Part 26 (1/2)

Morey and the others all stared at Arcot in amazement. It was utterly impossible!

But Zezdon Afthen did as Arcot had asked. Almost immediately, another Morey stepped out of the airlock wearing what was obviously a pressure suit. Behind him came another Wade, Torlos, Stel Felso Theu, and indeed all the members of their party save Arcot himself! The Galactians stared in wonder--then comprehended and laughed together. Arcot had sent artificial matter images of them all!

Their images stepped out, and the Venonian crowd which had collected, stared in wonder at the giants, looming twice their height above them.

”You see not us, but images of us. We cannot withstand your gravity nor your air pressure, save in the protection of our s.h.i.+p. But these images are true images of us.”

For some time then they communicated, and finally Arcot agreed to give a demonstration of their power. At the suggestion of the cruiser commander who had seen the construction of a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p from the emptiness of s.p.a.ce, Arcot rapidly constructed a small, very simple, molecular drive machine of pure cosmium, making it entirely from energy. It required but minutes, and the Venonians stared in wonder as Arcot's unbelievable tools created the machine before their eyes. The completed s.h.i.+p Arcot gave to an official of the city who had appeared. The Venonian looked at the thing skeptically, and half expecting it to vanish like the tools that made it, gingerly entered the port. Powered as it was by lead burning cosmic ray generators, the lead alone having been made by trans.m.u.tation of natural matter, it was powerful, and speedy. The official entered it, and finding it still existing, tried it out. Much to his amazement it flew, and operated perfectly.

Nearly ten hours Arcot and his friends stayed at Venone, and before they left, the Venonians, for all their vast differences of structure, had proven themselves true, kindly honest men, and a race that our Alliance has since found every reason to respect and honor. Our commerce with them, though carried on under difficulties, is none the less a bond of genuine friends.h.i.+p.

Chapter XXIV

THETT PREPARES

Streaking through the void toward Thett was again a tiny scout s.h.i.+p. It carried but a single man, and with all the power of the machine he was darting toward distant Thett, at a speed insanely reckless, but he knew that he must maintain such a speed if his mission were to be successful.

Again a tiny s.h.i.+p entered Thett's far-flung atmosphere, and slowed to less than a light speed, and sent its signal call ahead. In moments the patrol s.h.i.+p, less than three hundred miles away, had reached it, and together they streaked through the dense air in a screaming dive toward Shatnsoma, the capital city. It was directly beneath, and it was not long before they had reached the great palace grounds, and settled on the upper roof. Then the scout leaped out of his tiny craft, and dove for the door. Flas.h.i.+ng his credentials, he dove down, and into the first s.h.i.+elded room. Here precious seconds were wasted while a check was made of the credentials the man carried, then he was sent through to the Council Room. And he, too, stood on that exact spot where the other scout, but a few weeks before, had stood--and vanished. Waiting, it seemed, were four councilors and the new Sthanto, Thalt.

”What news, Scout?” asked the Sthanto.

”They have arrived in the Universe to Venone, and gone to the planet Venone. They were on the planet when I left. None of our scouts were able to approach the place, as there were innumerable Venonian watchers who would have recognized our deeper skin-color, and destroyed us. Two scouts were rayed, though the Galactians did not see this. Finally we captured two Venonians who had seen it, and attempted to force the information we needed from them. A young man and his chosen mate.

”The man would tell nothing, and we were hurried. So we turned to the girl. These accursed Venonians are courageous for all their pacifism. We were hurried, and yet it was long before we forced her to tell what we needed to know so vitally. She had been one of the notetakers for the Venonian government. We got most of their conversation, but she died of burns before she finished.

”The Galactians know nothing of the twin-ray beyond its action, and that it is an electro-magnetic phenomenon, though they have been able to distort it by using a sheet of pure energy. But their walls are impregnable to it, and their power of creating matter from the pure energy of s.p.a.ce, as we saw from a distance, would enable them to easily defeat it, were it not that the twin-ray pa.s.ses through matter without harming it. Any ray which will destroy matter of the natural electrical types, will be stopped.

”The girl was d.a.m.nably clever, for she gave us only the things we already knew, and but few new facts; knowing that she would inevitably die soon, she talked--but it was empty talk. The one thing of import we have learned is that they burn no fuel, use no fuel of any sort but in some inconceivable manner get their energy from the radiations of the suns of s.p.a.ce. This could not be great--but we know she told the truth, and we know their power is great. She told the truth, for we could determine when she lied, by mental action, of course.

”But more we could not learn. The man died without telling anything, merely cursing. He knew nothing anyway, as we already had determined,”

concluded the scout.

Silently the Sthanto sat in thought for some moments. Then he raised his head, and looked at the scout once more.

”You have done well. You secured some information of import, which was more than we had dared hope for. But you managed things poorly. The woman should not have died so soon. We can only guess.

”The radiation of the suns of s.p.a.ce--hmmm--” Sthanto Thalt's brow wrinkled in thought. ”The radiation of the _suns_ of s.p.a.ce. Were his power derived from the sun near which he is operating, he would not have said _suns_. It was more than one?”

”It was, oh Sthanto,” replied the scout positively.

”His power is unreasonable. I doubt that he gave the true explanation.

It may well have been that he did not trust the Venonians. I would not, for all their warless ways. But surely the suns of s.p.a.ce give very little power at any given point at random. Else s.p.a.ce would not be cold.

”But go, Scout, and you will be a.s.signed a position in the fleet. The Colonial fleet, the remains of it, have arrived, and the colonists been removed. They failed. We will use their s.h.i.+ps. You will be a.s.signed.”

The scout left, and was indeed a.s.signed to a s.h.i.+p of the colonists. The incoming colonial transports had been met at the outposts of the system, and rayed out of existence at once--failures, and bringing danger at their heels. Besides--there was no room for them on Thett without Thessians being crowded uncomfortably.