Part 27 (1/2)
For miles the vaporized rock was boiling off. Then the fort sent out a ray, and that ray blasted the rock that had flowed over it as Arcot's t.i.tanic ray snapped out. In moments the fort was at the surface again--and a molecular hit it. The molecular did not have the energy the cosmic had carried, but it was a single concentrated beam of destruction ten feet across. It struck the fort--and the fort recoiled under its energy. The marvelous new tubes that ran its ray screen flashed instantly to a temperature inconceivable, and, so long as the elements embedded in the infusible relux remained the metals they were, those tubes could not fail. But they were being lashed by the energy of half a sun. The tubes failed. The elements heated to that enormous temperature when elements cannot exist--and broke to other elements that did not resist. The relux flashed into blinding iridescence--
And from the fort came a beam of pure silvery light. It struck the _Thought_ just behind the bow, for the operator was aiming for the point where he knew the control room and pilot must be. But Arcot had designed the s.h.i.+p for mental control, which the enemy operator could not guess.
The beam was a flat beam, perhaps an inch thick, but it fanned out to fifty feet width. And where it touched the _Thought_, there was a terrific explosion, and inconceivably violent energy lashed out as the cosmium instantaneously liberated its energy.
A hundred feet of the nose was torn off the s.h.i.+p, and the enormously dense air of Thett rushed in. But that beam had cut through the very edge of one of the ray projectors, or better, one of the ray feed apparatus. And the ray feed released it without control; it released all the energy it could suck in from s.p.a.ce about it, as one single beam of cosmic energy, somewhat lower than the regular cosmics, and it flashed out in a beam as solid matter.
There was air about the s.h.i.+p, and the air instantly exploded into atoms of a different sort, threw off their electrons, and were raised to the temperature at which no atom can exist, and became protons and electrons. But so rapidly was that coil sucking energy from s.p.a.ce that s.p.a.ce tended to close in about it, and in enormous spurts the energy flooded out. It was directed almost straight up, and but one s.h.i.+p was caught in its beam. It was made of relux, but the relux was powdered under the inconceivable blow that countless quintillions of cosmic ray photons struck it. That ray was in fact, a solid ma.s.s of cosmium moving with the velocity of light. And it was headed for that satellite of Thett, which it would reach in a few hours time.
The _Thought_, due to the spatial strains of the wounded coil, was constantly rus.h.i.+ng away to an almost infinite distance, as the s.h.i.+p approached that other s.p.a.ce toward which the coil tended with its load, and rus.h.i.+ng back, as the coil, reaching a spatial condition which supplied no energy, fell back. In a hundredth of a second it had reached equilibrium, and they were in a weirdly, terribly distorted s.p.a.ce. But the triple-ray of the Thessians seemed to sheer off, and miss, no matter how it was directed. And it was painfully weak, for the coil sucked up the energy of whatsoever matter disintegrated in the neighborhood.
Then suddenly the performance was over. And they plunged into artificial s.p.a.ce that was black and clean, and not a thing of wavering, struggling energies. Morey, from his control in the _Banderlog_, had succeeded in getting sufficient energy, by using his s.p.a.ce distortion coils, to destroy the great projector mechanism. Instantly Arcot, now able to create the artificial s.p.a.ce without the destruction of the coils by the struggling ray-feed coil, had thrown them to comparative safety.
s.p.a.ce writhed before they could so much as turn from the instruments.
The Thessians had located their artificial s.p.a.ce, and reached it with an attraction ray. They already had been withstanding the drain of the enormous fields of the giant planet and the giant sun; the attractive ray was an added strain. Arcot looked at his instruments, and with a grim smile set a single dial. The s.p.a.ce about them became black again.
”Pulling our energy--merely let 'em pull. They're pulling on an ocean, not a lake this time. I don't think they'll drain those coils very quickly.” He looked at his instruments. ”Good for two and a half hours at this rate.
”Morey, you sure did your job then. I was helpless. The controls wouldn't answer, of course, with that t.i.tanic thing flopping its wings, so to speak. What are we going to do?”
Morey stood in the doorway, and from his pocket drew a cigarette, handed it to Arcot, another to each of the others who smoked, and lit them, and his own. ”Smoke,” he said, and puffed. ”Smoke and think. From our last experience with a minor tragedy, it helps.”
”But--this is no minor tragedy, they have burst open the wall of this invulnerable s.h.i.+p, destroyed one of those enormous coils, and can do it again,” exclaimed Zezdon Afthen, exceedingly nervous, so nervous that the normal courage of the man was gone. His too-psychic breeding was against him as a warrior.
”Afthen,” replied Stel Felso Theu calmly, ”when our friends have smoked, and thought, the _Thought_ will be repaired perfectly, and it will be made invulnerable to that weapon.”
”I hope so, Stel Felso Theu,” smiled Arcot. He was feeling better already. ”But do you know what that weapon is, Morey?”
”Got some readings on it with the _Banderlog_'s instruments, and I think I do. Twin-ray is right,” replied Morey.
”Hm-hm--so I think. It's a super-photon. What they do is to use a field somewhat similar to the field we use in making cosmium, except that in theirs, instead of the photons lying side by side, they slide into one another, compounding. They evidently get three photons to go into one.
Now, as we know, that size photon doesn't exist for the excellent reason that it can't in this s.p.a.ce. s.p.a.ce closes in about it. Therefore they have a projected field to accompany it that tends to open out s.p.a.ce--and they are using that, not the attractive ray, on us now. The result is that for a distance not too great, the triple-ray exists in normal s.p.a.ce--then goes into another. Now the question is how can we stop it? I have an idea--have you any?”
”Yes, but my idea can't exist in this s.p.a.ce either,” grinned Morey.
”I think it can. If it's what I think, remember it will have a terrific electric field.”
”It's what you think, then. Come on.” Arcot and Morey went to the calculating room, while Wade took over the s.h.i.+p. But one of the ray-feeds had been destroyed, and they had three more in action, as well as their most important weapon, artificial matter. Wade threw on the time field, and started the emergency lead burner working to recharge the coils that the Thessians were constantly draining. Being in their own peculiar s.p.a.ce, they could not draw energy from the stars, and Arcot didn't want to return to normal s.p.a.ce to discharge them, unless necessary.
”How's the air pressure in the rest of the s.h.i.+p?” asked Wade.
”Triple normal,” replied Morey. ”The Thessian atmosphere leaked in and sent it up terrifically, but when we went into our own s.p.a.ce, at the halfway point, a lot leaked out. But the s.h.i.+p is full of water now. It was a bit difficult coming up from the _Banderlog_, and I didn't want to breathe the air I wasn't sure of. But let's work.”
They worked. For eight hours of the time they were now in they continued to work. The supply of lead metal gave out before the end of the fourth hour, and the coils were nearing the end of their resistance. It would soon be necessary for Arcot to return to normal s.p.a.ce. So they stopped, their calculations very nearly complete. Throwing all the remaining energy into the coils, they a little more than held the s.p.a.ce about them, and moved away from Thett at a speed of about twice that of light.
For an hour more Arcot worked, while the s.h.i.+p plowed on. Then they were ready.
As Arcot took over the controls, s.p.a.ce reeled once more, and they were alone, far from Thett. The suns of this s.p.a.ce were flas.h.i.+ng and glowing about them, and the unlimited energy of a universe was at Arcot's command. But all the remaining atmosphere in the s.h.i.+p had either gone instantaneously in the vacuum, or solidified as the chill of expansion froze it.
To the amazement of the extra-terrestrians, Arcot's first move was to create a t.i.tanic plane of artificial matter, and neatly bisect the _Thought_ at the middle! He had thrown all of the controls thus interrupted into neutral, and in the little more than half of the s.h.i.+p which contained the control cabin, was also the artificial matter control. It was busy now. With bewildering speed, with the speed of thought trained to construct, enormous ma.s.ses of cosmium were appearing beside them in s.p.a.ce as Arcot created them from pure energy. Cosmium, relux and some clear cosmium-like lux metal. Ordinary cosmium was reflective, and he wanted something with cosmium's strength, and the clearness of lux.