That it is a practically irresistible _pull_ along the axis of the 
treated wire or bar. 

"Well, that sure wins the----" 

An alarm bell sounded. All listened intently, learning that a freight-plane was 
being pursued by a karlon a few hundred miles away. The whole line of empty 
cars, acting in perfect synchronization, shot forward one space and stopped. We 
have laws," here he looked at the members of Congress and the judge, "which can 
be enforced. The conditions I mentioned would be difficult at the moment, since 
so few of us are here and it is manifest that few if any of our people will 
believe that such people as you Galaxians really exist. 



But to Neal Cloud the accident was the ultimate catastrophe. On Time Track 
Number One, that was the immutable result. That ship there is far from 
innocent--her being so far out of range of any of our power-plants proves that. 
But what I want to know is, how'd you get here? It would take more than my 
brains--you can't see our sun from anywhere near Osnome, even if you knew 
exactly where to look for it. Here, we'd better keep in touch. Anyway, such 
little, tiny, sisterly ones as this, and out in public, don't count. 

"There's no life left underground, so you needn't keep this squad of gunners 
tied up here," Garlock told the commander. " 

"She just thinks you ain't. I don't know what I'm going to do; I'll have to 
roll it as I go along. If we run away from them they'll probably reverse power 
and go back home, won't they? Their beam is falling apart fast, but they're 
still getting so much stuff along it that we couldn't do a thing to stop them. 
"We'll hold this lump of metal and the fragment of the ship carrying the salt; 
and we'll be able to hold some of the most important of the other stuff. How 
about the _Bolivar_ and the _Himalaya_? Not having much luck catching Mr. 
Garlock for the duration of his stay on Margonia?" 

"Oh, _yes_, sir!" she replied, excitedly. 

"You are so assigned. 

"Target Forty-one--six," said Fire Control; and: 

"Lawrence, two. " Clio laughed again, but sobered quickly. The Tellurian worlds 
of Procyon and Vega became friendly neighbors--thank God we learned something 
on Nevia--because they were already inhabited by highly advanced races: Procia 
by people as human as we are, Vegia by people who would be so if it weren't for 
their tails. Many other worlds of these systems are inhabited by more or less 
intelligent non-human races. 

Thus, at the pinpoint in history represented by the time of Virgil Samms and 
Roderick Kinnison, the Eddorians were busy; and if such a word can be used, 
happy. " 

"It's all of that, sweetheart mine!" 

"I almost died, every time they shot at you. . " he paused, searching through 
his scanty store of Earthly knowledge, then went on, doubtfully, "perhaps some 
thing like your insects. They developed a sort of intelligence, and because of 
their fecundity, adapted themselves to their environment as readily as did man; 
and for ages they threatened man's supremacy upon Titan. 

"Why, I don't see a thing, Steve--where and what is it?" They were dropping 
vertically downward toward the center of a vast plain of white, featureless and 
desolate; and Nadia stared in disappointment. 

"You'll see directly--it's too good to spoil by telling you what to look for or 
wh. . . . " 



As he spoke, the mighty fabric lurched under them, and only their quick and 
powerful tails, darting in lightning loops about the bars, saved them from 
being battered to death against the walls as the heptagon was hurled end over 
end by a stupendous force. You _can_ relax a little, I see. Thanks. Wilt keep. 
. . . . . . . . . you could be right?" For the first time since the "ghastly" 
transformation Hilton saw that there really was a bright side and began to 
study it. I've _got_ to. This landing is going to be tough. Slide around here a 
little, so I can get hold of you. When he was talking to you you must have 
noticed a sort of rough, sandpapery feeling under that necklace I gave you? 
Since he's got an ether-wall around you the beads are dead now. I will put on 
power until this bar is something less than half gone, then coast for three or 
four days. That gives us eighty-two days before the torpedo gets there--longer 
than I'd dared hope. " All high-tension apparatus was shielded and grounded, so 
that no stray impulses could reveal to the possible detectors of the Jovians 
the presence of this foreign power plant. Just as they have it completed and 
ready to start for Cantrell's Comet, where Stevens believes he can obtain the 
necessary metal for his giant transmitting tube, they experience a close call 
with carnivorous plants on the satellite and later with savage inhabitants, 
which precipitates their trip to the comet. It goes through space, gets near 
enough to the earth to be seen, and then goes off and disappears in celestial 
distance. That, of course, sets up a barrier against any frequency of the 
blanketed band. All x. I'll have supper ready for you at sunset. Be advised, 
therefore; fight no more until you know who pays. Wouldst any more of you be 
split like white-fish ere I go? Time runneth short, but I would stay and oblige 
if pressed. " 

He was not pressed. 

Tedric whirled and strode away. High above their heads the mirror again 
encompassed Seaton, and again shot upward and southward. Five times this 
maneuver was repeated before Seaton came down, landing easily in front of them 
and opening his helmet. 

"What do you think you're going to do in that thing, Dickie?" Dorothy called. 
We ourselves will operate through forms of flesh of no higher intelligence 
than, and indistinguishable from, the natives of the planets affected. They did 
not even explode. Good thing it didn't go off any sooner, or none of us would 
have been here. " 

She continued more slowly, almost speaking to herself, her heart sinking with 
her voice: 

"He is following us, and he won't stop even if he does see this dead star and 
knows that he can't get away. 

"Now's the time for you to study one, Dunark!" Seaton exclaimed. "You've been 
gone four hours, eleven minutes, and forty one seconds, but never mind about 
abstract theorizing. Get back here, to Pittsburgh, as fast as you can drive. 

Number Ten was another queer--the Tellurians were found incompatible. 

"Let's go down anyway. So you can wipe that off your mind with a clear 
conscience--the rest of us will get everything they've got there. Trenco, they 
call it. . . . . . . I hate to say this, Clee. " 

"I'd like that. He wrenched his axe free and shoved the corpse away in such a 
direction that the reaction would send him against a wall at the floor line, in 
position to repeat the maneuver. 

Since Mason Northrop was heavier and stronger than his friend, his technique 
was markedly different. I'm a hundred times as strong as any man ever was. Then 
the Vorkul spoke, but his whistling, hissing manner of speech so garbled the 
barking sounds of the hexan words he was attempting to utter, that Verna's 
slight knowledge of the language was of no use. They generate an extremely 
short carrier wave, like the Millikan cosmic ray, by recombining some of the 
electrons and protons of their disintegrating metal, and upon this wave they 
impose a pure heat frequency of terrific power. Then the other fellow will 
revive and cut his off, for an observation. How's that?" 

"All right. But boys and girls were notoriously prone to accident and to 
debauchery. . . . . stopped. Samms, en rapport with the entity who was to be 
his escort, made a flashing survey of the mind so intimately in contact with 
his own. A tender expression came into Crane's steady blue eyes as he looked 
down at the beautiful young woman by his side. 

In due time the captain recovered consciousness, and slept. Then for days the 
speedster flashed on toward our distant solar system; days during which her 
wide-flung detector screens remained cold. We will install refrigerating 
machines at once. And if the absentee were not to be found on Earth, what of 
it? The First Galactic Region included all of the solar systems and all of the 
planets adherent to Civilization, and the absentee could, as a matter of 
business and duty, be practically anywhere. The Titanians can hold a beam 
together from Saturn to Jupiter--why can't these snake-folks?" 

"Several reasons," Brandon argued stubbornly. "First place, look at the mass of 
that thing, and remember that the heavier the beam the harder it is to hold it 
together. . " 

"Galactic Vice Admiral would be better," Lola said. . " he broke off and stared 
at her, his contemptuous gaze traveling slowly, dissectingly, from her toes to 
the topmost wave of her hair-do. 

"Forty-two, twenty, forty?" he sneered. "But the truth is that you know damned 
well I'll blow both of your ships out of space if you so much as. It's a matter 
of physical reserves. Jim and I have more to draw on for the long shifts than 
you have. No more talk of the money end of it, Dick. As an exhibition of 
perfect co-ordination and instantaneous timing under extreme physical 
difficulties, I have never seen its equal. 

"That is," he hastened to correct himself, "they are not all equal, either, as 
they have two classes which would rank with royalty--those who have attained to 
great heights of knowledge and those who have amassed great wealth. We expect 
no return whatever, but if you _should_ by some miracle happen to succeed, what 
then? Deep seas being made shallow, civilization extending itself over the 
globe, science advancing by leaps and bounds, Nevia becoming populated as she 
should be peopled--that, my friend, is a chance well worth taking!" 

The Secretary called in a group of guards, who escorted the small package of 
priceless metal to the space-ship. Before the massive door was sealed the 
friends bade each other farewell. 

". . . . . . . . . " he began. 

"Yeah, and they said a lot of even bigger damn lies than that one. The trip 
ended on the top floor of the towering Administration Building, in a 
heavily-screened room containing a desk, a couple of chairs, and a tremendously 
massive safe. That is, if Bergenholm is _sure_ that the duplication is close 
enough. Our development is hindered, our birth-rate must be held down to a 
minimum, many new cities which we need cannot be built and many new projects 
cannot be started, all for lack of power. But those qualities which you refer 
to as 'force' and 'drive' are fully as rare among us as absolute mental 
integrity is among you. " 

"You've got a point there, Jarve, at that, and I'm one of the few who know what 
kind of a job _you're_ doing, so I'll relax. " She flashed him a gamin grin and 
they went on into the control room. It opened, and four husky orderlies rapidly 
but gently encased the long body of the Vorkul in the space-suit built 
especially to receive it. He agrees with you and Kincaid that the psychological 
approach is the best one, but your methods are all wrong. It is true that I am 
acquainted with those others, but they are my enemies. Throwing himself down a 
vertical shaft, he flew toward a tiny projector-locker, in the lowermost part 
of one of the great star's points, the hexans in hot pursuit. He wrenched the 
door open, and even while searing planes of force were riddling his body, he 
trained the frightful weapon he had sought. He pressed the contact, and bursts 
of intolerable flame swept the entire passage clear of life. A little thing 
like a beating is not a fraction of what he deserves and it would show him that 
we have found him out. 

And then--it chanced to be daylight at the time--Samms saw a tangle of 
fighting, screaming _colors_ whose like no entity possessing the sense of sight 
had ever before imagined. Reds, yellows, blues, greens, purples, and every 
variation and inter-mixture possible; laid on or splashed on or occurring 
naturally at perfect random, smote his eyes as violently as the all-pervading 
noise had been assailing his ears. Their skins were a strikingly, livid, pale 
blue, absolutely devoid of hair; and their lidless eyes, without a sign of 
iris, were chillingly horrible in their stark contrast of enormous, glaring 
black pupil and ghastly, transparent blue eyeball. 

As the two Terrestrials entered the room, the beings struggled to their feet 
and hurried laboriously away. "If you can't talk sense keep still. I don't know 
what kind of an audio system they've got, but there's no use taking unnecessary 
chances. . these things are. . " 

"Sh. . . . ?" 

"The Lord of the Marches issues his own orders. As a matter of cold fact, I am 
no longer human. Thus, they left it deliberately for some human race to find. 

The Bailey boom, with its spider-web-like network of grounding cables and with 
a large pulley at its end, extended two hundred feet straight out from the side 
of the ship. We won't get back until Jim and I work out something to steer us 
with. " 

"All right. . " began Margaret. 

"Yes, it feels that way because we have nothing to judge by. . . . " began 
Margaret. "What would have?" 

"With this new stuff the Urvanians would have wiped the Osnomians out. " 

"We'll have to, I guess. Shoot!" 

The pilot's right hand, forefinger outstretched, moved unenthusiastically 
toward a red button on his panel. "You might, though, at that. Airplane 
accidents are numerous, and I am an aviator. Also, has it ever occurred to you 
that the heavy forging for the Skylark, ordered a while ago, are of steel?" 

Seaton paused, dumbfounded, in the act of lighting his pipe. Soon it broke 
through, and the slight rush of air was stopped by the insertion of a tightly 
fitting rubber tube. I brought along a piece of platinum from the power plant, 
and something that I think is tantalum from Barkovis' description of it. " 

"And I said I wouldn't. The only way to develop teeth is to bite with 'em. I've 
been straightening out that brain record--cutting out the hazy stretches and 
getting his knowledge straightened out so we can use it, and there's a lot of 
this kind of stuff in the record you can get. We can outrun you, outjump you, 
throw you down, or lick you; we can run faster, hit harder, dive deeper, and 
come up dryer, than you can. Dorothy's parents and Martin's bankers will think 
they are dead by this time. " 

"That's the way with most problems," the Chief admitted. "We read ComOff 
Flurnoy. We know of the seventy planets, but nothing of what you found. He 
examined the compartment and the hatch minutely. 

"Wells, sir. You don't quite understand. I will call in a few of our most 
expert robe-makers, who will weave the gowns. Before they come, let us decide 
upon the ceremony. Our usual time for ceremonies is just before koprat--is that 
time satisfactory to you?" 

Assured that it was, he turned to his son. . I'm getting more afraid of it 
every minute. No, darling, she isn't playing games. She's playing for keeps, 
and she's a mighty smooth worker. " 

"You can say _that_ again. Nothing on Earth except a war could get them 
together or hold them together. . " 

"Because Olmstead can not do it," a hitherto silent mind cut in, decisively. 
"I, Rularion of North Polar Jupiter, say so. . . . . . " The droning voice 
broke off short in the middle of a word and the private stood rigid, in the act 
of reaching for another slip, every faculty concentrated upon something 
imperceptible to his companion. 

"Take the controls, will you, Nadia? Think I'll finish up the tube. Cleveland 
and I will come down, and we'll all look around. Which was practically all the 
time. If it had not been for you, this would have been the end, as not a 
Kondalian soldier could move--any person touching iridium was helpless and 
would have been killed. " 

"Oh, you expect, then. But for my money, you are people," Hilton said, and 
Karns agreed. "But there's no use of us waiting, if you're sure you know which 
one of those stars up ahead is Nevia. Do you, Cleve?" 

"Definitely. It isn't. She's a very fine person, with a very fine personality. 
May immortal Grolossen speed the healing of your father's wound. " 











Late that night--or, rather, very early the following morning--Senator Morgan 
and his Number One secretary were closeted in the former's doubly 
spy-ray-proofed office. His face was white as chalk. 

"Read that, Mr. Calkins, in Room 6217. He will run you through the mill. " 

And that night, in an obscure boarding-house, Mr. Crane?" 

"That is rather unjustifiably high praise, Miss Spencer," replied Crane, "but 
as I have been guilty of one or two things along that line, I may be the man he 
meant. 

"One more thing, Jill; a detail. He will have no information whatever, and the 
first attempt to do anything with the stuff will blow him and all the country 
around him for miles into an impalpable powder. You will lose your chemist, 
your solution, and all hope of getting the process. 

That evening he selected a smooth, fine-grained stone and whetted the already 
almost perfect cutting edge of his new sword; an edge which in cross-section 
was rather more like an extremely sharp cold-chisel than a hollow-ground razor. 
He fitted the two-hand grip meticulously with worked and tempered rawhide, 
thrilling again and again as each touch of an educated and talented finger-tip 
told him over and over that here was some thing brand new in metal--a real 
god-metal. 

A piece of flat wrought iron, about three-sixteenths by five inches and about a 
foot long, already lay on a smooth and heavy hardwood block. 



"I greet you, Supreme Grand Marshal Entlore, Highest Commander of the Armed 
Forces of Nargoda. This is the starship _Pleiades_, of System Sol, Planet 
Tellus. . . but I can't see why _all_ their power went out at once. I know, 
though, that the Osnomians have defenses against all these things except this 
last stunt of the charged guns. That must be the new one that Mardonale stole 
from Kondal. The other thirteen are fedo and fediro, or, as you would say, 
princes and princesses of the same nation. Radiating from the seven cardinal 
points of the building were short lanes leading to star-shaped open plots, from 
which in turn branched out ways to other stellate areas; ways reaching, after 
many such steps, to the towering inner walls of the metropolis. Scornful of the 
pitiful weapons wielded by man, she hung there, her sinister beauty of line 
sharply defined against the cloudless sky. The sun was setting; a vast ball of 
purple flame dropping rapidly toward the horizon. Darkness came suddenly as 
that seething ball disappeared, and the air became bitterly cold, in sharp 
contrast to the pleasant warmth of a moment before. I don't think Hodell ever 
saw a man like you before, sir. But before we do it we must do enough 
preliminary work to be sure that you will not be harmed in any way. He's big 
and he's clean. Comb _that_ out of your whiskers, you red-headed mule!" 

"Well. . well, peculiar. You two are a lot alike, at that, even though you 
don't look anything like each other. They may think we're stupid animals, but 
before you two and the Triplanetary Patrol and the Service get done with them 
they'll have another think coming. They are the ones I'm worried about. It's a 
sweet system--we'll have to rig up one between Tellus and the moon. It will be 
your responsibility to see to it that they do not rebuild. . and he would not, 
for obvious reasons, bring in his secret armed forces. Straight down one of 
those gigantic lifeless shafts the fleet of space craft dropped--straight down 
a full two miles before the landing signal was given. 

It being mid-afternoon of Friday, the traffic was already heavy. His thick skin 
was of the characteristic Osnomian green and his eyes were the usual black, but 
he had no hair whatever. " 

"What? Are you _sure_ of that? Aren't you holding back maybe just a little bit 
of a suspicion, for diplomatic reasons?" 

"I am holding nothing back; and through my Lens I can make you certain of the 
fact. Apparently you didn't time the interval between the shots and the arrival 
of the tanks. 

No sooner had the precious fluid been stored away than the detectors again 
broke into an uproar. In one direction was an enormous mass of iron, scarcely 
detectable; in another a great number of smaller masses; in a third an isolated 
mass, comparatively small in size. Some of them were single figures of men and 
women; some were busts; some were groups in natural or allegorical poses--all 
were done with consummate skill and feeling. " 

"But your statues are wonderful!" 

"As I told you, those statues were made myriads of years ago. All menial work 
and most of the manual labor is done by the slave race. Similarly, I believe 
that I can speak for the Triplanetary Council--the governing body of three of 
the planets of our solar system--in saying that there is no need for any more 
conflict between our peoples. I also was compelled by circumstances to do 
certain things which I now wish could be undone; but as you have said, the past 
is past. 

Most of the crews and all of the teams except the First were working on side 
issues--tasks which, while important in and of themselves, had very little to 
do with the project's main problem. It should be fairly easy, as it involves 
only a simple integration in ninety-seven dimensions. His arms were as large as 
a strong man's thigh and hung almost to the floor. The bar had been broken and 
these holes had been made by some heavy body, probably a meteorite, falling 
with terrific velocity. The bellowing, shrieking siren had cleared the air 
magically of the swarm of aircraft in her path, and quietly, calmly, 
majestically, the _Arcturus_ floated upward. 

She had intended to go up thirty feet. The monster disappeared utterly, and 
Seaton, with unerring hand, reversed the bar and darted back down toward the 
fleet of airships. He reached them in time to focus the attractor upon the 
wrecked and helpless plane in the middle of its five-thousand-foot fall and 
lowered it gently to the ground, surrounded by the fleet. Behind them came a 
somewhat smaller ring of light cruisers, then rings of heavy cruisers and of 
light battleships, and finally of heavy battleships. No wings--they act like 
helicopters. 

Nalboon rode in a large and gaily-decorated plane, which led the fleet at its 
full speed of six hundred miles an hour, the Skylark taking a placing a few 
hundred yards above the flagship. 

"I don't get these folks at all, Mart," said Seaton, after a moment's silence. 

"I understand your problem, I believe, since Orlon has transferred to me all 
the thoughts he had from you. When you do realize it, you will know that mutual 
destruction is inevitable if you continue this internecine war. But our 
science, so long attuned to the arts of peace, had fallen behind lamentably in 
the devising of more and ever more deadly instruments of destruction. 

"Probably you are right in that," Brookings paled slightly. 

"Is that all that was bothering you? What does a little money amount to between 
you and me?" 

"Nothing--but I'm awfully glad that I didn't know it before," she replied, as 
she returned his caress with fervor. "That is, it means nothing if you are 
perfectly sure I'm not. That is a point to which your two-value logic can be 
strictly applied. It was soon spent, however, and after the final observation, 
the others waiting in breathless suspense for him to finish his calculations, 
he made his curt announcement. Any who are not seated will seat themselves at 
once. 

"You first, Spud. Whom did you talk to, and what did he, she, or it say?" 
Although Conway Costigan was a few years older than the other three, they all 
called him by nickname as a matter of course. . . are you sure we can get away 
with it?" 

"Certainly," Belle put in. . . should think they'd _have_ to radiate from a 
center, and so be spherical," Brandon cogitated. "That's to keep on going 
straight out, the way we're headed now. . qualities virtually always mutually 
exclusive; but the combination of which makes your fusion uniquely qualified to 
lead and direct this new and magnificent movement. But Therea and I have been 
idle and frustrated far too long. " 

"How come you lasted till now, then?" asked Seaton. "Let's finish it up and 
shoot a little juice through it, just to try it out. All were dressed for the 
ceremonial leave-taking, the three Americans wearing their spotless white, the 
Kondalians wearing their most resplendent trappings. 

"This formal stuff sure does pull my cork!" exclaimed Seaton to Dunark. It was 
from the grand fleet of Kondal, hastening from the bordering ocean to the 
defense of the city. Short as had been the time consumed by their journey from 
the Sixth City, they found a curious and excited crowd awaiting them. " 

"We've been working along those lines ever since you reported," Rodebush said, 
"and we're beginning to see light. We've got acetylene emergency lamps, you 
know, and we don't need to economize on oxygen. There is, however, consumption: 
plenty of consumption. And what that incredibly intense bombardment impinges up 
is. Then hordes of young men and young women went suddenly and briefly to work; 
at least four in every precinct of the entire nation. . . . . Wait a minute, I 
just had a thought. "This hard conditioning was to last only _until_ the 
Masters returned. "This is too good to keep, and since they cannot understand 
English, I'll tell you something. It came right through the ceiling like a 
flash--went right through you and on down through the floor. 

"Oh, I'm _so_ sorry. . " the observer began, but broke off, muttering 
unintelligibly at intervals; then swung the visiray beam toward the Earth. It 
had very little water, very little atmosphere, and very little vegetation. Its 
atmosphere, while rich enough in oxygen and not really poisonous, was so rank 
with indescribably fetid vapors as to be scarcely breatheable. But these things 
bothered the engineers not at all. Order me up two more, then--one at half of 
what I've got here, the other double it," and he reeled off the figures for the 
charge and the casing of the explosive. Possibly some gas, but probably not. 
While we live there is hope. But do you realize just how busy a man you are 
going to be during those ten or twelve seconds?" 

"Fully. " Cloud's face grew somber. "You can probably whip yours, though, in 
time. . . 

He glanced at the king, then stared back at the broad, trampled, deep-rutted 
way the army had come. Soon he heard a car slow down overhead, heard a few 
rapid footfalls, and saw the dark form of a large man outlined against the gray 
face of the abutment. He saw the man lift his hand high above his head, and saw 
a black rectangle appear in the gray, engulf the man, and disappear. " 

"That is a terrible program, Doctor. I do not think that the Corporation would 
care to go into a matter of this kind. He must know what these Lewistons will 
do, and he knows that we'll get a chance to use them, some way or other, before 
he gets to us again," Costigan asserted, confidently--but again he was wrong. 
However, I missed the point that if control is possible, the controller must be 
a mind. 

"There is not quite enough of each of three components, all of which are 
usually associated with the male. The women, from heroically-framed Fao Talaho 
up--or down?--to surprisingly slender Mirea Mitala, all were arrestingly 
beautiful; breathtakingly proportioned; spectacularly female. In here, 
Thomasina!" The kitten had been climbing enthusiastically up his leg; now, as 
he held a pocket invitingly open, she sprang into it, settled down, and began 
to purr blissfully. While the barbers and Kinnison stared pop-eyed Samms went 
on: 

"She is determined to adopt me, and it would be a shame not to requite such 
affection. Would you part with her--for, say, ten credits?" 

"_Ten credits!_ I'll be glad to give her to you for nothing!" 

"Ten it is, then. "I crawl. . . . . . " 

"I said I was coming after you, and if I get away I'll be there. Scott, Smith, 
Penfield, DuQuesne, Roberts--quite a bunch of them. In that you are wrong. It 
is true that I am acquainted with those others, but they are my enemies. 
Throwing himself down a vertical shaft, he flew toward a tiny projector-locker, 
in the lowermost part of one of the great star's points, the hexans in hot 
pursuit. As he sailed through the air he spoke. 

"Wixill, I am being watched again--I can feel very plainly that strange 
intelligence watching everything I do. Now we'd better get organized old 
partner, for a long campaign. My idea is to start out like this. . . " 

"Perfect physiques? Why, they're as weak as children," interrupted Dorothy. 
"You be extra nice to her, Dick. You have not had your sixteen hours, but 
everything will be regular from now on. " Another man appeared, but the 
starship did not move. 

Garlock drove his probe. "Who is your superior officer?" and before the man 
could formulate a denial, that superior stood helpless beside him. Reacting 
automatically, Costigan swung his unconscious opponent around in front of him, 
so that it was into an enemy's body that the vicious ray tore, and not into his 
own. That leaves three of us to do all the other work of a survey. And her 
crew, instead of the usual twenty-odd men, numbered only seven--one cook, three 
engineers, and three watch officers. For some time the young Third Officer, 
then at the board, had been studying something on his plate; comparing it 
minutely with the chart clipped into the rack in front of him. He bumped one of 
them off with his hands and the others with his gat--one of those big 
automatics that throw a slug like a cannon. None of us knew he had it. It was 
hard work, and he did not want to wear himself out too soon. He might need a 
lot, and suddenly, later on, and it would be a good idea to have something in 
reserve. Apparently he did not notice that fact, but went quietly about his 
assigned duties. " 

"No matter what your duties may be, you'll have to have time to study. But 
after an hour of waiting, and while the microphones made a noise as of rustling 
papers, the needle of the compass moved. All blocks were locked at maximum. " 

"While that conclusion could once have been defensible, it is now virtually 
certain that the Masters had stores of knowledge which they may or may not have 
withheld from the Omans, but which were in some way made available to the 
neo-humans. Also, there is no basis whatever for the assumption that this new 
race has revealed all its potentialities. " 

"Statistically, that is probably true. We could so protect and shield each one 
of our protege races that not a war would be waged and not a law would be 
broken. 

"By George!" he cried, shaking Seaton's hand in both of his. Instead: 

"I would like to show you, if I may, the above-ground part of our Works?" 

"My time is yours, sir. Tighter! Smaller! Rounder! There! Hold it! Reality does 
not exist--distance does not exist--all possible points are. No Rigellian is, 
or ever will be or can be, what you think of as 'corrupt' or 'corruptible'. 
Indeed, it is only by the narrowest, most intense concentration upon every line 
of your thought that I can translate your meaning into a concept possible for 
any of us even to understand. I will call in a few of our most expert 
robe-makers, who will weave the gowns. Before they come, let us decide upon the 
ceremony. I think you are familiar with our marriage customs, but I will 
explain them to make sure. It was the thought-form of a living Master. Man had 
liberated it before he could really control it. You have what you call 
'seasons. ' This, then, must be your 'winter. ' Right?" 

"Right the first time. " 

"Good for you, Peg, you're a regular fellow!" Seaton exclaimed. 

"What was what? I didn't hear anything?" 

"Something screwy somewhere! I felt a vibration, and anything that'd make this 
mountain of steel even quiver must have given us one gosh-awful nudge. There's 
another!" 

The girl, painfully tense, felt only a barely perceptible tremor, but the 
computer, knowing far better than she the inconceivable strength and mass of 
that enormous structure of solidly braced hardened steel, sprang into action. 



There was no doubt at all that those beams were highly effective. Invisible for 
the most part, whenever one struck a Dilipic ship or plane everything in its 
path flared almost instantly into vapor and the beam glared incandescently, 
blindingly white or violet or high blue--never anything lower than blue. 

Fao Talaho was a couple of inches shorter than Belle; and a good fifteen pounds 
heavier. Finally, at over a hundred megatons equivalent, he did get results--of 
a sort. But to get back to our velocity--taking Throckmorton's estimates it 
figures somewhere near the order of magnitude of ten to the twenty-seventh. 
Fast enough, anyway, so that you'd better bend an eye on that plate. 

"Kinda think I'll do most of it from here, but you can't always tell. It may be 
one of those other people. Some of them, in fact, will live through it. On the 
other hand, what happens if we stay here? They will find us sooner or later, 
and we don't know any too much about these ultra-weapons. We are land-dwellers, 
and there is little if any land on this planet. 

Then, all racial opposition liquidated and overmastering lust as unquenched as 
ever, the surviving Eddorians fought among themselves: "push-button" wars 
employing engines of destruction against which the only possible defense was a 
fantastic thickness of planetary bedrock. 

Finally, unable either to kill or to enslave each other, the comparatively few 
survivors made a peace of sorts. Since each had an utterly insatiable lust for 
power, and since it had become clear that they could neither conquer nor kill 
each other, they would combine forces and conquer enough planets--enough 
galaxies--so that each Eddorian could have as much power and authority as he 
could possibly handle. " 

"We, the Elders of Arisia in fusion, are here. That sounded fishy to me, and I 
fired him. Although the whole proceeding occupied only a fraction of a second, 
it seemed to Seaton as though he watched the weapon for hours. The paralysis 
will wear off long before that, so he'll be all right when he wakes up; and 
we're going away from here with everything we can put out. " Deston flipped a 
toggle and the solitary green light went out. In that instant Cloud's mind 
pounced. Simultaneous equations: nine of them, involving nine unknowns. An 
integration in four dimensions. His arms were as large as a strong man's thigh 
and hung almost to the floor. 

"I pick my own company an' I drink what I damn please," Jones announced, 
grittily. "Them lunkers ain't hurt none, to speak of. . . . . " 

"I don't give a swivel-eyed tinker's damn how busy you are. " 

"Sure we can!" Kinnison protested. "With those special tools, cutting torches, 
and all the stuff, we'd be sitting pretty. Also, having the metal may save us 
months of time in mining it. . . . . if our number is going up, Conway," Clio 
began, unsteadily. 

"Not yet, it isn't!" he snapped. "What's your time?" 

"Three, fourteen, thirty-seven. So go back to bed, you night-prowling owl. " 

"Of what day, month, and year?" Deston insisted. "They're wearing anything and 
everything, from bikinis to coveralls!" 

"Yes, but notice. . we'll explore the whole solar system! Great Cat, what a 
chance! A fool for luck is right!" 

He came to himself with a start. " 

"Chief, you positively amaze me," Sandra said then. Good. " 

"Well, I haven't enjoyed it, either. It was none of his business; he was a 
rehab man. 

As good an indication as any can be given, perhaps, by mentioning the fact that 
it had taken the Patrol's best engineers over six months to perfect the armor 
which Virgil Samms then wore. For no ordinary space-suit would do. While we 
look all right to them, and they look all right to us, in both kinds of light, 
they look just as different to themselves under our daylight lamps as we do to 
ourselves in their green light. " 

"They see things differently than we do," explained Seaton. "Look at the 
Kondal!" 

Something had happened indeed. The peculiarly flowing subtly changing thing 
darted back and forth, rose and fell, appeared and disappeared; undergoing the 
while cyclic changes in shape and form and size, in aspect and texture. It was 
now spiny, now tentacular, now scaly, now covered with peculiarly repellent 
feather-like fronds, each oozing a crimson slime. If Lopresto is a financier, 
I'm an angel, with wings and halo complete. When it is done, it will be a thing 
of beauty as long as Norlamin shall endure. Hour after hour the massive wedge 
of steel bored outward, away from Jupiter; hour after hour Stevens' anxious 
eyes scanned his instruments; hour after hour hope mounted and relief took the 
place of anxiety as the screens remained blank throughout every inquiring 
thrust into the empty ether. " 

"I agree with you, and we shall proceed upon that assumption. They know, then, 
that neither they nor we can do anything as long as we maintain the zone--that 
it is a stalemate. . . . . " Her beautifully-manicured hands swept the full 
circle of her waistline, then continued to demonstrate appropriately the rest 
of her speech: 

". . there! Better?" 

"Infinitely better. '" She tried to be jaunty, but the jauntiness did not ring 
quite true. 

The power failed, and the lights. They won't turn 'em on and we can't. I 
haven't the faintest idea, whether it will take days yet or weeks. The way 
they've been going, they won't have it in twenty-five years. " 

"The whole planet!" gasped Margaret. "Right here--he covered almost half the 
visiplate!" 

She outlined for him, as nearly as she could, the exact position of the object 
she had seen, and he calculated rapidly. "This is the crater, here, with the 
vortex at the bottom, there. . " 

"Before you get too far away from the subject, what are you going to do about 
Eridan?" 

"Nothing, for the moment, would be best, I believe. Oxygen concentration a 
little high, but not much. Finally, still swinging his murderous weapon, Phagon 
of Lomarr went flat on the ground. His voice could not be heard in even the 
lessened tumult, but he continued: 

"It must be that our repellers have set up a partial vacuum by repelling even 
the air!" 



Suddenly the shelling ceased and the Skylark was enveloped by a blinding glare 
from hundreds of great reflectors; an intense, searching, bluish-violet light 
that burned the flesh and seared through eyelids and eyeballs into the very 
brain. The captive was standing utterly rigid, eyes closed, every sense and 
faculty mustered to resist that cruelly penetrant attack upon the very 
innermost recesses of his mind. A good-night kiss, Clee, darling? Just one--and 
just a little one, at that?" 

"Sweetheart!" 

There were more than one, and none of them was little. " 

"But suppose they change the width of their slices, and hit this cubby, small 
as it is?" 

"It'd be just too bad," he shrugged. "In that case, we'd never know what hit 
us, so it's no good worrying about it. Some passenger--disguised--slugged the 
Chief--took his suit and projectors--hole in duct--p-s-s-t! All washed out! 
Maybe that's all he was scheduled to do to us in this performance, but he'll do 
nothing else in his life!" 

"Don't go down there!" protested the girl. " 

And in the control room, to Sawtelle, "Needle-beam cover, please; set for 
minimum aperture and lethal blast. Armor--mark eighty fours--six by six extra 
heavies--a ninety sixty for an ambulance--full escort, upstairs and 
down--way-friskers--'copters--cruisers and big stuff--in short, the works. 
Quite an operation, don't you think?" 

"Immense, sir. Two hours ago, sir. There's a good one a few blocks further 
along. Morgan and his crew were swinging from the heels, with everything and 
anything they could dig up or invent, however little of truth or even of 
plausibility it might contain, and Rod the Rock had never held even in 
principle with the gentle precept of turning the other cheek. "Looking right 
through anybody is too ghastly for words, but I think they're perfectly all x, 
anyway, in spite of their being so hideous and so cold-blooded!" 









A Frigid Civilization 



"Hi, Percival Van Schravendyck Stevens!" Nadia strode purposely into Stevens' 
room and seized him by the shoulder. Two more whistling strokes and a moment's 
study of the scene of action assured him that there would be no more sacrifice 
that day. "One priest in copper, ten Tarkians in iron, a five each of bowmen 
and spearmen. " 

Tedric did not have to tell the boy where to go or what to do or to hurry about 
it; as both ran for the ironmaster's armor the youngster was two steps in the 
lead. 

"Of course Jill's going, if anybody does!" he burst out vehemently. "Count 
_her_ out, with all the stuff she's got? _Hardly_!" 

"Why, Jack! This, from _you_?" Jill seemed highly surprised. You see, Jarve 
didn't want to do it at all, but he had to. . . . and behind him, just out of 
eye-corner visibility, were the three kids. And a whole lifetime of this loomed 
ahead--a vista of emptiness more vacuous far than the emptiest reaches of 
intergalactic space. " 

Time passed. Their larder was full, the receptor was finished, and the beam 
transmitter was almost ready to attach to the turbo-alternator before the calm 
was broken. There the walls did not come together, but continued on to border a 
lane leading up to the massive structure of cream-and-green marble, topped by 
its enormous, glassy dome--the observatory of Orlon. 

"Welcome to Norlamin, Terrestrials," the deep, calm voice of the astronomer 
greeted them, and Orlon in the flesh shook hands cordially in the American 
fashion with each of them in turn, and placed around each neck a crystal chain 
from which depended a small Norlaminian chronometer-radiophone. Behind him 
there stood four other old men. I have, however, certain ends of my own in 
view. To accomplish my plans I require hundreds of millions in gold and other 
hundreds of millions in uranium, thorium, and radium; all of which I shall take 
from the planets of this Solar System before I leave it. Stop talking; there 
may be lip-readers or high-powered listeners around. Say the Masters didn't 
come from Terra, but from some other planet. " 

After a glance through the telescope, Crane knew that they were still too far 
from the group of suns to place any planet with certainty, and began taking 
notes. For a few hours the seventeen suns of this strange solar system shone 
upon the flying space-car, after which they assumed the aspect of a 
widely-separated cluster of enormous stars, slowly growing smaller and smaller 
and shrinking closer and closer together. They aren't wise to you, are they, 
Doctor?" 

"Not a chance!" sneered DuQuesne. "I didn't suppose a silencer could work that 
fast. The Ambassadors' Ball is next Tuesday evening, you know, and that's one 
function I can't stay away from, even with a Class A Double Prime excuse. " 

"We might iron him to a post?" suggested Crane, doubtfully. "In with a mob of 
normal-space pirate-smugglers. I'll buy that, but there wouldn't be enough 
plunder to----" 

"Just a sec. So he's a pretty good rule-of-thumb astrogator, too, and we're 
computing every element of the flight. 

When half the distance had been covered, the bar was reversed, the travelers 
holding an impromptu ceremony as the great vessel spun around its center 
through an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees. A few days later the 
observers began to recognize some of the fixed stars in familiar constellations 
and knew that the yellowish-white star directly in their line of flight was the 
sun of their own solar system. They had not been harmed. 

It might have been better, however, if Phryges had died with Kinnexa on Norgrad 
Field; in which case the continent would probably have endured. Chief Pilot 
Breckenridge and I will not be with you. Timorous Timmies. " 

"Huh? Oh. . . . . You haven't said anything, so I thought, perhaps. " 

Seaton removed the harness and glanced at the spot from which he had taken off, 
where now appeared a hemispherical hole in the ground. No amount of the hardest 
known abrasive will even roughen its surface. I haven't figured out how fast 
that is, but it must be pretty slow. . . . the matter? What's the matter? Oh. . 
. . you. And that wasn't _anything_ compared to such a radical transformation 
as this. " 

"You chirped it then, Blackie. Say the word and the war's all off. That girl 
has got everything. . . . . . or, rather, I don't see at all," Fao said, 
thoughtfully. "With your help we have reduced their strength to a fraction of 
what it was, but they have not given up. The general seized the instrument and 
cranked. 

"Get me Spearmint. " 

"Better tell us what it is, hadn't you?" The ambulance was now jolting along 
what had been the road. "They've got phones at the hospital where we're going, 
but you might faint or something before we get there. "Now it will roll--under 
its own power--no one man now is or ever will be indispensable to the Galactic 
Patrol--_nothing_ can stop it now!" 







EPILOGUE 



The murder of Senator Morgan, in his own private office, was never solved. The 
large bottle has a specific gravity of 1. 80, as it had when I prepared it; 
that in the vial reads only 1. EDDORE 



Like two high executives of a Tellurian corporation discussing business affairs 
during a chance meeting at one of their clubs, Eddore's All Highest and 
Gharlane, his second in command, were having the Eddorian equivalent of an 
after-business-hours chat. 

"You did a nice job on Tellus," the All-Highest commended. "On the other three, 
too, of course, but Tellus was so far and away the worst of the lot that the 
excellence of the work stands out. What had appeared to be a glade was in 
reality a rock, or rather, a ledge of apparently solid metal, with scarcely a 
loose fragment to be seen. Six feet four; shoulders that would just barely go 
through a door; muscled like Atlas and Hercules combined; skin a gleaming, 
satiny bronze; hair a rippling mass of lambent flame. 

In their massed hundreds, the savages dropped where they stood, life rived away 
by the torturing ultra-violet, burned away by the blast of pure heat, or 
consumed by the conflagrations that raged instantly wherever that wide-sweeping 
fan encountered combustible material. As we haven't got the stuff to set them 
up as the Osnomians do, we'll have to do it our own way. The other captives 
fell in behind, as they had done before, and the party walked boldly toward the 
door of the palace. The guards offered no opposition, but stood at attention 
and saluted as they passed. 

And weeks. We always have. I have nothing to hide. " 

"No. Nothing like that would be any of my business. 

"What difference would it make, anyway?" James asked. 

"As the pit, Eddie. Take over. Certain matters were, however, so self-evident 
that they were not even mentioned. " 

"Yes, I inferred that from Miss Montandon's comments. " Entlore fell silent and 
Garlock watched his somber thoughts picture Margon Base and his nation's 
capital being attacked and destroyed by a fleet of invincible and invulnerable 
starships like this _Pleiades_. 

"You are wrong, sir," Garlock put in, quietly. "Your profoundest thinkers have 
never been able to answer that question. If the foregoing were true, what would 
_you_ do, Junior?" 

"I'd pass, I guess. Will you tell the public, First Lensman Samms, what your 
guess is?" 

"I will. " 

Silence fell, broken by the secretary. Our detectives must have been asleep, as 
she made away with some photographs and drawings before they caught her. 

She stuck out a tiny tip of red tongue at him. Besides, that one particular 
area of obtuseness was a real part of his charm. Wherefore she said merely: 
"I'm not sure whether I'm a bit catty or you're a bit stupid. " Bergenholm's 
voice was calm, unmoved. "I do not _think_ that you will go back to Eddore; I 
know it. " 

"Do I? However, it couldn't have been jealousy, because he isn't being 
considered for your job. Very effective. " 

"It would be. " 

"What a _terrible_ thing to say!" 

"Take it from me, if Belle Bellamy doesn't know everything that goes on it 
isn't from lack of trying. 

_There_ was something vaguely familiar! Sweating with the mental effort, he 
blocked out the too-near, too-bright stars and studied intensively those that 
were left. And unless something could be done about loose vortices before too 
many years, the consequences would be really serious. Have you got that 
Pittsburgh beam for me yet? We're about ready to go. " 

"How would you test it?" 

"Same way you would. I never did like the looks of that old guy with the 
scythe, and I would hate to let DuQuesne feel that he had slipped something 
over on me at my own game. 

"Something like that, probably," he answered, lightly. Her friend's barbed 
shafts had not wounded her. 

"Do not say that, dear. Simple. He merely opened the safe, stuck the package 
into his pocket, closed and locked the safe, and took a company ground-car to 
the spaceport. What a thing to call a _port_! He checked back; recalled exactly 
this part of his interview with Pluto's Chief Dexitroboper. I perceive that you 
are indeed a native of that hellish Planet Three, upon which it was assumed for 
so long that no life could possibly exist. " 

"Sarpedion has nothing to say about it. . . . well, so ghastly that it simply 
gives me the blue shivers just to look at one of them!" 

"They're pretty gruesome, no fooling," he agreed, "but you get used to things 
like that. Here's another point in equation 249. Suppose the unstabilized 
copper were treated with a very weak current, not strong enough to explode it? 
A sort of borderline condition? The energy would be liberated, apparently, but 
in an entirely new way. Vaneman, as Seaton's prospective father-in-law and a 
member of his company, probably knows something about the secret. Maybe all of 
it. The "Skylark" is all ready to travel. Despite the strict and apparently 
effective vigilance of the enemy destroyer, Stevens and Nadia make their 
getaway in the lifeboat, which they aptly call "Forlorn Hope," and finally make 
a safe landing on Ganymede, where Stevens almost completes a power-plant and a 
radio transmitter, to enable him to communicate with the earth or with the IPV 
_Sirius_, which is used by Westfall and Brandon (two of the world's best 
scientists) as a floating laboratory. 

Tempus fugited. 

Orders came to get ready to load M67 H. D. But as Jim said, it isn't only the 
one specialty. "No space-ship could possibly hit Tellus from here except by 
accident with a single-ended beam, and they can't use a double-ender because it 
would have to be on all the time and would be as easy to trace as the 
Mississippi River. But this planet did all its settling ages ago--which is 
undoubtedly why they picked it out--and that director in there is a 
Marchanti--the second Marchanti I have ever seen. Six feet four; shoulders that 
would just barely go through a door; muscled like Atlas and Hercules combined; 
skin a gleaming, satiny bronze; hair a rippling mass of lambent flame. Temple 
came to a full stop and caught her breath. " 

"How do you get that velocity of flow, Carfon?" asked Crane. 

"Only occasionally, and all high-flying vessels are enclosed and heated to our 
normal temperature. The moisture of their breath condensed upon the inside of 
the double glasses of their helmets, rendering sight useless. Triplanetary will 
find us, even if we take up an orbit beyond that of Pluto!" 

"We have already left your Solarian system far behind. We are going to another 
system; one far enough removed so that the spy-rays of Triplanetary will never 
find us, and yet one that we can reach in a reasonable length of time with the 
energies at our command. Some five days will be required for the journey, 
however, and our quarters are cramped. Therefore make places for yourselves 
wherever you can, and lessen the tedium of those days by working upon whatever 
problems are most pressing in your respective researches. " 

The gray monster fell silent, immersed in what thoughts no one knew, and the 
scientists set out to obey his orders. He walked into the room, sat down beside 
her and took her hand. 

Both were, however, Eddorians. 



2. ARISIA 

In the brief interval between the fall of Atlantis and the rise of Rome to the 
summit of her power, Eukonidor of Arisia had aged scarcely at all. Such screens 
necessitate the projection of pure, yet dirigible, forces--you do not have them 
upon your planet?" 

"No, and so far as I know such screens are also unknown upon Mars and Venus, 
with whose inhabitants we are friendly. " 

"The inhabitants of all the planets should be friendly; the solar system should 
be linked together in intercourse for common advancement. " 

"No such assumption is necessary. Our thought is to make you a key man in a new 
and increasingly important branch of the business, known as Department Q. Hence 
his preparations for departure were few and simple. The number of his hot lock 
box is N469T414. His subbest sub-rosa girl-friend is Fi-Chi le Bay. " 

"Nice. " Kinnison turned to Samms, now beside him at the master plate. It was 
big, and powerful; the Galactic Patrol's publicly-known forces would have stood 
exactly the chance of the proverbial snowball in the nether regions. It was 
not, however, the Port Admiral thought, big enough to form an efficient 
cylinder, or to handle the Patrol's real force in any fashion--and unless they 
shifted within the next second or two it would be too late for the enemy to do 
anything at all. But that didn't make sense! Garlock tuned, first down, then 
up; and finally, at the very top of his range, he found something, but he did 
not at first know what it was. He knew that he had fought Morgan himself to a 
scoreless tie after twisting Herkimer--and he was no soft touch--into a pretzel 
in nothing flat. Cross over there and climb the hill--join us by that dead snag 
up there. " 

Kinnison told, but fought to retain what consciousness he had. "But surely they 
cannot be of any use?" 

"On this world, I am afraid not. 

"Think over a couple of things. We'll go into details later. " 

Jill, more furiously angry than frightened until now, locked her teeth to keep 
from screaming as the pressure went on. Badge of the top skimmings of the 
top-bracket cops. But I began to think, out there on the floor, that they 
aren't advertising everything they know. " 

"That's right, too. . he could be your identical twin. You two must have had a 
common ancestor--or several--not too far back, didn't you?" 

"We certainly did. But while resting and eating and loafing and sleeping and 
enjoying each other's company, both watched Operation Moon closely enough to be 
completely informed as to everything that went on. 

The Nevians had destroyed Pittsburgh, but Adlington's bomb had blown an 
important Nevian city completely out of existence. The fact that such a race as 
the Arisians had existed so long ago was bad enough. Clayton!" He Lensed a 
vigorous thought. . . . losses less than anticipated, only seven percent. " 
Barton stuck out his hand. Except for the pitted, scarred, slagged-down spots 
which showed so clearly what driving blasts would do to such inconceivably cold 
rock and metal, Palainport was in no way distinguishable from any other 
unimproved portion of the planet's utterly bleak surface. This device revealed 
flaws in every piece, and after thoroughly testing each one and mapping out the 
imperfections he turned to Seaton with a grave face. As soon as they were 
seated at the table she turned to her father, a clean-cut, gray-haired man of 
fifty, known as one of the shrewdest attorneys in the city. Our currency is 
based upon platinum, but gold, silver, and copper are valuable. Certain jewels, 
also. " 

"I don't believe it," said Seaton, their positions now reversed. Let's turn it 
around. Say the Masters didn't come from Terra, but from some other planet. He 
opened the bleeder valves, then both air-lock ports; the contaminated air was 
replaced by the ultra-hard vacuum of the inter-planetary void. 

"If I had a brain in my head, instead of the pint of bean soup I've got up 
there, we'd have worn these when they cut up the _Arcturus_, and saved us a lot 
of mental wear and tear," he remarked. "Should have got one aboard, but didn't 
think of it Joy told me if I come home without it she'll braid it in pigtails 
and tie it up with pink ribbons, and you're shaggier than I am. " 

"By blood, yes; but I was born on Newmars. Our actual and legal residence has 
always been there. Going up to a blank wall, he manipulated an almost invisible 
dial set flush with its surface, swung a heavy door aside, and lifted out the 
Standish--a fearsome weapon. Furthermore, you must discover his exact location, 
and must get close enough to him to use the zone as a weapon, all without its 
protection. 

"We're just in time," Kromodeor whistled. "Crystalline, pentavalent 
nitrogen--no wonder it's violent!" 

"We could, of course, cover your vessel with the mirror, but I am afraid that 
it would prove of little value. 

"Right through the battery room!" Bradley groaned. "We're on the emergency 
drive now. Drop whatever you're doing, put your heads together, and find out. 

"I see, sir. We are set up to handle four at once. So did you. You know that, 
don't you?" and his black eyes stared into her violet ones with such calm 
certainty of his ability that she felt her heart sink. 

"Yes," she admitted finally, "I believe you could--that is, unless I were angry 
enough to shoot you. No one had anything constructive to offer, except to go 
ahead with Bennett as you are doing. " 

"We've been having a wonderful time!" Dorothy declared. "They've got lots of 
power, and we can rig up a transmitter unit to send it over here to our 
receptor. Then I can start welding the old _Hope_ together without waiting 
until we get to Titan to start it. Knowing now what to expect, Prescott drove 
his racing motorcycle at full speed out to the Park Road Bridge and concealed 
himself beneath the structure, in a position commanding a view of the concrete 
abutment through which the scientist must have come. " 

The Omans came in and Hilton faced Laro, eyes to eyes. A murmur arose from the 
other Kondalians, which was quickly silenced by the Kofedix. 

"It is dishonorable for a soldier of Earth to kill a helpless prisoner," he 
said briefly. Then Saunders spoke, running both hands through his unruly shock 
of fiery red hair. And the photographers were prodigal of film, shooting 
everything from all possible angles. Keep 'em staggering, completely off 
balance. Instead, he ducked past the surprised and shaken Gaul. Still stooping, 
he seized the mace, which everyone except he had forgotten, and swung; swung 
with all the totalized and synchronized power of hands, wrists, arms, 
shoulders, and magnificent body. 

"Do you see it yet?" asked Dorothy with concern. Therefore as soon as it was 
determined that the great globe was being directed toward Pittsburgh the 
fish-shaped cruiser of the void went into action. We should like to hear the 
full reports of Captain King, Captain Czuv, Chief Pilot Breckenridge, and 
Doctor Stevens. "If either of your power-plants go sour on you again, or if you 
need any more built, be sure to let us know--you can come close enough to the 
inner planets now on your own beam to talk to us on the ultra-communicator. 
Thanks for your help. Silently they picked up the injured man and carried him 
gently into his own room, barely glancing at the wrecked safe on the way. 

"Wonderful!" Tedric exclaimed. "It isn't a city at all and it isn't even in the 
same place!" 

"No, ma'am," Larry said. "While this is not exactly a formal meeting, it will 
be recorded for future reference. First, I will ask Laro a question. The boat 
is well stocked according to Nevian ideas, but it's pretty foul stuff for us to 
eat. " 



Breakfast over, they started down the valley, Stevens carrying his helmet under 
his arm. 

"You have done a great deal for me--for us," she said simply. . lust. . I 
wonder. "Shortly after you left Osnome we were invaded by the inhabitants of 
the third planet of our fourteenth sun. Although it may not have occurred to 
you, a little reflection will show that the inhabitants of all the central 
planets, such as Osnome, must perforce be absolutely ignorant of astronomy, and 
of all the wonders of outer space. This is the first planet we have visited on 
our first trial of a new method--new to us, at least--of interstellar travel. 
Despite the strict and apparently effective vigilance of the enemy destroyer, 
Stevens and Nadia make their getaway in the lifeboat, which they aptly call 
"Forlorn Hope," and finally make a safe landing on Ganymede, where Stevens 
plans to build a power-plant and a radio transmitter, to enable him to 
communicate with the earth or with the IPV Sirius, which is used by Westfall 
and Brandon (two of the world's best scientists) as a floating laboratory. 
"Inadequately" in that the Chief Chemist, a highly capable--if more than a 
little cantankerous--Explosives Engineer, had already gathered into his 
Chemical Section most of Development, most of Engineering, and all of Physics, 
Weights and Measures, and Weather. 

One room of the Chemical Laboratory--in the corner most distant from 
Administration--was separated from the rest of the building by a sixteen-inch 
wall of concrete and steel extending from foundation to roof without a door, 
window, or other opening. 

"They mustn't come out, Dick!" exclaimed Dorothy in dismay. 

"Yes? Why not?" The words were innocent enough, but Kinnison's expression was 
full of meaning. Their government is a most peculiar one, the rulers all being 
chosen by the people of the whole nation. . . m. . " Lola began. 

"That's enough!" she broke in. 

"Daddy, Dick is asleep out there in the chair. She then performed a series of 
flips that would have done credit to a professional acrobat; the finale of 
which left her sitting calmly in the previously empty seat. All three ran out 
to help the unconscious aviators, but just as they reached the machine there 
were three silenced reports and the three men fell to the ground. Horses. But, 
like horses, we are lower than slaves. Those fish not only serve as food, but 
work in the mines, hatcheries, and plantations, and do all kinds of work for 
the Nevians. For Roger's analytical detector had stood him in good stead during 
those frightful minutes in the course of which the planetoid had borne the 
brunt of Nerado's super-human attack; in such good stead that from the records 
of those ingenious instruments he and his scientists had been able to 
reconstruct not only the generators of the attacking forces, but also the 
screens employed by the amphibians in the neutralization of similar beams. 

"We can't assemble _that_ kind of stuff with our minds," Belle decided then. " 

Garlock turned to leave. 

"What an act, my male-looking but impotent darling!" came Belle's clear, 
incisive thought, bubbling with unrestrained merriment. 

"Tweet, tweet--I'm a canary!" chuckled Seaton. " 

"That was how they got Dunark, undoubtedly," said Crane, as he sent a brief 
message to the girls, assuring them that all was well, as he had been doing at 
every respite. "But why were we not overcome at the same time?" 

"They must have had the current tuned to iridium, and had to experiment until 
they found the right wave for steel," Seaton explained. "Accuracy limited only 
by that of determination of relative motions. Give me an accurate enough 
equation to feed into it, like that tape is doing, and two sighting shots, and 
I'll guarantee to pour an eighteen-inch beam into any two foot cup on Earth. 

"It's a good thing you had three of them, Mart. By the feel, I should say we 
were falling toward something that would make our earth look like a pin-head. I 
remember now that I noticed that the bus was getting a little out of plumb with 
the bar all this last watch. The stream, while only knee-deep for the most 
part, was wide, fast, and rough; the bottom was made up in toto of rounded, 
mossy, extremely slippery rocks. Tedric, however, did not stay a landlubber 
long. In a couple of hours things had quieted down enough so that the 
heavily-screened warships could approach the planet and finish up their part of 
the job. " 

"But she'll never forget that, and she'll crucify you, as well as me, when we 
land. Ninety-nine percent of its area was "Inside the fence. 

"But they need those mines very badly; they are an item of very heavy 
production. " 

"I know it. Didn'cha ever hear of 'Hellandamnation' Slayton? You will, buddy, 
you will. I never have, and I'm one of the old hands. Your surgeon will have no 
difficulty in matching the hands to the men. " As Garlock studied them his face 
hardened. "That game isn't over, my friend. He saw the keen, clear, sharply 
discerning eyes; the long, strong fingers; the smoothly flowing muscles, so 
eloquent of speed and of power. Her skin is too thick. By means of hollow 
needles forced through the leather-like material of the suit Seaton drew off a 
sample of the atmosphere within, into an Orsat apparatus, while Crane made 
pressure and temperature readings. 

"Temperature, one hundred ten degrees. He measured the angle carefully and 
peered out of all the windows on one side of the car. As soon as they had 
started Dorothy turned in the embrace of her lover's arm. "What could a man be 
called who from the sheer depths of his imagination called forth the means of 
saving from destruction all the civilization of millions of entire worlds?" 

"Don't talk that way, please, folks," Seaton was plainly very uncomfortable. 
When within one thousand feet of the surface, Seaton weighed a five-pound 
weight upon a spring-balance, finding that it weighed five and a half pounds, 
thus ascertaining that the planet was either somewhat larger than the Earth or 
more dense. The ground was almost hidden by a rank growth of vegetation, but 
here and there appeared glade-like openings. 

Seaton glanced at the faces about him. Now let's go--make it snappy!" 

"Not yet. " Samms' mien, however, lightened markedly. 

"I've heard of them, of course, but I never saw one before," and the officer 
touched the shining symbol lightly with his finger, jerking backward as there 
shot through his whole body a thrilling surge of power, shouting into his very 
bones an unpronounceable syllable--the password of the Triplanetary Service. 
"Genuine or not, it gets you to the Captain. From the time required to make the 
trip, he knew to within a few parsecs Trenco's distance from Sol. He did not 
know the direction, since the distance was so great that he had not been able 
to recognize any star or constellation. He did know, however, the course upon 
which the vessel then was, and he would know courses and distances from then 
on. When he was finally released Captain French said, with a chuckle: 

"Off the air for a minute. I want to learn about these people and they've got 
me stopped cold. Otherwise you die of lung cancer. Will do?" 

"Will do, sweetheart. " Then he had another thought, and with strong, deft 
fingers he explored the muscles of her arms and back. " 

"Certainly, we must and we will," stated DuQuesne calmly. "The Lens of Arisia. 
"What are the symptoms? What do they say?" 

"Various. Main thing seems to be that they lose their sight. Gangsters and 
pirates use it, since they have nothing to lose, being on the death list 
already. The more we learn about Morgan, the less I like the idea of her 
working on Herkimer Herkimer Third. " Jill ticked him off on a pink forefinger. 
She had been asked for an opinion; she set out to give it without apology or 
hesitation. "I've got a real hunch that he's our friend, and I'm not sure of 
Nalboon. Outside the door, walking directly toward the landing dock, Dunark 
spoke in a low voice to Seaton, without turning. 

"Nalboon knows by this time that we are making our escape, and it will be war 
to the death from here to the Skylark. She turned in flight, but the stranger 
caught her in three strides. She found herself helpless in a pair of arms equal 
in strength to Seaton's own. 

Braced against the wall, Costigan sighted along Roger's body toward the most 
distant point of the lofty dome of the artificial planet and gave him a gentle 
push. Then, each grasping Clio by an arm, the two officers shoved mightily with 
their feet and the three armored forms darted away toward their only hope of 
escape--an emergency boat which could be launched through the shell of the 
great globe. One is Kondal, the other Mardonale. " 

"That must be his title," thought Seaton rapidly. He could not get even five 
seconds of trustworthy prediction, to say nothing of ten. Can't you delouse 
your signal? Whittle the stuff down to our size?" 

"W-e-l-l-," the scientist looked hurt, but did consent to forego the high math. 
"The discharge _is_ catastrophic; in energy equivalent something of the order 
of magnitude of ten thousand discharges of lightning. 

"Oh, what a dumb-bell I am!" groaned Cleveland. 

"Congratulations on that camera, Lyman!" he exclaimed. "A mutant? Born with 
second sight--or whatever it is?" 

"Not second sight, as history describes the phenomenon, no. And your 
assumptions may or may not be valid. In fact, you make a case for its validity. 
I never have, and don't now. Have you found Cantrell's Comet yet? And why so 
sure all of a sudden that they can't find us? That power beam still connects us 
to Ganymede, doesn't it? Maybe they can trace it. " 

Dronvire tuned his mind to that of the pirate and probed. "There are four cells 
they won't reach. 

"Captain Czuv! Hexan radiation, coordinates twenty two, fourteen, area six!" 
cried the observer, and the commander swung his own telescopic finder into the 
indicated region. " 

And so on, down the list. Not this time, but in a month or so, probably. " 

Doris brightened like a sunburst. "And your folks, too, of course?" she asked. 
"Or must we go out into the hall?" 

"Sleep? I didn't know you _could_ sleep. Nor did either Deston or Jones ask him 
what he was doing. " 

"I can't understand it," DuQuesne frowned as he considered the situation. "This 
is their own lifeboat, and they want us alive, you know. " Kinnison's head was 
spinning. "I'd like to check with Barton first. Then set up to enfilade if they 
try to come up over there. We're coming so fast that our outer plating's white 
hot, but it may not be fast enough, at that. . . no, not _with_ them, but each 
of us alone in a whole house with them to wait on us! But first, they all want 
to come aboard. . . is all that I can reasonably expect. . " 

"Address me as 'Your Supremacy'," the All-Highest directed, coldly. "My 
visualization does not indicate that it will ever again be either necessary or 
desirable for you to visit or to communicate with me or with any other Arisian. 
It was starkly unthinkable that Arisia would leave them to the eternal 
dominance of such a rapacious, such a tyrannical, such a hellishly insatiable 
breed of monsters. I am simply one of us three. " 

"Get 'em, Larry. 

"Point six three eight seconds, sir," the Omans said, holding up a millisecond 
timer. 

"How do you explain _that_?" Karns demanded. 

"She's a Prime--you wouldn't know anything about it. Thank you, boys, for your 
forbearance and your help. . . . " 

"To hell with uniforms," Garlock broke in. " 

"They don't. What do you do?" 

"Swim. " 

"Oh, of course--Stevens, the great Olympic high and fancy diver! I would 
_never_ have connected our own Doctor Stevens, the eminent mathematical 
physicist, with the King of the Springboard. Say, ever since I quit being 
afraid of the water I've had a yen to do that two-and-a-half twist of yours, 
but I never met anybody who knew it well enough to teach it to me, and I've 
almost broken my back forty times trying to learn it alone!" 

"I've got you, now, too--American and British Womens' golf champion. Shake!" 
and the two shook hands vigorously, in mutual congratulation. "Tell you 
what--I'll give you some pointers on diving, and you can show me how to make a 
golf ball behave. Next to Norman Brandon, I've got the most vicious hook in 
captivity--and Norm can't help himself. Solid columns of men, marching as fast 
as they could step--there weren't trucks enough to haul them all. They probably 
regard that black thatch of Peg's and Dot's auburn mop as relics of a barbarous 
and prehistoric age--about as we would regard the hirsute hide of a Neanderthal 
man. Cooper hurled his canisters of penetrating gas, Adlington his 
allotropic-iron atomic bombs, Spencer his indestructible armor-piercing 
projectiles, and Dutton his shatterable flasks of the quintessence of 
corrosion--a sticky, tacky liquid of such dire potency that only one rare 
Solarian element could contain it. Numbers of our men are killed every karkam. 
Their wives, if of marriageable age, are expected to marry again. How about it, 
Belle?" 

"A draw it is--temporarily. " Neither, however, even offered to shake hands. 

"Welcome, friend Captain Garlock. "Situation under control, thanks to you 
Tellurians. His analytical detectors had written down each detail of every 
weapon and of every screen employed; and even while prodigious streamers of 
force were raving out from his vessel, braking her terrific progress and 
swinging her around in an immense circle back toward far Nevia, his scientists 
and mechanics were doubling and redoubling the power of his already Titanic 
installations, to match and if possible to overmatch those of Triplanetary's 
super-dreadnaught. That beam, a pipe-like hollow cylinder of intolerable 
energy, flashed out, and there was a rending, tearing crash as it struck 
Roger's hitherto impenetrable wall. A vicious beam snapped him back into place, 
the weapons were snatched away, and all three captives were held to their 
former positions. Seaton adjusted the bar parallel with the needle of the 
object-compass, turned on the coil, and advanced the speed-lever until Crane, 
reading the pyro-meters, warned him to slow down, as the shell was heating. 
Free of the earth's atmosphere, he slowly advanced the lever, one notch at a 
time, until he could no longer support the increasing weight of his hand, but 
had to draw out the rolling support designed for that emergency. But nothing 
more happened; the door remained closed, the cell stayed bottle-tight, and time 
wore slowly on. Take your choice, but I believe that they know about it, and 
know more than we do--that it is a total barrier set up in the ether. 

Space became suffused with a redly impenetrable opacity, and through that 
indescribable pall there came reaching huge arms of force incredible; writhing, 
coruscating beams of power which glowed a baleful, although almost 
imperceptible, red. I deconned Bun, then----" 

"Bun?" Barbara broke in. . . . . . " 

"I have just brought immense stores of the precious chemical and of the metal 
of power to Osnome. 

"He's there, all right. No such concept as being planet-bound could exist. Yet 
you say, and it must be, that there are millions upon millions of similar 
beings. Think of it! Venerians, Tellurians, Martians, the satellite dwellers of 
the lost space-ship, and us--so similar mentally, yet physically how 
different!" 

"But where does the mythology come in?" thought Nadia. With a quick heave of 
his shoulder, he tossed her lightly backward into the smooth-beaten track the 
creature had made and tried to leap away--but the instant he had consumed in 
rescuing the girl had been enough for the thing to seize him, and he found 
himself battling for his very life. Laro weighed at least five hundred pounds! 
And the guy _still_ looked human! 

Laro nodded again and gave himself a terrific thump on the chest. Every vestal 
was making the same sign. Let's go!" 



And in Virgil Samms' deeply-buried office, Civilization's two strongest men 
were deep in conversation. 

". . IN FULL. Crane and Margaret talked easily, but at intervals. The men on 
duty--the normal force, that is--would be doubly careful for a time. If I get 
started talking to him now, I'd be here from now on, and I've got a lot of work 
to do. I will photograph the cadavers, of course, and perform the customary 
post-mortem examinations for the record; but I know already what the findings 
will be. No extremity of either heat or cold affects it in any degree, it is 
the same when in the most powerful electric arc as it is when immersed in 
liquid helium. " 

"How about acids?" 

"That is what I am asking myself. " 

"That's exactly what I want to talk to you about. They look human, but they 
really aren't. I would like to see what one of these people would look like in 
Washington. " 



Nalboon led them into the palace proper and into a great dining hall, where a 
table was already prepared for the entire party. "All I know about it is a hazy 
idea of what the word means, but I'll start studying as soon as we get squared 
away. "Maybe you'd better cancel that 'of course'. . . it looks like a relay 
station. " 

"What? Where's Pennoyer? And Riley? And. . . No, that is too long and 
indefinite and cannot be converted directly into sathura. The brain of the 
Larry is very, very tough. Seconds count. Slaves are simply intelligent and 
docile animals, little more than horses or oxen. Mardonalians and savages are 
unfit to survive and must be exterminated. 

"Their ministers are chosen from the very fittest. They are the strongest, 
cleanest-living, and most vigorous men of this clean and vigorous nation, and 
are usually high army officers as well as ministers. " 



An attendant announced the coming of the Karfedix and his son, to pay the call 
of state. Every color of the rainbow and numberless fantastic patterns were 
there, embodied in the soft, lustrous, metallic fabric. 



In this star-shaped ring two young Vorkuls were contending for the championship 
of the fleet in a contest that seemed to combine most of the features of 
wrestling, boxing, and bar-room brawling, with no holds barred. Members of the 
firm and members of the family, however, are not classed as visitors. Thus, the 
last starship to visit us here disregarded my warning and sent down a sensing 
device as usual--Engineers do not land on non-telepathic worlds, you know--and 
it was destroyed. This will require a missile of planetary mass. How much 
radioactivity will it stand?" 

"Allotropic iron, U-235, or plutonium?" Rodebush seized his slide-rule. 

"What difference does it make?" 

"From a practical standpoint. They were, however, potentially so capable of 
making things worse that they would not be tried save as last-ditch measures. 
In short, the control of loose vortices was very much an unsolved problem. It 
should be fairly easy, as it involves only a simple integration in ninety-seven 
dimensions. No matter--Cloud did not solve them laboriously, one factor at a 
time. This thing is too important to permit of mincing words or actions, it's a 
waste of time. " 

"Why, they said we had a very good chance. " 

"He is right, Dick. I almost thought you really meant it!" Dorothy chuckled. 

"I did mean it, Dot. This is an improved model--it has quite a few gadgets of 
my own in it. It is in no part due to imperialistic aims or acts on the part of 
Atlantis. Every nation is torn by internal dissensions and strife. 

All unsuspecting, the two pirates came into view, and as they appeared the two 
officers struck. Hiking parties decided that they had hiked enough and began to 
retrace their steps. Lithe young men, who had been doing this and that, stopped 
doing it and headed for the nearest trails. 

For Kinnison _pere_ had erred slightly in saying that the rest of the 
enterprise was to be an ordinary job of shadowing. No ordinary job would do. I 
want to meet Doctor Brandon and Doctor Westfall, too," and her hand met his in 
a firm and friendly clasp. She turned to the captain, and Stevens, noticing 
that the pilot, with a quizzical expression, was about to say something, 
silenced him with a fierce aside. "We will now proceed to see what makes it 
tick. " 

Ladder after ladder of steel they climbed, and bulkhead after bulkhead opened 
at Stevens's knowing touch. 

Cloud wanted to faint then, but he didn't--quite. Instead, foggily, he tried to 
look back at the crater. Every square yard of its surface was apparently 
exactly like every other. 

"This looks mighty good to me," Garlock said then. . . " the captain's voice 
died away as his eyes raced over the collection. Flashing his lamp upon 
Perkins, he relieved him of everything he had which contained copper. 

"Don't know whether we can stop that soon or not," remarked Seaton as he set 
the levers, "but we may as well have something to shoot at. . " 

And upon that cheerless note the conference ended. 



3. ROME 

"But what have you, Livius, or any of us, for that matter, got to live for?" 
demanded Patroclus the gladiator of his cell-mate. "We are well fed, well kept, 
well exercised; like horses. But, like horses, we are lower than slaves. 
Seaton, with no sign of his surprise, thanked the giver and motioned his slaves 
to rise. 

"Wright!" he bellowed, the echoes resounding deafeningly all up and down the 
narrow tube. Cleveland and I will come down, and we'll all look around. Back up 
to me, hands behind you," she directed, crisply. "Not exact, of course, but 
that will put us close enough so that we can find 'em with our detectors. For 
five full detets in every direction--throughout a spherical volume over ten 
detets in diameter--space was void of ships. . . . . . . . " 



"My solid hope is that we never have to find out. "The attack, if any, will be 
strictly modern. I hope we'll be able to handle it. That's all, except that I 
am quitting Prescott right now. I offer you the position. 

Crane glanced at Seaton questioningly, and Satrazon, the First of Chemistry, 
answered his thought before he could voice it. 

Belle got in the first shot. 

"Thanks, fellows," Samms said, when it became evident that the brief report was 
done. Instead, it simply spread out, _in a thin layer_, over an acre or so of 
the fortress' steep and apparently still armored surface! 

"You saw that, Alex? Good. In this case, better. '" She tried to be jaunty, but 
the jauntiness did not ring quite true. Those Primes. The women. They are so 
beautiful, so different from our Osnomian women, that he intends to keep 
them--alive. Understand?" 

"Yes," returned Seaton grimly, his eyes turning hard, "I get you all right--but 
what he'll do and what he thinks he'll do are two entirely different breeds of 
cats. " 

Returning to the others, they found Dorothy and Sitar deep in conversation. 

Having done all in their power for the unfortunate man, they stood at his 
bedside, their anger all the more terrible for the fact that it was silent. 
Seaton stood with every muscle tense. He was seething with rage, his face 
purple and his eyes almost emitting sparks, his teeth clenched until the 
muscles of his jaws stood out in bands and lumps. His right hand, 
white-knuckled, gripped the butt of his pistol, while under his left the brass 
rail of the bed slowly bent under the intensity of his unconscious muscular 
effort. "But go ahead with your doping. I'm worn out. " 

Jack and Mase stared at Costigan, at Jill, and at each other. " 

Sawtelle broke the silence that followed. Then, "Okay, boys and girls, I love 
you, too, but let's cut out the slurp and sloosh, get some supper and log us 
some sack time. If he could have got what he wanted, ten full seconds, or even 
nine, he could have made it, but. . . . _" 

"_Your visualization is sound, youth. Think on. There were mighty joints of 
various kinds of meat; birds and fish, both raw and cooked in many ways; green, 
pink, purple, and white vegetables and fruits. The majordomo held each dish up 
to Seaton for inspection, the latter waving away the fish and the darkest green 
foods, but approving the others. 

"Oh, Miss Bellamy, too? I'm _very_ glad you are here," Benton said, as he shook 
hands cordially with both. I know exactly what you want, and I can show you 
exactly how to make it. Distance does not exist--every point in the reachable 
universe coincides with every other point and that common point is the focus of 
your attention. As the last speaker sat down, Newton again turned to Brandon, 
who silently jerked his head at Westfall, knowing his own inadequacy in such a 
situation--realizing that here was needed Westfall's cold and methodical 
thinking. Listen:" 

"You ought to have a Lensman president. I can do nothing whatever to sway your 
opinion, for what your minds have perceived you know to be the truth. "You see, 
I've never. . . not. It is that which gives me the hope I have. You see, I 
don't know the composition of the I-P ray, since it is outlawed to everybody 
except the police. Not only were they manacled, but each was facing a 
ray-projector, held by a soldier whose expression showed plainly that he would 
rather press the lethal contact than not. In the first place, you'd be amazed 
at how little publication was ever done of passenger lists, and apparently crew 
lists were not published at all. They have been thought the surviving figments 
of a barbarous, prehistoric worship of the sun. A few weeks of carnage and 
destruction and not a hexan was within range of the detectors of Callisto--they 
were gone! 

"This is the first time in years that Callisto's air has been free of the 
hexans," Czuv said, thoughtfully. "Did any of you happen to notice whether they 
know anything about artificial insemination?" 

"D'you think I'd stand for _that_?" Belle blazed, before Garlock could begin to 
search his mind. Would such a race of beings have need of such things as 
cities? They would not. In the first place, you'd be amazed at how little 
publication was ever done of passenger lists, and apparently crew lists were 
not published at all. Let me caution you now; do not let any Mardonalian touch 
our hands with a wire, for if you do, your thoughts will be recorded and the 
secrets of the Skylark and your many other mysterious things, such as smoking, 
matches, and magic feats, will be secrets no longer. There's only one thing to 
do. " He stared at her, his face hard in thought. 

"I am Virgil Samms, a Tellurian," he sent out slowly, carefully, after he made 
contact with the outer fringes of the creature's mind. I _will not_ be a load 
on you nor hinder you in anything you want to do. . no-no, keep still! Too many 
planets listening in--_verbum sap_. Anyway, THE PRESS smells something, too, 
and they're screaming their lungs out, especially the sob-sisters. Now, Herc, 
on the air, you're orbiting the fourth planet of a sun. " 

"Wouldn't it be easier to destroy it with an explosive copper bomb?" 

"Easier, yes, but much more dangerous to the rest of our solar system. For more 
than five thousand years our instruments have been set to detect the vibrations 
which would herald the advent of the user of that metal. 

"We accept with thanks," replied Dorothy promptly. "We'd better go to bed. One 
more such idea, in progression with the last two you've had, would certainly 
give you a compound fracture of the skull. 'Night, Cranes. " 









DuQuesne's Voyage 



Far from our solar system a cigar-shaped space-car slackened its terrific 
acceleration to a point at which human beings could walk, and two men got up, 
exercised vigorously to restore the circulation to their numbed bodies, and 
went into the galley to prepare their meal--the first since leaving the Earth 
some eight hours or more before. It was not the first time, nor would it be the 
last, that a Director of Research would seize credit for work which he was not 
capable of doing. Besides, Virgil Samms was already there. In much less than 
the three hours Garlock had mentioned, every Ozobian transport craft had been 
destroyed. If they effect a landing we are lost. The Black fleet, so proud and 
so conquering of mien a few minutes before, had fallen completely apart. " 

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. " 

Tedric remained silent. Then, shaking himself and stretching, he glanced at his 
clock. You will really work. " 

Crane and Seaton spoke together. Crane's thoughts were on the beautiful girl 
beside him, and on the splendid young genius under his roof, so deeply immersed 
in his problem that he was insensible to everything else. Almost globular; at 
least ten feet in diameter; immersed in and in perfect equilibrium with a 
pleasantly aromatic liquid--a BRAIN! 

"Relax," the Arisian ordered, soothingly, and Samms found that he _could_ 
relax. " She flashed him a gamin grin and they went on into the control room. 

"Costigan, Northrop, Kinnison--attend!" he launched a thought. If Carbonero, 
who did not know Samms at all, had been amazed at what had been happening, 
Kinnison, who had known him so long and so well, had been literally and 
completely dumbfounded. 

"At a salary well up on the confidential scale. " Keller wrote a figure upon a 
piece of paper, showed it to his visitor, then burned it in an ash-tray. 

Kinnison whistled. "The main bout is nicely on. 

"That's better. '" She tried to be jaunty, but the jauntiness did not ring 
quite true. He said himself it's _you_ who has got what it takes to lead and 
direct, not him. " 

The young scientist was called in, and was introduced to the Commissioner. 

"Go ahead, Doctor Bergenholm," Samms suggested then. " 

Farewells were said; the party embarked, and _Skylark Two_ shot upward. 



"Great suffering snakes!" he ejaculated, then stood mute, for the plate 
revealed a terrible sight. Don't go blind, exactly, but can't see where 
anything is; or, if they do see it, it isn't there. Fast as he had acted, 
Temple had not had as far to go and she had got there first. I couldn't help 
noticing, back there, that you and Jack. Nostrils plugged. Anti-thionite, 
anti-Vee-Two, anti-everything. In fact, anti-social. I'll spread their pictures 
around and see if anybody knows either of them. " 

"Or, if we happen to be outrunning the beam, we won't see them at all. In case 
Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I should not see you again, we bid you goodbye and 
wish you a safe voyage--but we expect to go back with you. " 

"But. . " His voice broke off in the middle of the word. 

With a bitter imprecation Costigan flashed on the powerful ultra-beam projector 
of the speedster and focused the plate upon Bradley's prison; careless now of 
detection, since the Nevians were already warned. Upon that plate he watched 
the Nevians carry the helpless body of the captain into a small boat, and 
continued to watch as they bore it into one of the largest buildings of the 
city. 

In response to a summons from his chief, Perkins silently appeared in 
Brookings' office, without his usual complacent smile. 

"All right, boss; one more little infraction and I'll shut up like a clam. I'd 
like to know what the girls have been doing. " 

"Yes, I met him on the way over. I am at the _Chicago's_ main starboard lock. 
There was no light, no noise, but the massive portal swung smoothly open. A 
lanista, or master of gladiators, laden with arms and armor, entered. The two 
men, after staring intently at each other for half a minute, smiled and shook 
hands vigorously. 

Then the crossed pairs, and lastly the two girls--although neither put much 
effort into the gesture. 

Seaton went to the door and started to open it. But it won't be for some time. 
A few more remarks like that 'I beg your pardon' of his and I wouldn't have a 
thought left in my head!" 

Seaton, who had opened his mouth, shut it again ludicrously, without saying a 
word, and Margaret gave him a startled glance. 

"Now I _have_ said it!" she exclaimed. "They have something we haven't, or they 
wouldn't be here. " 



"Oh!" breathed the girl. " 

"The girl? Act your age, Senator. " Herkimer's nostrils flared viciously. "Our 
race is finished. All during supper, it was very evident that Belle had 
something on her mind. "You have said that your mind is feeble. If so, there is 
no simple expression of the weakness of mine. With no expense for boilers or 
fuel, and thus with a relatively small investment in plant and a very small 
operating cost, they were selling power at one-sixth of prevailing rates, and 
still profits were almost paying for all new construction. The heavy door 
clanged open. They got out. We can't do it exactly, of course; all we can do 
now is to set up a rough scheme. Just inside this boundary there stood a ring 
of statues of heroic size. 

On Rally Day Grand Fleet lay poised near Earth. The plates showed no familiar 
stars nor patterns of heavenly bodies. Yes, they probably stayed alive quite a 
while--or might, except for the rehab crew. Shall we do it as we did before?" 

"No, it isn't necessary. We may as well enjoy your hospitality for one more 
sleeping-period, get the platinum during the first work-period, and bid you 
goodbye just before the second meal. It would be an easy matter to have this 
same mechanism place your meals before you wherever you may go upon this 
planet, provided only that a clear path can be plotted from the laboratory to 
your person. 



When Clio reported that Roger seemed to go crazy and was floundering around 
like a wild man, she had no idea of how she was understanding the actual 
situation; for Gharlane of Eddore, then energizing the form of flesh that was 
Roger, had for the first time in his prodigiously long life met in direct 
conflict with an overwhelming superior force. 

Instantly the powerful weapons of the _Hyperion_ were brought to bear, and in 
the blast of full-driven beams the stranger's screens flamed incandescent. 
Heavy guns, under the recoil of whose fierce salvos the frame of the giant 
globe trembled and shuddered, shot out their tons of high-explosive shell. What 
is its real name?" 

"I don't know. What I have said is merely a statement of fact. Here it is. But 
she isn't showing a fraction of the stuff she's really got. However, though it 
might seem that the Urvanians had all the best of it, Urvan knew that I had 
something up my sleeve besides my bare arm--and he knew that I'd clean up what 
there was left of his race if they polished off the Osnomians. " 

"That's no Osnomian," he continued, as the stranger was drawn into the airlock. 
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 
sphere of war. Wanted to fly a Jenny, but chemists were too scarce. From there 
they scatter out in all directions. So I'll have to roll my own. Please 
understand that I speak in no derogatory sense; it is only that your race has 
many thousands of generations to go before your minds should be stored with 
knowledge indiscriminately. We ourselves have not yet reached that stage, and 
we are perhaps millions of years older than you. What are those Sedlor, anyway? 
Maybe we can help you dope out something. And just think of the complexes it 
would set up in those super-children we're going to have so many of. Blacklist 
him all over the System!" 

At the word "fired" Belle, had leaped to her feet and had stopped laughing. 
"That and perpetual motion are always with us. " 

"What d'you mean, 'us'? You aren't going, are you?" 

"Try to keep me from it! The names of all five of us I-G's were put in a hat, 
and I was lucky. " 



Stevens' fears were only too well grounded, for during the "evening" of the 
following day, while he was carefully scanning the heavens for some sign of 
enemy craft, the alarm bell over his head burst into its brazen clamor. 

"Hold it, everybody!" Hilton yelled. "I'll catch that thing yet!" 

At this evidence that Seaton still thought himself master of the situation, 
Crane began to laugh, though he still kept his hand near the controlling 
switch. At last he arranged a powerful electro-magnetic device so that one 
impulse would both open and close the switch, with an open period of one 
one-thousandth of a second. Put on these pearls, and wear them all the time, 
too. " 

"I don't know about that," he said, thoughtfully. "I'm glad that Sintris won, 
but I did not expect him to win so easily. He doesn't know one-tenth of one 
percent of his people. We know they were around here a few weeks ago, and 
they're the only ones I know of that have intra-atomic power besides us and the 
Osnomians. " 

"That's no Osnomian," he continued, as the stranger was drawn into the airlock. 
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 
sphere of war. I think it was some big industrial concern after our 
power-plant. We can't go ahead with it, anyway, as long as Seaton and Crane 
have nearly all their original solution. " 

"But suppose the man _is_ crazy?" asked Brookings. "He probably is a 
monomaniac, really insane on that one thing, from studying it so much. Finally, 
still swinging his murderous weapon, Phagon of Lomarr went flat on the ground. 
The two fighters sprang apart and studied each other briefly. 

"Somebody got quite a jolt then. "You may talk to both of us, just as freely as 
though you and I were alone. Almost everyone had chosen to double up; the most 
noteworthy exceptions being twelve laboratory girls who had decided to keep on 
living together. Atlantis, the parent, was and is a clearing-house, a 
co-ordinator of effort, but has never claimed or sought authority to rule; all 
decisions being based upon free debate and free and secret ballot. 

"But now! Parties and factions everywhere, even in old Atlantis. Too late, he 
knew that not one missile, but seven, had been launched from Norheim, and at 
least five from Uighar. . . . . . . . is all that I can reasonably expect. . 
Found out anything yet, Jim?" 

"A little. " 

"But suppose they change the width of their slices, and hit this cubby, small 
as it is?" 

"It'd be just too bad," he shrugged. "In that case, we'd never know what hit 
us, so it's no good worrying about it. " 

"Check. The one basic assumption was that there are no human beings other than 
Tellurians. Samms, intensely serious, spoke aloud to his friend: 

"The Galactic Council is now assembled. Do you, Roderick K. , but the whole Top 
is spun out and the rest of her won't hold air--air, hell! She won't hold 
shipping crates! All the Wesleys are shot, and all the Q-converters. Half the 
Grahams are leaking like sieves, and----" 

"Skip that, too. " 

"Don't worry about us, Chief," Rodebush replied with a smile. "I'm just driving 
around--haven't my armor along, even. " 

"Flapdoodle!" she snorted, inelegantly. "I don't see the connection, if any. 
You see, Steel is still watching us. Since you saved our lives, we owe you a 
lot yet. . . Just a minute! There's my call--I'm wanted in Fifteen. I suppose 
that you have a lot of things to thrash out, so you may as well start now. You, 
personally, are a perfect example of what is wrong with this planet. 

"Now you may try your radio," Adams said. "And call him Clee. You certainly 
have--what else do _you_ suppose put me so far down into the dumps?" 

"In that case, you _certainly_ will. . " 

"_Relief_ valve!" Jones almost screamed, "Can I dog the damn thing down?" 

"No, it's internal. " 

"Christ, what a design--I could eat a handful of iron filings and _puke_ a 
better emergency pump than that!" 

"When it opens," Stanley went stolidly on, "the water will go through the 
by-pass back into the sump. So you'd better rod out one of the glory holes and. 
. . . it _reeks_. . . . . . . . . ?" 

"Aye. 'Twas no raid, but the first skirmish of a war. But our science, so long 
attuned to the arts of peace, had fallen behind lamentably in the devising of 
more and ever more deadly instruments of destruction. "None of you will last a 
second in this red field. This residuum either is or is not dischargeable to an 
object of planetary mass; and I'm virtually certain that it is. But say, we've 
got a lot of power on our ultra-wave; enough to reach Tellus, I think. They're 
built to stand many hours of zero pressure and almost absolute zero cold. 
Question: if we destroy all their transport, say in three hours, can you handle 
all the fighters who will be in the air or in nearby space at that time?" 

"Very easily. Zerexi shouldn't have gone into a knot so early against such a 
fast man. Well, that's that--nothing to do about it until after we get there. 
Every night when Crane went to bed he saw Seaton in his room in a haze of 
smoke, poring over blueprints or, surrounded by abstruse works upon the 
calculus and sub-atomic phenomena, making interminable calculations. Dol Kenor 
will correlate power and electricity to and with the fields. " 

"Probably," Garlock flashed back. "It faded out and I couldn't recover it. " 

"What good will that do us?" asked Margaret, striving for self-control. "A 
chemist, a planetographer, a theoretician, _two_ sociologists, a psychologist 
and a radiationist. And six of the seven are three pairs of sweeties. What kind 
of a line-up is _that_ to solve a problem in _physics_?" 

"It isn't in any physics we know. . " 

"You'll tell me nothing, Jill--I'm telling _you_! Start giving away points in 
anything and you'll find out some day that you've given away too many. I'm not 
having any of that kind of game--and as long as you're playing with me you 
aren't either--or else. 

As he had said, he could do a certain amount of reworking; but the amount of 
improvement possible to make depended entirely upon what there was to work on. 
Thus, Temple could cover about six hundred light-years. If he wants to go that 
far away from home, where is his logical destination? It can't be anywhere but 
Osnome, since that is the only place we stopped at for any length of time--the 
only place where he could have learned anything. " 

So the argument raged. Several twelve-foot cockroaches climbed nimbly across 
the fallen timber of the morass and began feeding voraciously upon the body of 
the dead dinosaur, only to be driven away by another animal, which all three 
men recognized instantly as that king of all prehistoric creatures, the 
saber-toothed tiger. This newcomer, a tawny beast towering fifteen feet high at 
the shoulder, had a mouth disproportionate even to his great size--a mouth 
armed with four great tiger-teeth more than three feet in length. And honestly, 
Jarve, I don't see how it can be improved in any respect. You've done a 
marvelous job. 

They were asexual: sexless to a degree unapproached by any form of Tellurian 
life higher than the yeasts. They were not merely hermaphroditic, nor 
androgynous, nor parthenogenetic. They were completely without sex. They were 
friendly; most enthusiastically so. The pressure normal, he divested himself of 
the suit and made a thorough examination of the vessel. He then signaled Loring 
to follow him, and soon both ships were over Kondal, so high as to be invisible 
from the ground. Her emotionless, ultra-refrigerated voice went, as ever, 
directly into the screen. "That was my hunch. You fellows work out any ideas 
you want to. But there can't be two bosses on any one job, to say nothing of 
three or seventeen. In the lead strode the tall, heavy, gray-haired man with 
whom Samms had been dealing; still defiant, still sullen, still concealing 
sternly his sheer desperation. His block was still on, full strength. His 
thick, slightly wavy hair was black. Her Chief Pilot, however, was fast--_very_ 
fast--and he had a fraction of a second in which to work. " 

"Phooie. You and me, for instance?" She stopped, put both hands on her hips, 
and glared. "So _that's_ what you thought! What do I care how long I live, or 
how, or where, as long as it's with you? But what makes you think we can 
possibly live through such a horrible conversion as that?" 

"Larry wouldn't do it if there was any question whatever. 

While Rovol was working upon one of the last instruments to be installed upon 
the controlling panel a mellow note sounded throughout the building, and he 
immediately ceased his labors and opened the master-switches of his power 
plants. 

"You have done well, youngster," he congratulated his helper, as he began to 
take off his protective covering, "Without your aid I could not have 
accomplished nearly this much during one period of labor. The periods of 
exercise and of relaxation are at hand--let us return to the house of Orlon, 
where we all shall gather to relax and to refresh ourselves for the labors of 
tomorrow. I am more interested in that which we are now building than you can 
possibly be, since many generations of the Rovol have anticipated its 
construction; yet I realize that in the interest of our welfare and for the 
progress of civilization, today's labors must not be prolonged beyond today's 
period of work. James can tell you. He said this was a little less than half of 
it, but that you could have the rest of it any time you want it. " 

"Do you suppose they will fight, anyway?" asked Crane. 

"I think we'll be able to pull their corks now, all right, after we get some 
dope. That saves our wasting some effort. One hour and an observer upon the 
Skylark would have seen that the apparent size of the massive unknown world was 
rapidly decreasing; twenty hours and it was so far away as to be invisible, 
though its effect was still great; forty hours and the effect was slight; sixty 
hours and the Skylark was out of range of the slightest measurable force of the 
monster it had left. And unless something could be done about loose vortices 
before too many years, the consequences would be really serious. Frank's a lot 
more fun. " 

The staff had gathered in the lounge, as had become the custom, to spend an 
hour or so before bedtime in reading, conversation, dancing, light flirtation 
and even lighter drinking. Most of the girls, and many of the men, drank only 
soft drinks. Hilton took one drink per day of avignognac, a fine old brandy. So 
did de Vaux--the two usually making a ceremony of it. " 

"Oh--Lola's right, Jim," Garlock said. 

"We can't keep it secret, anyway," Teddy argued. 

"Yes, but you haven't got the idea yet. We discussed once before, you remember, 
what a job it was to get into any kind of communication with the Palainians on 
Pluto. You said then that nobody could understand them, and you were 
right--then. However, I re-ran those brain-wave tapes, wearing my Lens, and 
could understand them--the thoughts, that is--as well as though they had been 
recorded in precisionist-grade English. Seaton pressed the lever, receiving as 
he did so a sensation of an unbroken calm, a serenity profound and untroubled, 
and the projection spoke. "It was never in such a field before. They'll see to 
that. We've got away clean with lots worse stuff. If he stepped out ready for 
business she'd fry him, and quick. You may not know it, but the fastest ships 
in space are chasing us, right now. " Foster's voice rose almost to a scream. 
"They must know--they're all getting out of the water and are rushing inside 
the buildings as fast as they possibly can!" 

"I see they are," grimly. "I'm right over you now, 'way up. I couldn't have you 
with me in space, and I'd like that a lot less. " 

"That makes sense. " 

"Why not?" Samms asked, sharply. "That was Spaceways, under cover?" 

"Definitely. Now see what you can do about getting me run through your mill. " 

By exerting his authority, Hilton got Sawtelle put through the "Preservatory" 
in the second batch processed. Then, linking minds with the captain, he flashed 
their joint attention to the Hall of Records. Would you like to see them?" 

"Send them to my office. The Omans were all standing motionless. "Doesn't it 
make you feel funny?" 

"It is a queer sensation. For the first time in months they had nothing to do! 
Used as they were to being surrounded by pressing tasks, they enjoyed their 
holiday immensely for a few hours. "Good Lord, Clio, why didn't you call me?" 

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

"No--I feel hungry," he answered cheerfully. "If we're not a match for you and 
your gang, on foot or in the air, in body or in mind, we'll deserve whatever we 
get. How'd it be for you to navigate us over to the third planet of the 
fourteenth sun?" 

"While you build a Fenachrone super-generator?" 

"Right, the first time. Even if we killed everybody outside, the ship would 
take off before we could get close enough to open the port with the outside 
controls. "How does she work on a dead stick, Chief?" 

"Maneuverability about minus ten at this speed and in this air. 

"Taken!" came an answering yell. 

"Beat it!" 

Once more at a safe distance, DuQuesne explained. 

"I should think our bar would have exploded, with all that current. As the 
passenger saw daylight and felt the stream begin to drop, he righted himself, 
apparently selecting an objective point, and rode the current down into the 
ocean. Even with our full force of these vessels, we cannot defeat them. From 
it there reached down twin fans of death and destruction: one flaming and 
almost invisibly incandescent violet which tore at the eyes and excruciatingly 
disintegrated brain and nervous tissues; the other dully glowing an equally 
invisible red, at the touch of which body temperature soared to lethal heights 
and foliage burst cracklingly into spontaneous flame. 

In their massed hundreds, the savages dropped where they stood, life rived away 
by the torturing ultra-violet, burned away by the blast of pure heat, or 
consumed by the conflagrations that raged instantly wherever that wide-sweeping 
fan encountered combustible material. Slightly to one side were 
Rhoann--looking, if the truth must be told, as though she did not particularly 
enjoy her present position on the side-lines--her mother the queen, the rest of 
the royal family, and ranks of courtiers. 

Reaching the Temple of Scheene, he found to his immense relief that he would 
not have to storm that heavily-manned rampart alone. " 

That statement required a special type of conference, which consumed some 
little time. " She laughed suddenly, her face softening markedly. 

"Why the silence, I wonder?" asked Seaton, while the futile shells of the enemy 
continued to waste their force some hundreds of feet distant from their goal, 
and while Crane and DuQuesne were methodically destroying the huge vessels as 
fast as they could aim and fire. As they sat down, Innocent entered the room, 
carrying a tall, dewy mint julep on a tray. Piddy was right there, waiting, and 
started to raise hell. " 

"You called Deke?" A man came running up. " 



Around and around the mass of wreckage they crept, and in each of the larger 
sections Stevens connected up the enormous fixed or dirigible projectors to 
whatever accumulator cells were available through sensitive relays, all of 
which he could close by means of one radio impulse. Anyway, it didn't. They 
stock lunch-boxes in the cafeteria, you know. And, Prime Operator though he 
was, it was all he could do to make no sign; for that fleetingly-revealed 
memory was a perfect job. Very little of their stuff got through--not enough, 
they say, to do much damage to a country as big as the U. S. copyright on this 
publication was renewed. 







































MASTERS OF SPACE 



By EDWARD E. SMITH, Ph. D. C. DuQuesne, of the Rare Metals Laboratory, as soon 
as possible. 

Kromodeor was one of the last to go down. And if I die now, of what worth is 
Sarpedion's fraction of a metal that will never be made? Think well, priest!" 

Sarpedion's agent studied the truculent, glaring ironmaster for a long two 
minutes. As he finished, he drew himself along by a handrail to one of the 
windows, then to another. " 

"Oh? More than one way? That makes it still worse. " 

"I'll say. . . " 

"Shut up, Jane! They won't hurt us any more than they have already; it's 
psychologically impossible. We need something which will identify any 
representative of Civilization, positively and unmistakably, wherever he may 
be. I'm beginning to wonder. . . . Got 'em both. Thus, the energy required to 
lift you three came from the field, but the amount was so small that it did not 
lower the potential of the field by any measurable amount. Please remain 
seated, or move about with caution. In about an hour weight will gradually 
return to normal. We start in one minute. " 

"I suppose that it would be poor technique to ask how you know?" 

"It would--very poor. Our figures are right. . I didn't. . . . . . . . . ask 
for your resignation," the President announced at last. 

"Save your breath," Kinnison advised. "I came down here to do a job, and the 
only way you can keep me from doing that job is to fire me. For all of which 
good reasons I am not going to pair with you, now or ever. 

"This thing smells, Herkimer. " Jill tried desperately to pull her shattered 
nerves together. "I admit that I was shocked, Admiral Montandon. But 
landing--really, I have nothing to do with landings. They are handled by. . . . 
. . " Deston paused, thought a moment, then went on: "Maybe I wouldn't, either. 
Maybe it had a mellowing effect. " Both girls flushed slightly, the 
purplish-black color suffusing their faces. Clio broke the silence. 

"Every second counts. Man-power and tonnage and fire-power are important, of 
course, but morale has won every war in history. " 

"If they decide to wait for the election, yes. I can't name it, either--maybe 
you had better call Genealogy some day and find out. They're not taking any 
chances at all--they're going to paral. . " He reached out; two hard hands met 
in a crushing grip. "How could you possibly lay off? Just the strain, if 
nothing else. . . . . . please fill out completely. Consider only the fields. 
Feel around with me--keep tuned!--see if there's anything at all here that we 
can grab hold of and manipulate, like an Op field except probably very much 
finer. I'll be completely damned if I can see how this type of Gunther 
generator can put out a manipulable field, but it must. That's the 
only--O-W-R-C-H-H!" 

This last was a yell of pure mental agony. . . " 

"But fishy!" Cleveland broke in. . . . stopped. Wonder if somebody's there 
ahead of us? Maybe Dunark is doing this, though. Doradus S, for instance, would 
make Rigel, here, look like a tallow candle. I'm going out there, some of these 
days, just to take a look at it. " 

"But you _couldn't_ have meant it, Dick! You wouldn't have destroyed the 
Osnomians, surely--you know you wouldn't. I'm Terran Navy. Subject to civilian 
control, of course, but the civilians will be the United Galaxian Societies of 
the Galaxy, and nobody else. Whether or not it will breed true is an 
interesting topic of speculation, but one having nothing to do with the problem 
now in hand. 

Then, re-forming, a backward smash; then another drive forward. 

Hilton did not bother to maneuver his "big, husky carcass" around the desk, but 
simply hurdled it, straight toward her. There would have, also, been certain 
strings attached. Her plan was, after switching the pairings. . . . . I've just 
got a kind of a hunch that maybe they don't belong in this Galaxy at all--that 
they might be from some other Galaxy, planet and all; just riding around on it, 
as we are riding in the _Skylark_. Seaton stood motionless, his right hand 
raised in the universal sign of peace, his left holding at his hip an automatic 
pistol charged with X-plosive shells--while Crane, at the controls, had the 
Fenachrone super-generator in line, and his hand lay upon the switch, whose 
closing would volatilize the submarine and cut an incandescent path of 
destruction through the city lengthwise. 



After a moment of inaction, a hatch opened, a man stepped out upon the deck of 
the submarine, and the two tried to converse, but with no success. Seaton then 
brought out the mechanical educator, held it up for the other's inspection, and 
waved an invitation to come aboard. . . ?" Livius paused. 

"Could be," Deston said, doubtfully. 

"I think there's a better way," replied Seaton. "He may be able to work his 
way. 

"So long--see you in a few days," he added, and the _Pleiades_ vanished; to 
appear instantaneously high above the stratosphere over what was to become the 
Galaxian Field of Earth. The plates showed no familiar stars nor patterns of 
heavenly bodies. They were authorized by Crane to offer a reward of one million 
dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer. 
After everyone except the nurses had gone, Crane showed them the rooms they 
were to occupy while caring for the wounded man. 

As good an indication as any can be given, perhaps, by mentioning the fact that 
it had taken the Patrol's best engineers over six months to perfect the armor 
which Virgil Samms then wore. For no ordinary space-suit would do. See to it, 
please, that these remaining creatures do not attack me while I am doing it. 
All our tracers are negative yet, so nothing definite has. Less than fifty of 
your years ago, when I was but a small boy, such a projection visited my 
father. Here. 

Shortly after two o'clock of the following afternoon, Celeste took a call; and 
listened shamelessly. 

"Kinnison speaking. Each of you has taken oath to the Galactic Patrol?" 

They had. I say englobe the planet, declare martial law, and not let anything 
in or out until we find it. It is the greatest discovery the world has ever 
known, and if both Seaton and I, the only two men in the world who know how to 
handle it, drop out, it will be lost for perhaps hundreds of years. " 

"Therefore we will not question the Omans. The Masters. " 

"But that is not exactly it, Master. We convert it. He invited comments. 

There was of course a riot of protest; but--in view of what James had said 
anent suspensions and expulsions from the Galaxian Society--not one of them 
actually did quit. Four of them, however, did appeal to Delcamp, considerably 
to his surprise, to oust the interloper and to put things back where they had 
been; but they did not get much satisfaction. "I knew in advance just how you 
would feel about your color. From dull red it became cherry, and as the cherry 
red gave place to bright red heat, Seaton threw even more power into the bar as 
he muttered through his set teeth: 

"Well, Seaton, old top, you've got to cut out this loafing on the job and get 
busy!" 

In spite of his utmost exertions and in spite of the powerful ammonia plant, 
now exerting its full capacity, but sadly handicapped by the fact that its 
cooling-water was now boiling, Seaton saw the arenak shell continue to heat. 
How does he get that way?" 

"He's naturally fast, and has practiced sleight-of-hand work ever since he was 
a kid. He's one of the best amateur magicians in the country, and I will say 
that his ability along that line has come in handy for him more than once. I'm 
going to break you of that, too, Steve, if it's the last thing I ever do. " 
Both Falnians straightened up and stepped forward; neither arrogantly nor 
apologetically, but simply as though nothing at all out of the ordinary had 
taken place. As Titan grew colder and colder they probably dug their cities 
deeper and ever deeper; until humanity came finally to realize that it must 
itself change completely or perish utterly. 

"Then we may picture them as aiding evolution in changing their body chemistry. 

The walls of Virgil Samms' quarters became covered with charts, diagrams, and 
figures. Tabulations and condensations piled up on his desk and overflowed into 
baskets upon the floor. On his right the wall was solid for twenty feet. Eighty 
five. Give us all the X10 and W27 you can, without using power--we want to edge 
over close enough so that she can't help but see us when we start the rockets. 
" 

"Be sure and stay well out of range. 

But not for nothing had Conway Costigan selected for his dash for liberty the 
craft which, save only for the two immense interstellar cruisers, was the most 
powerful vessel ever built upon red Nevia. " Roderick Kinnison got up, 
deposited the inch-long butt of his cigar in an ashtray, lit another, and 
prowled about the room; hands jammed deep into breeches pockets. Wish we could 
have made some sense out of their language--like to know a few of their 
ideas--find out whether we can't get on terms with them some way or other. In 
fact, nothing about this whole foul planet--this ultra-microscopic, if 
offensive, speck of cosmic dust in the Eddorian Scheme of Things--really 
mattered at all. " 







V 



Two days passed, with no change apparent in Laro. Three days. By the end of 
that time we should be able to recognize our solar system from the appearance 
of the fixed stars. 

"I don't make it at all, Mart. I want the best physicist in this entire solar 
system--and since there are only one hundred and twenty-five planets around 
these seventeen suns, it should be simple to yon phenomenal brain. If he had 
entertained any suspicion of the beautiful girl in his arms, if anyone had 
suggested that she was trying her best to pump him, he would have smiled the 
sort of smile which only the top-drawer diplomat can achieve. He was not 
suspicious of Virgilia Samms. 

"It worked, Virgil! I talked to her for five solid minutes, practically leaning 
on her desk, and she didn't tumble! And if this wig of Bergenholm's fooled 
_her_ so completely, the job he did on you would fool _anybody_!" 

"Fine! I've done a little testing myself, on the keenest men I know, without a 
trace of recognition so far. We need help, and I appreciate your offer. You 
will bind them to yours and shape the whole into a dimensionless sphere of pure 
controlled, dirigible energy. The most fiercely driven rays of the fishes 
flamed incandescent against it, in vain. Then there leaped out from the weird 
brilliance of the walls of the fortresses great shafts of pale green 
luminescence--tractor ray after gigantic tractor ray, which seized upon the 
hexan spheres and drew them ruthlessly into the yawning open end of that 
gigantic cone. 

Then, in each group of seven, similar great streamers of energy reached out 
from fortress to fortress, until each group was welded into one mighty unit by 
twenty-one such bands of force. From my own very slight and general knowledge I 
know that it would of necessity be a ray of the fifth order. These rays are 
very new--they have been under investigation only a few hundred years--and the 
Rovol is the only student who would be at all well informed upon them. 
Advertising-- designed by experts to sell everything from aardvarks to Martian 
zyzmol ("bottled ecstacy")--but the First Lensman was a seasoned big-city 
dweller. His mind had long since become a perfect filter, admitting to his 
consciousness only things which he wanted to perceive: only so can big-city 
life be made endurable. 

Approaching the Skyway, he cut in his touring roadlights, slowed down a trifle, 
and insinuated his low-flyer into the stream of traffic. Every train and plane, 
every bus and boat and car, every conveyance of every kind and every pedestrian 
approaching New York City was searched; with a search as thorough as it was 
unobtrusive. And every thing and every entity approaching New York Spaceport 
was combed, literally by the cubic millimeter. " 

"But why such strength?" asked the lawyer doubtfully. "It depends upon whether 
his fear of you or his anger is the greater. He should pay his call of state 
here in your apartment in a short time, as it is the inviolable rule of Osnome, 
that any visitor shall receive a call of state from one of his own rank before 
leaving his apartment for the first time. It has been a mathematical 
certainty--it has been graven upon the very Sphere itself--that in time someone 
would come to us from without this system, bringing a portion, however small, 
of Rovolon--of the metal of power, of which there is not even the most minute 
trace in our entire solar system. All the signs say that we're going for a long 
ride. " 









NEVIAN STRIFE 



The Nevian space-ship was hurtling upon its way. And the funny thing is that 
there's nothing there at all, really; but Dick says that the forces meeting 
there, or something, make it act as though something really important were 
there. Shall I detour, or put on a little more negative and wait for it to come 
around to this side?" 

"Better wait, I think. I'm going up and work with the Martians on that hunch. I 
wouldn't wonder if----" 

"Hold it, Dicky! Remember I had to put you to bed after that last hunch you 
had!" 

"Here it is, anyway. And speaking of vacuum. Vessel, falsework, rollers, 
trucks, the enormous steel I-beams of the tracks, even the deep-set concrete 
piers and foundations and a vast hemisphere of the solid ground; all 
disappeared utterly and instantaneously. "Nay, sire," he admitted sheepishly. 
"I thought not of any such. " Bernadine came lithely to her feet. After a few 
minutes DuQuesne remarked: 

"This is undoubtedly a newer planet than ours. They are merely the intakes for 
a tortuous system of tubes comprising a veritable heat-exchanger, so that the 
air finally expelled is in almost perfect equilibrium with the incoming supply 
in temperature and in moisture content. 

"It's a long trip back to where they came from, and since they wanted to drift 
all the way, I think they'll be out of power before they get there," Brandon 
summed up the situation. We aren't apt to keep ahead of them long enough to do 
much leading anywhere. The few of the old, true blood stand out head and 
shoulders above the throng, and you stand out, even among them. Is that clear?" 

"That is clear. " 

"Good. This event was foretold in detail; in such complete detail that I was 
deeply, terribly shocked. This woman blowing her top was no Brownie Montandon 
any of them knew. 

But he _couldn't_--couldn't _possibly_! Nevian paralysis-guns were as outlawed 
as was Vee Two gas itself! Nevertheless, he had. Give me a five-tape course on 
it and I'll come closer than either you or James; for a hundred credits a shot. 
Something funny about it, too--none of them seem to have been touched, but the 
machinery of the suits seems to be about half missing. " 

"I've got it all on the reels, sir. " Jones let Isaacson see his jaw-muscles 
tighten in resolve. . 
. " 

"How do you, a stranger, know my name?" 

"I know many things. "It isn't only that I've got you out here in space, in 
danger and alone, that's stopping me. 

"Hell's jets!" Deston exclaimed. " 

"Why, I lost contact!" Miss Flurnoy exclaimed. And just where does that put the 
Palainians?" 

"I see. Even the smell of a Nevian--a malodorous reek of over-ripe fish--does 
in time become tolerable, especially if sufficiently disguised with creosote, 
which purely Terrestrial chemical is the most highly prized perfume of Nevia. 
Garlock calling. Guardians? The Arpalones, out in space, yes. The "whites" of 
their eyes were a light yellowish-green. " 

For several minutes no one moved. They certainly are on Venus, and they once 
were on Mars. " 

Six heads nodded and there was a flashing interchange of thought among the 
four. "Forty one minutes is my best guess. Now let's go--make it snappy!" 

"Not yet. No inhabitants, even. If sobeit sacrifice is done I intend to marry, 
some day, and have six or eight children. Then he said, "I'll do it, under 
protest, but I want it on record that I am doing it against my best judgment. 

Thus, it was a self-evident fact that no Terran could ever visit Ardvor; for 
the instrument-readings agreed with the report's statements as to the violence 
of the Ardvorian environment, and no Terran could possibly walk around in two 
tons of lead. Sun and wind had tanned her satin skin to a smooth and even shade 
of brown, and every movement of her lithe and supple body bespoke to the 
discerning mind a rigidly-trained physique. It did not seem as though anyone, 
whether in the buildings, on the sidewalks, or in the cars, was doing any 
blocking at all. Here's the observation you told me to take. 

"Uh-huh. 

"That will, I hope, become clear very shortly. "What a man sees with his eyes, 
hears with his ears--especially what a man hears _without_ ears, as I hear 
now--he knows with certain knowledge to be the truth. . how long? Have you any 
suggestions?" 

"Yes. "But you can now, I suppose, design the generators and projectors of a 
force superior to that screen. Gripped and activated as they all were by 
Hilton's keyed-up-and-stretched-out mind, they struck in what was very close 
indeed to absolute unison. " 



He looked her up and told her everything. "It won't work from there, will it?" 

"No, Master. We will place it for you," a calm voice sounded in their ears, and 
a pale blue tractor beam picked the massive jack lightly from the floor, and as 
lightly lifted it to its place beneath the broken bus-bar and held it there 
while Stevens piled blocks and plates of platinum beneath its base. How do you 
account for that?" 

"There, Mart, is one for the massive old bean to concentrate on," challenged 
Seaton: then, as Crane considered the question in silence for some time he went 
on: "I'll answer it myself, then, by asking another. The ground trembled and 
rocked and boulders, fragments of concrete masonry, and masses of metal flew in 
all directions as that city-encircling conduit of diabolical machinery was torn 
from its bed. Sciro was nearer, but Tedric was faster and stronger and had the 
better horse. Six mighty tear-drops--vastly bigger, faster, more powerful than 
their own--were rushing upon them, blanketing all channels of communication as 
efficiently and as enthusiastically as they themselves had been doing an 
instant before. We have never been able to reach Six with them, but we visited 
Three long ago; and every one who went there came back as soon as he could. 
Take it easy, Dad!" 

"You're the one to be told that, not me. " 



Leaving the bridal party, he made his way rapidly to the power room, where he 
found MacDonald and the two Martians inspecting the smoking remains of what had 
been the secondary bank of their powerful ultra-transmitter. 

His position was fully consolidated when, a few days later, a tremor of 
excitement ran through the Research Department. 

"Welcome, friend Captain Garlock. Perkins? Do you require medical attention?" 

"No," growled Perkins from the seat in which he had crouched immediately after 
eating. All about the green submarine there had been volumes of 
furiously-boiling water and dense clouds of vapor; now water and fog alike 
disappeared, converted into transparent super-heated steam by the blasts of 
Nevian energy. 

A few nights later, in inky blackness, a huge shape descended rapidly in front 
of the shed, whose ponderous doors opened to receive it and closed quickly 
after it. " 

"Are there any other races in this Galaxy more powerful than the postulated one 
now living on Fuel World?" 

"Data insufficient. After everyone except the nurses had gone, Crane showed 
them the rooms they were to occupy while caring for the wounded man. " 

"An unpleasant thought, truly," Ynos thought. The more power the better, as 
long as you can handle it. You haven't been able to rest because you have been 
raging and fuming so at unavoidable conditions--you have been fighting _facts_. 

". We don't even know whether we have a super-ship or not," and Samms described 
briefly the beginning--and very probably the ending--of the trial flight, 
concluding: "It looks bad, but if there was any possible way of handling her, 
Rodebush and Cleveland did it. Returning to the bar after a time, he again 
measured the angle, and found that it had increased greatly. The sixth was 
unlocked, but the passengers--a man and a woman--were very evidently and very 
gruesomely dead. 

At the Hall, Hilton's first care was to see how the work was going on. . if. " 

As the great speed of the ship rapidly lessened the distance, the sound grew 
heavier and clearer--like one continuous explosion. Then he drove a probe 
through the mental shield of the general in charge of the whole defense 
operation. 

"Oh. "_If I were doing it I'd have to start right now. " 

"What seems to be the trouble, Dick? Have you another hunch, or are you just 
rattled?" asked Crane. Silently they picked up the injured man and carried him 
gently into his own room, barely glancing at the wrecked safe on the way. And 
during all this time the forces of the seven sectors had been concentrating. 
Fire Control's "Zone Ten" had informed him that the object was at extreme range 
and hence there would be plenty of time. We are land-dwellers, and there is 
little if any land on this planet. _ 







VIII 



Hilton did not have to drive the peyondix-beam to the planet Strett; it was 
already there. It was designed only as protection from meteorites and other 
small bodies. You see, we don't know who or what we are up against. " 

"Fred," he called to his helper, "if anyone wants me, tell them that I have 
gone home. 

"But if he thought of that," she added, thoughtfully, "if he was brilliant 
enough to build up such a wonderful theory. " 

"Kragzex acknowledging, Virgil Samms," a thought snapped back, as 
diamond-clear, as precise, as Pilinipsi's had been. How'd you like to learn to 
talk English like Crane there does--without taking lessons?" 

Shiro smiled doubtfully, unable to take such a thought seriously. The ship, 
even though it was on a regularly-scheduled commercial flight, would be scanned 
intensively and continuously from the moment of entering Norheiman radar range. 
Fermius, although staggered by the sheer brute force of the abortive stroke, 
recovered almost instantly; dropping his sword and snatching at his gladius to 
take advantage of the wonderful opportunity thus given him. But I gather, from 
what you have said, that I would probably not be given a Lens to use purely for 
my own selfish purposes?" 

"That is my understanding," Samms agreed. They'd have it heavily 
shielded--there'll be no leakage at all. It did not even remotely resemble 
anything that the Lensman had ever seen, sensed, or imagined. " 

"Who or what _is_ that race?" Ynos demanded. 

"Who knows?" came Bergenholm's mental shrug, and simultaneously: 

"Nobody knows whether I can or not, but I am going to try," and Samms 
ended--almost--the argument by asking Bergenholm and a couple of other Lensmen 
to come into his office and by taking off his Lens. Since all dangerous 
meteorites have been shown to contain conducting material, that is enough to 
locate them, for radio finders automatically determine the direction, distance, 
and magnitude of the disturbance, and swing a light on it. 

"I think I can throw this thing straight enough and fast enough to chop off a 
Nevian's head before he can put a paralyzing ray on us," he explained grimly, 
but he was not called upon to show his skill with the improvised cleaver. Thus 
the endeavors of most of the battlers upon both sides, while earnest enough and 
deadly enough of intent, were almost comically unproductive of result. Six or 
seven hours, say--eight hours max. 

And there were tiny cameras with tremendous, protuberant lenses, the "long 
eyes" capable of taking wire-sharp close ups from five hundred feet; and other 
devices and apparatus and equipment too numerous to mention here. From the 
reflectors, through the doorway, there tore a concentrated double beam of pure 
destruction--but that beam did not reach its goal. Don't you know that I could 
never find out why 'x' was equal to 'y' or to anything else in algebra?" 

She led him back to his chair, where he drew her down to a seat on the arm 
beside him. Perkins pressed the switch which reduced the interior of the spy's 
wireless instrument to a fused mass of metal, and Brookings called DuQuesne on 
the telephone. Lock all the exits, of course, but it would be best to leave the 
doors between the rooms unlocked, so that they can be together or apart, as 
they choose. It spread, dissolved, and diffused with the extreme mobility which 
is one of its characteristics; and as it diffused and was borne outward the 
Nevians in their massed hundreds died. Rub _me_ out after we kill them off and 
you get nowhere. We will pick up speed faster and keep on doing it. They use 
gold and silver where we use copper, and platinum and its alloys where we use 
iron and soft steel. So when you blacklist us with the Society, _please_ let me 
know--I want to take a tri-di in technicolor of you doing it. " 

"Okay. Then, "But look! They're firing pistols--especially the one wearing 
number fourteen--but _pistols_?" 

"Recoil pistols--sixty-threes--for emergency use in case of power failure," 
Ashby explained. The Brass is going to take a certain amount of convincing. 

"Of course it's hot there--foundries always _are_ hot," she argued. " 

"'Smatter? Trouble with the Omans?" Hilton snapped. Imagine, if you can, a city 
of fifteen millions of people, throughout whose entire length, breadth, height, 
and depth no attempt whatever had ever been made to abate any noise, however 
violent or piercing! If your imagination has been sufficiently vivid and if you 
have worked understandingly enough, the product may approximate what First 
Lensman Samms was forced to listen to that day. Wonder if I'd better take you 
with me, or hide you and come back after you?" 

"Don't worry about that--I'm coming with you," Nadia declared, positively. This 
has been one long day for us, though, little ace, and I suggest that we sleep 
for about a week!" 









Callisto to the Rescue 



All humanity of Callisto, the fourth major satellite of Jupiter, had for many 
years been waging a desperate and apparently hopeless defense against invading 
hordes of six-limbed beings. However, the resistance of the air seriously 
affected the trajectory of many of the irregularly shaped smaller masses of 
metal, and all three men were kept busy flicking attractors right and left; 
capturing those strays which threatened to veer off into the streets or upon 
the buildings of the Kondalian capital city, and shifting from one piece to 
another so that none should fall freely. Deston stepped over to the board and 
flipped a switch. It was a tiny instrument, no larger than a watch, but of 
practically unlimited range. Not only is the location convenient to all 
interested, but there are to be found all necessary tools, equipment and 
material. Lightly, slowly, she settled downward, her jets raving out against a 
gravity fully twice that of her native Earth. " 

Another Arpalone appeared, indistinguishable to Tellurian eyes from any one of 
the others. 

"Of course it's hot there--foundries always _are_ hot," she argued. Big ones, 
but high; headed for targets well to the west. Everything goes in, this time. . 
. . and it won't come until after we've finished the computations. Frederick 
Rodebush. 

"Fred? Kinnison. "While we're out of touch with United Worlds you, as captain 
of the ship and director of the project, are Boss, with a capital B. " 

A company of soldiers approached, and Dorothy got up hastily. "There is such a 
job, you are ready for it, and you have your successor trained in the work of 
harvesting. 

"It is well that we had an unlimited supply of iron. They were perforce in 
single file; one ship opposing at least one solid ring of giant sluggers who 
did not have to concern themselves with defense, but could pour every iota of 
their tremendous resources into offensive beams. Since all these races, 
existing and yet to appear, had sprung from and would spring from the Arisian 
life-spores which permeated this particular space, they all were and would be, 
at bottom, Arisian. Along that pressor beam there crept a dull red rod of 
energy, which surrounded the fugitive shell and brought it slowly to a halt. 
Then, swinging the burden up over his shoulder-- 

"I go to fetch the others," he explained to his king. The Earthly clothing 
puzzled the captors immensely, but so strenuous were the objections raised to 
its removal that they did not press the point, but fell back to study their 
find in detail. 

"So did I--until today," Samms agreed grimly. Goodbye. " 

"Wait, please. Think on. 

Seventy. Numbers of our men are killed every karkam. I perceive that you are 
Dronvire. Make no conquests, and destroy all who by any chance may see you. 
I've been in it before--and when you see a man get a jolt of that stuff just 
once, you never forget it. What say we let _Skylark Two_ drift by herself for a 
while, and catch us some of Nature's sweet restorer?" 









The Zone of Force Is Tested 



Seaton strode into the control room with a small oblong box in his hand. Think 
of it! After twenty years of preparation--two long lifetimes--and for the first 
time in our history, we are actually going to war!" 

"I have thought of it at length. 

"Oh, that's what you're going to use! You know, I've been wondering about that 
stuff. 

"That's right, Barbara Warner. "It has been many, many cycles since they have 
taken Callistonians captive. 

"Back, you!" A guard waved them away. Hang on one minute more and we'll have 
gravity and you'll be O. They can't hurt us with hand-weapons, and before they 
can bring up any heavy stuff they'll be afraid to use it, because well be too 
close to their shell. . " Garlock was floundering; to be called upon to explain 
his ingrained antipathy to such a custom was new to his experience. 

"Well, folks, it's like this. Now you know that I do not want to discourage any 
one, but I can see small basis for optimism," Crane spoke slowly and 
thoughtfully. All menial work and most of the manual labor is done by the slave 
race. It's probably of the order of magnitude of half a million tons, since the 
stuff weighs more than half a ton to the cubic foot. The danger is from 
flash-blindness, flash-burn, sheer heat, shock-wave, concussion, and flying 
debris of all kinds. Three, there'd be no interstellar supply line for the 
Stretts to cut. The battle-cruiser's screens did not go down, even under the 
combined top effort of two super-dreadnaughts! And she did not have a beam hot 
enough to light a match--she must be _all screen_! But before the startled 
outlaws could do anything about the realization that they, instead of being the 
trappers, were in cold fact the trapped, all three of them were surprised 
again--the last surprise that any of them was ever to receive. " 

"The Lady Trycie, eh? The wind does set so, then, as I thought. 

"I think we'll be able to pull their corks now, all right, after we get some 
dope. "That gives me an idea, Loring. . " 

"Wouldn't there be three? Witherspoon?" 

"I doubt it. Yes, after this, most certainly yes," Temple said. Until finally 
he worked out one that might--just possibly might--work. But I didn't know that 
you--or have you already checked with the General and Mr. 



A portion of that conduit fully thirty miles in length was in the air, a 
twisted, flaming inferno of wrecked generators, exploding ammunition, and 
broken and short-circuited high-tension leads before the hexans could 
themselves cut it and thus save the remainder of their fortifications. Rovol 
then threw a switch, and a hemisphere of flaming golden radiance surrounded the 
laboratory and extended for miles upon all sides. " 

"That doesn't sound just right, but I'm listening. "I hate to think of Conway 
Costigan checking out. What we need and are going to get is a material of about 
two and a half million specific gravity. Without it I'd never have known that 
you're a better, smarter operator than Eggy Eggleston ever was or ever can be. 
_ 

_Nor did any Eddorian know that such fantastically rapid progress was being 
made. . if it's O. Good-night, old trapper!" 

"Wait a minute, Steve. We've got to find some pretty quick, somewhere, or else 
walk back home, and there's our best chance. What he needs--has to have--is 
full, ungrudging cooperation. I think I know what your second point is, but 
let's have it, just for the record. " 

"How much more have you got to do before you can start sending?" 

"Not an awful lot. I feel light, like a toy balloon, and I feel awfully weird 
inside. Oh, if I could only go out there myself. " 

Apparent weight grew less and less, until: "This is about enough for you, Miss 
Flurnoy?" 

"Just," the ComOff agreed, with a gulp. We could start out on the projectors, 
of course, instead of on the neutralizers, but that wouldn't prove anything and 
would only prolong the agony. Therefore, with us each generation covers one 
hundred years. " 

"I hear, sire. What do you want it for--that is, what, basically, is your aim?" 

"Our greatest god, Sarpedion, is wrong and I intend to kill him. . . . . but 
with an ungodly lot of something that neither of them had. No, we must do it 
legally or let him entirely alone. " 

"Well, you know platinum is a very scarce and highly useful metal with us. 

"See this cigarette?" he went on lightly. It is lumped in with what you call 
'intuition', the knowing-without-knowing-how-you-know. We have great abundance 
of all the heavy metals, but the lighter metals are rare. So how about 
organizing another team, one that hasn't got quite so much whammo? Enough punch 
to do the job, but not enough to backfire that way?" 

"It is highly improbable that such a team is possible, sir. "Why, we have 
almost infinite power--unlimited--sufficient for a lifetime of high 
expenditure!" 

But Roger made no reply, for the time of departure was at hand. Regulars all. 
No Rigellian is, or ever will be or can be, what you think of as 'corrupt' or 
'corruptible'. " She got up and stared directly into his eyes, her lip curling. 
Even one of those youngsters can swim the full length of the city without 
taking a breath. But it is also a fact that those adepts knew things and did 
things that take a lot of explaining. Keep a stiff upper lip, and if you want 
us, yell. 

"Gimme that armor!" he rasped, and climbed the blocks. Greater and greater 
became the acceleration, until their apparent weight was almost as much as it 
would have been upon the Earth, at which point it became constant. "I knew 
they'd blow! There goes my whole secondary bank--eight perfectly good 
ten-nineteens all shot to. " Belle's thought had not been interrupted by any 
passage of time whatever. There was a great hi-fi tri-di, with over a hundred 
tapes, all new. He was the only man I have ever known who combined the two 
qualities of the perfect witness. Let's all look around for the _Kondal_. " 

Under the urge of that mighty jack the ends of the broken bus-bar rose into 
place, while far off in space the Titanians clustered about their visiray 
screens, watching, in almost unbelieving amazement, the supernatural being who 
labored in that reeking inferno of heat and poisonous vapor--who labored almost 
naked and entirely unprotected, refreshing himself from time to time with 
drafts of molten water! 

"All x, Barkovis--that's high, I guess. My _kind_ may be important, but I 
individually am not. . how _dumb_ can you get?" Eddie demanded. Link your mind 
to Mitala's," and the linked Tellurian minds enforced the order. Either three 
or four capital ships. No warning. " 

"And they'll keep on building," Samms said. " The thought of a wife did not 
bother Garlock at all. " 

"Yes, Master. I've been thinking. Combination radio-phone, automatic 
language-converter, telepath, and so on. Almost level with her head the 
gorgeous blossom waved upon its heavy stem; based by a massive cluster of 
enormous, smooth, dark green leaves. 

Far out in space, Roger raised his eyes from the instrument panel and continued 
the conversation as though it had not been interrupted. Keller had come to 
Kinnison, accompanied by the Superintendent whom the Siberians referred to, 
somewhat contemptuously, as "Piddy. It may be that they had not anticipated as 
much resistance as we could offer with space-ships and intra-atomic energy. 
See?" 



True to prediction, the pilot ray of P6 came in almost upon the exact center of 
the micrometer screen, and Breckenridge smiled in relief as he began really to 
enjoy the trip. Nor was there shock or strain. He knew explosives, and he knew 
men. It is my opinion that atmosphere and temperature have more to do with 
evolution than anything else, and that the mass of the planet runs a poor 
third. The solids and liquids of its substance were resolved into their 
component molecules or atoms. Sorry I had only one of these ultra-wave spies, 
but once we're together it won't be so bad. . " Then she threw back her head, 
drove a hard little fist into a pillow, and spoke aloud through clenched teeth. 

"All x, Miss Newton--they're as harmless as mice. She wriggled loose from one 
of his arms, felt of her hair and gazed unseeingly into her mirror. " 

"Coming," and with the thought he was there. 

For miles beyond that edge, and as deep under it as frightful rays and enormous 
charges of explosive copper could penetrate, the ground was one seething, 
flaming volcano of molten and incandescent lava; lava constantly being 
volatilized by the unimaginable heat of those rays and being hurled for miles 
in all directions by the inconceivable power of those explosive copper 
projectiles--the heaviest projectiles that could be used without endangering 
the planet itself--being directed under the exposed edge of that unbreakable 
apron, which was in actuality anchored to the solid core of the planet itself; 
lava flowing into and filling up the vast craters caused by the explosions. 
"You be extra nice to her, Dick. 'Sa shame, too--what's the use of wasting it, 
now that we've got it all made?" 

"We are not done yet," cautioned Westfall, and even as he spoke an alarm bell 
burst into strident clamor--one of their far-flung detector screens was telling 
the world that it had encountered a dangerous frequency. The projector blast 
tears things up a little, but nothing serious. " 

"I'll ask him. Well, we've been in screen long enough, I guess. "However, it's 
no harder to swallow than Sanderson's Theory of Teleportation. " 

"What is the opposition?" Samms asked, quietly. Up a series of ramps they took 
the still form, placing it finally upon a soft couch in an enormous and heavily 
guarded central hall. 

"Where?" 

"Give me your thought. That is, he thought it was terrible--outrageous--a 
betrayal of the whole officer caste--but to me it makes everything just 
absolutely perfect. 

But with those new fields, shaking the world wouldn't be enough; in order to 
get deep enough to reach Virgil Samms they would damn near have to destroy the 
world. Wall-to-wall carpeting an inch and a half thick. A grand piano. " 

"What difference does that make?" he asked, in honest surprise. " 

"Where are you and what are you doing?" 

"Washington, D. "But we're up against something that is really a something, and 
I don't mean perchance. "If anybody takes one forward step, priest, or makes 
one move toward spear or arrow, your brains will spatter the walls across the 
street. Costigan turned his ultra-gaze into that space and saw that it was 
actually far from empty. " 

"Not in this life. But before he could say a word, Seaton silenced him. More 
than dropped; she was forced downward by one full battery of projectors; 
projectors driven by iron-powered generators. 

"I certainly do. He reached out and flipped the switch of his intercom. 

At any rate, he went briefly out of control, and the Rigellian sent him a 
steadying, inquiring, wondering thought. 

Low enough at last, he pulled the ring. No, darling, she isn't playing games. 
"They're silk, anyway, even if they don't look like much, and I'm just reveling 
in the feel of them next to me after the horrible, rough, scratchy things I've 
been wearing. I'm going to put him on the recorder and on the visualizer," 
Seaton continued as he connected spools of wire and tape, lamps, and lenses in 
an intricate system and donned a headset. But one shipload of Masters escaped 
and came here to Ardry--far beyond peyondix range. Every train and plane, every 
bus and boat and car, every conveyance of every kind and every pedestrian 
approaching New York City was searched; with a search as thorough as it was 
unobtrusive. 

"That is quite possible; for, fortunately, our art is not yet entirely 
intellectual, as is our music. "You do say the weirdest things at times! 
Possibly they would--and if the moon were made of different stuff than it is 
and had a different color, it might be green cheese, too! What say we go over 
and look at the stars?" 

"As you were, Rufus!" he commanded sternly. 

True to hexan nature, training and tradition, the fleet, hundreds strong, 
rushed savagely to the attack. They're identical physically, and so nearly so 
mentally that of them would be just as good on a team as both of them. His 
thick, slightly wavy hair was black. Lieutenant Colonel Franklin wasn't; but he 
was too much of a man to do the dir. Second, what really happened at the 
Ambassadors' Ball. Well, I'm perfectly willing to be convinced, but I warn you 
that I'll take a lot of convincing--and someone else will do the work, not you. 
He knew his stuff and the fish were there; big, wary, and game. Let's make it 
four feet. But just s'pose they'd missed it?" 

"No fear. 

"Sure. "You could go along, couldn't you, Perkins?" 

"Is it safe?" 

"Absolutely," answered DuQuesne. . . . . . hurt you, after all?" 

"Oh, no, not that--he didn't do anything but look at me--but that was bad 
enough--but I'm sick--horribly sick. He stripped to the skin and the observer 
smeared his every square inch of epidermis with the thick, gooey stuff that was 
not only a highly efficient screen against radiation, but also a sovereign 
remedy for new radiation burns. " How mistaken Cloud was! 

"QX," the Chief decided. 

Olmstead drove on to the lake and took up his reservation at the ramshackle 
hotel. And instead of remaining quiescent, waiting to be attacked, the cylinder 
flashed forward, inertialess, at maximum blast. Nothing like that first 
terrific passage-at-arms had ever before been seen. " His quiet, level voice 
carried more of menace than most men's loudest threats. He knows too much, 
about too many things. Crouching low, he struck down the arm, seized it, and 
dragged the girl out of the zone of visibility. Viewed in that light, the 
Thracian could not kill Tigellinus, because that bit of corruption had a few 
more jobs to do. The latter went, wondering what the old hard-shell was going 
to cry about now; for to be called into that office meant only one 
thing--censure. " 

"Like this," and, taking down a sheet of drafting paper, Cloud sketched 
rapidly. The best such missile is the tenth planet of their own sun. Three 
stiffly polite young men obeyed his summons. . . Belle, are you willing to bury 
your hatchet for about five minutes--work with me like a partner ought to?" 

"I certainly am, Clee. We'll set up that lab near a good trout stream, and I'll 
have a large and juicy vacation. 

"Kinda think I'll do most of it from here, but you can't always tell. I don't 
mind nitroglycerin or T. Ossmen--I can't _stand_ Venerians, they're so slimy 
and fat and repulsive!--and that leathery horned toad from Mars and that Jovian 
hippopotamus. Can we--_dare_ we--plant such genes where none have ever been 
known before?" 

Two full minutes of silence. Also, let me remind you that I am in a hurry. And, 
after the fact, she knew. 

"Here's the rough draft of the ray screen, Quince. The third of the mad flurry 
of swordcuts, only partially deflected by the sword which Fermius could only 
then get into play, sheared down and a red, a green, and a white plume floated 
toward the ground. But even that frightful weapon was useless--it spent its 
force harmlessly upon an impalpable, invisible barrier, a hundred yards from 
its source, and the bold lifeboat disappeared in one blinding explosion of 
incandescence as the captor showed its real power in retaliation. . " 

"Commoner? Bah! I ignored that word once, Tedric, but not twice. How about your 
identical-twin cousins, Ray and George Olmstead, who have been doing such a 
terrific job of counter-spying?" 

"Perhaps. The air, the stratosphere, and all nearby space were full of battling 
vessels of all shapes and sizes; ranging from the tremendous globular 
spaceships of the invaders down to the tiny, one-man jet-fighters of the 
Arpalones. " 

"But can't they be screened out?" 

"Not entirely, sir, without blocking reception completely. In a lifecraft? No, 
after this long, it must be the ship. Senses do not exist. You have one of them 
in your right coat pocket now. Your job's to get everything you can out of this 
bird's brain. Explain your mission, please, as simply as you can. " 

"You are childish, and that machine is impotent against my will. There they 
were! Not too close to where they should be, but close enough--it was Orion! 
And this thionite way-station, then, was somewhere near right ascension 
seventeen hours and declination plus ten degrees! 

He returned to the _Virgin Queen_. Scott's face showed in turn interest, 
amazement, and pitying alarm. A murmur arose from the other Kondalians, which 
was quickly silenced by the Kofedix. And not only on Earth. " 

"I'll take five thousand of that. Lensmen keep their promises, under whatever 
circumstances or however lightly given. " 

"I hope so, sin. I simply can not work efficiently here," Samms expressed what 
all knew to be the simple truth. Tall and heavy as Seaton was, the stranger was 
half a head taller and almost twice as heavy. He'll have to work full time on 
nebular configurations. 

"Target Two--Zone Nine," Fire Control said. If he couldn't do anything himself, 
it was up to him to juggle things around so that someone else could. First, to 
attempt it as soon as we shall have strengthened our armament as much as is now 
possible. It will be read and reread. Hurry that dope!" 

"Here it is now. "For your information, when I know what should be done, I give 
orders. Didn't even land on the planet. With one slight exception--here--you 
will notice that the lines of organization and purpose are as random as ever. 
"Since it is axiomatic that his destruction would have weakened Eddore somewhat 
and to that extent would have helped us, it is evident that some greater 
advantage will accrue from allowing him to live. "See that pistol clamped upon 
the top of the board? That's a token in remembrance of him. 

"You don't have to drive her as hard all the way, then, as you did last night?" 

"No, I'm out of range of Seaton's instrument now, and we don't have to kill 
ourselves. The large bottle was still nearly full, the seal upon it unbroken. 
No penetration at all. Vessels so marked will act as temporary flagships. No 
one understands it, but you two are pretty much the same. He is not a lawyer. 
The Brass is omnipotent, omniscient and infallible. I'm going to faint or 
something, sure. We ourselves will operate through forms of flesh of no higher 
intelligence than, and indistinguishable from, the natives of the planets 
affected. Nobody can. " 

"I know you can, sweetheart. " 

As they were going out to the landing field Shiro called to them and they 
turned back to the house, learning that Dorothy and her father had just 
arrived. With some men it is money, with others power, with others fame, with 
others women or some woman, and so on down the list. One incident, in fact--the 
detailing of which would serve no useful purpose here--was of such a nature 
that at its end: 

"Better pin-point me, don't you think, on that ramp?" Phryges asked, quietly. 
He went blithely to work on the Six line, where they wanted to start pouring 
twenty-pound fragmentation bombs, ably assisted by Tug and by two new men. The 
Head Engineer was an Arpalone, too--Engineers were not a separate race, but 
dwellers on a planet of extremely high technology--but he did know anything 
about space-drives. Neither of us would have converted if there'd been any 
other way in God's universe of getting the uranexite and doing some other 
things that simply _must_ be done. You haven't had a ten per cent load of fuel 
since you were launched. We lift in twenty seconds; I will count down the final 
five seconds. 

"According to the concept you fellows just helped me develop, it wouldn't have 
made any difference how many they sent," Hilton replied, thoughtfully. 

"I don't know whether you convinced Alexander Q. "Not a resignation. Can you 
tell me anything about it?" 

"No. "_What_ a brain!" 

"This is wonderful, boys, really wonderful; something completely new to our 
science. "_Hit_ it, for goodness sake, before we _all_ lose our nerve!" 

James stabbed convulsively at the button, and in the very instant of 
contact--instantaneously; without a fractional microsecond of time-lapse--their 
familiar surroundings disappeared. Carefree, busy, absorbedly intent, the 
Arisian mentalities roamed throughout space--until one of them struck an 
Eddorian mind. 

He was still on schedule. "Their optic nerves react differently than ours do. " 

And later, in a wingless craft flying toward the airfield, young Phryges broke 
a long silence. " 

"But what _are_ they?" Garlock blurted. Then, after a moment, "Any and all who 
are not tuned to me in five seconds will be returned immediately to their home 
planets and will lose all contact with this group. Okay? Worth a try?" 

"Sure--I'm in favor of anything that has any chance at all of working. It 
contains no copper, no arsenic, no heavy metals--in short, nothing in the least 
harmful to your chemistry. Then in furious haste he opened a nearby door and 
all three sprang into a tiny compartment. She then performed a series of flips 
that would have done credit to a professional acrobat; the finale of which left 
her sitting calmly in the previously empty seat. . " 

"I'm not interested. All the time I've been touching you I've been learning 
about you. I will be on this side of the peninsula; between us they'll be 
ground like ling. Each defending vessel, depending upon its type and class, 
carried from four up to a hundred or so burnished-metal reflectors some four 
feet in diameter; each with a small black device at its optical center and each 
pouring out a tight beam of highly effective energy. " 

"Your life matters to me, sire--and to Sciro!" 

"Aye, Tedric my almost-son, that I know. Your point on glory holes was very 
well taken--you won't have much time after the pump quits. One was so far 
advanced that almost all of its humanity were Seconds; one so backward--or so 
much younger--that its strongest telepaths were only Fours. I haven't felt so 
good since they picked me as home-town candidate--and that was a mighty small 
town and eight months ago. He reappeared, grinning hugely behind his flaming 
wilderness of beard. Yes, into your eyes. 

"Damn! I hated to do this," the sergeant grumbled, "On accounta I just got half 
dry. She _taught_ him to do that, damn her, without him ever knowing anything 
about it. " 

"You mean you aren't going to kill me, even now? Or even degrade me, or put me 
under arrest?" 

"I mean exactly that. Call District and have them rush through a change of 
spec--include heat-treat and a modified Charpy test. It had one sealed box, 
about the size and weight of a cigarette case. Four men and a woman--the 
nurse--were stiffly motionless at their posts; apparently the leads to the 
Station had been blasted in such fashion that no warning whatever had been 
given. The raging torrents poured into that yawning cavern, filled it, and 
piled mountainously above it; receding and piling up, again and again; causing 
tidal waves which swept a full half of Nevia's mighty, watery globe. 

"You certainly sounded savage, Dick. Neither of you appear any the worse for 
your experiences. If, on the other hand, you think that you're going to try to 
snuff a vortex, the stuff stays here. But the battle is almost over. They 
marveled at the amount that had been accomplished, and the Kofedix told them: 

"Both vessels will be finished tomorrow, except for the controlling 
instruments, which we will have to make ourselves. 

"Grab him now!" Rodebush yelled, and even while an avalanche of falling rock 
was burying the countryside Cleveland snapped a tractor ray upon the flying 
fish and pulled tentatively. He should have been an overseer when they built 
the pyramids--flogging slaves because they wouldn't step just so. He is unique 
in all history. And if they had anything at all back there, they must know a 
lot by now. He and Sandy would sit in the office and analyze and synthesize and 
correlate. 

Dazed, groggy, barely conscious from his terrific effort, Jones stared owlishly 
through the heavy, steel-braced lenses of his helmet while the timbermen set a 
few more courses of wood and the rotary walked itself and the clinging burley 
up and out of the hole. To prevent this catastrophe he went back to the key 
point in time and sought out the key figure--one Tedric, a Lomarrian ironmaster 
who had lived and died a commoner; unable, ever, to do anything about his 
fanatical detestation of human sacrifice. But I'm afraid I've been wasting 
time. 

Temple took over. Do you, Roderick K. " 

"Ah--very good. For once, I agree with you without reservation. Marry if you 
like, or simply breed--your unions with this planet's humanity will be fertile. 
" 

"Second, we have a more specific obligation in that the life of many, many 
worlds has sprung from Arisian seed. Under observation. " 

Kinnison nodded. " Samms grinned, a bit shamefacedly. I don't like this 
telepathy business. Couldn't ram him--he fell back with my thrust. " The elder 
Kinnison's jaw-muscles did not loosen, his darting eyes did not relax their 
vigilance for a fraction of a second as he Lensed the thought. I'll shut off 
everything and we'll drift it. He then fastened about his left wrist the Order 
of Kondal, the highest order of the nation. To return to the subject, I 
resolved my dilemma long since. Two men, instead of the usual three, could run 
the rotary; that is, they could tend the complicated pneumatic walking jacks 
which not only oscillated the cutting demon in a geometrical path, but also 
rammed it against the face with a steadily held and enormous pressure, even 
while climbing almost vertically upward under a burden of over twenty thousand 
pounds. It is for the consideration of this plan that this meeting has been 
called. You're there, bucko!" 

"Thanks, Chief,". Ardvor was, always and everywhere, full daylight. " 

"Thank you. Then, "But look! They're firing pistols--especially the one wearing 
number fourteen--but _pistols_?" 

"Recoil pistols--sixty-threes--for emergency use in case of power failure," 
Ashby explained. 

"I see. Pressure, twenty-eight pounds--about the same as ours is, now that we 
have stepped it up to keep the Osnomians from suffering. The zone of force is 
necessary to shield certain items of equipment from ether vibrations; as any 
such vibration inside the controlling fields of force renders observation or 
control of the higher orders of rays impossible. "To be effective, the charge 
of explosive at the moment of impact must match, within very close limits, the 
activity of the vortex itself. " 

"It's real coal," Stevens announced after a series of tests. Picking her up 
lightly as a baby, DuQuesne carried her over to the space-car. Such was its 
initial velocity and so slight was the force of gravity of the satellite that 
they were many hundreds of miles from the exit before they began to descend, 
and Breckenridge studied his screens narrowly for signs of hexan activity. I 
will spare your life, if you can give me anything of enough value to me to make 
extra time and trouble worth while. " 

"Fifty grams--and everybody knows that Samms himself is rated at only sixty? I 
_knew_ that you were somebody, Conway!" Clio exclaimed, undeterred. " 
Bergenholm's deeply resonant pseudo-voice left no doubt at all in any one of 
the linked minds. After we go to Mars, we intend to explore the moon 
thoroughly. Now they wanted, and would have, the ultimate thrill. " 

"Only because you're so badly bunged up. . a stalemate. Then Saunders spoke, 
running both hands through his unruly shock of fiery red hair. This meeting is 
adjourned until nine o'clock--or, rather, the meeting will begin then. Soon 
their astronomical instruments revealed the cities of Europa to their gaze, and 
as soon as they discovered that the civilization of Europa was human, they 
destroyed it utterly, with the insatiable blood lust that is their heritage. 
Then, shaking himself and stretching, he glanced at his clock. " 

"What are you talking about, Chief?" James asked. Marriage between such 
highly-evolved persons as are you four is wished by the First Cause, whose 
servants we are. The Lenses were--definitely--not working. There were even a 
few structures that looked like rocket pits. D. degrees I worked under Charles 
E. You will go away now. I merely performed the labor. 

"Aren't you going to kill them?" asked Sitar, amazement in every feature and a 
puzzled expression in her splendid eyes. Even Cleveland's drill was 
ineffective. However, I missed the point that if control is possible, the 
controller must be a mind. 

"My lieutenant and I were upon a mission of some importance, but it is more 
important to take you to Callisto, for there may be many things in which you 
can help us. Otherwise even she, with all her training, couldn't sell such a 
big bill of goods. " 

"We sure do, Steve," she concurred emphatically. Straight road for miles, and 
nothing in sight either way. You're dead. " 

"I landed on the campus of the University of Arisia," Northrop stated, flatly. 
There were four practically simultaneous detonations--silent, but terrific 
explosions as the pent-up internal energy of solid pentavalent nitrogen was 
instantaneously released--and the four insensately murderous spheres 
disappeared into jagged fragments of wreckage, flying wildly away from the 
centers of explosion. Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they 
turned their most powerful ultra-beam communicator toward the yellowish star 
which they knew to be Old Sol. Nor was this lack surprising. "They" would 
scarcely let George Olmstead know where "they" were taking him. She looked at 
him with awe and pride. Another point. " 

"Oh. " 

The four secured themselves; the two men checked, for the dozenth time, their 
instruments. " 

Then the queen, followed by the Lady Rhoann--who, although she bowed her head 
meekly enough, was shooting envious glances at her sister, so far ahead and so 
evidently the cynosure of so many eyes. Instantly the needle began to revolve, 
and for many minutes there was no apparent change in its motion in either the 
primary or secondary bearings. The music, now a crooning lullaby, grew softer 
and slower, until his deep and regular breathing showed that he was sound 
asleep. As it was, while that one missile did not reach the city, its frightful 
atomic charge exploded under six hundred fathoms of water, ten scant miles from 
Atlantis' harbor, and very close to an ancient geological fault. "Are you quite 
sure that you haven't had _anything_ to do with it? But supper is ready--let's 
eat. We're both in fine condition and in hard training. I am going to work. 
I'll remember that address--and the cat--and I'll never go into the place!" 

"Every event does affect the succession of events," Mentor acknowledged, 
equably enough. So think it over for a few days and when each of you has 
definitely made up his or her mind, let me know. The room had only one lack; it 
did not have an ultra-wave visiplate. " 

"Murgatroyd, do you suppose?" Although surprised by Kinnison's tremendous 
report, Samms was not dismayed. " 

No hostile demonstration was made as they dropped lower and lower, however, and 
Seaton, with one hand upon the switch actuating the zone of force, slowly 
lowered the vessel down past the reflectors and to the surface of the water. In 
fact, even I may decide to refer it to a higher echelon. . . " Her face fell. 
"You observed and understood? You did not. 

He went--not exactly boldly--forty-five in hand. But how come we got off on 
_this_ subject, I wonder? Because when we aren't fighting, like now, it's 
purely wonderful. . . " 

"Well, go on. 

"I'm using only a few thousand kilograms of thrust, and I'll cut that as soon 
as we touch atmosphere, long before she can even begin to heat," Rodebush 
explained. Here's what I thought we could do," and he went over in detail the 
only course of action which his survey had shown to be possible. They made up 
packs of food, filled their capacious pockets with emergency rations, buckled 
on Lewistons and automatics, donned their armor, and clamped into their 
external holsters a full complement of additional weapons. Women's minds and 
Lenses don't fit. 

"Tell me what it says, quick, Steve!" Nadia implored. If we have to do that, 
let it be only as a last resort. Thus the pirate's beams stormed and struck and 
clawed and clung--uselessly. The impurities, however, are not sufficient in 
quantity to offer a point of attack to any ordinary reagent. It's probably of 
the order of magnitude of half a million tons, since the stuff weighs more than 
half a ton to the cubic foot. They will also, of course, appear in person 
whenever and wherever you wish. I command you to rest; and, to insure that 
rest, you may pull that cord, which will establish about this room an ether 
wall: a wall to cut off even this my voice. 

How? By air? Along the road? Through the woods on foot? He had no way of 
knowing--talking, even on a tight beam, was out of the question. The ceremony 
over and their course carefully plotted, Carfon stood at the door of the 
_Skylark_ a moment before it closed. And every mind present knew that those 
aliens were, at long, long last, fulfilling their destiny and were, in that 
fulfillment, supremely happy. That's probably what disintegrated their brains. 
Then they looked the ship over rather casually, as though they didn't see 
anything they were interested in; crippled the motors; and went away. When you 
have finished your meal, the beam is shortened. "If it's Blaine against Babe, 
it'll be Lopresto against Herc. " 

"I see. "In that case I won't wait to try to find out what he thinks. " 

"Nor is it necessary. Close up. As soon as you quit making a damned fool of 
yourself by wasting energy that way, we'll set the _UC-1_ back down where she 
was and get on with our business here. Thence to the Radiation Laboratory, 
where it was ascertained and reported that the armor did not leak--which was 
reasonable enough, since each was lined with Masters' plastics. A couple of 
them show disks. I got there first with the most, and I'm not worried about 
competition. It would pass. Remember, Jarve, what you said about the 
irresistible force? We'll need it. The Brass is going to take a certain amount 
of convincing. 

That surface was cratered and jagged, exactly like that of the half always 
facing Clamer. . . that changes the whole picture. And they would destroy 
Earth, without a qualm, if in so doing they could kill the First Lensman. 
DuQuesne shut it behind them and in overwhelming relief, the adventurers 
huddled together as from the wilderness without there arose an appalling 
tumult. 

"I'm convinced of it, for one reason in particular. His voice, though light and 
thin, nevertheless seemed to be of powerful timbre. We must work through 
echelon upon echelon of higher and lower executives and supervisors if we are 
to control efficiently the activities of the thousands of billions of operators 
which we must and will have at work. "I had not intended you two men to live so 
long. He was trained for years, then planted. 

He arrived. "You're no more a commander than my lowest office-girl is! Just 
wait 'till you get down here, you green-haired hussy, you shameless notor. Is 
that it?" 

"That's it exactly," Seaton assured her. Doyle, two," ordered Kinnison. "What 
did you expect? She got her hair and eyes from you, why not your 
hard-headedness, too? One thing, though, that's all to the good--she's got what 
it takes to strip ship that way, and most of 'em haven't. 

Perhaps it would be better to say that the planet Strett became a junior-grade 
nova, since the actual nova stage was purely superficial and did not last very 
long. Good hunting, Jill!" 

Samms, still seated calmly at his desk, reached out and pressed a button marked 
"GARAGE". " 

"She's a damned female Ph. One question. But we're _not_ going to be separated. 
" 

"Don't be dumb, Norman. Another hunch?" 

"No, sir, a logical procedure. N. T. , everybody was ravenously hungry. . . . 
sure. . . . . . . . " 

"Oh, I did it day before yesterday. "Where are you?" 

"Observatory. "_You_ should scream--oh, that ridiculous Tellurian prud. It is 
of the utmost importance to save that creature's life if possible; because we 
do not want one of their fortresses launched against us--and in any event, it 
will not do us any harm to have a friend in the City of the South. "If you 
can't talk sense keep still. Astron, the First of Energy. All Eddorian 
knowledge of that meeting had been suppressed and no more contacts had been 
allowed to occur. They now lie in the Patrol vaults near Weehauken. 

"We thank you with all force, Earthmen, for what you have done for us this day. 
We could not. Since they fought that other crew, and haven't blown us up, they 
aren't active enemies of ours, and may be friendly. Base metals mostly melt at 
around fifteen hundred, and that crucible is still dry as a bone at better than 
seventeen. You're an athlete of some kind, and I'm sure you're a star--I ought 
to recognize you, but I'm ashamed to say I don't. That boy Seven is keen as 
mustard, too. He had long since given over the pursuit of the speedster, and he 
did not rush in to do hopeless battle beside his fellow Nevians against the 
Tellurians. The condition isn't much better right now; it's a vicious circle. 

"Nobody knows how it leaked. You haven't even started a starship; you've 
scarcely started making plans. Production was speeded up. 

"I know I said you'd have to kiss me next time," Lola said, very low, "but this 
act needs just this much of an extra touch. Instead, each vessel cut its 
tractors and pressors, spun end for end, reconnected, and retraced almost 
exactly its previous course; cutting out and blasting into nothingness another 
"plug" of Black warships. 

"Yes, sir," answered the Japanese. First, there is nothing either intrinsically 
right or intrinsically wrong about liberty or slavery, democracy or autocracy, 
freedom of action or complete regimentation. To further these ends, we Lensmen 
suggest that you re-form your fleet and proceed to Arisia. Definitely. " 

"How _sure_ are you of this, Miss Samms?" Knobos asked, in deadly earnest. " 

"What next, Dick?" 

"Now the real trouble begins. They stood motionless, locked in each other's 
arms, while DuQuesne dove through the opening and snapped the door shut behind 
him. 

The macro-beams! Prodigious streamers of bluish-green flame which tore savagely 
through course after course of Nevian screen! Malevolent fangs, driven with 
such power and velocity that they were biting into the very walls of the enemy 
vessel before the amphibians knew that their defensive shells of force had been 
punctured! And the emergency screens of the invaders were equally futile. The 
tractor beams snapped without warning, and so prodigious were the forces being 
exerted by the lifeboat that as it hurled itself away the three passengers were 
thrown violently to the floor, in spite of the powerful gravity controls. 
Check?" 

James did not express the thought that Tellus must by now be so far away that 
no possible effort could reach it; but he could not repress the implication. 

Samms knew the price of that power would be high. You'd probably never even get 
up there alive, to say nothing of getting back here. And shortly 
thereafter--first by square feet and then by acres and then by square 
miles--the surface of the golop began to die. 

"Lucky again!" Kromodeor, in the wardroom, turned to Wixill as the two prepared 
to take their respective watches. 

Then captain and director, in two Oman ships with fifty men and a thousand 
Omans, leaped the world-girdling ocean to the mining operation of the Stretts. 
But those talented fingers were doing more--far, far more--than that. " 

"Decidedly not. "If your work is of enough importance to enough people, Mentor 
would certainly give you a Lens. One, that with your return the conditioning 
should be broken. "In that I understand your viewpoint thoroughly. But it 
became something else. See?" 

"Uh-uh," she dissented. . . . . she measures up, of course, but. That girl has 
got everything. . and you know, Clee, I'm pretty sure you're going to get us 
back home. That she had studied intensively, and had tabulated the reactions 
of, each of the entities on her list. 

Then: 

"Now you know a little of it," Hilton said. "Your ancient Masters, being 
short-lived like us, changed materially with time, did they not? And you 
changed with them?" 

"But we did not change ourselves, Master. "I wouldn't miss this for a farm!" 

"Got him solid," declared Seaton, after a careful inspection of the various 
attractors and repellers he had bearing upon the prisoner, "Now let's get him 
out of that suit. "That doesn't mean much, though, as they'll be just about in 
the sun and they'll be coming like a scared dog. Here he was alone--everything 
he needed must be manufactured by his own hands, from its original sources. 
Knowing there was no other place on Earth where he would be safe, we took him 
to The Hill. 

All of the Patrol ships had, of course, the standard equipment of so-called 
"violet", "green", and "red" fields, as well as duodecaplylatomate and ordinary 
atomic bombs, dirigible torpedoes and transporters, slicers, polycyclic drills, 
and so on; but in this battle the principal reliance was to be placed upon the 
sheer, brutal, overwhelming power of what had been called the "macro beam"--now 
simply the "beam". 

These two, Garlock and James, were heads of departments of, and under iron-clad 
contract to, vast Solar System Enterprises, Inc. Petrine?" 

"Not 'practically', we are Petrinos all. How soon can we get married?" 

"I'd say right now, except. . m," mused Brandon. "We seem to be getting nowhere 
fast. I'm not exactly enamored of Lola's idea, either, but as the answer it's 
one hundred percent to as many decimal places as you want to take time to write 
zeroes. And besides, you'd name it '_Dimples_'--what a _revolting_ thought!" 

"And what would you name it? '_Virgilia_', I suppose?" 

"Far from it, my boy. " 

"What!" Samms exclaimed, and the boys could feel his mind work. We set no 
limitation whatever as to quantity and with no foreseeable limit as to time. We 
should run an eye over it, don't you think?" 

"By all means," she agreed again. "Jarvis Hilton, you are one of the keenest, 
most intelligent men who ever lived. Have you?" 

"I know what you mean. Okay, but I want you both--Fao especially--to realize 
exactly what that means. Twelve enormous masses of metallic checkerwork, 
covered with wide cooling fins, almost filled the vast hall. There is a good 
chance that, by combining the best points of the warfares of many worlds, we 
can evolve something that will enable us to turn back these invaders. Partially 
obscured by clouds and with its polar regions two glaring caps of snow--they 
would be green in a few months, when the planet would swing inside the orbit of 
its sun around the vast central luminary of that complex solar system--it made 
a magnificent picture. Clee's appreciation was obvious. You saw me flip the 
tenth-piece. It was the First Team. " 

"Name your reward, Lord Tedric. She did not reply, but turned to Perkins. " 
Belle's thought had not been interrupted by any passage of time whatever. " He 
drew the fragrant smoke deep into his lungs and frowned at her in mock 
seriousness. . . . but he probably does. "That all this virility and nubility 
and glamor is pure coincidence?" 

"No," Hilton said, with an almost imperceptible flick of an eyelid. You've 
found out that your famous sex-appeal won't work. Get me a mace; the lightest 
real mace they've got in their armory. And finally, much farther back, at a 
very respectful distance from their strange new god, arranged in dozens of more 
or less concentric, roughly hemispherical rows, stood everybody who had had 
time to get there. They devoured vegetation, crops, animals, and mankind. "That 
is the most viciously loaded question I ever heard--it can't be answered except 
in the wrong way!" 

"Okay, I'll make it semantically sound. It's lonesome, you know, 'way out in 
deep space. Second, we BuSci people will stay here until they do. . oh, excuse 
that crack, please, Dr. 

"Might as well get it out of your system, Belle," Garlock said aloud. Austine's 
College had more students that year than ever before or since. "I'll hunt Bill 
up and make passes at him, see if I don't. Its entire bulk was protected by the 
shield whose qualities had so surprised Costigan; a shield far more effective 
than any Tellurian scientist or engineer would have believed possible. Fatal? I 
don't know. " 

"I should call them perfectly natural, considering the circumstances," he 
answered. That was the worst yet. However, either course will take lots of 
power, so the first thing I've got to do is to build a power plant. "I'd rather 
widen it, myself--I might prefer a general, even to a physicist!" 

They went up to the main saloon and joined the mêlée there, and after one 
dance with Verna--all he could claim in that crowd of men--Crowninshield turned 
to Brandon. It is written. Besides, I _know_ they did. Flying chairs are really 
hard to cope with. Otherwise I take his job away from him. . . a thousand. " 

"Sure, I forgot--guess I was getting in deeper than is necessary, especially 
since this whole thing of beam transmission is pretty crude yet and is bound to 
change a lot before long. Let's locate the sun and get in touch with Samms. 



A month passed. 

No part of this book may be reprinted without written permission of the 
publishers. 

Nearly two days passed before the gleaming copper cylinders were finished. "I 
have work to do. He'll be sure to follow you in their rotten car. " 

"How come?" and "In what way?" Delcamp and Fao demanded together. And since he 
has 'no adequate laboratory equipment aboard', he wants to take a dozen or so 
Omans back to Terra, where he can really work on them. We've got away clean 
with lots worse stuff. I would suggest that he work in the woods at least a 
hundred miles from his nearest neighbor, though it matters nothing to me how 
many people you kill. "The only course of action which carries any promise 
whatever of success--and its probability is only point one eight--is the one 
recommended by the Faros, modified slightly to include Artomenes' suggestion of 
sending his best operative on the indicated mission. Sciro and his force struck 
out. We'll get us a bite of supper and turn in. It is a good thing we brought 
along ducks and white soft shirts. How sure are you that you can stop such 
missiles with ordinary beams?" 

"Not at all, sir. Super-Ship in Action                                187 

XVII. Now see what you can do about getting me run through your mill. Since you 
are reading my very mind, you know exactly what I am _really_ thinking, for 
better or for worse. " 

"Yes, sir. Too fine a detail. She had been asked for an opinion; she set out to 
give it without apology or hesitation. Then, too, he has dropped remarks which 
would imply that he actually saw things that happened long before any living 
man could possibly have been born. Why else would he?" 

"Maybe he loves her. . . . " 

"Your evasions are so transparent, my lord; why not tell the truth?" Rhoann did 
not exactly sneer at the man's obvious embarrassment, but it was very clear 
that she, too, was in a vicious temper. 

Election Day dawned clear, bright, and cool; auguring a record turn-out. 

"We lined up a thousand and one signals, sir," Northrop reported for the pair, 
"but only one of them carried a message, and it didn't make sense. " 

"Left out? It shall be so built--but of what use will it be?" 

"The empty spaces shall be filled after I have returned from my quest. Platinum 
melts somewhere around seventeen-fifty, tantalum about twenty-nine hundred, and 
tungsten not until 'way up around thirty-three, or four hundred--and that, by 
the way, means lots of grief. Without a word into the transformers they seized 
Bradley and Clio. . . . I have heard of you human beings, of course, but have 
never considered seriously the possibility of meeting one of you mind to mind. 

Wherefore, out in open space, the Earth a fast-shrinking tiny ball and Sol 
himself growing smaller, paler, and weaker at a startling rate, the _Chicago's_ 
speed attained an almost constant value; a value starkly impossible for the 
human mind to grasp. Let's see, what have they given us so far?" 

"We've got to hand it to them," responded DuQuesne, admiringly. You should not. 
You weigh one thirty-five to my two seventeen. They point the way back to your 
Earth, which is so far away that even my mentality cannot grasp the meaning of 
the distance. Two, to feed itself additional information by peyondiring all 
planets, wherever situate, bearing intelligent life. Can't seem to crush his 
screens, so I guess we'll have to try something else," and a thoughtful 
expression came over his face as he slowly extended his hand toward another 
switch, with a questioning glance at Westfall. The Standard Employment 
Contract, however, is short, explicit, and iron-clad. Paul Jones, a big, hard, 
top-drawer chicle technologist, set up the Four line to pour demolition blocks. 
The small vessel no longer struggled, nor even moved, but was merely resisting 
passively. That is, of course, unless you contemplate deliberate, cold-blooded 
murder. " 

"_Trade_! You _tomcat_!" Belle's nostrils flared. If I, working with you and 
having you pounding it into my head, couldn't more than half believe it. But 
has it ever occurred to you that that's a hell of a way to treat a first-class, 
highly capable brain? To waste it on second-hand, copycat, carbon-copy stuff?" 

"Why, no, Master, it never did. " She snuggled even closer, and both listened 
to what Rodebush was saying. Temperature, like Osnome most of the time, but 
fairly comfortable in the winter. 

"Thank you, Danny," Samms said, as appreciatively as though he did not know 
exactly where his ground-car was. "Scores, perhaps hundreds, of us will never 
again breathe the clear, pure air of Titan. 

Actually, there was very little to see. You do it like so. That is an 
Anglo-Saxon weakness. No matter how many wives or husbands may be linked 
together in that way, it merely means that after death their spirits will be 
grouped into one. My way is absolutely the only way that will work. " 

"No. " 

"And yet you gave it to me. "I said two point four _micrograms_, not 
milligrams. They've made no allowances for anything, not even the reversal--and 
I figure four thousands for that and for minor detours. 

"But. "Throw us a rope!" 

"A Dicky-bird, you mean," interposed Dorothy. They're smart. I had to play it 
as though the whole Oman race is no more important than a cigarette butt. Since 
I can see no other course possible within the constituted framework of our 
democratic government, I recommend that we continue our present activities, 
such as the international treaties and agreements upon which we are now at 
work, intensifying our effort wherever possible. It was evident that Nalboon, 
usually stern and reticent, was in an unusually pleasant mood. George 
Washington Jones, after a meticulous Service Special survey in every direction, 
reached a large and somewhat grimy hand into a screened receptacle in his 
battered suitcase and touched a Lens. As the Skylark shot into the air with the 
greatest acceleration that would permit its passengers to move about, the grand 
fleet of Kondalian warship fired a deafening salute. But every iota of 
knowledge that any of his progenitors had ever had was still his. We've got to 
take the same risk anyway, no matter what we do, whenever we start to use any 
kind of driving power, so there's no use worrying about it. After a time 
DuQuesne also lapsed into unconsciousness, making no particular effort to avoid 
it, as he knew that the involuntary muscles would function quite as well 
without the direction of the will. "I'll look her up and let you know, Larry. I 
was weaned quite a number of years ago. And 'Rhoann' merely, Tedric, remember?" 

"Rhoann. " 

As he spoke, he snapped a switch and from a port under the starboard wing there 
shot out into space a small package of concentrated destruction--a 
rocket-propelled, radio-controlled torpedo. Clayton and Schweikert used a 
little caustic language--via Lens and to their fellow Lensmen only, of 
course--but Samms and Kinnison were well enough pleased. But don't strain 
yourself; and I mean that literally, not as sarcasm. There's no danger at all 
of consequences--except weddings. " Tedric went to one knee. She stepped into 
the boat and reached for the lever. 

Into that mind his multi-mind flashed, its every member as responsive to his 
will as his own fingers--almost infinitely more so, in fact, because of the 
tremendous lengths of time required to send messages along nerves. They 
returned to their assigned places to see crosses, standing as close together as 
they could be placed and each bearing a suffering Christian, filling the whole 
vast expanse of the arena. If Crane will lend me a pistol, we'll make the rush 
together. 

And all throughout that doomed city Nevians dropped; quietly and without a 
struggle, unknowing. It would not take too many scouts, would it?" 





"No; but it wouldn't be worth while. . You are the first real woman I have ever 
known, and some day, if life is good to me, I hope to have some girl as lovely 
care for me. Soon the two vessels were almost side by side, moving cautiously 
forward, and Seaton set up a sixty-inch parabolic reflector, focused upon a 
coil. It seemed as though the entire tip of the mountain was gone; had become a 
seething, flaming volcano on a world that had known no volcanism for hundreds 
of thousands of years. 



"_The critical point in time of mankind's whole existence is there--RIGHT 
THERE!" Prime Physicist Skandos slashed his red pencil across the black trace 
of the chronoviagram. Seaton, dragged along like a small boy trying to hold a 
runaway calf by the tail, was covering the ground in prodigious leaps and 
bounds; at the same time pulling himself up, hand over hand, to the bar in 
front of him. He discovered that fact just in time; in another second or two he 
would have been out beyond the moon's protecting bulk and thus detectable from 
Cavenda. 

"You are all of the highest evolution and your minds are all untainted by any 
base thoughts in your marriage. "Dare you invade my privacy unannounced and 
without invitation?" 

The escort shrank back, but the Domak stood his ground, although he was plainly 
taken aback. " 

"It _would_ be too much to expect them to be dumb enough to figure us as dumb 
enough to depend only on our visible Grand Fleet, after the warning they gave 
us at The Hill," Kinnison admitted. Should he flash back to Eddore, or should 
he wait and take the planetoid, with its highly varied and extremely valuable 
contents? He would wait; a few moments more would be a completely negligible 
addition to the eons of time which had already elapsed since action should have 
been begun. 

"Therefore, friends, you see how little we are able to do for you, we a race 
fighting for our very existence and doomed to extinction save for a miracle. 
They know, then, that neither they nor we can do anything as long as we 
maintain the zone--that it is a stalemate. A good workman does not causelessly 
destroy his tools. " He turned to the Martians. "Eight foot checkerwork to the 
hangin', anyway, huh?" 

"Yes. Here she could come at him by any route of the three. Having smoked it, 
he apparently swallowed the butt, with evident relish. "Or somebody will rot in 
jail for a hundred years. . it _tears_ it," Karns said then. Besides, I _know_ 
they did. But at least, I'm glad that I can go out with you," and her glorious 
eyes were shining with unshed tears. " 

The scene shifted. 

"Well, _that_ helps--I don't think," Garlock thought, glumly. 

"I deduce those characteristics from their unprovoked attack upon peaceful 
ships, vastly smaller and supposedly of inferior armament; and also from the 
nature of that attack. 

Suddenly, almost imperceptibly, the Sigma curve gave signs of flattening out. 

For the enemy vessel was not the last of the low-powered hexan vessels, as 
everyone had supposed--it was the first of the high-powered craft, arriving 
long before its appearance was expected. Have the boys break out a couple of 
spare Number Twelve struts, some clamps and chain, four snatch blocks, and a 
hundred feet of heavy space-line. "No fuel is coming aboard without being 
tested!" he roared. "What can _you_ throw straight enough to do any good?" 

"Anything I can reach," she replied, confidently. This event was foretold in 
detail; in such complete detail that I was deeply, terribly shocked. Beside him 
and within him and behind him. I am discussing these points at such length so 
that you may realize exactly your position. Just see what you can do, please, 
and let me know. There was a big, clean desk; a wiry, intense, gray-haired man. 
" 

"What difference does that make?" he asked, in honest surprise. I will also 
have prepared some kind of a space-suit in which he can be brought from his 
vessel to ours," and the surgeon took the measurements and went to see that the 
"operating table" and suit were made ready for Kromodeor, the sorely wounded 
Vorkul. . Excuse me, please, I shouldn't have said that, in view of what I see 
happening here. Why can't this one do it? Of course it can. _What_ a load of 
stuff! I was right--of all the women on this project, you're the only one I've 
ever been really afraid of. 

The Nevian vessel--the sister-ship, the craft which Costigan had seen in 
mid-space as it hurtled Earthward in response to Nerado's summons--hung poised 
in full visibility high above the metropolis. 

"Oh, isn't it wonderful!" breathed the girl, awed. He has found out since that 
an electrical machine in another room, which was not running that morning, 
played a very important part. In sum, indefensible actions based upon 
unwarranted conclusions drawn from erroneous assumptions. " He turned to the 
flabbergasted three. And toward them also flung the Earth, enlarging with such 
indescribable rapidity that Cleveland protested involuntarily, in spite of his 
knowledge of the peculiar mechanics of the vessel in which they were. Even were 
I able to paint a sufficiently vivid picture with words, you of Earth could not 
begin to understand their utter ruthlessness and inhumanity, even among 
themselves. In another week she would report back to the city whose name she 
bore, where her space-weary crew, worn by their long "tour" in the awesomely 
oppressive depths of the limitless void, would enjoy to the full their 
fortnight of refreshing planetary leave. Roban and Tarnan remained 
contemptuous. . . No, but I want. report on you showed that you had brains, 
ability, and guts. That gives me a great big start--I won't have to mine the 
ores and smelt the metals, as would have been necessary otherwise. That 
operation was _planned_. Here's the mathematical proof. You're a fighter, too, 
and a damn good one. 'Final,' I won't accept. " 

Then silence; and waiting. "Strap yourselves in solid, everybody!" he sounded 
in general warning. Both Falnians staggered backward until they were stopped by 
the room's wall. Furthermore, in the incredibly incandescent frenzy of the 
chosen field of action--the cylinder was to attack the cone at its very 
strongest part--no conceivable material projectile could have lasted a single 
microsecond after leaving the screens of force of its parent vessel. " 



"The more you talk, the more I am convinced that it was DuQuesne himself," 
declared Seaton, positively. "You are _not_ going to wreck this project. You're 
looking great, too--I think I'll bring my girl out here to live. 

"We came through in very good shape, considering. " 

Witnesses: 

ROBAN, Emperor of Kondal. . . . . but after all, if the big dope didn't realize 
that half the women aboard, including Sandy, had been making passes at him, she 
certainly wouldn't enlighten him. 

"Get out of his light!" Jack snapped, and pushed his friend violently away; and 
as the vicious sunlight struck it, the native revived and began to revolve as 
vigorously as before. Should he flash back to Eddore, or should he wait and 
take the planetoid, with its highly varied and extremely valuable contents? He 
would wait; a few moments more would be a completely negligible addition to the 
eons of time which had already elapsed since action should have been begun. . . 
. Spearmint? Slayton--give me Weatherby. " 

"Just this. "You, who have been so afraid of us for over two thousand million 
Tellurian years that you dared not let us even learn of you? So afraid of us 
that you dared not take any action to avert the destruction of any one of your 
budding Civilizations upon any one of the worlds of either galaxy? So afraid 
that you dare not, even now, meet me mind to mind, but insist upon the use of 
this slow and unsatisfactory oral communication between us?" 

"Either your thinking is loose, confused, and turbid, which I do not believe to 
be the case, or you are trying to lull me into believing that you are stupid. 
And it's the first time--here's the crux, as I see it--that any of us has been 
concentrating on any destination at the moment of firing the charge. High above 
their heads the mirror again encompassed Seaton, and again shot upward and 
southward. How about you, DuQuesne?" 

"Not I," declared that worthy, emphatically. "A king you--act it!" 

Hard blue eyes glared steadily into unyielding eyes of green. Then, too, we 
will lose heavily. "No one except the very few selectees will know anything 
about it. How about you? Coming?" 

"Yes. "But either we get our people or Terra doesn't get its uranexite. They 
shall build other robots, who shall in turn construct another planetoid; one 
this time that, wielding the theoretical maximum of power, will be suited to my 
needs. The pilot vessels, with their flaming red screens, each followed by a 
cone of space-ships, drew closer and closer together, approaching the 
_Fearless_--the British super-dreadnought which was to be the flagship of the 
Fleet--the mightiest and heaviest space-ship which had yet lifted her 
stupendous mass into the ether. 

"Oh. "If anybody comes up with anything by then, let me know. " 

"Ready. " 

"At my word 'ready' you will begin to assemble all your mental force and power. 
We're getting in as close as the Law will let us. 

Again and again the wave of golop built up high enough to crack and to shatter 
that feeble wall; again and again golop and water met in ultimately furious, if 
insensate, battle. But I'm devilishly and gleefully glad, Clee, that I was here 
to hear _somebody_ give you cards, spaces, and big casino and still beat the 
lights and liver out of you at your own game of cold-blooded logic!" 

"We gunners must go now. Nothing was ornamental--everything was stripped to its 
barest fundamental necessities--but every working part functioned with a smooth 
precision to delight the senses of any good mechanic. Knowing from the lack of 
any apparent motion that the power had been sufficient to pull the car away 
from that fatal globe, his first thought was for Dorothy, and he tore off his 
helmet and turned toward her. He knows just exactly how far to go, and never 
goes beyond it. As a young operative, skilled in the punishing, maiming 
techniques of hand-to-hand rough-and-tumble combat, he had brawled successfully 
in most of the dives of most of the solarian planets and of most of their 
moons. His actions may give you some idea as to his feelings, though he is an 
accomplished diplomat and may conceal his real feelings entirely. The problem 
was handed to Siberia. 

"Their source of power is the intra-atomic energy of iron. Women, too, were 
there in profusion; women for the taking and yearning to be taken; and the tide 
of revelry ran open, wide, and high. "He is almost exactly my size and build, 
is the only man I know of who could do anything with the solution after he got 
it, and he has nerve enough to do anything. And again the Nevian shear-plane of 
force slashed at the _Boise's_ tractor beam; but this time the mighty puller 
did not give way. "If the younger generations start weakening we'll fix the 
Omans. Therefore--coldly, impersonally, logically, tellingly--he told the whole 
terrific story. But since Morgan was as undisturbed as ever, and as sure of 
himself, he began to regain his wonted aplomb. I wish that I could make you 
understand that Seaton and Crane have got something that we haven't--but for 
the good of our plants, and incidentally for your own, please remember one 
thing, anyway; for if you forget it, we won't have a plant left and you 
personally will be blown into a fine red mist. Scarcely had the search begun, 
however, when the visirays were again cut off sharply--the rapidly advancing 
main fleet of the hexans had arrived and the scintillant Vorkulian screens were 
again in place. Seaton stood now at the summit of his pride. The head, like the 
body and limbs, was entirely devoid of hair. . complete coverage. Have you got 
a counter?" 

They had. And he's so big. 

He was vastly more interested in the stars, however, than in delivering the 
broadleaf. 

For several seconds Garlock had been half-conscious that his accidental 
companion was trying, with more and more energy, to disengage his encircling 
left arm from her waist. Definitely. For good. " 

"So have I, and I'm going to yell again, right now," Jack declared. 

But the outlaws were not to win a foothold upon that inimical planet easily, 
nor were they to hold it without effort. There is only one chance in numberless 
millions that anywhere within the cruising range of your newly perfected 
space-ship there may be an iron-bearing planet upon which you can effect a 
landing. And he, equally openly, held her forearm for a moment in the full 
grasp of his hand. "That is, if you're damned sure that you can run if you have 
to. . . I should be able to lock down the next shot in five. . . . . " 

"Hi, Quincy! Hi, Norman!" a merry voice interrupted. Its mind is tremendously 
strong, of no curiosity or imagination, and of very little peyondix. I could do 
with some more sleep myself. I feel it. One word and I'll tell the old buzzard 
just where to stick the job and exactly where to go to do it. " 

"Let's go, folks!" said Seaton hastily, drawing Dorothy back toward the 
Skylark. 

And tried--and tried--and tried. Get the dope, then do as you think best. I 
wonder how he does it?" 

"It doesn't look as though we are ever going to find out--he's sure a 
bear-cat!" replied Seaton, as the karlon, unable to ascend further, dropped in 
a slanting dive toward the lowlands of Kondal--the terrible, swampy region 
covered with poisonous vegetation and inhabited by frightful animals and even 
more frightful savages. " Costigan's arm tightened around her. "Those forgings 
are going through the most complete set of tests known to the industry, and if 
they go into the Skylark at all it will be after I am thoroughly convinced that 
they will not give way on our first trip into space. 

"Well, I am beginning to understand it a little," said Dorothy finally. Shove 
out the receptor screens to the limit and drive 'em. We are in most desperate 
need of two things which you alone can supply--salt, and that strange metal, 
'X'. There were a few whose arrangement was almost orderly. I will give him a 
share--say fifty percent, or forty--of the time and effort I save on my own 
projects!" 

"Just so you _go_, Tallick. 'Smatter with it?" 

"It's a good three hundred degrees Kelvin too hot. A mighty smart operator. " 

"You said also that there were 'millions and millions' of worlds that have 
solved the problems facing us. To Adams it was only one tiny datum in an 
incredibly huge and complex mathematical structure. "I want to tell you 
something, Belle. Since neither of us can put it on we'll have to rig up an 
automatic feed. I am different. . . . . . . . . . . . . " Jack's thought 
snapped off as he tuned to a local Lensman. 

"It can be done, sir, with complete safety. How about it?" The other Lensmen, 
even Samms, agreed enthusiastically. "Now, suppose that you are not my slave 
and simple automatic relay station. 

"I beg your pardon," he said, with amused irony. I'll have supper ready for you 
at sunset. " 

"Exactly what is the alternative?" 

"We will not go into that. As the wonderfully skilled mechanics set to work 
without a single useless motion, the prince stood silent, with a look of care 
upon his handsome face. 

"Yes. " 

"Well, you know it's loaded with uranexite. " 

"Have you read your marriage certificate, Dick?" asked Margaret. Too big. Every 
square millimeter of skin and mucous membrane. 

"Outside the Fence" was different. 

"Barkovis, I've got a thought!" he snapped into the microphone. The mind does 
not lie--even such lies as you call 'diplomacy'. I have never seen an 
undertaking of such size go forward so smoothly and with such fine 
co-operation. " 

"I hope so," she replied, keeping her voice from breaking only by a great 
effort. But say, Dunark, it wouldn't be good technique for you to eat our food 
for any length of time. That ball of fire they picked out for you would be a 
blue-ribbon dish in anybody's cook-book. Willoughby's graphs were accurate. 
And, surprisingly enough, the Nevians made no demonstration of hostility. 
Nerado _was_ stalling for time, and that's what they're doing down 
there--that's all those fire-balls are for. Together, and in the _Skylark_, I 
believe you invincible. It is transmitted and used as direct current, our 
generator and motors being so constructed that they can produce no etheric 
disturbances capable of penetrating the shielding walls of our city. Then, 
failing in that as he knew he would fail, he demanded something to _do_. Any 
other ideas, fellows?" 



As neither Crane nor Dunark had any other suggestions to offer, Seaton brought 
out the mechanical educator, watching the creature's eyes narrowly. 

But to resume the thread of narrative, George Washington Jones went to Eridan 
as a common laborer; a mucker. 

Clayton and Schweikert had both. And say, from the throw of the pump and the 
volume of the sump, will you give me the best estimate you can of how much time 
we've got? I want at least an hour, but I'm afraid I won't have it. " 

"Check. "Trenco is there, off to one side. But enough of this idle 
chatter--take them back to their quarters!" 

Back to their three inter-communicating rooms the prisoners were led under 
heavy guard; and, true to his word, Nerado made certain that they had no more 
opportunities to escape. "I'm afraid, Steve. . er. . " 

"Just a minute--going over this once will be enough. Entlore that we're. No 
Gunther starship could ever, possibly, work. 

"Aren't you going to do something, Conway?" she cried. See where we're going, 
will you?" 

"We are about to strike the water," replied Crane quietly. 

"Well, I'm a. 

"That's it, Miss Bellamy. How long will the job take, and how much notice will 
you need?" 

"Two days, sir. Next time he pitches into her she'll slap his ears right off. 

Bang! Bam! Pow! The camouflage disappeared; so did the shrubbery for yards 
around. Maybe he believed what you always say just before or just after kicking 
somebody's teeth down their throats; that you're so meek and mild--a regular 
Milquetoast. The whole BuSci staff was in the lounge, watching the big tri-di. 
From our protected areas in North America a strong but democratic government 
can spread to cover the world. 

"And you said they were so hard-boiled," Doris said accusingly to Sam, nodding 
at the twins. 

"Not close enough to make out much detail yet--let's take another look at 
Saturn," and Stevens projected the visiray beam out toward the mighty planet. " 

Captain Bradley had stood by in silent astonishment during this conversation. 
"Why from me?" 

". Oxygen concentration a little high, but not much. " 

"Well, we got away alive, anyway. We're ready for George T. Everything of any 
importance, including all of your personal effects, has already been moved. " 

"Of course. 

"That explains several things about you--particularly your recognition of 
Vee-Two and your uncanny control and speed of reaction. " 

"I hope you don't think that way about _all_ Primes," Garlock said, grimly. You 
needn't bother about picking up your coat, they're both gone. Undisturbed for 
over two hundred seventy-one thousand years. . . a screen of that type was 
scarcely to have been expected from such a low form of life," Nerado commented, 
and began to adjust dials and controls. Your whole present policy is one of 
hiding and sniping. " 

"Smart!" Isaacson applauded. "I'm no blooming Englishman but in weather as hot 
as this I sure would like to dive into a good cold tank. Alcantro and Fedanzo 
will supervise the construction of the generators of the various fields from 
these calculations. 

Out of the vacuum of space a fish-shaped vessel of the void--the vessel that 
was to attack so boldly both the massed fleet of Triplanetary and Roger's 
planetoid--plunged into the rarefied outer atmosphere, and crimson beams of 
force tore shriekingly through the thin air as it braked its terrific speed. 
Thus, _in loco parentis_, we would be derelict indeed if we refused to act. " 

"I'll say they will. "Get that idea out of your head right now. " 

"What? You don't mean--you _can't_ mean that they--and by your thought, you 
Arpalones, too--are cannibals!" 

"Cannibals? Explain, please? Oh, eaters-of-our-own-species. They're watching 
this house. . " 

"Hi, Quincy! Hi, Norman!" a merry voice interrupted. "Figure it out. " 

The creature, now in the shadow of the 'Troncist's helmet, slowed down 
abruptly--went limp--collapsed. "The priests have taken Rhoann and are about to 
give her to Sarpedion!" 

"They can't, sire. However, by the time they can land and get checked up and 
ready to hunt for us, we'll be a mighty small needle, well hidden in a good big 
haystack. Everybody wanted to go, and there threatened to be trouble over the 
selection, so we picked the highest ratings from the whole Service. As he 
finished, he drew himself along by a handrail to one of the windows, then to 
another. Are you ready for a terrible shock, sir?" 

"Shoot. . . . . . . . " 

"Fao!" Delcamp exclaimed, "Please keep still--_please_!" 

"Let her rave," Garlock said, coldly. "They've got something--no fooling. As 
for solving mysteries, laugh while you can, old hyena. " 

"It may, at that. Will you resist?" 

"No. " 

She seized his elbow and hugged it quickly against her breast. " 

"I think Nerado will come in for a conference, and we'll be able to make terms 
of some kind. " 

"I understand. That's about how much ahead of us they probably are. Her price 
is high. . . " 

"But nothing can possibly go that fast, Mart, it's impossible. Every hundred 
years or so someone develops a new type of rocket that he thinks may stand a 
slight chance of making the journey, but not one of these venturesome youths 
has as yet returned. In a lower compartment of one of these enormous heptagons 
Vortel Kromodeor, First Projector Officer, rested before a gigantic and complex 
instrument board. We know they were around here a few weeks ago, and they're 
the only ones I know of that have intra-atomic power besides us and the 
Osnomians. 

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

"Huh? What are you talking about? Impossible! Where are we, anyway? Then we 
must be making mil. "I know what you two men must of necessity be. Even though 
we can't use it intelligently, it certainly would be a winner as a defense. 
Reynolds Crane, everything would be ruined. . " 



In the _Perseus_, four scientists and three Navy officers were arguing 
heatedly; employing deep-space verbiage not to be found in any dictionary. 

"All set. . " 

"How about the fact that I've been banging myself for eight years against 
Cleander Garlock, the top Prime of the universe and the hardest? That might 
have something to do with it, don't you think?" 

Garlock said, "Indefensible conclusions drawn from insufficient data. Maybe we 
are. " 

The four remaining Primes looked at each other in puzzled surprise. Seaton 
suggested that they melt up some copper cable and other goods already 
manufactured, offering ten times their value, but the manager was obdurate, 
saying that he could not violate the rule of priority of orders. All Europan 
humanity, fully aware of the hexan investment, was exerting every possible 
precaution against discovery by the enemy. We must therefore assume that fuel 
shortage will not be a factor. Very little of their stuff got through--not 
enough, they say, to do much damage to a country as big as the U. This will 
require several months at best. As you already know, it has been decided that 
we should not return to any of the minor planets, as to do so might invite a 
hexan attack upon our police fleet which is as yet unprepared. Through the 
transparent walls they could see no sign of life, and DuQuesne donned a vacuum 
suit and stepped into the airlock. Under the impact of their beams, the 
stranger's screens had flared white, then poised ship and flying squadron had 
alike been lost to view in a murkily opaque shroud of crimson flame. They were 
too slow. He may not decide until the last moment. Keep on taking the shots, 
though; they'll prove, I think, that the universe is one whole hell of a lot 
bigger than anybody has ever thought it was. The thing, whatever it was, was 
now braking frantically with wings, tail, and body; trying madly to get away. 
It had always howled and screamed at its work, but now it gave out only a 
smooth and even hum. 

"All right. Can you and will you give me a chart of a routing from here to 
Palain Seven?" 

"I can and I will. " 

"Their eyes interpret colors differently than ours do," explained Seaton. " 
Belle glanced at him in surprise and he went on: "Not that we've seen, no. 
Until, about the middle of January, beautifully-phrased and 
beautifully-mimeographed letters began to arrive. 

"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. 

"It can't be done, Miss Vaneman. Cut off the decontaminators and in five hours 
it'll be as hot as the rest of the planet. Laro weighed at least five hundred 
pounds! And the guy _still_ looked human! 

Laro nodded again and gave himself a terrific thump on the chest. Personal 
belongings were moved into lifeboats, doors were closed, and there ensued a 
painful period of waiting and suspense. "If there's a chance for you to get 
away and do anything about fighting him, don't mind me. Enough of this 
argument! I am master here, and I am dictating terms. " 

"Coming up!" and in a few seconds they were there. Whee-ee-yerow!" 

Dorothy laughed, a gay, lilting carol. "It must be a kind of flat worm. There 
might have to be another interference, too, to get Tedric started along the 
right time-track. "' 

"What d'you mean 'if the next conjunction is _allowed_ to occur?'" interjected 
Seaton. . common decency. . . . . a subtle something for which your English has 
no word or phrasing. One man was assigned to each small subdivision of 
scientific endeavor, to study it intensively. Of what you call 'bravery' we 
have no trace. Every train and plane, every bus and boat and car, every 
conveyance of every kind and every pedestrian approaching New York City was 
searched; with a search as thorough as it was unobtrusive. " 

He did so, and over a hundred of the Patrol's shrewdest operatives--upon this 
occasion North America had invaded Eridan in force--studied and thought. She 
also carried First Lensman Virgil Samms. Why? I know we weren't together, but I 
got the impression, some way or other, that there was only the one. Yesterday, 
I was playing with it, transferring a section of my own brain to a magnetized 
tape--for a permanent record, you know--and found out that above certain rather 
low voltages it becomes a form of torture that would make the best efforts of 
the old Inquisition seem like a petting party. He knew that the voice was that 
of Sector A's Fire Control Officer, whose duty it was to determine, from 
courses, velocities, and all other data to be had from ground and lofty 
observers, the order in which his Sector's targets should be eliminated. " 



The approach was made, and the fourth planet out from that strange sun was 
selected as a ground. 

At this point Seaton made the captain take them all over the ship. Everybody, 
particularly the Nationalists, had wondered why this climactic political rally 
had been set for three full weeks ahead of the election, but their curiosity 
had not been satisfied. Eight of the huge rooms were now open and brightly 
lighted--operating the lamps had been one of the first items on the first spool 
of instructions--with a cold, pure-white, sourceless light. "What I wanted to 
say is, lead on. " 

"Very well. We have a perfectly wonderful chance as it is, and we've gone so 
far with our scheme together that it would be a crying shame not to be able to 
go through with it. . . " 

Out upon the dock an insistent siren blared a crescendo and diminuendo blast of 
sound, and two minutes remained. . if. K. , don't blow a fuse," Deston said, 
resignedly. " 

"That's because you aren't a girl," Jill giggled mentally. Would they kill them 
all, Dick? Surely they wouldn't--they _couldn't_. Our personnel is not 
expendable. But that can be ironed out as we go along. " 

"There'll be nothing doing here tonight, will there?" 

"No, it would be too noticeable. "The more I think of it the less I like it. 
The sleeping man muttered as if in protest at being disturbed, but made no 
other sign of consciousness. He had filed away every detail of what had just 
happened, and it had so many bizarre aspects that he could not think of 
anything else. Forgotten was his hunger, forgotten the power plant, forgotten 
everything except the fact that his Nadia, the buoyant spirit in whom centered 
his Universe, was lost or. Larry was waiting. And, even before the shift-boss 
had recovered full consciousness, he was walking down the drift toward Station 
Eleven. 

They start for Cantrell's Comet, where Stevens acquires the necessary material 
for his giant transmitting tube, heads back to Ganymede, when their ship is 
cut, top and bottom, by a strong ray-beam. " Gordon gritted his teeth in rage, 
but gave the order. You muckers, rig a couple of skoufers to throw muck to bury 
the base and checkerwork up to the hanging wall. " 

Straightening abruptly, the slave clamped several electrodes upon his temples 
and motioned to Seaton and the others, speaking to Dorothy as he did so. " 

"'Definite' and 'resounding,' yes. "It's in Zone Three already--collision 
course!" 

"Harper! Take over!" 

Kinnison got the data, solved the equations, launched five torpedoes at fifty 
gravities of acceleration. There were, however, a few Martians on the floor, 
wearing their light "robes du convention" and dancing with meticulously 
mathematical precision. He then called the General-in-Chief of the 
Interplanetary Police, requesting a detail of two hundred picked men for the 
hazardous venture. The ground was almost hidden by a rank growth of vegetation, 
but here and there appeared glade-like openings. As the density of the air 
increased so decreased the velocity of the man-made meteorite. . . " 

"Shut up, Jane! They won't hurt us any more than they have already; it's 
psychologically impossible. He could not possibly have done the job from 
Ardvor. Each of these was made general of his planet. It took a long time to 
work out this tight-beam transmission of power, but it was fairly simple after 
they got it. In fact-- 

"There may be a loop-hole in it," Lola said, thoughtfully. " Her mind joined 
his and he went on, "Ignore the machines themselves completely. Every crewman 
sprang to his post. Your reasoning seems to be that, whether the Masters wish 
it or not, you Omans will block any changes whatever in the _status quo_ 
throughout all time to come. It was never investigated by Congress and never 
raided by the police. "Not so good. No--not in cold blood. But you know damned 
well that you can't afford _any_. And I want to know about it as much as anyone 
else does. 

"But suppose she's Theodora?" Bernice had twitted her. Here they are. Nothing 
in the ether spectrum is corkscrewy enough to get through it. She took a few 
seconds to recover it. " 

"That's what I want to know. That would be in English. 

"It sure does," replied Scott, grinning. "Your existence proves that there is 
truth in mythology, as some of us have always believed. If you don't, when I 
count three I'll throw you out, and I won't be too careful about how many of 
your bones I break. But the field is so _big_--how do you expect to find him? 
Or do you know where he is?" 

"Uh-uh!" he denied, vigorously. Not one single damn one. Just kill 'em, don't 
scatter 'em all over hell's half acre--less mess to clean up and I _don't_ want 
you to kill people down below. But they must be wondering no end, outside, what 
the score is, so I'm willing to call it a draw--temporarily--and let 'em in 
again. Samms, intensely serious, spoke aloud to his friend: 

"The Galactic Council is now assembled. Good-bye, Alex; and thanks. With these 
we can guide you and explain the plants to you as you work, and our tractor 
beams will be of assistance to you in moving heavy objects, even at such 
distances from the surface as we Titanians shall have to maintain. A hard knee 
took one in the solar plexus; a hard elbow took the other so savagely under the 
chin as to all but break his neck. 

"I don't think so. I never thought of it that way. That road had been 
crowded--jammed. " 

"I am neither. She arched her eyebrows and spoke aloud--"why, I haven't the 
_faintest_ idea!" 

"Of course not. Keeping his projector upon the pirate, he seized the first club 
to hand--a long, slender pedestal of metal--launched himself past the pirate 
chief. Knowing the dimensions of this, our galaxy, you can readily understand 
the exact degree of precision required to hold upon a point at its outermost 
edge. At first the Chief Line Inspectors simply could not believe; but after 
the affair of the forty millimeter, in which Kinnison rammed the decision of 
his subordinate past Keller, past the General, past Stoner and Black, and clear 
up to the Commanding Officer before he made it stick, they were his to a man. 
Dorothy almost liked him, but Margaret insisted that she considered him worse 
than ever. . . . he wasn't fit to live on the same planet with her, but. 

"Ha! Help--I hear footsteps approaching on jet-back," Garlock announced. We 
pilots are having one sweet time--we're being growled at on every trip. 

"Adrenalin! Massage! Massage hell out of him!" 

Kinnison again came to--partially to, rather--anguished in every fiber of his 
being. Methinks I may be--Oh, the veriest trifle!--out of condition. "In other 
words, do we or do we not attain a maximum? You're making some bum assumptions; 
among others that space isn't curved and that the dimensions of the universe 
are very large compared to the length of our jumps. The fourth was pursuing 
something, which Seaton now saw was a fleet of small airships, which had flown 
away from the scene of conflict. There are literally miles and miles of film in 
each of those reels, and I see that there is a magazine full of reels in the 
cabinet. Pollice verso. Death. The strained and strident yelling of the mob 
grew even louder. Then he spoke--not softly, but in parade-ground tones audible 
to everyone present. Therefore, after we get a ship armed to suit us, we'll 
visit this strange planet and either come to terms with them or else steal a 
ship from them. But when they get it licked they'll _have something_!" 

"When, or if?" asked Bradley, pessimistically. "It is of the utmost importance 
that we know every detail of what is going to happen. Our two races have much 
to gain from each other by friendly exchanges of materials and of ideas, while 
we can expect nothing except mutual extermination if we elect to continue this 
warfare. "I don't think that he's insane, and I don't believe that he 
dopes--probably overwork and nervous strain. Ferber undoubtedly knows that 
Belle and I have been at loggerheads ever since we first met--spread it thick 
that we're fighting worse than ever. " 

"Even though I am a lawyer, and old and decrepit, I can still handle that much. 
" 

"I see. " The scientist's mind had been quivering with eagerness. " 

"You _do_ get results, I admit. " 

"Could be. Take half the Royal Guard and a century of bowmen. Second because 
our mirrors, which we had thought perfect reflectors of all frequencies 
possible of generation, are not perfect. Two of us stand a lot better chance 
than one of licking him if he's looking for trouble. But before we speculate 
too much, let's look at the tri-di. Once the arenak collar is cast about a 
person's neck he is identified for life, and any adult Osnomian not wearing a 
collar is put to death. . I hope. " 

"You probably are wrong," his host made startling answer. 

"Check. 

"The first thing to do is to find a place to land. "That was savage stuff if 
there ever was any. I will spread the word, through several channels. 

"All that we found is here, except about a teaspoonful which the expert had to 
work on," replied Brookings. Up and into the ring thus formed there lumbered a 
large, clumsy-looking helicopter. His right hand, white-knuckled, gripped the 
butt of his pistol, while under his left the brass rail of the bed slowly bent 
under the intensity of his unconscious muscular effort. And of course they've 
got intra-atomic energy the same as we have. 

"We should be nearly stationary with respect to the earth," he remarked. 
Perhaps they had more power than we, perhaps, because of the difficulty of 
communication, our want was not made clear to them. "That stuff up there is all 
grinding together like cakes of ice in a floe; the particular section you want 
is in plain sight of whoever is on watch; and those tools and things are 
altogether too heavy to handle. In the control room, however, there was a 
platoon of elite guards, clustered so closely about the commander and his 
officers that needles could not be used; a group that would have to be wiped 
out by hand. The Rodebush-Bergenholm fields had held her together through the 
most God-awful session of saturation atomic bombing that any world had ever 
seen or that the mind of man had ever conceived. Much traffic and interbreeding 
followed between the hexans of Jupiter and those of Io, resulting in time in a 
race intermediate in size between the parent stocks and equally at home in the 
widely variant air pressures and gravities of planet and satellite. 

Nor was Nerado alone in strengthening his vessel. "You mean you can _restore_ 
planets so badly ruined that all the people die?" 

"Oh, yes. In the exact center of the huge shell was a spherical network of 
enormous steel beams. Physical form, however, meant nothing to the Eddorians. 
Now we can act like human beings and eat in comfort. But go ahead, Dickie, I 
like it--this is the first uproar you've made in weeks. Hence, while the course 
itself was infinitely worse than the smoothly paved approaches to Rigelston, 
Samms found this trip much less bruising than the other had been. "I know how 
you two have been getting on all during the cruise. There. 

"These men are already acquainted with each of you, but you do not as yet know 
them. " 

"You isolate a little energy in the Op field, remembering of course, that 
you're handling a hundred thousand gunts. 

"I love you, Dick. 

Danger--more serious by far in that it was not external--was even then, all 
unsuspected, gnawing at the great ship's vitals. Such as solid people appearing 
on this carpet--on that spot right there--instantaneously. " 

"The good old oil, eh?" Morgan allowed his face and voice to register a 
modicum, precisely metered, of contempt. I'd say the best split would be 
planetology, xenology, and anthropology--each, of course, stretched all out of 
shape to cover dozens of related and non-related specialties. They believe that 
the slaves are so low in the scale, millions of years behind in evolution, that 
they do not count. Since the rank and file knew it, everyone knew that only a 
fraction of the Black fleet had actually been destroyed; but nobody knew where 
the remaining vessels went or what they did. " 

"Good-by, clothes!" Beverly rolled over onto her back, fanned water carefully 
with her hands, and gazed approvingly at herself. They, too, had ultra-beams 
and might see him, but his very closeness to them would tend to protect him 
from ultra-beam observation. " 

"Tedric, I approve of you--you begin to think!" Much to the young man's 
surprise, Phagon smiled broadly. There are only two men in the United States, 
or in the world, for that matter, with brains enough and information enough to 
work it out. " 

"That's letting me down easy, Jarve. " An inaudible voice directed him toward a 
two-wheeled vehicle which was almost, but not quite, like a Dillingham 
roadster. I don't 'handle' them--they can't be 'handled'. " 

"Everyone in the palace heard you discovering it," dryly returned Crane, and 
the girls laughed merrily. But often they assembled in the engine-room, and 
there was much fun and laughter, as well as serious talk, among the four. 

"Keep still!" he snapped. "How do you want it; voice, or Lens, or both?" Then 
on the Lens: "Think it over, son, because _I suspect everybody_!" 

"Bub-both, please, Mr. 

"You certainly sounded savage, Dick. I'll take the trip. He came in grinning 
from ear to ear, accompanied by the two Martians, and seated himself at his 
complex power panel. 

"I've heard of them, of course, but I never saw one before," and the officer 
touched the shining symbol lightly with his finger, jerking backward as there 
shot through his whole body a thrilling surge of power, shouting into his very 
bones an unpronounceable syllable--the password of the Triplanetary Service. 
"My visualization does not indicate that it will ever again be either necessary 
or desirable for you to visit or to communicate with me or with any other 
Arisian. " Cold black eyes stared level into icy eyes of Norwegian blue. But 
what's the idea?. "Breasts and loins, covered. Beautifully poised, upon the 
balls of both feet; supremely ready to throw into action every inch of his 
six-feet-four, every pound of his two-hundred-plus of hard meat, gristle, and 
bone. So who's Barbara Warner?" 

Eddie Thompson gazed at his superior pityingly. None of us really enjoys 
polishing brass or washing dishes--and besides, he's one star cook and an A-1 
housekeeper. I've got more stuff than you have, so you can't Gunther me. Good 
night. " 

"Good night, ace. I wouldn't wonder if----" 

"Hold it, Dicky! Remember I had to put you to bed after that last hunch you 
had!" 

"Here it is, anyway. "Exactly. Go on. If I hadn't meant it, and if they hadn't 
known that I meant it, I'd never have got away with it. 

"All's well, sir," he reported briefly to Captain Bradley--but all was not 
well. Wherever you go, I go," she replied in a voice inaudible to the others. 

"They suspect me on general principles, I think," he continued. . of _course_ 
that would be the one they'd use in sacrificing a king's daughter. Dirk and 
saber and magnificent physique finally triumphed, but it was not until each 
leaf was literally severed from every other leaf that the outlandish organism 
gave up the ghost. Carfon stepped out, opened the door of his house, and 
preceded his guests within. No survivors have been found, no bodies have been 
recovered. "The electricians can rebuild this stuff here, though--that hole in 
the hull is something else again. The players were projectors of full-color, 
hi-fi sound, tri-di pictures. "Would you, Jim?" 

"Sure--unless Miss Talaho objects. She stared back. 

And aboard the war-ship there was Roderick Kinnison; for the first time in 
history a mere battle-cruiser bore a Port Admiral's flag. As it hardened, the 
paste smoothed magically into the perfect mirror which covered the 
space-vessels of the satellite; and a full dozen of the mirror explosive bombs 
of this strange people were hung in the racks already provided. Had Nalboon met 
them in honor, he would have gained the boon. It had been foreseen. In that 
condition its pseudo-life interferes so strongly with any life to which it is 
not attuned that that life, in a space of seconds, is forced out of this plane 
or cycle of existence. That covers the situation, I think?_" 

"_Very good, Eukonidor," the Elders approved. "I begin to see, I think. 

Sawtelle drove a thought and those brutal super-drives began to blast. Come 
here, Quince--what do you make of this?" 

Both men stared at the heptagon, frankly puzzled; for the screens of the 
strange vessel did not radiate, nor did the material of the walls yield under 
the terrible force of the beam. 

This was now to be changed. "They'll all scatter out so fast and so far we'll 
_never_ catch them!" 

"By no means. " 

"I don't know exactly what you're talking about, sir, but I'll try. We must 
have at least one of your tons, and two tons would be better. You'll simply 
_have_ to, Conway!" 

"That's so, too--no percentage in dying now. "You aren't putting out anything 
about our sexual customs, family life, and so on. "His administration was one 
of the most corrupt ever known on this world. Are they apt to follow us: can 
they detect us if we should drift at constant velocity; and can we search the 
brains of the prisoners with his Callistonian thought-exchanger, if he should 
build one with our help?" 

"If they are close enough to us to overtake us without too much lost time, they 
will certainly attack us," Czuv answered at a nod from Newton. The profound 
silence, more impressive far than any possible applause, was soon broken by 
Dorothy. 

"Sweetheart, you are undoubtedly a 'warm number,' and you have often remarked 
that I 'burn you up. And a dozen or so other craft, cruisers and such, whose 
officers were out to put space-time in their logs, were flitting aimlessly 
about; but never very far away from the flagship. The blast expired and there, 
plainly limned upon the observation plates, was the Nevian speedster. I know 
that my reputation is safe as long as I work with you, because I know enough 
about you to send all you big fellows, clear down to Perkins, away for life. 
Flight Eight Four Nine. Six. First-line battleships, twenty-nine. Second-line, 
smaller and some pretty old, seventy-three. Its atmosphere is not air as we 
know air; its hydrosphere does not resemble water. Our watery planet supplies 
our every need and wish, with one exception; and now that we are assured of 
power, even that one exception vanishes, and Dasor becomes a very Paradise. I 
intend to make the same suggestion to all Lensmen and other qualified persons 
not engaged in work of more pressing importance. From these three postulates 
the conclusion can be drawn that there has come into existence a new race. 
Above their heads, a jagged hole gaped in the heavy metal of the roof, and a 
similar hole had been torn in the floor. " 

"Not this time, at least. . . . . bub. . . ?" 

"Dead. " Samms' voice cut. "I owe you that much revenge, at least. . . I 
certainly don't do it intentionally. No king of Lomarr could possibly break 
that particular precedent. Good--it was out. He wasn't surprised; he had been 
quite confident that it would be. I will never see you except after hours and 
in private, and will never come near your offices. 

"Isn't it wonderful, lover," she murmured, "to be out here in space this way, 
together, away from all our troubles and worries? I am so happy. No fight," and 
she emptied her lungs. To the dismay of both men they were again falling! 

DuQuesne hurried to the lower window to make the observation, remarking: 

"You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. 

"I didn't expect an answer. "You aren't testing those valves! That check-up is 
no joke, guy. If we go back there, protected as we are with our rays and stuff, 
it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find life there, and lots of it--and I've got 
a hunch that it'll be a form of life that'd make your grandfather's whiskers 
curl right up into a ball!" 

"You do get the weirdest ideas, Dick!" protested Dorothy. His thick skin was of 
the characteristic Osnomian green and his eyes were the usual black, but he had 
no hair whatever. 

"Get me Spearmint. Hilton tipped the beam at four thousand six hundred fifteen 
pounds; Sawtelle, a smaller man, weighed in at four thousand one hundred 
ninety. Sandwiches and a thermos of coffee. So either I run the job or I don't. 
" 

"Okay. I'll tell Brownie--she'll be tickled. It would keep everything, 
particularly the big stuff, away from the Hill, and would make automatics 
useless. He was tall and well-proportioned when judged by Earthly standards, 
except for his head, which was overly large, and which was particularly massive 
above the eyes and backward from the ears. 

"Brandon's ultra-radio comes next, but it's got more angles to it than a 
cubist's picture of a set of prisms; so many that I don't know where to begin. 
All we know about it is the name--Arisia--that our planetographers gave it. 
Free of the earth's atmosphere, he slowly advanced the lever, one notch at a 
time, until he could no longer support the increasing weight of his hand, but 
had to draw out the rolling support designed for that emergency. If he refused 
to answer, you would know why and could initiate impeachment proceedings then 
and there. You're right, Rod, it will be the election. I told you I was a 
prophet--I'm going to hang out my shingle. 

"This is an outrage!" he bellowed, hammering with his fist on Avengord's desk. 
Sorry to get you out of bed, but I should like to have a complete report upon 
Dr. "You haven't one-twentieth of it here. The _Pleiades_ was crowded, and 
Garlock and Belle were not giving to any of them the deference and 
consideration and submissive respect which each considered his unique due. 

"I'm on the upper band--take the lower!" he snapped, but Stevens' projector was 
already in action. 

"The Councillor and I have just been discussing the fact that there are a great 
many things we do not know; that with the extension of our activities into new 
fields, the occurrence of the impossible has become almost a commonplace. We 
have forgotten nothing. Right?" 

"That is right, Master. . . . So what I am is some kind of a freak. This is all 
his doing, you know. " 

Since the new sense was not peyondix, Hilton had started calling it 
"perception" and the others adopted the term as a matter of course. Our chance 
is this--their guns are probably trained upon the elevators and main stairways, 
since this passage is unused and none of us would be expected to know of it. 
The screen was apparently in itself a coign of vantage, flying through space 
with the velocity of light, and the watchers gasped involuntarily and drew 
themselves together, as with that unthinkable speed they flashed down toward 
the surface of Callisto. They withdrew, tracelessly. " 

"Do you know why?" 

"Can't say that I do, unless it's because I treat them fair, so they do the 
same to me. But the Tellurians were to learn that the Nevians held in reserve a 
means of retreat. Every night when Crane went to bed he saw Seaton in his room 
in a haze of smoke, poring over blueprints or, surrounded by abstruse works 
upon the calculus and sub-atomic phenomena, making interminable calculations. 
Our projections are useless, as they can be driven only a very short distance 
upon our present carrier wave. What other streets could it be?" 

"I don't know. " 

Having thus checked and tested every function of his department, Breckenridge 
plugged into "Captain," and when the green light went on: 

"Chief pilot check-out--all x," he reported briefly. " 

Hilton spoke before Teddy could. " 

"I am? On what?" 

"The 'Brazen'. The battle-front, while inside the city limits, was now almost 
stationary. Some of the color-combinations were harmonious; some were sharply 
contrasting, such as black and white; some looked as though their wearers had 
used the most violently-clashing colors they could find. Your method of 
indirect action is probably the only one that will succeed. 

"How are you making it, Mart?" he asked, talking with difficulty because of the 
great weight of his tongue and jaws. 

The banner was that of a priest of the third rank. Both were too small for the 
job; neither could handle personnel. " 

"All right with me. "I've never been checked out on sprinting in spacesuits!" 
she gasped. This device that you see connecting us is a Callistonian thought 
transformer, by means of which any two intelligent beings can converse without 
language. If you could get through this grill, you could cut off my head with 
your sword and I would die. 

All personal haste was now over. They're smart. Their pseudo-flesh is composed 
mainly of silicon and fluorine. It's just that I don't like the conditions. He 
slowed down to just over one light; but even at that comparatively slow speed 
an error of one millisecond at cut-off meant a displacement of two hundred 
miles! He switched the spotter into the Berg's cut-off circuit, set it for 
three hundred miles, and waited tensely at his controls. They practiced with 
the rays, singly and in combination, with the visiplates, and with the many 
levers and dials, until each was so familiar with the complex installation that 
his handling of every control had become automatic. Nor, in case any observer 
of the Enemy should be trying to keep track of him, could his course be traced. 
Because of this lack, the Sedlor walls were weakened to such a point that in 
spite of the Guardian's assurances, I think trouble is inevitable. However, I 
can't handle either of you, since you both out-Gunther me, and I'm not going to 
try to. 

"Stall four sixty five, First Lensman, sir," the uniformed gateman told him, 
without even glancing at the extended disk. "Or is it something I should not 
mention?" 

"What? Oh, those? By no means. "But you see, Nadia hadn't seen that husband of 
hers for fifteen minutes, and was getting lonesome. "Bread! A whole loaf each 
man a day?" 

"Aye," Phagon had chuckled in reply. 











Costigan was not surprised to see the man he had known as Birkenfeld in 
Uranium's ornate conference room. 

"Tallick? Kragzex?" He sent out the questing, querying thought. 

"There they are! There's another stranger out there, too. " She opened a 
compartment and selected one of a stack of documents. . . . but Pops, you said 
something about 'support in force. " 

Seaton steered the _Skylark_ carefully, surrounded as she was by a tightly 
packed crowd of swimmers, to the indicated dwelling, and anchored her so that 
one of the doors was close to a flight of steps leading from the corner of the 
building down into the water. "Talk ahead as loud as you please--they can't 
hear you. " She hugged Hilton's arm as usual. "She's hot and ready. " 

"You won't bring _any_!" Sawtelle thundered. 

"Life again," James said. I sleep a lot, but I do it every night, instead of 
working for four days and nights on end and then trying to make up all those 
four nights' sleep at once. Through the open port the boat slipped neatly, and 
as it came to a halt in its original position within the multi-layered skin of 
the monster, the prisoners heard the heavy doors clang shut behind them, one 
after another. Each ship went off by itself. What quality did you use just now 
in getting me off the hook? Intuition. In fact, every planet we have visited 
except this one makes a regular custom of breeding its best blood with the best 
blood of other solar systems. The last vessel going to visit Wruszk, our city 
upon Europa, was caught and destroyed by the hexans, and for many weeks no ship 
or message has come from there to Callisto. 

"That is what awaits us all unless we combine against them. "Do you call that 
horrible wound a _scratch_?" 

"Huh? Why, certainly--that's all it is--thanks to you," he returned, in honest 
and complete surprise. Rising, he took his regular morning exercises and went 
into the saloon. Snapping on a searchlight, he swung its beam around, and as it 
settled upon one of the larger sections he saw a group of hooded figures; some 
of them upon the metal, others floating slowly toward it through space. Ferdy 
will probably draw on me----" 

"And he'll kill you," Jones said, flatly. "Whether or not I would be interested 
depends, of course, on whether there's a position high enough for. Wherever you 
may be upon Kondalian Osnome, which from this day henceforth shall be all 
Osnome, you have power as my personal representative, as my eldest son. What is 
your name, Lord? I can't keep on calling you 'strange god' forever. . . . 
musical, say. . " 

Sirens wailed and screamed outside. "My uncle's cousin's stepson is running for 
second assistant dog-catcher, and I can't leave until I find out whether he 
wins or not. In some small and partial recompense for what they are doing for 
us all, he and I are going with Captain Czuv to Callisto, there to see whether 
or not we can aid them in any way in the fight against the hexans. "Too many 
instruments for a suit, to say nothing of bombs, and you'll need more screen 
than a suit can deliver. We licked her to a standstill once, until we burned 
out a set of generators, and since we got them fixed we've been chasing her all 
over space. " Costigan could not afford to appear stupid, nor to possess too 
much knowledge. We're on our own, you know. " Kinnison knew that combat 
officers did not wear hobnails, and usually carried binoculars. "How come so 
many at once?" 

"Just about all the officers that got this far. Eventually, however, it 
remained stationary a foot or so above the floor of the control-room. He then 
leaped to the controls and drove the captured speedster through the air, to 
plunge it down upon the surface of the lagoon beside the door of the isolated 
structure which had for so long been his prison. You're stronger than Jim is by 
a lot more than the Prime-to-Operator ratio--you've got more initiative, more 
drive, more guts. 

Therefore the Arisians fought; efficiently if insidiously. Beams, rods, and 
lances of energy flamed and flared; planes and pencils cut, slashed, and 
stabbed; defensive screens glowed redly or flashed suddenly into intensely 
brilliant, coruscating incandescence. Why? The Masters had the same kind of 
brains we have. 

Roger's first thought, upon discovering what tremendous and inexplicable damage 
had already been done, was to destroy instantly the two men who were doing it. 

Up and up mounted that powerful tug-boat of space, with her heavy barge, 
falling smoothly upward at normal acceleration. Finally Crane spoke, his 
usually even voice faltering. If he is killed before the principles for which 
he is working are firmly established Civilization will collapse back into 
barbarism. 

"What an evolution! Century after century of slowly decreasing temperature--one 
continuous struggle to adapt the physique to a constantly changing environment. 
And as they strolled along: 

"Of course you won't actually _need_ a job, ever, or my money, either. " 

"I'll say we could," Belle breathed. "They knew we were coming, even before we 
got to Fuel Bin. 

"Is it the radiation or the water? Or both?" 

"Radiation, I think. 

How even those silicon-fluorine brains stood it, not one of them ever knew. " 

"But I don't know any more about astronomy than a pig does about Sunday," 
protested Seaton. He told them exactly what the revised situation was and 
exactly what he was going to do about it. " 

"But that is not exactly it, Master. Why not?" 

"Well, it would be stretching the laws of probability all out of shape. 

"Now we will show you where we sleep," Seaton continued. " 

"Why not?" he asked wonderingly, then he saw her point and laughed: 

"You little matchmaker!" 

"I don't care, laugh if you want to. We'll finish as soon as possible. No, I 
haven't looked for the comet yet, because we'll have to drift for a couple of 
days before we'll be anywhere near where I think it is. Instead of being glum 
and pessimistic and foreboding, he was chipper and enthusiastic. Gaping wide, 
helpless, with all defenses down, other torpedoes entered the stricken hulk and 
completed its destruction even before they could be recalled. " 

"What are you two talking about?" Sawtelle demanded. You say that that method 
has failed. Forget 'em. Fourth Officer Olmstead has the authority and the 
orders to put a half-ounce slug through the guts of any or all of you that 
don't jump, and jump fast, to do what he tells you. "Lola, do you check me that 
this planet is named Hodell, that it is populated by creatures exactly like us? 
Arpalones?" 

"Exactly, except they aren't 'creatures'. " 

"I cannot understand. I wish you really meant that, ace. Everything is hidden 
from any possible visiray of the hexans. The brightly-shining sun was very 
evidently not their familiar Sol. Nothing was ornamental--everything was 
stripped to its barest fundamental necessities--but every working part 
functioned with a smooth precision to delight the senses of any good mechanic. 
Fields or cities there were none; the land was covered with dense forests and 
vast meadows, with here and there great buildings surrounded by gracious, 
park-like areas. 

"Sid!" he called, and even Jill could feel the Lensed thought speed. Fourth, 
and perhaps the most feasible and quickest, it may be possible for the 
Callistonian rocket-ships to bring out fellow-Tellurians, a few at a time, to 
us here out in space, since they are apparently able to come and go at will. 
No, they've got a real power-transmission system--one that can hold a tight 
beam together a lot farther than anything we have been able to develop, that's 
all. Of course I wasn't surprised when his searchers failed to find our 
instruments, but it never occurred to me that I might have a clear field to use 
them in! I can't quite believe it yet, but I haven't been able to find any 
indication that he can even detect the bands we are using. There were thoughts 
of powdering noses and of repairing make-up. Seaton has liberated it. " 

The creature, now in the shadow of the 'Troncist's helmet, slowed down 
abruptly--went limp--collapsed. We can go anywhere that thing can, that's a 
cinch. " 



The party appeared, Crane carrying the huge rocket with an air of deference. 
The screen was already loaded to its limit; no transfer of defensive energy was 
possible. 

"Everybody is under cover," Samms informed Rodebush. . " 

"Handle!" interrupted DuQuesne. Art in the forefront of those few I spoke of. 

Perhaps it would be better to say that the planet Strett became a junior-grade 
nova, since the actual nova stage was purely superficial and did not last very 
long. "Where? Over Margon Base?" 

"Check. We also brought along an assortment of books I knew you would be 
interested in, a box of radium, a few small bags of gems of various kinds, and 
some of our fabrics, Sitar thought your Karfediro would like to have. I have, 
however, certain ends of my own in view. Since our courts are, for the most 
part, just, the accused will be able to delay the trials and the actual 
presentation of evidence until after election day. It would be mildly amusing 
to watch the gladiator consummate his vengeance by carving the Roman to bits. 

"I just love to talk at you when you've got your mouth full of a blowpipe. " 

"How do you know whether I'm a virgin or not? You've never read me that deep. 
"It nearly did us. He was here only on a test. Don't read anything into it that 
isn't there. " 

"It isn't fast enough, quite," Bradley announced, calmly. He'll have to. We 
must do all the damage we can--kill them all, if possible--in that second or 
two. 

Thus the departure of the space-ship from Cavenda was recorded, as was its 
arrival at Eridan. The Sory, no longer Sora, who has not been glad since the 
Tuly replaced it, is now in your kitchen. If they are marrying for any reason 
at all other than love, such as any thought of trifling in the mind of the man, 
or if the woman is marrying him for his wealth or position, he or she is 
summarily executed, regardless of station. " 

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

"You have outlined the situation clearly enough, Faros. Well, we can do that, 
too, of course. Here comes Barkovis--I'll ask him. He must know the signal and 
who is going to operate, and if you can give us a fraction of a second of 
warning it will help no end. The wall was one vertical plate of seamless metal, 
supporting huge metal guides, between which floated metal pontoons. "We are not 
going to have ten years; we may not have ten months. Tiny, let's you and him 
sit down now and play a few hands. Not one of us four could do it any better. 
The outlaw vessel stood out, unharmed. " She broke the pose and giggled 
infectiously. " 

"Oh, of course," Fao said. " 

"That one I'll buy, and I'll look on with glee. He did not know the exact 
length of Seven's year, but he knew that it was long--_very_ long. I sort of 
expect an answer late tonight, but I won't be disappointed if it takes a week 
to locate them. But now the space-suited warriors of the horde, guided in their 
hiding by their own visirays, were massing there. " 

"Seaton will, you mean," replied Crane, uncomfortably. But she told me herself 
that you were _going_ to be, and I know you are now. . 
I'd better dictate a memorandum to Black on that now, while I'm calm and 
collected; telling him what he'll have to do to keep my boys from tearing 
Entwhistle apart. " 

"But do you think he will pay any attention to it?" 

"I'll say he will!" Kinnison snorted. " With no display whatever of the emotion 
he felt, Samms skipped deliberately to the matter next in hand. "Now, about 
Eridan. P. m. . a thousand. . . . " Her voice died away. 

"That sort of thing is in your department, Dick. " 

"I don't check you, Virge. This whole system, Nevia, the colonies on Aldebaran 
II and other planets, even Valeria, as tight as a drum. Funny about Valeria, 
isn't it. Funny about Valeria, isn't it. Funny about Valeria, isn't it. Funny 
about Valeria, isn't it. Funny about Valeria, isn't it. . well, the word is 
going around that they are going to break you, just as they have broken every 
other good man on the Reservation. " 

"I expected that, too. Good going, Jim!" 

All four ate heartily, and, after eating, they taped up the day's reports. 
Then, tired from their first real day's work in weeks, all went to their rooms. 



A few minutes later, Garlock tapped lightly at Lola's door. 

"Come in. " She stiffened involuntarily, then relaxed and smiled. "What's 
_that_ crack supposed to mean? Think I'd ever accept a synthetic zombie 
imitation of you for my husband and go on living with it just as though nothing 
had happened?" 

Hilton started to say something, but Temple rushed heedlessly on: "_Drat_ the 
race! No matter how many children we ever have you were first and you'll _stay_ 
first, and if you have to go I'll go, too, so there! Besides, you know darn 
well that they can't duplicate whatever it is that makes you Jarvis Hilton. " 

"Now wait a minute, Tempy. The conversion. " 

"Oh?" Hilton raised his eyebrows. He grabbed the out I offered him. I didn't 
fool Teddy Blake or Temple Bells, either. You four are all, though, I think. 
We'll watch over you like a couple of old hens with one chick between them. 
Come on; lie down and go bye-bye. " 

Clio laughed at the simile, but lay down obediently. Costigan sat upon the edge 
of the great divan holding her hand, and they chatted idly. The silences grew 
longer, Clio's remarks became fewer, and soon her long-lashed eyelids fell and 
her deep, regular breathing showed that she was sound asleep. The man stared at 
her, his very heart in his eyes. " 

"Oh, you may have one, but it's no softer than your head, and that could 
scratch a diamond. Second, to work on you two, with no holds barred, to form a 
three-unit team against me. Her charges that I am losing my grip made a very 
smart opening lead. " 

"Do you think I'd _let_ her work on me?" James demanded. 

"She's a Prime--you wouldn't know anything about it. However, nothing will 
happen. We have known how to do it for a hundred years, but have been afraid to 
act because in all that time no progress whatever has been made on the theory. 
"_ 

_He paused, then went on savagely: "But which is better, to have our entire 
time-track snapped painlessly out of existence--if the extremists are right--or 
to sit helplessly on our fat rumps wringing our hands while we watch 
civilization build up to its own total destruction by lithium-tritiide bombs? 
Look at the slope of that curve--ultimate catastrophe is only one hundred 
eighty seven years away!"_ 

"_But the Council would not permit it. Nor would the School. _" 

"_I know that, too. That is why I am not going to ask them. Confidential, sort 
of. . " 

"_Spoils_ it! Why, how _utterly_ idiotic! Why, it's magnificent! Just as soon 
as it starts to show on me, Belle, I'm going to start wearing only half as many 
clothes as I've got on now. " 

"You couldn't. A couple more like that and I'll be a Grand Champion myself. But 
they're digging holes for the crosses and there's the horn that the feast is 
ready. This show is going to be really good. " 

That stopped the levity, cold, but none of the six could really believe it. 
However, after Hilton had coiled a twenty-penny spike into a perfect helix 
between his fingers, and especially after he and Temple had each chewed up and 
swallowed a piece of uranexite, there were no grounds left for doubt. 

"That settles it. The Garlock-Bellamy fusion is Galactic Admiral--so we need a 
good Vice. Who? Deggi and Fao? They're cooperative and idealistic enough, but. 
. . er. . but it's so damned _steady_. " Gharlane's thought was bitter. 
Centuries. " 

"But this is. . twenty. . " 

"To hell with uniforms," Garlock broke in. "Might have helped some as disguise. 
They've got us foul, and can take us if they want us. Anyway, we'll need at 
least a week to fix us up any kind of driving power, so we can't run--and we 
probably couldn't get away from those folks if we had all our power. They 
haven't blown us up, and they could have done it easily enough. I never did 
like him very well personally--he's such a cold, inhuman son of a fish--but 
you've got to hand it to him for ability. He's probably the best man in the 
world today on that kind of thing. " 

"No, I do not think that we will count him out yet. He may have had nothing to 
do with it, but we will have him investigated nevertheless, and will guard 
against future visitors here. Costigan traced it, and there, almost dead ahead 
of them, between them and their sun, nearing them at the incomprehensible rate 
of the sum of the two vessels' velocities, came another cruiser of the Nevians! 

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

He gave the speedster all the side-thrust she would take; then, putting every 
available communicator tube behind a tight beam, he aimed it at Sol and began 
sending out a long-continued call to his fellows of the Triplanetary Service. 

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

"Of course, they've got partial neutralization of inertia, the same as we 
have," Costigan cogitated, "and by the way he's coming I'd say that he had 
orders to blow us out of the ether--he knows as well as we do that he can't 
capture us alive at anything like the relative velocities we've got now. I 
can't give her any more side thrust without overloading the gravity controls, 
so overloaded they've got to be. "To help you get used to it, stop calling me 
'Master'. That's an order. You may call me Jarve or Jarvis or Hilton or 
whatever, but no more Master. I not only didn't want to, I was scared green and 
yellow at just the idea of it. "A few minutes before that. That was when I read 
your name in the list of officers on the board. First Officer, Carlyle Deston. 
I got a tingle that went from the tips of my toes up and out through the very 
ends of my hair. However, I never expected to----" 

"Don't say it, dear!" She got up and took both his hands in hers. "I know how 
you feel. If it gets too strong, we'll beat it. " 

When they had approached so close that the suns were great stars widely spaced 
in the heavens, Crane relinquished the controls to Seaton. 

"If you will take the lever awhile, Dick, Margaret and I will go downstairs and 
see if we can locate a planet. " 

After a glance through the telescope, Crane knew that they were still too far 
from the group of suns to place any planet with certainty, and began taking 
notes. His mind was not upon his work, however, but was completely filled with 
thoughts of the girl at his side. Be careful not to choke on it, though; your 
swallowing will have to be all muscular out here. Gravity won't help you. This 
is certainly Ganymede, and it has a diameter of only about fifty seven hundred 
kilometers. If I remember correctly, Damoiseau estimated its mass at about 
three one-hundredths that of the Earth, which would make its surface gravity 
about one-sixth. However, it is actually almost a half, as you see by this 
spring-balance here. Therefore it is quite a little more massive than has been. 
. . . " Skandos almost said "time," but caught himself ". . you _weasel_! You 
know very well, Clee Garlock, what I meant. If you hadn't given her that 
treatment she'd have kept on fighting with him and they wouldn't have been 
married and had any children for positively _years_. So now she'll have the 
first double-Prime baby and it ought to be _mine_. I'm older than she is--our 
group is 'way ahead of theirs--we have the first and _only_ starship--and then 
you do _that_. And you wouldn't give _me_ that treatment. Oh, no--just to 
_her_, that bleached-blonde! I'd like to strangle you to death with my own bare 
hands!" 

"What a hell of a logic!" Garlock had been trying to keep his own temper in 
leash, but the leash was slipping. "Assume I tried to work on you--assume I 
succeeded--what would you be? What would I have? What age do you think this 
is--that of the Vikings? When SOP in getting a wife was to beat her unconscious 
with a club and drag her into the longboat by her hair? Hardly! I do not want 
and will not have a conquered woman. Nor a spoiled-rotten, mentally-retarded 
brat. . . ?" 

"Dead. Everybody. That's her specialty and she's _very_ good at it. I told you 
she's a smooth, smooth worker. " 

"You can say _that_ again. Henry Newman. Crew-chief, normal space jobs, 
unlimited. " 

"Your passengers, Herc?" 

"Vincent Lopresto, financier, and his two bodyguards. They were sleeping in 
their suits, on air-mattresses. Grounders. Don't like subspace--or space, 
either. " 

"Just so. I would like to stay and study these people a little while, but we 
must get back onto the trail of the Nevians," and the _Boise_ leaped away into 
space, toward the line of flight of the amphibians. 

They reached that line and along it they traveled at full normal blast. As they 
traveled their detecting receivers and amplifiers were reaching out with their 
utmost power; ultra-instruments capable of rendering audible any signal 
originating within many light-years of them, upon any possible communications 
band. And constantly at least two men, with every sense concentrated in their 
ears, were listening to those instruments. 

Listening--straining to distinguish in the deafening roar of background noise 
from the over-driven tubes any sign of voice or of signal: 

Listening--while, millions upon millions of miles beyond even the prodigious 
reach of those ultra-instruments, three human beings were even then sending out 
into empty space an almost hopeless appeal for the help so desperately needed! 









THE SPECIMENS ESCAPE 



Knowing well that conversation with its fellows is one of the greatest needs of 
any intelligent being, the Nevians had permitted the Terrestrial specimens to 
retain possession of their ultra-beam communicators. Thus it was that Costigan 
had been able to keep in touch with his sweetheart and with Bradley. He learned 
that each had been placed upon exhibition in a different Nevian city; that the 
three had been separated in response to an insistent popular demand for such a 
distribution of the peculiar, but highly interesting creatures from a distant 
solar system. They had not been harmed. In fact, each was visited daily by a 
specialist, who made sure that his charge was being kept in the pink of 
condition. 

As soon as he became aware of this condition of things Costigan became morose. 

In short, he was convalescent. 

For Captain Ralph K. Kinnison, THE WAR was over. 









1941 



Chubby, brownette Eunice Kinnison sat in a rocker, reading the Sunday papers 
and listening to her radio. Her husband Ralph lay sprawled upon the davenport, 
smoking a cigarette and reading the current issue of EXTRAORDINARY STORIES 
against an unheard background of music. Mentally, he was far from Tellus, 
flitting in his super-dreadnaught through parsec after parsec of vacuous space. 

The music broke off without warning and there blared out an announcement which 
yanked Ralph Kinnison back to Earth with a violence almost physical. He jumped 
up, jammed his hands into his pockets. 

"Pearl Harbor!" he blurted. "How in. . " Sandra gave up. There wasn't room to 
pace the floor, but Hilton tried to pace it anyway. 

"Now don't say again that you want to _do_ something," Sandra said, brightly. 
"If he makes a pass at her I'll get him if I have to blow this whole sphere out 
of space, with us in it!" 

"Don't do that, Conway," Clio's low voice, trembling but determined, was felt 
by both men. 

"Not yet, it isn't!" he snapped. "There's an answer, but that isn't it. You're 
a fine-tuned instrument yourself, ace, and you've detected something. . " 

"Bunk!" Garlock snorted. "Sheer flapdoodle! Pure psychological prop-wash, 
started and maintained by men who are either too weak to direct and control 
their drives or who haven't any real work to occupy their minds. It applies to 
many men, of course, possibly to most. But what did you start to say about 
Laro?" 

"We think the break is about due, and that if it doesn't come within about 
thirty days it won't come at all--we'll have to back up and start all over 
again. " 

"I hope it does. But it cleared things up no end--it untied a million knots. 
Even that other thing--brotherly love? It's a very nice concept--you see, I 
never had any brothers. " 

"That's probably one thing that was the matter with you. Nothing warmer than 
that, certainly, and never will be. " 

"And I suppose you got the thought--it must have jumped up and smacked you--" 
Lola's hot blush was visible even through her heavy tan, "how many times I've 
felt like running my fingers up and down your ribs and grabbing a handful of 
those terrific muscles of yours, just to see if they're as hard as they look?" 

"I'm glad you brought that up; I don't know whether I would have dared to or 
not. You've got to stop acting like a Third instead of an Operator; and you've 
got to stop acting as though you had never been within ten feet of me. 
I'm--we're both--finding out that Lensman material is _damned_ scarce stuff. 
There's none on Nevia, and no indication whatever that there ever will be any. 
" 

"Tough. . . . . . er. . . " 

Out upon the dock an insistent siren blared a crescendo and diminuendo blast of 
sound, and two minutes remained. In every stateroom and in every lounge and 
saloon speakers sounded a warning: 

"For a short time, while we are pulling clear of the gravitational field of the 
Earth, walking will be somewhat difficult, as everything on board will 
apparently increase in weight by about one-fifth of its present amount. Please 
remain seated, or move about with caution. In about an hour weight will 
gradually return to normal. We start in one minute. I wish they could have had 
that on a recorder--I'll never be able to play like that again if I live to be 
a thousand years old. " 

"It is on record, daughter. Every note and every inflection is preserved, 
precisely as you played it," Orlon assured her. "That is our only excuse for 
allowing you to continue as you did, almost to the point of exhaustion. While 
we cannot really understand an artistic mind of the peculiar type to which 
yours belongs, yet we realized that each time you play you are doing something 
that no one, not even yourself, can ever do again in precisely the same subtle 
fashion. Therefore we allowed, in fact encouraged, you to go on as long as that 
creative impulse should endure--not merely for our pleasure in hearing it, 
great though that pleasure was, but in the hope that our workers in music 
could, by a careful analysis of your product, determine quantitatively the 
exact vibrations or overtones which make the difference between emotional and 
intellectual music. " 









Into a Sun 



As Rovol and Seaton approached the physics laboratory at the beginning of the 
period of labor, another small airboat occupied by one man drew up beside them 
and followed them to the ground. The stranger, another white-bearded ancient, 
greeted Rovol cordially and was introduced to Seaton as "Caslor, the First of 
Mechanism. " 

"Truly, this is a high point in the course of Norlaminian science, my young 
friend," Caslor acknowledged the introduction smilingly. "Those small circles," 
pointing to the forty-foot hour and declination circles which Seaton had 
thought the ultimate in precise measurement of angular magnitudes, "are of 
course useless. "Or are you trying to set up a paradox?" 

"Neither. I am merely clearing the way for a somewhat startling thing I am to 
say later on. You know, of course, that any situation with which a mind is 
unable to cope; a really serious dilemma which it cannot resolve; will destroy 
that mind--frustration, escape from reality, and so on. You also will realize 
that I must have become cognizant of my own peculiarities long before anyone 
else did or could?" 

"Ah. I see. You just don't want _me_ to have him. Okay, do your damnedest. " 

Belle whistled sharply to call Fao's attention, then tight-beamed a thought. 
"If you've got any part of a brain, slick chick, you'd better start using it. 
The boy friend not only plays rough, but he doesn't bluff. " 

"To hell with all that!" Fao rushed on. "We don't have anything to do with your 
organization--go on back home or anywhere else you want to. We'll finish our 
own ship and build our own organization and run it to suit ourselves. We'll. . 
" 

"Thank God for that. "Okay, Sandy, go ahead. " 

Outside the control room door, "Thank God you don't play poker, Jarve!" Karns 
gasped. "We'd all owe you all the pay we'll ever get!" 

"You think it was the bluff, yes?" de Vaux asked. "Me, I think no. Few would 
have the patriotism. . . . . I wonder. " 

The conversation went on, but the rest of it is of little importance here. The 
plane landed. It is written. Selah. " 

"Check. I'm too busy to record, anyway--I'll log this stuff up tonight," and 
thoughts flew. 

"Check me, Jim," Garlock flashed. "Before we move, Belle and I have got to have 
a conference. You have visitors once in a while from other solar systems, so 
you must have a faster-than-light drive. Can you tell me anything about it?" 

"No. Just what they've been advertising. Combination radio-phone, automatic 
language-converter, telepath, and so on. Badge of the top skimmings of the 
top-bracket cops. But I began to think, out there on the floor, that they 
aren't advertising everything they know. " 

"So did I. I still wish they'd given me Eggy. I've never seen an executive-type 
female Ph. D. _ 



_Illustrated by Lawrence_ 

Time is the strangest of all mysteries. Relatively unimportant events, almost 
unnoticed as they occur, may, in hundreds of years, result in Ultimate 
Catastrophe. His Lens had never been visible. No one except Lensmen--and Clio 
and Jill--knew that he had one; and Lensmen--and Clio and Jill--did not talk. 
Although he was calmly certain that this Birkenfeld was not an ordinary 
interviewer, he was equally certain that the investigators of Uranium, Inc. had 
found out exactly and only what the Patrol had wanted them to find. 

"So?" Jones' bearing altered subtly, and not because of the penetrant eyes. 
"That's all I want--a chance. I'll start at the bottom, as far down as you say. 
" 

"We advertise, and truthfully, that opportunity on Eridan is unlimited. " 
Birkenfeld chose his words with care. "In your case, opportunity will be either 
absolutely unlimited or zero, depending entirely upon yourself. " 

"I see. But you have suspicions or ideas? You can guess?" 

"I can guess; but that's all it would be--a guess. " 

"And my guess, folks, is that his guess would be a very highly informed guess. 
Will you tell the public, First Lensman Samms, what your guess is?" 

"I will. "_ 

_"What a couple!" Furmin stared enviously. "We don't have people like that any 
more. We know they were around here a few weeks ago, and they're the only ones 
I know of that have intra-atomic power besides us and the Osnomians. We may be 
able to dope out the next one, though. I've found out where he put our armor 
and guns, and I've located all the main leads, controls, and generators. There 
are no ether-walls around us here, but every door is shielded, and there are 
guards outside our doors--one to each of us. They're robots, not men. That 
makes it harder, since they're undoubtedly connected direct to Roger's desk and 
will give an alarm at the first hint of abnormal performance. We can't do a 
thing until he leaves his desk. It has seemed, right along, more logical than 
the girl--but a lot more fantastic. Been able to find out anything more about 
it?" 

"No. " 

"Got a compass?" 

"Yes, sir. " 

"Pick up a tin hat and get going. A hair north of due west, about a kilometer 
and a half. Keep cover, because the going will be tough. Then you'll come to a 
road. What had been a road, what had been wheatfields and farms, what had been 
woods, were practically indistinguishable, one from the other; were 
fantastically and impossibly the same. The entire area had been churned. 
Worse--it was as though the ground and its every surface object had been run 
through a gargantuan mill and spewed abroad. Splinters of wood, riven chunks of 
metal, a few scraps of bloody flesh. Kinnison screamed, then, and ran; ran back 
and around that blasted acreage. And as he ran, his mind built up pictures; 
pictures which became only the more vivid because of his frantic efforts to 
wipe them out. 

That road, the night before, had been one of the world's most heavily traveled 
highways. Motorcycles, trucks, bicycles. Ambulances. Kitchens. Staff-cars and 
other automobiles. Guns; from seventy-fives up to the big boys, whose 
tremendous weight drove their wide caterpillar treads inches deep into solid 
ground. Horses. Then, suddenly--Tedric never did know how it happened, since 
Dreegor was later found uninjured--he found himself afoot. No place for sword, 
this, but made to order for axe. Hence, driving forward as resistlessly as 
though a phalanx of iron were behind him, he hewed his way toward his 
sovereign. 

Thus he was near at hand when Phagon went down. So was doughty Sciro; and by 
the time the Sarlonians had learned that sword nor axe nor hammer could cut or 
smash that gold-seeming armor fury personified was upon them. Tedric straddled 
his king's head, Sciro his feet; and, back to back, two of Lomarr's mightiest 
armsmasters wove circular webs of flying steel through which it was sheerest 
suicide to attempt to pass. Thus battle raged until the last armored foeman was 
down. 

"Art hurt, sire?" Tedric asked anxiously as he and Sciro lifted Phagon to his 
feet. 

"Nay, my masters-at-arms," the monarch gasped, still panting for breath. 
"Bruised merely, and somewhat winded. " He opened his visor to let more air in; 
then, as he regained control, he shook off the supporting hands and stood erect 
under his own power. "I fear me, Tedric, that you and that vixen daughter of 
mine were in some sense right. Methinks I may be--Oh, the veriest trifle!--out 
of condition. But the battle is almost over. " 

"With that much start they probably couldn't find us," Seaton replied soberly. 
"It's the world I'm thinking about. _Punch_ it! _This_ time the ship's going to 
_Clamer_, if we have to all get out and _push_ it there! Now punch that 
button!" 

James pushed the button, glanced into his scanner, and froze; eyes staring. He 
did not even whistle. Virgilia Samms, all smiles, toed the base-line and became 
the personification and embodiment of smoothly flowing motion. The ball whizzed 
over the net, barely clearing it--a sizzling service ace. The game went on. 

And a few minutes later, in the shower room, where Jack Kinnison was caroling 
lustily while plying a towel, a huge young man strode up and slapped him 
ringingly between the shoulder blades. 

"Congratulations, Jack, and so forth. But there's a thing I want to ask you. 
Confidential, sort of. . . " 

"I'll tell the cockeyed world you won't!" Hilton broke in. "Me marry a damned 
female Ph. Next time I go to school I'm going to Yale or Harvard or some such 
place, and I'll learn so much mathematics and science that I'll have to wear a 
bandeau to keep my massive intellect in place. " 

During this conversation they had prepared a substantial luncheon and had 
arranged it daintily upon two large trays, in spite of the difficulty caused by 
the fact that nothing would remain in place by its own weight. The feast 
prepared, Dorothy took her tray from the table as carefully as she could, and 
saw the sandwiches and bottles start to float toward the ceiling. Hastily 
inverting the tray above the escaping viands, she pushed them back down upon 
the table. In doing so she lifted herself clear from the floor, as she had 
forgotten to hold herself down. A dwelling awaits each Master, in which each 
will be served by Omans who will know the Master's desires without being told. 
Every desire. While we Omans have no biological urges, we are of course highly 
skilled in relieving tensions and derive as much pleasure from that service as 
from any other. " 

Sawtelle broke the silence that followed. She sat down on the edge of a chair, 
lighted a cigarette, and began to smoke in short, nervous puffs. She opened her 
mouth to say something, but shut it without making a sound. 

"You're afraid of me, Lola?" he asked, quietly. . I am not at all sure that I 
can explain it to you satisfactorily, but I will try to do so, if you wish. " 

"Please do so, sir, by all means. " 



Garlock opened the highest Gunther cells of his mind. Shall I bomb 'em out?" 

"I'll ask. Me, yes--but don't forget that there very well may be people--or 
things--as far ahead of us as we are ahead of pointer pups. " 

"Huh! Balloon-juice and prop-wash! I just _know_, Clee, that you're the 
absolute tops of the whole, entire, macrocosmic universe. " 

"Well, we can dream, of course. " Garlock withdrew his mind from Belle's and 
turned his attention to the now quiet Semolo. "Well, my over-confident and 
contumacious young squirt; are you done horsing around or do you want to keep 
it up until you addle completely what few brains you have?" 

The Lizorian made no reply; but merely glared. 

"The trouble with you half-baked, juvenile--I almost added 'delinquent' to 
that, and perhaps I should have--Primes is that you know too damned much that 
isn't true. As an old Tellurian saying hath it, 'you're altogether too big for 
your britches. ' 

"Thus, simply because you have lived a few years on one single planet and 
haven't encountered anyone able to stand up to you, you've sold yourself on the 
idea that there's nobody, anywhere, who can. You're wrong--you couldn't be more 
so if you had an army to help you. 

"What, actually, have you done? What, actually, have you got? Practically 
nothing. You haven't even started a starship; you've scarcely started making 
plans. You realize dimly that the theory is not in any of the books, that 
you'll have to slug it out for yourself, but that is _work_. So you're still 
just posing and throwing your weight around. 

"As a matter of fact, you're merely a drop in a lake. The Upper Midvale is 
fordable almost anywhere at this season, so stay far enough away from the lake 
that none see you. Cross it, swing in a wide circle toward the peninsula on 
which sits Middlemarch Castle, and in three days. . . it could be. " 

"Exactly; and you can have your Brownie. " 

"I'm beginning to see. I didn't think you had anything like that in your 
chilled-steel carcass. And I want to apolo. . . . . but above all, an absolute 
integrity. . . " Garlock was floundering; to be called upon to explain his 
ingrained antipathy to such a custom was new to his experience. 

"You are silly. " She went into his arms again and nibbled on his left ear. 
"I'd go anywhere with you, of course, any time, but _this_--but you're 
positively _sure_ Sammy Small will be all right?" 

"Positively sure. " 

"Okay, I'll call mother. . . . . . . . " 

"There's plenty!" she snapped. "Plain, dumb stupidity, then, it must be. There 
must be _somebody_ around here who has been at least exposed to elementary 
biology! You should have exterminated these Ozobe vermin ages ago. All you have 
to do is find out what its life cycle is. How many stages and what they are. 
How the adults get into space and where they go," and she went on, in flashing 
thoughts, to explain in full detail. 

"Are you smart enough to understand that?" 

"Oh, yes. I had to play it as though the whole Oman race is no more important 
than a cigarette butt. " 

Ferber became purple and pounded his desk in consuming anger. 

Garlock yelled louder and pounded harder. "Start rounding up this stuff--but 
_fast_--or I'll come down there and take your job away from you and do it 
myself--and for your own greasy hide's sake you'd better believe I'm not just 
chomping my choppers, either. " 

"You'll _What?_" Ferber screamed. "_You're fired!_" 

"_You_ fire _me_?" Garlock mimicked the scream. "And make it stick? You'd 
better write that one up for the funnies. Why, you lard-brain, you couldn't 
fire a cap-pistol. " 

"Foster!" Ferber yelled. "Terminate Garlock as of now. Insubordination, and 
misconduct, abuse of position, incompetence, malfeasance--everything else you 
can think of. Blacklist him all over the System!" 

At the word "fired" Belle, had leaped to her feet and had stopped laughing. 

"Miss Bellamy!" Ferber snapped. 

"Yes, sir?" she answered, sweetly. 

"You are hereby promoted to be Head of the. . "woebegone" is the only word for 
it. "I have work to do. Projects, you know, of difficulty, of extreme 
complexity and scope, sometimes even approaching danger. A Lens would be of 
tremendous use. " 

"How?" Samms asked. "If your work is of enough importance to enough people, 
Mentor would certainly give you a Lens. 









The Secret Planet 



No human had ever landed on the hidden planet of Arisia. " 

"How about their power?" 

"I don't understand it very well--hardly at all, in fact. " 

"It is quite simple. And Herkimer Third isn't really a menace; he just thinks 
he is. Take a look--you can, can't you, with your Lens?" 

"Perhaps. . . . . . " Jack's thought snapped off as he tuned to a local 
Lensman. 

Jill's heart sank. She was starkly certain now that the Lensmen could not find 
her in time. 

"Tighten up a little, Eddie. You, too, Bob. " 

"Stop it! Oh, God, STOP IT!" The unbearable agony relaxed a little. She watched 
in horrified fascination a second glowing coal approach her bare right side. 
"Even if I do talk you'll kill me anyway. I don't see how anybody could help 
but be. We thought we'd be left here alone. We. . . . . " 

"Oh, chip-chop the jaw-flapping, Gordon!" Hilton snapped. Then, as the admiral 
began to bellow orders into his microphone, he went on: "You want it the hard 
way, eh? Watch what happens, all of you!" 



The _UC-1_ shot vertically into the air. Through its shallow dense layer and 
into and through the stratosphere. The development of machinery and tools gave 
them a big edge on the fish; and those living in the shallow seas, nearest the 
Islands, gradually became tributary nations, if not actually slaves. Those fish 
not only serve as food, but work in the mines, hatcheries, and plantations, and 
do all kinds of work for the Nevians. Those so-called 'lesser deeps' were 
conquered first, of course, and all their races of fish are docile enough now. 
But the deep-sea breeds, who live in water so deep that the Nevians can hardly 
stand the pressure down there, were more intelligent to start with, and more 
stubborn besides. But the most valuable metals here are deep down--this planet 
is very light for its size, you know--so the 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's fools. They realized that as time went on the 
amphibians would get further and further ahead of them in development, so they 
let themselves be conquered, learned how to use the Nevians' tools and 
everything else they could get hold of, developed a lot of new stuff of their 
own, and now they're out to wipe the amphibians off the map completely, before 
they get too far ahead of them to handle. While the hexans are masters of rays, 
the humans are equally masters of explosives and of mechanisms. They can hit a 
perfect score upon any target in free space whose course and acceleration can 
be determined, at any range up to five thousand kilometers, and they have 
explosives thousands of times as powerful as any known to us. Ray screens are 
effective only against rays, and the hexans cannot destroy anything they cannot 
see before it strikes them. So it is that all the hexan vessels except those 
necessary to protect their own strongholds, are being concentrated against 
Callisto. They cannot spare vessels to guard uselessly the abandoned 
satellites. Because of the enormously high gravity of Jupiter the hexans there 
are safe from human attack save for ineffectual long-range bombardment, but Io 
is being attacked constantly and it is probable that in a few more years Io 
also will be an abandoned world. Some of you may have received the impressions 
that the hexans are to triumph immediately, but such an idea is wrong. The 
humans can, and will, hold out for a hundred years or more unless the enemy 
perfects a destructive ray of the type referred to. Even then, I think that our 
human cousins will hold out a long time. But the Nevians-- 

The horizontal, flat, fish-like body is not so bad, even supported as it is by 
four short, powerful, scaly, flat-footed legs; and terminating as it does in 
the weird, four-vaned tail. The neck, even, is endurable, although it is long 
and flexible, heavily scaled, and is carried in whatever eye-wringing loops or 
curves the owner considers most convenient or ornamental at the time. Even the 
smell of a Nevian--a malodorous reek of over-ripe fish--does in time become 
tolerable, especially if sufficiently disguised with creosote, which purely 
Terrestrial chemical is the most highly prized perfume of Nevia. But the head! 
It is that member that makes the Nevian so appalling to Earthly eyes, for it is 
a thing utterly foreign to all Solarian history or experience. As most 
Tellurians already know, it is fundamentally a massive cone, covered with 
scales, based spearhead-like upon the neck. Four great sea-green, triangular 
eyes are spaced equidistant from each other 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 in any ordinary extreme of light or darkness. Immediately 
below each eye springs out a long, jointless, boneless, tentacular arm; an arm 
which at its extremity divides into eight delicate and sensitive, but very 
strong, "fingers. " Below each arm is a mouth: a beaked, needle-tusked orifice 
of dire potentialities. Finally, under the overhanging edge of the cone-shaped 
head are the delicately-frilled organs which serve either as gills or as 
nostrils and lungs, as may be desired. To other Nevians the eyes and other 
features are highly expressive, but to us they appear utterly cold and 
unmoving. Terrestrial senses can detect no changes of expression in a Nevian's 
"face. " Such were the frightful beings at whom the three prisoners stared with 
sinking hearts. From where?" 

"About four miles in on Six. It'll take time. " 

"But I can't, Conway, and neither can you," the girl answered softly, a 
glorious light in her eyes. "It's too late for that. He seized her right hand 
in both of his, held it up over her head, and waved it back and forth in the 
sign of victory. 

"Socked me with my own club!" he exulted, laughing delightedly, boyishly. "And 
came within a tenth of a split red hair! If it hadn't been so absolutely out of 
character you'd've got away with it. _What_ a load of stuff! I was right--of 
all the women on this project, you're the only one I've ever been really afraid 
of. " 

"Oh, damn. . . . . but we have been through so much together that I feel as 
though we had known each other forever. Hot Dog! Anyway, he wants us to and we 
want to so everything's lovely and so let's get to work on Fatso and his 
Foster. I think we ought to have some fun for a change and that'll be a lot. 
Not sudden death, of course. 

Women, their faces blotched and purple with emotion, shrieked and screamed. 
Men, stamping their feet and waving their arms, yelled and swore. And many, men 
and women alike, laid wagers. 

"Five hundred sesterces on Fermius!" one shouted, tablet and stylus in air. 

"Taken!" came an answering yell. "The Gaul is done--Patroclus all but had him 
there!" 

"One thousand, you!" came another challenge. "Patroclus missed his chance and 
will never get another--a thousand on Fermius!" 

"Two thousand!" 

"Five thousand!" 

"Ten!" 

The fighters closed--swung--stabbed. Shields clanged vibrantly under the impact 
of fended strokes, swords whined and snarled. Back and forth--circling--giving 
and taking ground--for minute after endless minute that desperately furious 
exhibition of skill, of speed and of power and of endurance went on. And as it 
went on, longer and longer past the time expected by even the most optimistic, 
tension mounted higher and higher. 

Blood flowed crimson down the Gaul's bare leg and the crowd screamed its 
approval. Blood trickled out of the joints of the Thracian's armor and it 
became a frenzied mob. 

No human body could stand that pace for long. 

"Now don't say again that you want to _do_ something," Sandra said, brightly. 
"If he makes a pass at her I'll get him if I have to blow this whole sphere out 
of space, with us in it!" 

"Don't do that, Conway," Clio's low voice, trembling but determined, was felt 
by both men. "If there's a chance for you to get away and do anything about 
fighting him, don't mind me. Ninety-nine per cent of your mind doesn't _want_ 
to believe it; is dead set against it. So it has to force its way through 
whillions and skillions of ohms of resistance, so only the most powerful 
stimuli--'maximum signal' in your jargon, perhaps?--can get through to you at 
all. " Suddenly she giggled like a schoolgirl. "You're either psychic or the 
biggest wolf in the known universe, and I know you aren't a wolf. If you hadn't 
been as psychic as I am, you'd've jumped clear out into subspace when a 
perfectly strange girl attacked you. " 

"How do you know so much about me?" 

"I made it a point to. "Am I. . . well, talking in mixed company, you know, but 
I think. . and you're right, of course, in your stand that we'll have to have 
Lensmen from as many different solar systems as possible on the Galactic 
Council or the thing won't work at all. So damned much jealousy--which is one 
reason why we're here in New York instead of out at The Hill, where we 
belong--we've found that out already, even in such a small and comparatively 
homogeneous group as our own system--the Solarian Council will not only have to 
be made up mostly of Lensmen, but each and every inhabited planet of Sol will 
have to be represented--even Pluto, I suppose, in time. And by the way, your 
Mr. Isaacson is about to promote a man who has proved very capable. Would you 
like to observe the proceedings?" 

"No. I have no time for minor matters. We won't starve. If you can't pay a 
hundred and fifty I'll come for a hundred, or seventy five, or fifty. 

"Why?" Hilton asked. "It'd look still better if I peeled down to the 
altogether. " 

"You're incorrigible," she said, but her answering grin was wide and perfectly 
natural. "You know, if I had had a brother something like you it would have 
saved me a lot of wear and tear. " Hilton was bending over a group in bronze. 
"If I didn't know better, I'd swear this is the original deHaven 'Dance of the 
Nymphs'. " 

Karns had marched up to and was examining minutely a two-by-three-foot 
painting, in a heavy gold frame, of a gorgeously auburn-haired nude. 
"Reproduction, hell! This is a _duplicate_! Lawrence's 'Innocent' is worth 
twenty million wogs and it's sealed behind quad armor-glass in Prime Art--but 
I'll bet wogs to wiggles the Prime Curator himself, with all his apparatus, 
couldn't tell this one from his!" 

"I wouldn't take even one wiggle's worth of that. And this 'Laughing Cavalier' 
and this 'Toledo' are twice as old and twice as fabulously valuable. " 

"And there are my own golf clubs. . " 

"Clee!" Belle drove the thought. "Cut out the monkey-business with those damn 
firecrackers of yours and look here--pure, solid force, like ball lightning or 
our Op field, but entirely different--see if you can analyze the stuff!" 

"Alive?" Garlock asked, as he drove a probe into one of the things--they were 
furiously-radiating spheres some seven feet in diameter--and began to tune to 
it. 

"I don't know--don't think so--if they are, they're a form of life that no sane 
human being could even imagine!" 

"Let's see what they actually do," Garlock suggested, still trying to tune in 
with the thing, whatever it was, and still following it down. 

This particular force-ball happened to hit the top of a six-story building. It 
was not going very fast--fifteen or twenty miles an hour--but when it struck 
the roof it did not even slow down. Without any effort at all, apparently, it 
continued downward through the concrete and steel and glass of the building; 
and everything in its path became monstrously, sickeningly, revoltingly 
changed. 

"I simply can't stand any more of this," Lola gasped. "We are so far away from 
the earth that even the fixed stars are unrecognizable. The power was on 
exactly forty-eight hours, since that is the life of that particular bar under 
full current. We should still be close to our own solar system, since it is 
theoretically impossible to develop any velocity greater than that of light. We 
ragged him about it a lot--and he was right. I thought, of course, they'd drift 
with us, but they are using power steadily. If the rise is open I'll give you a 
flash. Wright, you throw a chippie into it from the bottom. You others, work 
back along the drift, clear to the last glory hole. Teddy in turn called in 
Becky and de Vaux; Karns wanted Poynter and Beverly; Poynter wanted Braden and 
the twins; and so on. Thus, what started out as a conference of two became a 
full Ardan staff meeting; a meeting which, starting immediately after lunch, 
ran straight through into the following afternoon. 

"To sum up the consensus, for the record," Hilton said then, studying a sheet 
of paper covered with symbols, "the Stretts haven't attacked yet because they 
found out that we are stronger than they are. They found that out by analyzing 
our defensive web--which, if we had had this meeting first, we wouldn't have 
put up at all. Unlike anything known to human or previous Strett science, it is 
proof against any form of attack up to the limit of the power of its 
generators. They will attack as soon as they are equipped to break that screen 
at the level of power probable to our ships. We can not arrive at any reliable 
estimate as to how long that will take. 

"As to the effectiveness of our cutting off their known fuel supply, opinion is 
divided. We must therefore assume that fuel shortage will not be a factor. 

"Neither are we unanimous on the basic matter as to why the Masters acted as 
they did just before they left Ardry. Why did they set the status so far below 
their top ability? Why did they make it impossible for the Omans ever, of 
themselves, to learn their higher science? Why, if they did not want that 
science to become known, did they leave complete records of it? The majority of 
us believe that the Masters coded their records in such fashion that the 
Stretts, even if they conquered the Omans or destroyed them, could never break 
that code; since it was keyed to the basic difference between the Strett 
mentality and the human. Thus, they left it deliberately for some human race to 
find. 

"Air!" Willoughby snorted. "I'll swap you a hundred flasks of air, any time, 
for any one of those leaves!" Which was what Samms wanted to know. 

Captain Willoughby was smart. He knew that the way to succeed was to use and 
then to trample upon his inferiors; to toady to such superiors as were too 
strong to be pulled down and thus supplanted. He knew this Olmstead had what it 
took to be a big shot. Can you stand up yet?" 

Gripping the desk with both hands, Samms heaved himself to his feet. His right 
hand, concealing something which he had not mentioned and which was probably 
starkly unmentionable, approached her taut-stretched throat. 

"Talk or not, just as you please. " The voice was utterly callous, as chill as 
the death she now knew he was so willing to deal. "But listen. If you elect to 
talk, tell the truth. You won't lie twice. I may be as far off the beam on one 
side as you are on the other. " 

"I hope so. " Temple's natural fine color began to come back. "But it's 
understood that just the second you come out of the vat, I go right in. " 

"I hadn't ought to let you, of course. If he could have got what he wanted, ten 
full seconds, or even nine, he could have made it, but. . . . . . . . " 

"Enough. Second Lieutenant Wells, from now. GHQ will confirm. Take charge of 
all the guns we have. Report when you have made disposition. Now, Kinnison, 
listen. 

"You can't tell what ideas may be useful--chip in any time you feel the urge. 
Here's the dope, as I see it. But now what'll we do? We can't cancel without 
letting them know we're onto them, and we certainly can't use this stuff. Rays 
six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. . . . " 

"Or you could, Rod. " 





"No, that's straight data, right on zero across the panel," he assured her. 
"And as for your questions, they're easy. No, I haven't looked for the comet 
yet, because we'll have to drift for a couple of days before we'll be anywhere 
near where I think it is. No, they can't trace us, because there is now nothing 
to trace, unless they can detect the slight power we are using in our lights 
and so on--which possibility is vanishingly small. Potentially, our beam still 
exists, but since we are drawing no power, it has no actual present existence. 
See?" 

"Uh-uh," she dissented. "I can't say that I can quite understand how a beam can 
exist potentially and yet not be there actually enough to trace. Why, a thing 
has to be actual or not exist at all--you can't possibly have something that is 
nothing. With that outfit, if we should get separated, you can talk to 
us--we're both wearing 'em, although in somewhat different forms. You don't 
need to talk loud--just a mutter will be enough. They're handy little 
outfits--almost impossible to find, and capable of a lot of things. " 

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

"Afraid the ether's empty, as far as we're concerned. " 

Captain Bradley had stood by in silent astonishment during this conversation. 
His eyes had bulged slightly at Costigan's "we're both wearing 'em," but he had 
held his peace and as the girl disappeared a look of dawning comprehension came 
over his face. Dorothy returned and handed him everything she had found. 

"I would like to keep this ring," she said slowly, pointing to a slender 
circlet of gold set with a solitaire diamond, "if you think there is any chance 
of us getting clear. " 

"Everything goes that has any copper in it," he said coldly, "and I am glad to 
see that Seaton is too good a chemist to buy any platinum jewelry. You may keep 
the diamond, though," as he wrenched the jewel out of its setting and returned 
it to her. Food, uranexite or its concentrated derivative, interchangeably. 
Storage reserve, indefinite. Laro and Sora won't _have_ to eat again for at 
least twenty-five years. . " 

"Huh? They haven't got the guts," Hazel sneered. "Come on, Jane. 

"Aren't you even going to kiss mama goodbye, baby boy?" she taunted. 

"Better not waste much more time. We blow this boat, sealed or open, in fifteen 
seconds. Up a series of ramps they took the still form, placing it finally upon 
a soft couch in an enormous and heavily guarded central hall. Costigan turned 
to his companion, and even through the helmets she could see plainly the white 
agony of his expression. He moistened his lips and tried twice to speak--tried 
and failed; but he made no move either to cut off their power or to change 
their direction. 

"Of course," she approved steadily. 

"How about coming back to Tellus with me, Virge?" he asked, when the visiting 
was done. "You must have decided on at least some of them, by this time. . 
Ready, all? Start blasting. " 

"Don't trust it too much, because he can cut it off from the outside any time 
he wants to. Everything has been kept, changelessly the same, awaiting your 
return as you ordered so long ago. " 

"Can you read my mind?" Hilton demanded. 

"Of course; but Omans can not read in Masters' minds anything except what 
Masters want Omans to read. " 

"Omans?" Harkins asked. "Where did you Omans and your masters come from? 
Originally?" 

"As you know, Master, the Masters came originally from Arth. They populated 
Ardu, where we Omans were developed. We keep also this, your half of the Fuel 
World, in trust for you. Therefore, I am going to let you go ahead without me 
as far as you can--it won't be far. Do you want me to come in now or later?" 

"I'm afraid we can't do business on any such terms as that," said Brookings, 
shaking his head. "We can undoubtedly buy the power rights from Seaton for what 
you ask. 

No part of this book may be reprinted without written permission of the 
publishers. 

All Rights Reserved. " 

"You don't fool me for a second, Brookings. That will cure him of sucking 
eggs!" he muttered. "Operator? DuQuesne speaking. I am expecting a call this 
afternoon. Please ask him to call me at my house. They have one man in front 
and one in back, a couple of detectaphones in my rooms here, and have coupled 
onto this telephone. 

"Don't worry," he continued calmly as the other made an exclamation of dismay. 
"Talk ahead as loud as you please--they can't hear you. Do you think that those 
poor, ignorant flat feet can show me anything about electricity? I'd shoot a 
jolt along their wires that would burn their ears off if it weren't my cue to 
act the innocent and absorbed scientist. As it is, their instruments are all 
registering dense silence. But after an hour of waiting, and while the 
microphones made a noise as of rustling papers, the needle of the compass 
moved. It dipped slowly toward the earth as though DuQuesne were descending 
into the cellar, but at the same time the shadow of his unmistakable profile 
was thrown upon the window shade as he apparently crossed the room. 

"Can't you hear him walk?" demanded Prescott. 

"No. . . . . . more priestess-like, say?" 

"Perhaps. " Phagon was very evidently skeptical, but looked around the temple, 
anyway. "Trycie!" he yelled. 

"Yes, father?" a soft voice answered--right behind them! 

The king's second daughter was very like his first in size and shape, but her 
eyes were a cerulean blue and her hair, as long and as thick as Rhoann's own, 
had the color of ripe wheat. 

"Aye, daughter. Wouldst like to be Priestess of Llosir?" 

"Oh, yes!" she squealed; but sobered quickly. "On second thought. . that'd be 
ten an hour. I'll take him apart with my bare hands. " 

"We will find him, Dick," Crane replied in a level, deadly voice entirely 
unlike his usual tone. "That is one thing money can do. " 

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

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

"Samms. . . . . . . . . . . the priests who performed the sacrifices and who 
fattened on the fractions. . . . . . . . " 

"But _they_ were always the Masters, sir!" 

"They were not! They were hopelessly enslaved. Think it over. Anyway, say they 
went _to_ Terra from here. That still accounts for the legends and so on. 
However, they were too far gone to make a recovery, and yet they had enough 
fixity of purpose _not_ to manufacture any of you Omans there. So their 
descendants went a long way down the scale before they began to work back up. 
Does that make sense to you?" 



"It explains many things, sir. And now I think you'd better shuffle along; 
enough of this is a great plenty!" 

Baxter went to his own cubby, and each man of gray Roger's cold-blooded crew 
methodically took up his task. True to prediction, in five days a planet loomed 
beneath them and their vessel settled through a reeking atmosphere toward a 
rocky and forbidding plain. Then for hours they plunged along, a few thousand 
feet above the surface of that strange world, while Roger with his analytical 
detectors sought the most favorable location from which to wrest the materials 
necessary for his program of construction. 

It was a world of cold; its sun was distant, pale, and wan. It had monstrous 
forms of vegetation, of which each branch and member writhed and fought with a 
grotesque and horrible individual activity. Ever and anon a struggling part 
broke from its parent plant and darted away in independent existence; leaping 
upon and consuming or being consumed by a fellow creature equally monstrous. 
This flora was of a uniform color, a lurid, sickly yellow. In form some of it 
was fern-like, some cactus-like, some vaguely tree-like; but it was all 
outrageous, inherently repulsive to all Solarian senses. And no less hideous 
were the animal-like forms of life which slithered and slunk rapaciously 
through that fantastic pseudo-vegetation. Snake-like, reptile-like, bat-like, 
the creatures squirmed, crawled, and flew; each covered with a dankly oozing 
yellow hide and each motivated by twin common impulses--to kill and insatiably 
and indiscriminately to devour. Over this reeking wilderness Roger drove his 
vessel, untouched by its disgusting, its appalling ferocity and horror. 

"There should be intelligence, of a kind," he mused, and swept the surface of 
the planet with an exploring beam. "Don't you see, you big, dense, wonderful 
man, that it is the only thing to do? We need each other, or at least, I need 
you, so much now. . " and the unexpurgated, trenchant, brilliantly detailed 
characterization could have seared its way through four-ply asbestos. "And just 
what do you think you're going to do with me?" 

"As to the first, I think so," Kinnison replied, ignoring the deep-space 
verbiage. "As to the second--as of now I don't know. What would you do if our 
situations were reversed?" 

"I'd blast you to a cinder--or else take a knife and. . . . . " 

"Wouldn't, you mean," Samms corrected. 

"Couldn't," Kinnison insisted. "Jill, besides being your daughter and Lensman 
grade, had no official connection with either the Triplanetary Service or the 
Solarian Patrol. And the Service, including Fairchild, is still Triplanetary; 
and it will have to stay Triplanetary until you have found enough Lensmen so 
that you can spring your twin surprises--Galactic Council and Galactic Patrol. 
However, Northrop and Fairchild are keeping their eyes and ears open and their 
mouths shut, and Jill is finding out whatever she can about drugs and so on, as 
well as the various political angles. They'll report to you--facts, deductions, 
guesses, and recommendations--whenever you say the word. " 

"Nice work, Rod. Very, _very_ nice. Shall we. . here, you hold it, so that I 
can have both hands free. Put both arms around me, just under the arms, and 
stick to me like a porous plaster, because if I have to move at all, I'll have 
to jump like chain lightning. Shine the beam right over there, so it'll reflect 
and light up all the dials at once. There. You can try it on me, if you like. " 

"Uh-uh. More like being stretched all out of shape. Like having a child, maybe, 
in a small way. No one paid any attention to the thoughts of anyone else except 
in the case of couples or groups, the units of which were engaged in 
conversation. It reminded Garlock of a big Tellurian party when the punch-bowls 
were running low--everybody talking at the top of his voice and nobody 
listening. 

This whole gale of thought was blowing over Garlock's receptors like a Great 
Plains wind over miles-wide fields of corn. He did not address anyone directly; 
no one addressed him. At first, quite a few young women, at sight of his 
unusual physique, had sent out tentative feelers of thought; and some men had 
wondered, in the same tentative and indirect fashion, who he was and where he 
came from. However, when the information he had given Atterlin spread 
throughout the city--and it did not take long--no one paid any more attention 
to him than they did to each other. 

Probing into and through various buildings, he learned that groups of people 
were quitting work at intervals of about fifteen minutes. Anything else I can 
do for you, whoever you are?" 

"No. Your job's done. Until then, we'll let him think he's Top Dog. Let him 
rave. But Ferdy, any time he's behind me or out of sight, watch him like a 
hawk. Shoot him through the right elbow if he makes one sour move. " 

"I get you, boss. " 



A couple of evenings later, in Lifecraft Two, Barbara said: "You're worried, 
Babe, and everything's going so smoothly. . . " 

"She still isn't. She hasn't. It'll take her a week to get back into shape. 
Hope nothing else happens--if I drag you into any more such messes as those 
we've just been getting out of by the skin of our teeth, I'll begin to wish 
that we had started out at first to drift it back to Tellus in the _Hope_. 
Let's see how much time we've got. We should start shooting one day after an 
eclipse, so that we'll have five days to send. You see, we don't want to point 
our beam too close to Jupiter or to any of the large satellites, because the 
enemy might live there and might intercept it. We had an eclipse yesterday--so 
one week from today, at sunrise, I start shooting. " 

"But Earth's an evening star now; you can't see it in the morning. " 

"I'm not going to aim at Tellus. I'm shooting at Brandon, and he's never there 
for more than a week or two at a stretch. How long would it take to get there? 
Could they get back? Wouldn't they save time by casting themselves adrift, 
making the repairs most urgently needed, and going back to Ganymede under their 
own power? But would they have enough power left in the wreck to get even that 
far? And how about the big tube? He was interrupted by an insistent thought 
from Barkovis. 

"You will save time, Stevens, by coming with us to Titan. There we shall aid 
you in repairing your vessel and in completing your transmitting tube, in which 
we shall be deeply interested. "There--we'll be just about traveling with it 
when we get there," he said. "Now, little K. " 

"How can they possibly find us? I seem to be always worried about the wrong 
things, but I should think that their finding us would be the least of our 
troubles. " 

"Don't judge their vision system by ours--they've got everything, apparently. 
However, their apparatus may not be delicate enough to spot us in a space this 
small when their projectors flash through it, as they probably will. Then, too, 
there's a couple of other big items in our favor--nobody else is in the entire 
lower half, since all this machinery down here is either automatic or else 
controlled from up above, so they won't be expecting to see anybody when they 
get down this far; and we aren't at all conspicuous. We're both dressed in 
gray--your clothes in particular are almost exactly the color of this 
armor-plate--so altogether we stand a good chance of being missed. " 

"What shall we do now?" 

"Nothing whatever--wish we could sleep for a couple of hours, but of course 
there's no hope of that. Stretch out here, like that--you can't rest folded up 
like an accordion--and I'll lie down diagonally across the room. There's just 
room for me that way. Fire me first thing in the morning and send me back to 
Earth in a torp. It almost did--only a last-instant, full-powered side thrust 
enabled the target to evade it. Two numbers flashed white upon his plate; his 
actual error, exact to the foot of distance and to the degree on the clock, 
measured and transmitted back to his board by instruments in his torpedo. 

Working with instantaneous and exact data, and because the enemy had so little 
time in which to act, Kinnison's second projectile made a very near miss 
indeed. His third was a graze; so close that its proximity fuze functioned, 
detonating the cyclonite-packed war-head. Kinnison knew that his third went 
off, because the error-figures vanished, almost in the instant of their coming 
into being, as its detecting and transmitting instruments were destroyed. That 
one detonation might have been enough; but Kinnison had had one glimpse of his 
error--how small it was!--and had a fraction of a second of time. Hence Four 
and Five slammed home; dead center. Whatever that target had been, it was no 
longer a threat. It was a "new" one, and thus it would be a long time before it 
would become other than a local menace. And well before that could 
happen--before even the oldest of Tellus' loose vortices had eaten away much of 
her mass or poisoned much of her atmosphere, her scientists would have solved 
the problem. It was unthinkable that Tellus, the point of origin and the very 
center of Galactic Civilization, should cease to exist. 



But to Neal Cloud the accident was the ultimate catastrophe. His personal 
universe had crashed in ruins; what was left was not worth picking up. He and 
Jo had been married for almost twenty years and the bonds between them had 
grown stronger, deeper, truer with every passing day. And the kids. . sure. " 
Olmstead laughed quietly. Therefore: 

"They told me to keep you in the dark until we got to Trenco," he more than 
half apologized to his Fourth Officer shortly after the _Virgin Queen_ blasted 
away from the Trenconian system. "But they didn't say anything about 
afterwards--maybe they figured you wouldn't be aboard any more, as usual--but 
anyway, you can stay right here in the control room if you want to. " 

"Thanks, Skipper, but mightn't it be just as well," he jerked his head 
inconspicuously toward the other officers, "to play the string out, this trip? 
I don't care where we're going, and we don't want anybody to get any funny 
ideas. " 

"That'd be a lot better, of course--as long as you know that your cards are all 
aces, as far as I'm concerned. " 

"Thanks, Willoughby. Stop at the cashier's office on your way out. Good-bye. " 

Thus the Lensmen--particularly First Lensman Virgil Samms--brought another 
sector of the galaxy under the aegis of Civilization. 











After the Rally there were a few days during which neither Samms nor Kinnison 
was on Earth. That the Cosmocrats' presidential candidate and the First Lensman 
were both with the Fleet was not a secret; in fact, it was advertised. Everyone 
was told why they were out there, and almost everyone approved. Nadia insisted 
that she, too, needed to work, and that she was altogether too good a mechanic 
to waste; therefore the two again labored mightily together, day after day. But 
the girl limited rigidly their hours of work to those of the working day; and 
evening after evening Barkovis visited with them for hours. Dressed in his 
heavy space-suit and supported by a tractor beam well out of range of what 
seemed to him terrific heat radiated by the bodies of the Terrestrials, he 
floated along unconcernedly; while over the multiplex cable of the 
thought-exchanger he conversed with the man and woman seated just inside the 
open outer door of their air-lock. The Titanian's appetite for information was 
insatiable--particularly did he relish everything pertaining to the earth and 
to the other inner planets, forever barred to him and to his kind. In return 
Stevens and Nadia came gradually to know the story of the humanity of Titan. We 
start in one minute. " 

The surveyor came in. "Forty one minutes is my best guess. " 

"From when?" 

"From the time the pump failed. " Hilton brought Kincaid up to date. " 

"Save your breath or talk sense," said Seaton, coldly. "I gave you English so 
that you can give me the information I want. You already know what it is. Speed 
is not of the essence; justice very definitely is. " 

"'Crusader' Samms, now and forever! But I'll buy it, Virge--now let's get back 
down to earth. Operation Zwilnik is all set. Virgil was going to do it tonight, 
after the brawl here, but you know as much about it now as any of us. "Tell the 
goddam rat the truth!" Jack's thought drove on. "It won't make any 
difference--he won't live long enough to pass it on!" 

"But I can't--I won't!" Jill stormed. "Why, Pops Kinnison would. . . . " 
Whatever Samms could say would make things worse. The truth, wild as it was, 
would have to be told, at least in part. "You do not look like an Italian, but 
perhaps you have enough of that racial heritage to believe in prophecy?" 

"Of course, sir. There have always been prophets--_true_ prophets. " 

"Good. Keep your shield up. " 

"Oh, we're so glad to see you, Captain Garlock, sir!" The blonde, who was 
dressed little more heavily than the cigarette girls in Venusberg's Cartier 
Room, seized his left hand in both of hers and held it considerably longer than 
was necessary. Her dazzling smile, her laughing eyes, her flashing white teeth, 
the many exposed inches of her skin, and her completely unshielded mind; all 
waved banners of welcome. 

"Captain Garlock, sir, Governor Atterlin has been most anxious to see you ever 
since you were first detected. This way, please, sir. " 

"We will, sir, and thank you very much. Kinnison. Now, First Lensman Samms, our 
clients all want to know all about the Lens. We all know what it _does_, but 
what, really, _is_ it? Who invented it? How does it work?" 

Kinnison started to say something, but Samms silenced him with a thought. 

"I will answer those questions by asking you one. " 

Acting upon this suggestion, the party seated themselves upon comfortable 
divans, and Dunark rapidly dismantled the machine he had constructed. The 
captives remained standing, always behind the visitors until Seaton 
remonstrated. 

"I approve of you, Tedric. " 

Down the _Pleiades_ went, into the air of the nation known as the "Allied 
Republican Democracies of the World," and an atomic-warheaded rocket came 
flaming up. 

"Hm. . " 

He whirled and caught her as she slumped, but she did not quite faint. 

"Quick! Get in. . " 

"Northrop! Jack!" came Virgil Samms' highly concerned thought. The 
superdreadnaught flashed alongside, a bare few hundred miles away, and stopped. 
"Why did you stop _here_?" 

"This is where our signal came from, sir. " 

"Oh. . . I wonder. Crane?" 

"That is rather unjustifiably high praise, Miss Spencer," replied Crane, "but 
as I have been guilty of one or two things along that line, I may be the man he 
meant. " 

"Pardon me if I seem to change the subject," put in Seaton, "but where's 
DuQuesne?" 

"We came to at the same time, and he went into the galley to fix up something 
to eat. " 

"Good for him!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I'm simply starved to death. " 

DuQuesne looked at her keenly. Especially Karns, the team chief. 

"I can see where this would be habit-forming," Hilton said, "and very deadly. 
_Extremely_ deadly. " 

"Every wish granted. Surrounded by all this. " Karns swept his arm through 
three-quarters of a circle. "Waited on hand and foot by powerful men and by the 
materializations of the dreams of the greatest, finest artists who ever lived. 
Fatal? I don't know. . Yes. . . No, sir, they aren't. " 

"Get 'em, Larry. Those animals were undoubtedly intelligent beings; they 
probably are a race of savages of this satellite. " 

"Then the really civilized races are probably. " 

"I confirm, Lola, of course," Garlock said; then went on, partly thinking 
aloud, partly addressing the group at large. You two are really serious, aren't 
you? Marriage, declarations, registration, and everything? I wish--I sincerely 
and really wish you--every happiness possible. " 

"We really _are_ serious," James said, putting his arm around Lola's waist. 
"And you won't. " Kinnison offered one last objection. "Without your Lens, 
_anything_ can happen to you. " 

"You are both wrong," said Vaneman. "You, Martin, haven't enough imagination; 
and you, Dick, have altogether too much, for either of you to have done this 
alone. The honor will be divided equally between you. " 



He turned to Crane as Dorothy and Seaton set out toward the house. " 

"You're probably right, son--I know you, and I know Martin Crane. Together, and 
in the _Skylark_, I believe you invincible. Then, with bewildering rapidity, he 
went into action; face glued to the visiplate, hands moving faster than the eye 
could follow--the left closing and opening the switch controlling the zone of 
force, the right swinging the steering controls to all points of the sphere. 
The mighty vessel staggered this way and that, jerking and straining terribly 
as the zone was thrown on and off, lurching sickeningly about the central 
bearing as the gigantic power of the driving bar was exerted, now in one 
direction, now in another. After a second or two of this mad gyration, Seaton 
shut off the power. He then released the zone, after assuring himself that both 
inner and outer screens were operating at the highest possible rating. 

"There, that'll hold 'em for a while, I guess. "I want to see if they've got 
many of those space-ships in action, and you will want to see what war is like, 
when it is fought by people, who have been making war steadily for ten thousand 
years. " 

Poised at the limit of clear visibility, the two men studied the incessant 
battle being waged beneath them. They saw not one, but fully a thousand of the 
globular craft high in the air and grouped in a great circle around an immense 
fortification upon the ground below. They saw no airships in the line of 
battle, but noticed that many such vessels were flying to and from the front, 
apparently carrying supplies. You are the last man I would have expected to be 
scared off after one engagement. " 

"Don't be any more of a fool than you have to, Brookings. Went to sleep in a 
chair and slept seventeen hours without a break. Seven hours and a half is a 
luxury, you know. " 

"All wrong, old top. I thought you were out after bigger game. " 

Belle's face went stiff and still. "What do you mean by that?" 

"Plain enough, I would think. Wherever you are, you've got to be the Boss. " 



A couple of evenings later, in Lifecraft Two, Barbara said: "You're worried, 
Babe, and everything's going so smoothly. . or is it?" 

He triggered the shields, she watched him do it. "It is now," he assured her. 
"I don't know whether Dad is going to kill Morgan or not--and don't give a 
damn--but if Morgan isn't going all out to kill Dad it's because they've 
forgotten how to make bombs. " 

He Lensed a call to Bergenholm. 

"We lined up a thousand and one signals, sir," Northrop reported for the pair, 
"but only one of them carried a message, and it didn't make sense. " 

"Why not?" Samms asked, sharply. "All I know about it is a hazy idea of what 
the word means, but I'll start studying as soon as we get squared away. " 

"Thanks. " 

There were two barbers and two chairs, both empty. The Lensmen, noticing that 
the place was neatly kept and meticulously clean, sat down and resumed their 
discussion of two extremely unusual infants. The barbers went busily to work. 
The Lensmen, noticing that the place was neatly kept and meticulously clean, 
sat down and resumed their discussion of two extremely unusual infants. The 
barbers went busily to work. 

"Just as well, though--better, really--that the kids didn't marry each other, 
at that," Kinnison concluded finally. "The way it is, we've each got a 
grandson--it'd be tough to have to share one with _you_. " 

Samms made no reply to this sally, for something was happening. The fact that 
this fair-skinned, yellow-haired blue-eyed barber was left-handed had not rung 
any bells--there were lots of left-handed barbers. He had neither seen nor 
heard the cat--a less-than-half-grown, gray, tiger-striped kitten--which, after 
standing up on its hind legs to sniff ecstatically at his nylon-clad ankles, 
had uttered a couple of almost inaudible "meows" and had begun to purr happily. 
Crouching, tensing its strong little legs, it leaped almost vertically upward. 
"The power is gone, the controls are wrecked, and we are hopelessly lost in 
space. " 

"Oh, I wouldn't say 'hopelessly,'" returned the other, "I have never been in 
any situation yet that I couldn't get out of, and I won't be convinced until I 
am dead that I can't get out of this one. We have two extra power bars, we can 
fix the board, and if I can't navigate us back close enough to our solar system 
to find it, I am more of a dub than I think I am. How about a little bite to 
eat?" 

"Show us where it is!" exclaimed Dorothy. 

"Anything that's sweet, apparently, with just enough milk to furnish a little 
protein. Won't eat meat or vegetables at all--von Steiffel says they haven't 
got much of a digestive tract, and I know that they haven't got any teeth. He's 
already eaten most all the syrup we had on board, all of the milk chocolate, 
and a lot of the sugar. But none of us can get any kind of a raise out of him 
at all--not even Nadia, when she fed him a whole box of chocolates. " 

"No, I mean what does he eat when he's home?" 

"It seems to be a sort of syrup, made from the juices of jungle plants, which 
they drag in on automatic conveyors and process on automatic machinery. But 
he's a funny mutt--hard to get. Some of his thoughts are lucid enough, but 
others we can't make out at all--they are so foreign to all human nature that 
they simply do not register as thoughts at all. One funny thing, he isn't the 
least bit curious about anything. He doesn't want to examine anything, doesn't 
ask us any questions, and won't tell us anything about anything, so that all we 
know about him we found out purely by accident. For instance, they like games 
and sports, and seem to have families. They also have love, liking, and respect 
for others of their own race--but they seem to have no emotions whatever for 
outsiders. They're utterly inhuman--I can't describe it--you'll have to get it 
for yourself. " 

"Did you find out about the Callistonians who went to see them?" 

"Negatively, yes. They never arrived. He got acquainted. He saw. He approved. 

"How about coming back to Tellus with me, Virge?" he asked, when the visiting 
was done. "You must have decided on at least some of them, by this time. He 
located the terminator on the morning side, poised his little ship somewhat 
nearer to dawn than to midnight, and "cut the rope". He took one quick reading 
on the sun, cut off his plates, and let her drop, watching only his pressure 
gages and gyros. 

One hundred millimeters of mercury. Three hundred. There will be twenty 
sections of ten persons, each section being in charge of one of the officers of 
the _Arcturus_. Doctor Penfield, our surgeon, a man whose intelligence, 
fairness, and integrity are unquestioned, will be in supreme command. His power 
and authority will be absolute, limited only by the Callistonian Council. He 
will work in harmony with the engineer, who is to direct the entire project of 
building the new vessel. Each of you will be expected to do whatever he 
can--the work you will be asked to do will be well within your powers, and you 
will each have ample leisure for recreation, study, and amusement, of all of 
which you will find unsuspected stores in this underground community. You will 
each be registered and studied by physicians, surgeons, and psychologists; and 
each of you will have prescribed for him the exact diet that is necessary for 
his best development. You will find this diet somewhat monotonous, compared to 
our normal fare of natural products, since it is wholly synthetic; but that is 
one of the minor drawbacks that must be endured. Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I 
will not be with you. In some small and partial recompense for what they are 
doing for us all, he and I are going with Captain Czuv to Callisto, there to 
see whether or not we can aid them in any way in the fight against the hexans. 
One last word--Doctor Penfield's rulings will be the products of his own 
well-ordered mind after consultation and agreement with the Council of this 
city, and will be for the best good of all. I do not anticipate any refusal to 
cooperate with him. If, however, such refusal should occur, please remember 
that he is a despot with absolute power, and that anyone obstructing the 
program by refusing to follow his suggestions will spend the rest of his time 
here in confinement and will go back to Tellus in irons, if at all. In case 
Chief Pilot Breckenridge and I should not see you again, we bid you goodbye and 
wish you a safe voyage--but we expect to go back with you. " 

Brief farewells were said and captain and pilot accompanied Czuv to one of the 
little street-cars. Out of the building it dashed and down the crowded but 
noiseless thoroughfare to the portal. Signal lights flashed briefly there and 
they did not stop, but tore on through the portal and the tunnel, with 
increasing speed. Jones punched another button; a foot-thick barrier of 
asbestos, tungsten, and vitrified refractory slid smoothly across the tunnel's 
opening. He considered briefly, pityingly, those who might be outside, but felt 
no urge to explore. If any lived, there were buttons on the other side of the 
fire-door. 

The eddying smoke disappeared, the flaring lights winked out, air-horns and 
bells relapsed into silence. The shift-boss, now apparently the Superintendent 
of the whole Twelfth Level, removed his mask, found the Station walkie-talkie, 
and snapped a switch. He spoke, listened, spoke again then called a list of 
names--none of which brought any response. 

"Wright, and you five others," picking out miners who could be depended upon to 
keep their heads, "take these guns. Shoot if you have to, but not unless you 
have to. " 

"Now, you sheet-iron bucket of nuts and bolts, _jump_!" and Garlock snapped the 
red switch. 

Earth lay beneath them. So did Port Gunther. 

"Hu-u-u-uh!" Garlock's huge sigh held much more of relief than of triumph. 

"They did it! We're home!" Lola shrieked; and, breaking into unashamed and 
unrestrained tears, went into her husband's extended arms. 

"Cry ahead, sweet. I'd bawl myself if Garlock wasn't looking. Maybe I will, 
anyway," James said. Seaton, my enemy, already has one of your vessels--don't 
think he is too much of a fool to put it back together and to learn its every 
secret. Then, too, remember that I have your mind, and can get along without 
you; even though I am willing to admit that you could be of enough help to me 
so that I would save your life in exchange for that help. But I can give you an 
idea of what we both think it may come to. " 

"Yes, do. . . " Garlock showed Alsyne. 

"I see. But you have suspicions or ideas? You can guess?" 

"I can guess; but that's all it would be--a guess. " 

"And my guess, folks, is that his guess would be a very highly informed guess. 
" 

He put his left arm around her and applied a tiny pressure against her side; 
under which she began to move slowly toward his door. 

"You admit that you're using force?" she asked. Knowing what they evidently do 
know, it's hard to see how they could have missed it. And yet, if they had 
known about it for a long time, wouldn't they be able to get through it? Of 
course it may be a real and total barrier in the ether--in that case they'd 
know that they couldn't do a thing as long as we keep it on. Take your choice, 
but I believe that they know about it, and know more than we do--that it is a 
total barrier set up in the ether. " 

"I agree with you, and we shall proceed upon that assumption. From that they 
derive the secondary assumption that humanoid types will be scarce. You and Jim 
both, then, will know what you're doing, while Belle and I are trying to play 
ours by ear. " 

"Where do we draw the line between humanoid and non-human?" 

"In case of doubt we'll confer. That covers it as much as we can, I think. Take 
us down, Jim--and be on your toes to take evasive action fast. " 



The ship dropped rapidly toward an airport just outside a fairly large city. 
Fifty thousand--forty thousand--thirty thousand feet. 

"Calling strange spaceship--you must be a spaceship, in spite of your 
tremendous, hitherto-considered-impossible mass--" a thought impinged on all 
four Tellurian minds, "do you read me?" 

"I read you clearly. This is the Tellurian spaceship _Pleiades_, Captain 
Garlock commanding, asking permission to land and information as to landing 
conventions. " He did not have to tell James to stop the ship; James had 
already done so. Here he was! 

Should he use his headlights, or not? He did not know the Palainians' reaction 
to or attitude toward light. It had not occurred to him while at Pluto to ask, 
and it might be important. The landing lights of his vessel might already have 
done his cause irreparable harm. He could drive by starlight if he had to. 

What a town! Virgil Samms had seen the inhabited places of almost every planet 
of Civilization. He had seen cities laid out in circles, sectors, ellipses, 
triangles, squares, parallelopipeds--practically every plan known to geometry. 
He had seen structures of all shapes and sizes--narrow skyscrapers, 
vast-spreading one-stories, polyhedra, domes, spheres, semi-cylinders, and 
erect and inverted full and truncated cones and pyramids. Whatever the plan or 
the shapes of the component units, however, those inhabited places had, without 
exception, been understandable. But this! 

Samms, his eyes now completely dark-accustomed, could see fairly well, but the 
more he saw the less he grasped. There was no plan, no coherence or unity 
whatever. It was as though a cosmic hand had flung a few hundreds of buildings, 
of incredibly and senselessly varied shapes and sizes and architectures, upon 
an otherwise empty plain, and as though each structure had been allowed ever 
since to remain in whatever location and attitude it had chanced to fall. Here 
and there were jumbled piles of three or more utterly incongruous structures. 
There were a few whose arrangement was almost orderly. Here and there were 
large, irregularly-shaped areas of bare, untouched ground. There were no 
streets--at least, nothing that the man could recognize as such. 

Samms headed the creep for one of those open areas, then stopped--declutched 
the tracks, set the brakes, and killed the engines. 

"Go slow, fellow," he advised himself then. "Until you find out what a 
dexitroboper actually does while working at his trade, don't take chances of 
interfering or of doing damage!" 

No Lensman knew--then--that frigid-blooded poison-breathers were not strictly 
three-dimensional; but Samms did know that he had actually seen things which he 
could not understand. He and Kinnison had discussed such occurrences calmly 
enough; but the actuality was enough to shake even the mind of Civilization's 
First Lensman. 

He did not need to be any closer, anyway. Better take turns watching it, hadn't 
we?" asked Seaton. 

It was decided, and while the _Skylark_ was still some distance away, several 
small islands became visible, and the period of rotation of the planet was 
determined to be in the neighborhood of fifty hours. Margaret, then at the 
controls, picked out the largest island visible and directed the bar toward it. 
As they dropped down close to their objective, they found that the air was of 
the same composition as that of Osnome, but had a pressure of seventy-eight 
centimeters of mercury, and that the surface gravity of the planet was 
ninety-five hundredths that of the Earth. 

"Fine business!" exulted Seaton. "Just about like home, but I don't see much of 
any place to land without getting wet, do you? Those reflectors are probably 
solar generators, and they cover the whole island except for that lagoon right 
under us. " 

The island, perhaps ten miles long and half that in width, was entirely covered 
with great parabolic reflectors, arranged so closely together that little could 
be seen between them. Each reflector apparently focussed upon an object in the 
center, a helix which seemed to writhe luridly in that flaming focus, glowing 
with a nacreous, opalescent green light. 

"Well, nothing much to see there--let's go down," remarked Seaton as he shot 
the _Skylark_ over to the edge of the island and down to the surface of the 
water. But here again nothing was to be seen of the land itself. The wall was 
one vertical plate of seamless metal, supporting huge metal guides, between 
which floated metal pontoons. As the catapult's force was spent automatic trips 
upon the undercarriage actuated the propelling rockets and mile after mile, 
with rapidly mounting velocity, the plane sped through the tube. As the exit 
was approached, the tunnel described a long vertical curve, so that when the 
opening into the shaft of the crater was reached and the undercarriage was 
automatically detached, the vessel was projected almost vertically upward. Such 
was its velocity and so powerful was the liquid propellant of its rocket 
motors, that the eye could not follow the flight of the warship as it tore 
through the thin layer of the atmosphere and hurled itself out into the depths 
of space. The pilot then turned on his beams, but found that they were 
ineffective. Both vessels were equipped completely with iron-driven mechanisms; 
both were manned by scientists capable of wringing the highest possible measure 
of power from their installations. Neither could harm the other. 

The _Boise_ flashed away; reached Nevia in minutes. Down into the crimson 
atmosphere she dropped, down toward the city which Costigan knew was Nerado's 
home port. And during all this time the forces of the seven sectors had been 
concentrating. The pilot vessels, with their flaming red screens, each followed 
by a cone of space-ships, drew closer and closer together, approaching the 
_Fearless_--the British super-dreadnought which was to be the flagship of the 
Fleet--the mightiest and heaviest space-ship which had yet lifted her 
stupendous mass into the ether. 

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 for their very civilizations' existence, 
and one never used since the last space-fleets of Jupiter's murderous hordes 
had been wiped out. 

The mouth of that enormous hollow cone was a ring of scout patrols, the 
smallest and most agile vessels of the fleet. Behind them came a somewhat 
smaller ring of light cruisers, then rings of heavy cruisers and of light 
battleships, and finally of heavy battleships. At the apex of the cone, 
protected by all the other vessels of the formation and in best position to 
direct the battle, was the flagship. In this formation every vessel was free to 
use her every weapon, with a minimum of danger to her sister ships; and yet, 
when the gigantic main projectors were operated along the axis of the 
formation, from the entire vast circle of the cone's mouth there flamed a 
cylindrical field of force of such intolerable intensity that in it no 
conceivable substance could endure for a moment! 

The artificial planet of metal was now close enough so that it was visible to 
the ultra-vision of the Service men, so plainly visible that the cigar-shaped 
warships of the pirates were seen issuing from the enormous airlocks. As each 
vessel shot out into space it sped straight for the approaching fleet without 
waiting to go into any formation--gray Roger believed his structures invisible 
to Triplanetary eyes, thought that the presence of the fleet was the result of 
mathematical calculations, and was convinced that his mighty vessels of the 
void would destroy even that vast fleet without themselves becoming known. He 
was wrong. . but not to Alpha Centauri, not much to our surprise. " James 
gulped twice; then went on, speaking almost jauntily now that the attempt had 
been made and had failed. "So now it's up to you, Clee, as Director of Project 
Gunther and captain of the good ship _Pleiades_, to boss the more-or-less 
simple--more, I hope--job of getting us back to Tellus. " 



Science, both physical and paraphysical, had done its best. Gunther's Theorems, 
which define the electromagnetic and electrogravitic parameters pertaining to 
the annihilation of distance, had been studied, tested, and applied to the 
full. So had the Psionic Corollaries; which, while not having the status of 
paraphysical laws, do allow computation of the qualities and magnitudes of the 
stresses required for any given application of the Gunther Effect. 

The planning of the starship _Pleiades_ had been difficult in the extreme; its 
construction almost impossible. While it was practically a foregone conclusion 
that any man of the requisite caliber would already be a member of the Galaxian 
Society, the three planets and eight satellites were screened, psionicist by 
psionicist, to select the two strongest and most versatile of their breed. 

These two, Garlock and James, were heads of departments of, and under iron-clad 
contract to, vast Solar System Enterprises, Inc. , the only concern able and 
willing to attempt the building of the first starship. " 



After thinking deeply for a few moments he went on: 

"The idea was taken from your demonstration in the Bureau, either by an 
eye-witness or by someone who heard about it afterward, probably the former. 
Even though it failed, one man saw the possibilities. Who was that man? Who was 
there?" 

"Oh, a lot of the fellows were there. He fell silent as he read the first 
words, and after he had read the entire article he said slowly: 

"True, beyond a doubt. Even a _Clarion_ reporter couldn't imagine that. It 
tells a wild tale of an explosion so violent that science cannot explain it. I 
don't suppose it is true, but it may make interesting reading for you two 
scientific sharps. Good night. " 

Seaton accompanied Dorothy to the car, bidding her a more intimate farewell on 
the way. When he returned, Crane, with an unusual expression of concern on his 
face, handed him the paper without a word. 



"What's up, old man? Something in it?" he asked, as he took the paper. Scott, 
Smith, Penfield, DuQuesne, Roberts--quite a bunch of them. Let's see--Scott 
hasn't brains enough to do anything. Smith doesn't know anything about anything 
except amines. Penfield is a pure scientist, who wouldn't even quote an 
authority without asking permission. DuQuesne is. I have heard of him. " 
Costigan was thinking fast. 

The first result of his thinking was a conference with Temple. As soon as she 
got the drift, she called in Teddy and Big Bill Karns. Be sure that all the 
rises are open--check all the stopes and glory holes--tell everybody you find 
alive to report to me here. . . m. What do you think?" 



James studied Cheswick's mind. "Better than I thought," he decided. "Someone 
will be at the airport to point out to you the already desolated area in which 
the space-ship of the explorers makes its so-frightful landings; Dronvire will 
ask someone to meet you at the airport and bring you to the place of meeting. " 

The telepathic line snapped and Samms turned a white and sweating face to the 
_Chicago's_ captain. 

"God, what a strain! Don't ever try telepathy unless you positively have 
to--especially not with such an outlandishly _different_ race as these 
Rigellians are!" 

"Don't worry; I won't. " Winfield's words were not at all sympathetic, but his 
tone was. "You looked as though somebody was beating your brains out with a 
spiked club. Where next, First Lensman?" 

Samms marked the location of Rigelston upon the vessel's chart, then donned 
ear-plugs and a special, radiation-proof suit of armor, equipped with 
refrigerators and with extra-thick blocks of lead glass to protect the eyes. 

The airport, an extremely busy one well outside the city proper, was located 
easily enough, as was the spot upon which the Tellurian ship was to land. 
Lightly, slowly, she settled downward, her jets raving out against a gravity 
fully twice that of her native Earth. Those blasts, however, added little or 
nothing to the destruction already accomplished by the craft then lying 
there--a torpedo-shaped cruiser having perhaps one-twentieth of the _Chicago's_ 
mass and bulk. 

The superdreadnaught landed, sinking into the hard, dry ground to a depth of 
some ten or fifteen feet before she stopped. Samms, en rapport with the entity 
who was to be his escort, made a flashing survey of the mind so intimately in 
contact with his own. No use. As he had expected, they were prepared for that. 
And, unlike her sister-ship, she was manned by scientists well versed in the 
fundamental 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 into intensely 
brilliant, coruscating incandescence. Crimson opacity struggled sullenly 
against violet curtain of annihilation. Material projectiles and torpedoes were 
launched under full beam control; only to be exploded harmlessly in mid-space, 
to be blasted into nothingness, or to disappear innocuously against 
impenetrable polycyclic screens. Even Cleveland's drill was ineffective. So 
closely was the creature wrapped around the submarine that his weapons could 
not be brought to bear upon it. 

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

"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 well as 
figuratively. Snap it up, guys! Our armor is stored with the pieces of the 
pirates' lifeboat, and I'll feel a lot better when we've got it on and have 
hold of a few Lewistons. " 

They hurried down corridors, up ramps, and along hallways, with Costigan's 
spy-ray investigating the course ahead for chance Nevians. Bradley and Clio 
were unarmed, but the operative had found a piece of flat metal and had ground 
it to a razor edge. " 

"All right, go on. . I guess. I'd like to drag in the pieces of that ship, 
too--his instruments and a lot of the parts could be used. " 

"Why not do it all at once?" suggested Crane. "We can start that whole mass 
toward Osnome by drawing it behind us until such a velocity has been attained 
that it will reach there at the desired time. We could then go to 'X,' and 
overtake this material near the green system. " 

"Right you are, ace--that's a sound idea. But say, Dunark, it wouldn't be good 
technique for you to eat our food for any length of time. While we're figuring 
this out you'd better hop over there and bring over enough to last you two 
until we get you home. Give it to Shiro--after a couple of lessons, you'll find 
he'll be as good as any of your cooks. " 



Faster and faster the _Skylark_ flew, pulling behind her the mass of wreckage, 
held by every available attractor. When the calculated velocity had been 
attained, the attractors were shut off and the vessel darted away toward that 
planet, still in the Carboniferous Age, which possessed at least one solid 
ledge of metallic "X," the rarest of all earthly metals. As the automatic 
controls held the cruiser upon her course, the six wanderers sat long in 
discussion as to what should be done, what could be done, to avert the 
threatened destruction of all the civilization of the Galaxy except the 
monstrous and unspeakable culture of the Fenachrone. So, Skandos One removed 
the clothing from the Lady Rhoann and after one look, Lord Tedric did the rest! 



_Skandos One (The Skandos of Time Track Number One, numbered for reasons which 
will become clear) showed, by means of the chronoviagraph, that civilization 
would destroy itself in one hundred eighty-seven years. To prevent this 
catastrophe he went back to the key point in time and sought out the key 
figure--one Tedric, a Lomarrian ironmaster who had lived and died a commoner; 
unable, ever, to do anything about his fanatical detestation of human 
sacrifice. _ 

_Skandos One taught Tedric how to make one batch of super-steel; watched him 
forge armor and arms from that highly anachronistic alloy. He watched him do 
things that Tedric of Time Track One had never done. He must have been saved by 
his "traction" on the reality of Time Track Two. He'd snap back up to his own 
time and see what the situation was. If he found his assistant Furmin alone in 
the laboratory, the extremists would have been proved wrong. If not. . . . . " 

"Oh, no, Conway--no! Don't let them!" Clio was sobbing openly. "I'm going to my 
room and crawl under the bed--I'll see that sight all the rest of my life!" 

"Steady, Clio. " Costigan's arm tightened around her. 

"I know it, sweetheart, and I would like nothing better in the world than to be 
married today and take our honeymoon in the Skylark, but I can't do it. After 
we come back from the first long trip we will be married just as soon as you 
say ready, and after that we will always be together wherever I go. No top 
appointments and no authority. For the wonderful crystal goblets were filled 
with a grayish-green slime of a nauseous and over-powering odor, the smaller 
bowls were full of living sea spiders and other such delicacies; and each large 
platter contained a fish fully a foot long, raw and whole, garnished tastefully 
with red, purple, and green strands of seaweed! 

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

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

At Costigan's insistence, he came up to the visiplate, leaving near the door 
three alert and fully-armed guards. The man then shot the beam into the galley 
of the pirate's lifeboat, suggesting that they should be allowed to live there. 
I'll give you part of the credit. . . . . It _could_ be done, and it would 
probably work, but I would not recommend it except as an ultimately last 
resort. " 

"I say do it first, then we know we will get results. I tell you I'm afraid of 
pussyfooting and gumshoeing around Seaton and Crane. I used to think that 
Seaton was easy, but he seems to have developed greatly in the last few weeks, 
and Crane never was anybody's fool. Together they make a combination hard to 
beat. Brute force, applied without warning, is our best bet, and there's no 
danger, you know that. We've got away clean with lots worse stuff. Merely 
another relay. " 

"Oh. . maybe," James admitted. 

"So why don't you, Fao and Deggi, put Jim in charge of construction?" 

Fao threw back her silvery head and glared, but Delcamp jumped at the chance. 
"Would you, Jim?" 

"Sure--unless Miss Talaho objects. " 

"She won't. " The man grinned venomously. "Nobody who knows you will get close 
enough to her to tell the difference. This wasn't done on the spur of the 
moment, Jill; it was planned--minutely. You haven't got the chance of the 
proverbial celluloid dog in hell. " 

"Jill!" Jack Kinnison's thought stabbed in. "It isn't Rushton--fourteen 
seventy-nine is a two-story. What other streets could it be?" 

"I don't know. . I see. " 

Then silence; and waiting. Minutes? Or days? Or weeks? Who can tell? What does 
time mean to any Arisian? 

Then Drounli arrived; arrived in the instant of his leaving The Hill--what 
matters even inter-galactic distance to the speed of thought? He fused his mind 
with those of the three other Molders of Civilization. The massed and united 
mind of Arisia, poised and ready, awaiting only his coming, launched itself 
through space. That tremendous, that theretofore unknown concentration of 
mental force arrived at Eddore's outer screen in practically the same instant 
as did the entity that was Gharlane. The Eddorian, however, went through 
without opposition; the Arisians did not. 



Some two thousand million years ago, when the Coalescence occurred--the event 
which was to make each of the two interpassing galaxies teem with planets--the 
Arisians were already an ancient race; so ancient that they were even then 
independent of the chance formation of planets. The Eddorians, it is believed, 
were older still. The Arisians were native to this, our normal space-time 
continuum; the Eddorians were not. 

Eddore was--and is--huge, dense, and hot. Its atmosphere is not air, as we of 
small, green Terra, know air, but is a noxious mixture of gaseous substances 
known to mankind only in chemical laboratories. Its hydrosphere, while it does 
contain some water, is a poisonous, stinking, foully corrosive, slimy and 
sludgy liquid. 

And the Eddorians were as different from any people we know as Eddore is 
different from the planets indigenous to our space and time. They were, to our 
senses, utterly monstrous; almost incomprehensible. They were amorphous, 
amoeboid, sexless. Not androgynous or parthenogenetic, but absolutely sexless; 
with a sexlessness unknown in any Earthly form of life higher than the yeasts. 
Thus they were, to all intents and purposes and except for death by violence, 
immortal; for each one, after having lived for hundreds of thousands of 
Tellurian years and having reached its capacity to live and to learn, simply 
divided into two new individuals, each of which, in addition to possessing in 
full its parent's mind and memories and knowledges, had also a brand-new zest 
and a greatly increased capacity. 

And, since life was, there had been competition. Knowledge was worth while only 
insofar as it contributed to power. Warfare began, and aged, and continued; the 
appallingly efficient warfare possible only to such entities as those. Their 
minds, already immensely powerful, grew stronger and stronger under the 
stresses of inter-necine struggle. 

But peace was not even thought of. " 

Back and back went Gharlane's mind. Centuries. . . . . . . . or _are_ you sold, 
actually?" 

"Actually. Honestly. That Arisian was a thousand times more of a woman than I 
ever will be, and she didn't wear a Lens--never had worn one. Women's minds and 
Lenses don't fit. There's a sex-based incompatibility. Lenses are as masculine 
as whiskers--and at that, only a very few men can ever wear them, either. Very 
special men, like you three and Dad and Pops Kinnison. . " 

"I wasn't thinking so much of bombs. We know that Uighar's super-sonic jobs are 
ready. We don't know exactly what Norheim has, since they cut my Intelligence 
line a while back, but I'm sending over another operative--my best man, 
too--tonight. If he finds out that we have enough advantage in speed, and I'm 
pretty sure that we have, I say hit both Norheim and Uighar right then, while 
we can, before they hit us. And hit them hard--pulverize them. Then set up a 
world government strong enough to knock out any nation--including 
Atlantis--that will not cooperate with it. This course of action is flagrantly 
against all international law and all the principles of democracy, I know; and 
even it might not work. It is, however, as far as I can see, the only course 
which _can_ work. " 

"You--we all--perceive its weaknesses. " The Faros thought for minutes. 

"Reporting for orders, sir. " He saluted the Officer punctiliously. 

"At ease, sir. " Artomenes returned the salute. "You were called here for a 
word from the Faros. 

"Reporting for orders, sir. " He saluted the Officer punctiliously. 

"At ease, sir. " Artomenes returned the salute. "You were called here for a 
word from the Faros. "You cannot be sure that your Intelligence has located all 
of the danger points, and many of them must be so far underground as to be safe 
from even our heaviest missiles. We all, including you, believe that the 
Psychologist is right in holding that the reaction of the other nations to such 
action would be both unfavorable and violent. Your report, please, Talmonides. 
" 

"I have already put my data into the integrator. " The Psychologist punched a 
button and the mechanism began to whir and to click. "I have only one new fact 
of any importance; the name of one of the higher-ups and its corollary 
implication that there may be some degree of cooperation between Norheim and 
Uighar. . . it'll take about eleven months?" 

"Just about," Jones agreed, and Adams nodded. 

"Well, if that's what the cards say, there's no use yowling about it," and all 
nine survivors went to work. We've got to do just that. " 

The course alarm sounded, and they saw that a planet lay directly in their 
path. It was "X," and enough negative acceleration was applied to make an easy 
landing possible. 

"Isn't it going to be a long, slow job, chopping off two tons of that metal and 
fighting away those terrible animals besides?" asked Margaret. 

"It'll take about a millionth of a second, Peg. I'm going to bite it off with 
the zone, just as I took that bite out of our field. The rotation of the planet 
will throw us away from the surface, then we'll release the zone and drag our 
prey off with us. It was all too plentiful, and twenty times the drama was 
reenacted before approaching day made it necessary for Czuv to take the 
controls and dive the vessel into the westermost landing-shaft of Zbardk. A 
rousing and enthusiastic welcome awaited them, and joy spread rapidly when 
their success became known. 

"Now we know what to do, and we had better do it immediately, before they get 
our system figured out and increase their own power. She came back presently 
with a look of concern upon her face. " 

Damnation! There it was again! First "dexitroboping", and now this! 

"One moment, please," Samms requested. "I fail to grasp the meaning of your 
thought. " 

"So I perceive. The fault is of course mine, in not being able to attune my 
mind fully to yours. Do not take this, please, as any aspersion upon the 
character or strength of your own mind. " 

"Of course not. . the oil-drum of a body, the four blocky legs, the 
multi-branchiate tentacular arms, that immobile dome of a head, the complete 
lack of eyes and of ears. . . . . . Hello, Sid; mighty glad to see you--we were 
scared for a while. How did you make out, and what was it?" 

"Hi, Chief! Mostly hadive. Some heroin, and quite a bit of Martian ladolian. 
Lousy job, though--three of the gang got away, and took about a quarter of the 
loot with them. That was what I want to talk to you about in such a hurry--fake 
meteors; the first I ever saw. " 

Samms straightened up in his chair. "Look there--I thought I saw something 
move--it _is_ moving!" 

"There's something moving closer than that, and it's really funny. " Jack 
laughed deeply. "Its like the paddle-wheels, shaft and all, of an old-fashioned 
river steam-boat, rolling along as unconcernedly as you please. He won't miss 
me by over four feet, but he isn't swerving a hair. I think I'll block him off, 
just to see what he does. " 

"Be careful, Jack!" Samms cautioned, sharply. "Don't touch it--it may be 
charged, or worse. " 

Jack took the metal cover, which he was still holding, and by working it back 
and forth edgewise in the sand, made of it a vertical barrier squarely across 
the thing's path. The traveler paid no attention, did not alter its steady pace 
of a couple of miles per hour. It measured about twelve inches long over all; 
its paddle-wheel-like extremities were perhaps two inches wide and three inches 
in diameter. 

"Do you think it's actually _alive_, sir? In a place like this?" 

"I'm sure of it. Watch carefully. " 

It struck the barrier and stopped. That is, its forward motion stopped, but its 
rolling did not. Its rate of revolution did not change; it either did not know 
or did not care that its drivers were slipping on the smooth, hard sand; that 
it could not climb the vertical metal plate; that it was not getting anywhere. 

"What a brain!" Northrop chortled, squatting down closer. "Why doesn't it back 
up or turn around? It may be alive, but it certainly isn't very bright. " 

The creature, now in the shadow of the 'Troncist's helmet, slowed down 
abruptly--went limp--collapsed. 

"Get out of his light!" Jack snapped, and pushed his friend violently away; and 
as the vicious sunlight struck it, the native revived and began to revolve as 
vigorously as before. "I've got a hunch. Larry, please ask Teddy Blake's Oman 
to bring her in here. . but maybe long enough, at that--the Patrol globe was 
leaking like a sieve! He voiced a couple of bursts of deep-space profanity and, 
although he was almost afraid to look, sneaked a quick peek to see how much was 
left of the Hill. He looked--and stopped swearing in the middle of a 
four-letter Anglo-Saxon word. 

What he saw simply did not make sense. But she is Virgil Samms' daughter. " 

"Good night, Daddy dear," she replied, throwing her arms around his neck. "I 
have the finest Dad a girl ever had, and the finest. . . . " Diamond-hard eyes 
glared balefully at the urge of thoughts to a clean and normal mind 
unthinkable. 

"To your posts," he ordered. "The machines will continue to function under 
their automatic controls during the short time it will require to abate this 
nuisance. " 

"One moment!" A strange voice roared from the speakers. "Consider yourselves 
under arrest, by order of the Triplanetary Council! Surrender and you shall 
receive impartial hearing; fight us and you shall never come to trial. From 
what we have learned of Roger, we do not expect him to surrender, but if any of 
you other men wish to avoid immediate death, leave your vessel at once. I'm not 
fighting you. I never will. . . . . " 

"What does _that_ mean?" Entlore asked, dark foreboding in his mind. 

"I was afraid of that. They were already blanketing every frequency he could 
employ; using power through which he could not drive even a tight beam a 
hundred miles. 

But he could still crash that missile in its tube. Or--could he? He was not 
afraid of other Norheiman fighters; he had a long lead and he rode one of their 
very fastest. But since they were already so suspicious, wouldn't they launch 
the bomb _before_ seven o'clock? He tried vainly to coax another knot out of 
his wide-open engines. 

With all his speed, he neared the pin-point just in time to see a trail of 
super-heated vapor extending up into and disappearing beyond the stratosphere. 
He nosed his flyer upward, locked the missile into his sights, and leveled off. 
Although his ship did not have the giant rocket's acceleration, he could catch 
it before it got to Atlantis, since he did not need its altitude and since most 
of its journey would be made without power. What he could do about it after he 
caught it he did not know, but he'd do _something_. Shall we go eat?" 

"Uh-huh--let's. " 

They joined Lola and James at the table; and if Lola noticed anything out of 
the ordinary, she made no sign. 

And after breakfast, in the Main-- 

"About three weeks, Jim, you think?" Garlock asked. 

"Give or take a couple of days, yes. I don't want him ever to look at me that 
way again, to say nothing of what else he might do, while I'm alive. I have no 
consciousness of self nor any desire for continued existence. To do so, 
however, would. . . my men are _spacemen_, mister. " 

Laro spoke up. Were books or records left on Ardry by the race you call the 
Masters?" 

"You know there are, Master. They are exactly as you left them. He walked 
straight on, toward the business center, to resume his study at the point where 
he had left off the evening before. Through the holes in the still-glowing 
walls, hexan soldiery were leaping in steady streams, fighting with the utmost 
savagery of their bloodthirsty natures, urged on by the desperation born of the 
knowledge of imminent defeat and total destruction. Hand-weapons roared, 
flashed, and sparkled; heavy bars crashed and thudded against crunching bones; 
mighty bodies and tails whipped crushingly about six-limbed forms which 
wrenched and tore with monstrously powerful hands and claws. Fiercely and 
valiantly the Vorkuls fought, but they were outnumbered by hundreds and only 
one outcome was possible. 

Kromodeor was one of the last to go down. One hand upon each of the several 
dials and one eye upon each meter, it was a matter only of seconds for him to 
get in touch with Vorkulia. To the Terrestrials the screen was a gray and foggy 
blank; but the manifest excitement shrieking and whistling from the speaker in 
response to Kromodeor's signals made it plain that his message was being 
received with enthusiasm. 

"They are coming," the Vorkul thought, and lay back, exhausted. 

"Just as well that they're comin' out here, at that," Brandon commented. "We 
couldn't begin to handle that structure anywhere near Jupiter--in fact, we 
wouldn't want to get very close ourselves, with passengers aboard. " 

Such was the power of the Vorkulian vessels that in less than twenty hours 
another heptagon slowed to a halt beside the _Sirius_ and two of its crew were 
wafted aboard. 

They were ushered into the Venerian room, where they talked briefly with their 
wounded fellow before they dressed him in a space-suit, which they filled with 
air to their own pressure. Then all three were lifted lightly into the air, and 
without a word or a sign were borne through the air-locks of the vessel, and 
into an opening in the wall of the rescuing heptagon. A green tractor beam 
reached out, seizing the derelict, and both structures darted away at such a 
pace that in a few minutes they had disappeared in the black depths of space. 

"Well--that, as I may have remarked before, is indisputably and conclusively 
that. " Brandon broke the surprised, almost stunned, silence that followed the 
unceremonious departure of the visitors. "I don't know whether to feel relieved 
at the knowledge that they won't bother us, or whether to get mad because they 
won't have anything to do with us. " 

He sent the "All x" signal to the pilot and the _Sirius_, once more at the 
acceleration of Terrestrial gravity, again bored on through space. 









Spacehounds Triumphant 



Now that the hexan threat that had so long oppressed the humanity of the 
_Sirius_ was lifted, that dull gray football of armor steel was filled with 
relief and rejoicing as the pilot laid his course for Europa. Lounges and 
saloons resounded with noise as police, passengers, and such of the crew as 
were at liberty made merry. The control room, in which were grouped the leaders 
of the expedition and the scientists, was orderly enough, but a noticeable 
undertone of gladness had replaced the tense air it had known so long. 

"Hi, men!" Nadia Stevens and Verna Pickering, arms around each other's waists, 
entered the room and saluted the group gaily before they became a part of it. 

"'Smatter, girls--tired of dancing already?" asked Brandon. 

"Oh, no--we could dance from now on," Verna assured him. "But you see, Nadia 
hadn't seen that husband of hers for fifteen minutes, and was getting lonesome. 
Being afraid of all you men, she wanted me to come along for moral support. The 
real reason I came, though," and she narrowed her expressive eyes and lowered 
her voice mysteriously, "is that you two physicists are here. I want to study 
my chosen victims a little longer before I decide over which of you to cast the 
spell of my fatal charm. " 

"But you can't do that," he objected, vigorously. "Quince and I are going to 
settle that ourselves some day--by shooting dice, or maybe each other, or. . . 
. . . . " 

"Huh?" he demanded. "_You_ should scream--oh, that ridiculous Tellurian prud. . 
. . . well, they are strictly analogous to the severed ends of the hairs, every 
time you get a haircut. " 

"My God!" Hilton stared at Sawtelle. Sawtelle stared back. "I'm beginning to 
see. . . " Her voice ceased as Roger broke the ether-wall of her apartment and 
walked toward the divan, upon which she crouched in wide-eyed, helpless, 
trembling terror. 

"Get ready, Bradley!" Costigan directed tersely. "He left Clio's ether-wall 
off, so that any abnormal signals would be relayed to him from his desk--he 
knows that there's no chance of anyone disturbing him in that room. But I'm 
holding a beam on that switch, so that the wall is on, full strength. No. If 
sobeit sacrifice is done I intend to marry, some day, and have six or eight 
children. But. . " 

"Wouldn't there be three? Witherspoon?" 

"I doubt it. My present idea is that Witherspoon is at least one level lower. 
Comparatively small fry. " 

"Could be--I'll buy it. A nice picture, Virge; and beautifully symmetrical. His 
Mightiness Morgan. Secretary of War Towne and Secretary of Drugs Isaacson; and 
each of them putting a heavy shoulder behind the political bandwagon. _Very_ 
nice. The job isn't worth it--yet. " 

"Don't worry, Dad. It may take a week or it may take a year, but we'll bring 
her back," and leaping upon his motorcycle, he shattered all the speed laws on 
his way to Crane's house. 

"Mart!" he yelled, rushing into the shop, "they've got Dottie, in a bus made 
from our plans. Let's go!" as he started on a run for the testing shed. 

"Wait a minute!" crisply shouted Crane. "Dick, what shall we do with this 
murderer?" 

Seaton had forgotten DuQuesne utterly in the joy of holding his sweetheart in 
his arms, but at his friend's words, he faced about and his face grew stern. 

"By rights, we ought to chuck him back into his own tub and let him go to the 
devil," he said savagely, doubling his fists and turning swiftly. 

"No, no, Dick," remonstrated Dorothy, seizing his arm. His protests against 
Seaton's incessant work had no effect. Seaton insisted that he _must_ fix 
firmly just a few more points before they eluded him, and stuck doggedly to his 
task. There he engaged a fast car and set out in pursuit, choosing the path for 
the chauffeur by means of the compass. His search ended at the residence of 
Brookings, the General Manager of the great World Steel Corporation. Here he 
dismissed the car and watched the house while his assistant went to bring out 
the fast motorcycle used by Prescott when high speed was desirable. 

After four hours a small car bearing the license number of a distant 
state--which was found, by subsequent telegraphing, to be unknown to the 
authorities of that state--drove under the porte-cochère, and the hidden 
watcher saw DuQuesne, without the papers, step into it. Knowing now what to 
expect, Prescott drove his racing motorcycle at full speed out to the Park Road 
Bridge and concealed himself beneath the structure, in a position commanding a 
view of the concrete abutment through which the scientist must have come. Soon 
he heard a car slow down overhead, heard a few rapid footfalls, and saw the 
dark form of a large man outlined against the gray face of the abutment. He saw 
the man lift his hand high above his head, and saw a black rectangle appear in 
the gray, engulf the man, and disappear. After a few minutes he approached the 
abutment and searched its face with the help of his flash-light. He finally 
succeeded in tracing the almost imperceptible crack which outlined the door, 
and the concealed button which DuQuesne had pressed to open it. 

And Jack Kinnison, lounging idly and elegantly in the concourse of Danopolis 
Spaceport, seethed imperceptibly. Having swallowed a tiny Service Special 
capsule that morning, he knew that he had been under continuous spy-ray 
inspection for over two hours. He had not given himself away--practically 
everybody screened their inside coat pockets and hip pockets, and the 
cat-whisker lead from Lens to leg simply could not be seen--but for all the 
good they were doing him his ultra-instruments might just as well have been 
back on Tellus. 

"Mase!" he sent, with no change whatever in the vapid expression then on his 
face. "I'm still covered. Since you have taken it upon yourself to exceed your 
authority to such an extent as to refuse to connect the officer in command of 
the _Pleiades_ with the Chancellor, I cannot report to him either the reasons 
why we are not landing at this time or when we expect to return to Tellus. You 
are advised that we may leave at any instant, just like that!" Belle snapped 
her finger under the imaged nose. All of you can see me very much better within 
your own minds. 

"I am not here as an invader in any sense, but only as a citizen of the First 
Galaxy of this, our common universe. I have attuned my mind to each of yours in 
order to give you a message from the United Galaxian Societies. 

"There are four of us Galaxians in this Exploration Team. As Galaxians it is 
our purpose here and our duty here to open your minds to certain basic truths, 
to be of help to you in clearing your minds of fallacies, of lies, and of 
undefensible prejudices; to the end that you will more rapidly become Galaxians 
yourselves. . " 

"Clam it, ace!" Stevens interrupted. "I get you, to nineteen decimals. And you 
don't half know just what a good kid she really is. She's the reason we're 
here--we were down pretty close to bed-rock for a while, she stood up when I 
wilted. She's got everything. . . . . . . . " 

"How come they let you?" asked Clio. 

"Oh, Conway, this is ghastly! It's. . that is, he. Whenever we land on any 
planet for the first time, one of us has to control it. Or for any other 
special job not in its memory banks. When you're ready for us to land I'll show 
you--it's my turn to work. " 

"Miss Flurnoy, have they cleared the air over Pylon Six?" 

"Yes, sir. Clearance came through five minutes ago. They are holding it clear 
for us. " 

"Thank you. Deliver me from _two_ such pretzel-benders aboard one ship. " 

". . . nine hundred forty. 

The Blacks were not as fortunate. The _Chicago_, now without a partner, joined 
beams with the _Bolivar_ and the _Himalaya_ against Number Two; then, a short 
half-second later, with her other two sister-ships against Number Three. And in 
that very short space of time two Black super-dreadnaughts ceased utterly to 
be. Their massed batteries of beams, precisely synchronized and aimed, lashed 
out as one at the nearest Patrol super heavy, the _Boise_. Under the vicious 
power of that beautifully-timed thrust that warship's first, second, and third 
screens, her very wall-shield, flared through the spectrum and into the black. 
Her Chief Pilot, however, was fast--_very_ fast--and he had a fraction of a 
second in which to work. Thus, practically in the instant of her wall-shield's 
failure, she went free; and while she was holed badly and put out of action, 
she was not blown out of space. In fact, it was learned later that she lost 
only forty men. 

The Blacks were not as fortunate. The _Chicago_, now without a partner, joined 
beams with the _Bolivar_ and the _Himalaya_ against Number Two; then, a short 
half-second later, with her other two sister-ships against Number Three. And in 
that very short space of time two Black super-dreadnaughts ceased utterly to 
be. The _Boise_ stayed "up on top"; the _Chicago_ went down. Kinnison, however, 
paid very little attention to the landing or to Samms' disembarkation, and none 
whatever to the _Chicago's_ reascent into the high heavens. He knew that 
everything was under control; and, now alone in his cabin, he was busy. 

"All personnel of all armed forces just inducted into the Galactic Patrol, 
attention!" He spoke into an ultra-wave microphone, the familiar parade-ground 
rasp very evident in his deep and resonant voice. "Kinnison of Tellus, Port 
Admiral, speaking. " 

"Tug, Uncle Ralph. The casts sectioned just like we thought they would. Dead 
ringers for Plate D. So Drake hung a red ticket on every tray. " Kinnison 
grinned to himself, at something which the young people could not see. He 
doesn't think that it can be a foreign country. He has their agents pretty well 
spotted, and the only one that could fill the bill--you know a man with that 
description and with the cold nerve to do the job would be apt to be known--was 
in San Francisco, the time this job was pulled off. " 



"The more you talk, the more I am convinced that it was DuQuesne himself," 
declared Seaton, positively. "He is almost exactly my size and build, is the 
only man I know of who could do anything with the solution after he got it, and 
he has nerve enough to do anything. " 

"I would like to think it was DuQuesne," replied the detective, thoughtfully, 
"but I'm afraid we'll have to count him out of it entirely. He has been under 
the constant surveillance of my best men ever since you mentioned him. We have 
detectaphones in his rooms, wires on his telephone, and are watching him night 
and day. He never goes out except to work, never has any except unimportant 
telephone calls, and the instruments register only the occasional scratching of 
a match, the rustle of papers, and other noises of a man studying. He's 
innocent. " 

"That may be true," assented Seaton doubtfully, "but you want to remember that 
he knows more about electricity than the guy that invented it, and I'm not sure 
that he can't talk to a detectaphone and make it say anything he wants it to. 
Anyway, we can soon settle it. " 

"I certainly won't try to, then. But for my money, you are people," Hilton 
said, and Karns agreed. " 

James showed her; and, much to her surprise, she found it very easy to do. 



The vessels transporting the invading forces were huge, spherical shells 
equipped with short-range drives--and with nothing else. No accommodations, no 
facilities, no food, no water, not even any air. Each transport, when filled to 
the bursting-point with as-yet-docile cargo, darted away; swinging around to 
approach Clamer from some previously-assigned direction. It did not, however, 
approach the planet's surface. At about two thousand miles out, great ports 
opened and the load was dumped out into space, to fall the rest of the way by 
gravity. Then the empty shell, with only its one pilot aboard, rushed back for 
another load. 

"How heavy shots, Clee?" James asked. He and Lola were getting into their 
scanners. "Wouldn't take as much as a kiloton equivalent, would it?" 

"Half a kilo is plenty, but no use being too fussy about precision out here. " 



Garlock and Belle were already bombing; James and Lola began. Slow and awkward 
at first, Lola soon picked up the technique and was firing blast for blast with 
the others. No more loaded transport vessels left the moon. No empty one, 
returning toward the moon, reached there. " 

"Not in this life. If they tried to follow us, they're both dead before now. 
Fair enough?" 

"Fair enough. We're apt to need any number of specialists. 

This building, an exact duplicate of the old one, was located on a mesa in the 
foothills southwest of the natatorium, in a luxuriant grove at sight of which 
Karns stopped and began to laugh. 

"I thought I'd seen everything," he remarked. "But yellow pine, spruce, 
tamarack, apples, oaks, palms, oranges, cedars, joshua trees and _cactus_--just 
to name a few--all growing on the same quarter-section of land?" 

"Just everything anybody wants, is all," Hilton said. "But are they really 
growing? Or just straight synthetics? Lane--Kathy--this is your dish. " 

"Not so fast, Jarve; give us a chance, _please_!" Kathryn, now Mrs. Lane 
Saunders, pleaded. She shook her spectacular head. "We don't see how any stable 
indigenous life can have developed at all, unless. .