Part 8 (2/2)
”Brilliant idea, Morey,” said Arcot disgustedly. ”It'll be a nice job breaking it loose.”
Morey stuck the lux metal bar in the top clamp, walked off some distance, and snapped on the power. The rock immediately about the machine was molten again. A touch of the molecular pistol to the lux metal bar, and the machine jumped free of the molten rock.
Morey shut off the power. The machine was perfectly clean, and extremely hot.
”And your s.h.i.+p is made of that stuff!” exclaimed the Talsonian scientist. ”What will destroy it?”
”Your weapon will, apparently.”
”But do you believe that we have power enough?” asked Morey with a smile.
”No--it's entirely too much. Can you tone that condensed lightning bolt down to a workable level?”
Chapter IX
THE IRRESISTIBLE AND THE IMMOVABLE
The generator Arcot had brought was one of the two spare generators used for laboratory work. He took it now into the sub-station, and directed the Talsonian students and the scientist in the task of connecting it into the lines; though they knew where it belonged, he knew _how_ it belonged.
Then the terrestrian turned on the power, and gradually increased it until the power authorities were afraid of breakdowns. The acc.u.mulators were charged in the city, and the power was being s.h.i.+pped to other cities whose acc.u.mulators were not completely charged.
But, after giving simple operating instructions to the students, Arcot and Morey went with Stel Felso Theu to his laboratory.
”Here,” Stel Felso Theu explained, ”is the original apparatus. All these other machines you see are but replicas of this. How it works, why it works, even what it does, I am not sure of. Perhaps you will understand it. The thing is fully charged now, for it is, in part, one of the defenses of the city. Examine it now, and then I will show its power.”
Arcot looked it over in silence, following the great silver leads with keen interest. Finally he straightened, and returned to the Talsonian.
In a moment Morey joined them.
The Talsonian then threw a switch, and an intense ionization appeared within the tube, then a minute spot of light was visible within the sphere of light. The minute spot of radiance is the real secret of the weapon. The ball of fire around it is merely wasted energy.
”Now I will bring it out of the tube.” There were three dials on the control panel from which he worked, and now he adjusted one of these.
The ball of fire moved steadily toward the gla.s.s wall of the tube, and with a crash the gla.s.s exploded inward. It had been highly evacuated.
Instantly the tiny ball of fire about the point of light expanded to a large globe.
”It is now in the outer air. We make the--thing, in an evacuated gla.s.s tube, but as they are cheap, it is not an expensive procedure. The ball will last in its present condition for approximately three hours. Feel the exceedingly intense heat? It is radiating away its vast energy.
”Now here is the point of greatest interest.” Again the Talsonian fell to work on his dials, watching the ball of fire. It seemed far more brilliant in the air now. It moved, and headed toward a great slab of steel off to one side of the laboratory. It s.h.i.+fted about until it was directly over the center of the great slab. The slab rested on a scale of some sort, and as the ball of fire touched it, the scale showed a sudden increase in load. The ball sank into the slab of steel, and the scale showed a steady, enormous load. Evidently the little ball was pressing its way through as though it were a solid body. In a moment it was through the steel slab, and out on the other side.
”It will pa.s.s through any body with equal ease. It seems to answer only these controls, and these it answers perfectly, and without difficulty.
”One other thing we can do with it. I can increase its rate of energy discharge.”
The Talsonian turned a fourth dial, well off to one side, and the brilliance of the spot increased enormously. The heat was unbearable.
Almost at once he shut it off.
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