Part 3 (2/2)

”Everything you ordered came through?” he asked.

”Yes--thanks to the pull of a two-billion dollar private fortune. Who says credit-units don't have their value? This expedition never would have gotten through, if it hadn't been for that.

”But we have the main s.p.a.ce distortion power bank, and the new auxiliary coils full. Ten tons of lead aboard for fuel. There's one thing we are afraid of. If the enemy have a system of tubes that is able to handle more power than our last tube--we're sunk. These brilliant people that suggest using more tubes to a ray-power bank forget the last tube has to handle the entire output of all the others, and modulate it correctly.

If the enemy has a better tube--it will be too bad for us.” Morey was frankly worried.

”My end is all set, Morey. How soon will you be ready?” Arcot asked.

”'Bout ten-fifteen minutes.” Morey lit a cigarette and watched as the last of the stuff was carried aboard.

At last they were ready. The _Ancient Mariner_, originally built for intergalactic exploration, was kept in working condition. New apparatus had been incorporated in it, as their research had led to improvements, and it was constantly in condition, ready for a trip. Many exploration trips to the nearer stars had already been made.

The s.h.i.+p was backed out from the hangar now, and rested on the great smooth landing field, its tremendous quarter million ton ma.s.s of lux and relux sinking a great, smooth depression in the turf of the field. They were waiting now for the arrival of the Ortolian s.h.i.+p. Zezdon Afthen a.s.sured them it would be there in a few minutes.

High in the sky, came the whining whistle of an approaching s.h.i.+p, coming at terrific velocity. It came nearer the field, darting toward the ground at an unheard of speed, flas.h.i.+ng down at a speed of well over three thousand miles an hour, and, only in the last fifty feet slowed with a sickening deceleration. Even so it landed with a crash of fully two hundred miles of speed. Arcot gasped at the terrible landing the pilot had made, fully expecting to see the great hull dent somewhat, even though made of solid relux. And certainly the jar would kill every man on board. Yet the hull did not seem harmed by the crash, and even the ground under the s.h.i.+p was but slightly disturbed, though, at a distance of some thirty feet, the entire block of soil was crushed, and cracked by the terrific impact of hundreds of thousands of tons striking with terrific energy.

”Lord, it's a wonder they didn't kill themselves. I never saw such a rotten landing,” exclaimed Morey with disgust.

”Don't be too sure. I think they landed gently, and at very low speed.

Notice how little the soil directly under them was dented?” replied Arcot, walking forward. ”They have time control, as I suspected. Ask them. They drifted in gently. Their time rate was speeded up tremendously, so that what was hundreds of miles per hour to us was feet per minute to them. But come on, get the handlers to bring that junk up to the door--they are coming out.”

One of the tall, kindly-faced canine people was standing in the doorway now, the white light streaming out around him into the night, casting a grotesque shadow on the landing field, for all the flood lights bathing in it.

Zezdon Afthen came up and spoke quickly to the man evidently in command of the s.h.i.+p. The entire party went into the s.h.i.+p, and the cream of their laboratory instruments was brought in.

For hours Arcot, Morey and Wade worked at the apparatus in the s.h.i.+p, measuring, calculating, following electrical and magnetic and sheer force hook-ups of staggering complexity. They were not trying to find the exact method of construction, only the principles involved, so that they could perform calculations of their own, and duplicate the results of the enemy. Thus they would be far more thoroughly familiar with the machinery when done.

Little attention was paid to the actual driving plant, for it was a molecular drive with the same type of lead-fuel burner they used in their own s.h.i.+p. The tubes of the power bank were, however, a puzzle to them. They were made of relux, so that it was impossible to see the interior of the tube. To open one was to destroy it, but calculations made from readings of their instruments showed that they were more efficient, and could readily carry nearly half again the load that the best terrestrian tubes could sustain. This meant the enemy could send heavier rays and heavier ray screens.

But finally they returned to the _Ancient Mariner_, and as the Ortolian s.h.i.+p whined its way out to s.p.a.ce, the _Ancient Mariner_ started, rising faster and faster through the atmosphere till it was in the night of s.p.a.ce. Then the molecular power was shut off. The s.h.i.+p suddenly seemed to writhe, s.p.a.ce was black and starless about them, then sparkling weirdly distorted stars, all before them. They were moving already.

Almost before the Ortolians fully realized what was happening, a dozen stars had swung past the s.h.i.+p, driving on now at better than five light years in every second. At this speed, approximately fourteen hours would be needed to reach Ortol.

”Now, Arcot, perhaps you will explain to me the secret of this s.h.i.+p,”

said Zezdon Afthen at last, turning from the great lux pilot's window, to Arcot seated in the pilot's chair. ”I know that only the broadest principles will be intelligible to me, for I could not understand that s.h.i.+p we captured, after almost four months of study. Yet it crept through s.p.a.ce compared with this s.h.i.+p. Certainly no s.h.i.+p could outdistance this in a race!”

”As a matter of fact--watch!” Arcot pushed a little metal b.u.t.ton along a slide to the extreme end. Again the s.h.i.+p seemed to writhe. s.p.a.ce was no longer black, but faintly gray, and beside them, on either side, floated two exact replicas of their s.h.i.+p! Zezdon Afthen stared. But in another moment, both were gone, and s.p.a.ce was black, yet in but a few moments a grayness was showing, and light was appearing from all about, growing gradually in intensity. For three seconds Arcot continued thus, then he pulled the metal b.u.t.ton down the slide, and flicked over another that he had pulled to cause the second change. The stars were again before them, their colors changed beyond all recognition at that speed. But the orientation of the stars behind them had been familiar. Now an entirely different set of constellation showed.

”I merely opened the s.h.i.+p out to her maximum speed for a moment. I was able to see any large star 2000 light years in our path, and there were none. Small stars do not bother us as I will explain. When I put on full power of the main power coils, I drove the s.h.i.+p up to a speed of 30 light years a second. When I turned in the full power of the auxiliary coils as well I doubled the power, and the speed was multiplied by eight. The result was that in the four seconds of racing, we made approximately 1000 light years!”

Zezdon Afthen gasped. ”Two hundred and forty light years _per second_”!

He paused in bewilderment. ”Suppose we had struck a small sun, a dark star, even a meteor at that speed? What would have been the result?”

Arcot smiled. ”The chances are excellent that we plowed through more than one meteor, more than one dark star, and more than one small sun.

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