The Great Conflict
It was _Monitor VII_, manned by the Chicagoans, which had the honor of
sighting the enemy. Just as the twilight of a bright May day was closing
down over the radio men at the Philadelphia airport, the static detector
marked an unusual disturbance, then two quick shocks, which must have
come from the patrol's bow beam. In quick succession, the other five,
standing ready on their starting ramps, took in their crews, and roared
up and away in a torrent of explosions at a thousand miles an hour.
Soaring to fifty thousand feet above the earth, the squadron of
rocket-ships made its way north, _Monitor II_ in the lead.
"Well, here we go," called Gloria, gaily, from her seat behind the
searchlight. "Hope they don't give us the run-around this time."
"They won't have the chance," said Ben. "That is, provided those
Chicago boys have sense enough to remember their instructions and let
them alone till we all get there. With six of these ships we ought to be
able to rough 'em up a little bit."
At a speed of over a thousand miles an hour, thanks to the thinness of
the atmosphere through which they were traveling, it was only a few
minutes' hop from Philadelphia to the Catskill city of the elephant-men.
Ben had hardly finished speaking before Sherman called from the control
seat, "There they are!"
Far beneath, half revealed, half-hidden by the few tiny clouds of fleece
that hung at the lower altitudes, they could see the naked scar in the
hills that marked the Lassan headquarters. Around it floated half a
dozen of the huge green balls they had encountered on the last occasion.
As they swept by, another one, looking like a grape at the immense
distance, trundled slowly out from the enormous door, swung to and fro
for a second or two and then swam up to join those already in the sky.
_Monitor VII_ was to the north and above them--as she perceived the
American fleet she swept down to join the formation, falling into her
prearranged place.
"Do we go now?" asked Sherman.
"Not yet," said Ben. "Give them all a chance to get out. The more the
merrier. I'd like to finish the job this time. We can't get in that
door, and if we did the rocket-ships would be no use to us in those
passages, and they're the best we've got. Besides they're playing snooty
too, and aren't paying a bit of attention to us. I hope they intend to
fight it out to a finish this time."
They turned north, giving the Lassans time to assemble their fleet.
"What's the arrangement?" asked Gloria. "Do we all go for them at once?"
"No. We dive in first and the rest follow behind, pulling up before they
get in range. If anything happens to us, they'll rescue us--if they can.
You see we don't know what they've got any more than they know what
we've got, and I thought it would be a good idea to try the first attack
with only one ship. In a pinch the rest can get away--if the Lassans
haven't developed a lot of speed on those green eggs of theirs."
"How many now?" asked Sherman, from the controls, as the squadron swung
back southward and the scarred mountain swam over the horizon again.
"Two--five--nine--eleven--oh, I can't count them all," said Gloria,
"they keep changing formation so. There's a lot of them and they're
coming up toward us, but slowly. They haven't got that blue beam at the
base any more, either--you know the one that globe we got after was
riding on."
As they approached it was indeed evident that the green globes were
rising slowly through the twilight in some kind of loose formation. It
was too complex for the American observers to follow in the brief
glimpses they were vouchsafed as they swept past at hurricane speed.
There seemed to be dozens of the Lassan globes; as though they expected
to overwhelm opposition by mere force of numbers. Nearer and nearer came
the rocket-ships, nearer and nearer loomed the sinister Lassan globes,
betraying no signs of life, silent and ominous.
"Go?" called Sherman from his seat at the controls.
"Go!" said Ben.
The _Monitor II_ dived; and as she dived, Gloria Rutherford switched on
the deadly beam of the searchlight which would carry the gravity-beam
against their enemies. For a moment it sought the green globes; then
caught one fairly. Ben Ruby threw the switch; and down the light beam
leaped the terrible stream of the broken atoms like a wave of death.
Leaped--and failed!
* * * * *
For as it struck the green globe, instead of the rending explosion and
the succeeding collapse, there came only a bright handful of stars, a
coruscating display of white fire that dashed itself around the Lassan
ship like foam on some coast-rock. It reeled backward, driven from its
position under the tremendous shock of the sundered atoms, but it
remained intact.
"Well, I'm a son-of-a-gun!" declared Sherman, as he put the _Monitor_
into a spiral climb at nine hundred miles an hour to avoid any
counter-attack. "If they haven't found a gravity screen! I didn't think
it was possible. Goes to show you you never can tell, especially with
Lassans. Look out folks, here comes the gaff, I'm going to loop!"
For as he spoke the formation of green globes had opened out--swiftly by
ordinary standards, though slowly in comparison with the frantic speed
of the American rocket-vessel. From half a dozen of them the racking
yellow ray of infra-sound leaped forth to seek the audacious ship that
had attacked them single-handed. All round her they stabbed the
atmosphere, striking the few clouds and driving them apart in a fine
spray of rain, but missing the _Monitor_ as she twisted and heaved at
frantic speed.
Twenty miles away and high in the air they pulled up to recover
themselves.
"And _that_," Sherman went on with his interrupted observation,
"explains why they aren't using those blue beams for support any more.
Of course a gravity screen that would work against our beam would work
against the gravity of the earth just as well. They must have some way
of varying its effect, though. They aren't rising very fast and haven't
got much speed."
"Probably the Lassans can't stand the acceleration," suggested Murray.
"Probably you're right. They can't have less than one Lassan in each
globe.... Of course, they might control them by radio, with the
thought-helmets and have the crews all robots, but that wouldn't be a
Lassan way of doing things. And I doubt if they'd think radio safe,
anyhow, even if they know about it, of which I'm not sure. We're
shedding any amount of static around, and would play merry hell with
most any radio. Wish I knew how they worked that gravity screen, though.
I'll bet a boat-load of Monitors against a thought-helmet that it's
magnetic."
"Wish we had some way to signal the rest of the fleet," said Ben, as
they swung into their position at the head of the formation again. "I
don't want them pushing in there with the gravity-beam if it isn't going
to do any good."
Murray laughed. "They'll find it out soon enough. I think we've got
plenty speed to beat those infra-sound rays, too. If that's as strong as
they come, we've got 'em licked."
"Don't crow yet, boy friend," said Gloria. "You don't know what those
babies have up their sleeves--excuse me, their trunks."
As the American fleet formed for a mass attack, the Lassan globes had
been rising, and now they were a bare five thousand feet below the
rocket-cruisers, swinging along at a height of 25,000 feet above the
earth in the last rays of the setting sun. As the green globes rose they
took their places in a formation like an enormous crescent, the ends of
which were extended as each new globe came up to join it.
"Looks like they want to get us in the middle and pop us from all
directions at once," observed Sherman. "Well, here goes. Pick the end of
the line; that's our best chance. How's your potential, Gloria?"
"O. K., chief," she answered. "Lightning this time?"
He nodded. The rockets of the _Monitor II_ roared; its prow dipped
forward, and at an incredible speed it swept down on the line of Lassan
warships, followed by the rest of the American fleet. But it was no
surprise this time. As the monitors plunged in, from every green globe
that could bring them to bear, the long yellow rays shot forth. Right
through them the _Monitor II_ plunged; the grate of it, even through
their double coating of armor and the vacuum chambers, set their teeth
on edge; then the rocket-ship was pointing directly down at one of the
Lassans and Gloria snapped the key that released the artificial
lightning.
A jagged beam of flame, intenser than the hottest furnace, leaped
through the air, struck the green globe, and sought the earth in a
thousand tiny rivulets of light. For just a second the globe seemed
unharmed; then slowly, and almost majestically, it began to dissolve in
mid-air, spouting flames at every pore. Fully ten miles down and beyond,
the _Monitor_ turned again, and not till then did the sound of the
explosion reach them, a terrific, rending thunder-clap.
"See that?" cried Sherman. "That formation of theirs isn't so dumb.
They've got it all ranged out; none of our ships can get at them without
coming through at least one of those yellow rays, and if we stay in them
too long--blooie!"
They peered through the windows at the formation. Off at one side, they
could make out the forms of two more rocket-ships, outlined against the
sky, while behind and above them pursued by the searching yellow beams,
came the rest. As they turned, they saw the gravity-beam shoot from one
of the American ships, crumple uselessly against a green globe. Then
they plunged in, again, firing the gravity beam earthward to work up the
potential for another lightning discharge.
* * * * *
The hills below rocked and roared to the repeated shock. Trees fell in
crashing ruin as lightning-bolt or infra-sound shivered them to bits;
great cars of burned earth and molten rock marked the spots where the
gravity-beam struck the ground. All round was a maze of yellow rays,
lightning flashes, and green globes that reeled, rose, fell, sometimes
blowing up, sometimes giving ground, but always fighting back sternly
and vigorously and always rising through the clear spring evening.
Murray Lee, at the rear of the ship, was the only one to see an American
rocket-ship, caught and held for a few fatal moments by two yellow rays,
slowly divest itself of its outer armor, then of its inner, and go
whirling to the earth, dissolved into its ultimate fragments by those
irresistible pennons of sound.
Gloria Rutherford at the prow was the only one to see another caught
bow-on in a yellow ray, reply by firing its gravity-beam right down the
ray and into the green globe through the port from which the ray had
issued. The ray went out--a spreading spot of flame appeared at the port
and the great green globe crumpled into a little ball of flame before
her eyes. But such events as these were the merest flashes in the
close-locked combat. For the most part they had time to do nothing but
handle the controls, throw switches to and fro, shoot forth gravity-beam
and lightning-flash in endless alternation at the Lassan ships of which
there always appeared to be one more right before them as Sherman
twisted and turned the _Monitor_ with a skill that was almost uncanny.
Suddenly he pulled out; the four looked round. They were miles high;
below half hidden in the dusk, were the red and brown roofs of a city.
Far away on the horizon the battle still roared; a rolling cloud of
smoke now, shot with the vivid fires of the American lightning flashes.
The wings of their ship were spread; they were soaring gently earthward
without the application of the rocket power.
"Had to get away for a minute," Sherman explained. "We were heating up
from the speed. My God, but we're high up; at least 45,000 feet!"
"Yes, and getting higher," Ben pointed out. "Those green globes must be
headed for the moon."
"Do you know, I wouldn't be a bit surprised but what you're right,"
replied Sherman, "I'll bet an oil-ball against the whole Lassan city
that they think we can't navigate space and they're trying to get above
us and then hang around and pop us when we have to land. Well, come on
gang, let's get back."
He shot the wings in again, worked the controls, and they headed back
toward the conflict.
It was less of a turmoil now, more of an ordered swing, charge, pass and
charge again against the diminishing number of the Lassan globes. Of the
American rocket-ships Gloria could now count but two beside their own.
One she had seen break up; whether the others, badly damaged, had hauled
out for repairs, or whether, riven by the deadly yellow ray, they had
gone crashing to the earth, there was no way of knowing. But the Lassans
were not escaping unharmed; there were hardly a third as many as at the
beginning and even as they approached another one disappeared in the
vivid flash of the rocket's lightnings. Still the rest rose steadily on,
going straight up as though they indeed hoped to escape their tormentors
by rising to the moon.
They dived in: Gloria pressed the lightning key and another Lassan globe
blew up; then they were climbing again. Beneath them the night had come.
The earth was a dark mass, far down, and from that enormous distance
looked slightly dished out at the edges. But though the earth was dark,
at that ultimate height of the atmosphere the sun had not yet set. Still
the strange fight went on, higher and higher. The roar of the exhaust
explosions died away behind them and Murray looked questioningly at
Sherman.
"Out this far, there isn't much air," he said. "Takes air to conduct
sound. Wonder what they're up to, anyway. All right, Gloria."
He dived at another Lassan and she pressed the lightning ray; but this
time there was no flash, no flaming Lassan ship falling in ruins to the
ground.
"Who'd have thought it!" said Sherman, as he swung the _Monitor_ round
after the charge. "Of course--we're up so high that we've made a spark
gap that even lightning won't jump. But I don't get their idea; those
sound rays won't be any good out here, either."