The Giant Ray
The minute that followed was a grotesque whirl of swift action, a
desperate reeling struggle between Marlin and me cased in our great
space-walkers, and the great disk-bodied Neptunians. Even as they had
leaped upon us, we had shot to one side, had brought down upon the
foremost of them the great steel bars carried in our pincer-like metal
hands, and had sent two of them crumpling to the black paving with a
thick green liquid oozing from their shattered bodies. The remainder,
though, were upon us before we could strike again, and then as they
gripped us I could see the Neptunians who had been working in the
adjoining compartment come running toward the combat, to assist their
fellows. So that though Marlin and I struck out with desperate fury
at the monstrous creatures with the great metal jointed arms of our
space-walkers, they had in a moment more with their numberless limbs
fettered our arms and torn the bars from our grasp, holding us then
motionless and helpless.
Thus held, part of the creatures stepped back from us, and then we
heard one of them, who bore a single, crimson-circle device upon his
metal dress or armor, utter a staccato order to the others. At once
four of them drew from their armor the long tubes we had noted there,
and trained them upon us. I knew, instinctively, that those tubes held
some deadly force like that with which the cylinders had attacked our
space-flier in the battle in mid-air. Later I was to learn that the
tubes could release a force-ray similar to that used for propulsion by
our space-flier and by the cylinders--a force-ray so concentrated into
a pencil-like beam that, instead of merely pressing against whatever
it struck, it pierced whatever it touched with terrific force, riving
it asunder. Knowing the deadliness of the tubes, I looked for instant
annihilation.
But it was evident in a moment that it was only as a precaution that
the tubes were held upon us. For now, while a half-score of the
Neptunians held Marlin and me firmly by the arms of our space-walkers,
the one who had given the order came closer to us, clambered with his
powerful multiple limbs upon the top of my space-walker, and gazed
in through its vision-windows at me. To see those bulging, glassy
and insect-like eyes outside the window so close to my own struck me
through with a chilling horror greater than anything I had yet felt.
I saw that the creature had discerned me inside the space-walker, had
assured himself that creatures of life yet different from himself
occupied the two cylinders. For in a moment he had clambered back
down to the ground, and then as he uttered another sharp order, the
creatures that held us were dragging us forward, toward the door of the
compartment into which we had looked before.
Through that low door they dragged us in our space-walkers, and across
the adjoining compartment toward one of the great upright cylinders
resting there. In another moment the Neptunians had pulled us inside
the door of that cylinder into its dark opening, and I saw the one who
had given the orders following, with a half-dozen of his fellows. The
others were dispersing to the other cylinders, and in a moment the door
of our own slid clanging shut behind us. Then there was a hissing and
throbbing of strange machinery in the dark interior of the cylinder
about us, and at the same moment the leader of the Neptunians motioned
to us to emerge from our space-walkers, having removed their own
glowing ball-heaters.
I think that both Marlin and I hesitated for a long moment before
complying with that command, yet we saw that upon us still were trained
the tubes of the four Neptunians who guarded us, so reluctantly we
threw open the lower doors of the space-walkers and emerged from
them. As we did so, forgetful for the moment of the strange creatures
about us, we gazed in amazed interest around us. The huge cylinder's
interior, we saw, was divided into a half-dozen compartments by metal
floors or ceilings set at intervals of ten or twelve feet from its
bottom to its top. A light metal ladder ran up through openings in all
of the those floors or divisions, and up that ladder now a few of the
many-limbed Neptunians were hurrying toward the upper compartments. We
ourselves were standing, with the Neptunian leader of the red-circle
insignia, in the lowest or bottom compartment of the cylinder, his four
tube-armed guards and a half-dozen green disk-bodied monsters about us.
That lowest compartment held great gleaming-cased mechanisms, from
which came the throbbing that we had already heard, and that was so
exactly similar to the throb of our space-flier's generators as to
remove all doubt but that these were the similar generators of the
cylinder. As our eyes roved about them the Neptunian leader uttered
a staccato command, at the same time pointing with one of his seven
limbs, up toward the ladder. His meaning was unmistakable, and at
once Marlin and I stepped toward the ladder and began to climb upward
on it, the tubes of the four watchful guards just beneath us as they
followed. As we passed up that ladder, through the upper sections of
the cylinder's interior, I saw vaguely the things within those sections.
One of them held the dissembled parts of the great cogged mechanisms
we had seen them taking down and storing inside the cylinders. Another
two or three sections held similar dissembled parts of differing
machines that had evidently been taken from another part of the dead
vast compartment-city beneath. We passed up through sections that
held supplies and strange tank-like affairs, that seemed not unlike
the batteries of our own space-flier, and then were climbing up into
the topmost section of the cylinder. This was a section whose top and
walls were set with so many windows as to make its sides seem quite
transparent. And this topmost section, in which a pair of Neptunians
already were standing, was quite apparently the control-section.
For at its center rose from its floor a thick metal pillar or standard,
upon the top and sides of which were set a battery of dozens of
small green studs, and around this were strange seats in which the
two waiting Neptunians were now taking their places. As Marlin and
I climbed into that uppermost section, the guards and the leader of
the disk-bodied Neptunians behind us, we gazed wonderingly about, at
the central control-standard and at the strange graduated scales with
moving dots of light upon them, that were set here and there in the
walls and that seemed recording instruments of one kind or another.
Then the crimson-marked leader had given utterance to another sharp
succession of snapping sounds, a swift command, at the same time
motioning us to the side of the circular room, where were similar low,
strange seats. In these we seated ourselves, the four Neptunians who
watched us taking places on either side of us, and then as the leader
took the remaining seat at the control-standard, we saw one of the
other two seated there reach forth with strange quick limbs and touch a
number of the studs in swift succession.
At once the great throbbing of the generators or mechanisms in the
cylinder's lowest section intensified, and as Marlin and I gazed
quickly outward through the windows about us we saw that now the other
cylinders in the compartment were all closed and throbbing like this
one. Then, as one of the Neptunians at the control-standard touched
another stud, the cylinder in which we were rose swiftly upward and out
of the great black-walled compartment, rose up smoothly over the dead
compartment-city into the pale light of the Neptunian day, followed at
once by the three other cylinders. The dim day about us was already
waning, fading, as night crept across this huge world of silence and
death, with its ceaseless rotation, but there remained still enough
light for us to see far across the mighty maze of compartments that was
the deserted and dead city. And now across that city the four cylinders
were rushing, racing over it in horizontal position, the strange seats
upon which we and the Neptunians were seated swinging in gimbal-like
frameworks as the cylinder swung thus from vertical to horizontal.
* * * * *
Over the huge compartment-city our four cylinders flashed, then slowed
and halted, as up from another point in it rose four more cylinders,
the four that we had seen land in a different part of it, and whose
occupants had discovered and captured us. Then all of the eight great
cylinders, our own in the lead, were rising sharply upward, up toward
the opening in the vast roof above, through which we had seen them
come. As they shot up toward it, Marlin and I, glancing down and
backward, could see, even as we had seen from our space-flier, the vast
extent of the dead and deserted compartment-city, with its mechanisms
and huge globes and high black intersecting walls lying now in such
dusty silence and death. Yet it was only for a moment that we glanced
back toward it, for now our eight cylinders were flashing up through
the round opening in the huge roof, and out over that vast roof,
seeming solid metal from above, that covered all of mighty Neptune. And
as we flashed over it, now, I found for the first time opportunity to
whisper to Marlin, beside me.
"They're leaving Neptune!" I whispered. "Where can they be going,
Marlin? And what has happened to Whitely and Randall?"
He shook his head, answered in the same low tones. "Whitely and Randall
have escaped, I hope. They had a small start on their pursuers--they
may have eluded them here above Neptune----"
We were abruptly silent as the guards glanced suspiciously toward us
with their bulging multiple eyes. And as the great cylinder and those
behind shot on, the huge metal roof of Neptune below and the vast
vapor-masses of its dense atmosphere stretched above us, I wondered
if ever men had found themselves in the position that now was ours.
Captured by monstrous disk-bodied beings of horror unutterable,
flashing with them above the vast roof that sheathed Neptune and its
dead, deserted and colossal compartment-city, to a destination of
which we could not dream! And as that thought passed, another came,
and I remembered the great mission that had brought us out here to the
terrors of mighty Neptune, our great flight outward to find and put an
end to the huge force-ray that was stabbing across the solar system and
turning the sun ever faster, with every day bringing it nearer to the
division that meant doom for almost all its universe. What chance was
ours to accomplish that mission now, separated and captured as we were,
not knowing even from what source the great ray was issuing, from what
strange place these disk-bodied beings had come and to which they were
now returning?
I was aroused from my silent despair, though, by a low exclamation from
Marlin, and looked up to see that the cylinders of which our own was
foremost had now halted, hanging midway between metal roof beneath and
great vapor-masses above. Then down from above I saw, dropping quickly
toward us, three other cylinders similar to the eight, three cylinders
at sight of which my heart beat suddenly faster. For it had been three
cylinders that had pursued Whitely and Randall in the space-flier!
Tensely I watched as the three drove down among our eight, and then
one of them had shot suddenly close to the cylinder in which we were,
hanging beside it so that its low door-opening was directly touching
the door-opening of our own. There was a clang of metal beneath as the
doors of both cylinders slid aside. They fitted so closely against
each other that no colder air from without could enter into the warmed
interior of the two cylinders. Then from the other were coming into
our own cylinder three Neptunians who climbed swiftly up into the
top-section in which we were, while Marlin and I watched them in
indescribable suspense.
As they came up into the uppermost section they spoke in their sharp,
staccato talk to the Neptunian leader of the crimson-circle insignia,
making report to him, it was apparent. But it was not to their snapping
speech that Marlin and I gave our attention, but to the things they
carried in their grip, and which they were showing to the leader. Those
things, I saw with a start of horror, were some shattered and crumpled
plates of metal, great flat metal plates that I recognized immediately
as being of our space-flier's faceted sides! And they also held a
broken, twisted metal thing that I recognized instantly as one of the
space-flier's smaller liquid-oxygen tanks! I needed not to understand
the strange speech of the Neptunians in that moment to understand
what the three were reporting. For those shattered fragments of the
space-flier told the tale with terrible clearness.
"Whitely and Randall!" It was Marlin's whisper of horror beside me.
"They were caught by those pursuing cylinders--were annihilated by
their rays----!"
"Whitely and Randall----" I felt my voice choke then, as I gazed at
those last fragments of the space-flier's wreckage, mutely testifying
to the end which our friends had met with beneath the shattering rays
in their space-flier somewhere in the cold, vast vapor-masses above us.
Whitely--cool and detached and steady, stirred to passion by nothing
save some unprecedented physical phenomenon, considering with
curious, impersonal eyes each new peril that had confronted us; and
Randall--with his sunny hair and eager young courage and unfailing
sense of fun; it was as though they had risen before me in that moment,
when we saw at last what death had overtaken them and our space-flier
there in the chill clouds of mighty Neptune. I felt Marlin's steadying
hand on my shoulder and knew that he was sounding similar depths of
despair. For with Whitely and Randall gone, with our space-flier
and with ourselves captured and held by these monstrous disk-bodied
Neptunians who yet seemed not of Neptune, our chance to halt the great
doom-ray that was radiating toward the sun, our chance even to return
to Earth with word of the position and nature of that ray's source, was
gone also!
Through the despair that had sunken upon me I was aware, in a moment,
that the throbbing of the cylinder's great generators had waxed again
in intensity. Already the three Neptunians, who had reported the
destruction of the space-flier, had returned to their own cylinder,
which had separated from ours, and now the whole eleven cylinders, our
own in the lead, were racing forward once more, were shooting forward
between the great vapor-masses above and the vast metal roof below. At
immense and mounting speed they shot forward, a dull roar of whistling
air coming to us from without, and in a moment the pale, dim light
about us had begun to change to dusk, to darkness, as we shot on. For
the eleven cylinders were racing around the surface of Neptune toward
the side of it _away_ from the sun at the moment, and as they entered
the shade of that side they were plunging through the eternal night.
But as the cylinders shot on they seemed to need no light or star to
guide them through the deep darkness, though all that was visible was
an occasional glinting of the great metal roof below.
On we shot through that deep darkness and there rose in me a sudden
thought that roused me a little from the despair that held Marlin
and me. Could it be that upon that other side there still remained a
remnant of their race? A remnant of the race, that once had built the
mighty compartment-city that covered all Neptune and the vast roof
that shielded it, but that now occupied but a small part of the huge
city? Was it from Neptune's other side, then, that the giant force-ray
had stabbed toward the sun? Yet how _could_ that be so, how could that
great ray be shot out from any point of Neptune unceasingly as it was,
when each twenty hours the great planet turned on its axis, when for
half of that twenty hours whatever point that was the ray's source
would be turned _away_ from the sun instead of _toward_ it?
* * * * *
With tense interest Marlin and I gazed ahead into the darkness through
which our cylinders were rushing, while at the control-standard the
leader and the other two Neptunians manipulated the force-rays that
were propelling onward the cylinder in which we were. At last, after
some minutes of this rushing flight of immense velocity, the cylinders
seemed to slow down, to pause. Looking out I could discern the surface
of the gigantic metal roof below us, just showing itself to us by a
little glint of light here and there from it, and in that moment Marlin
and I waited in suspense for the cylinders to sink down toward and
through it, to whatever place upon Neptune's other side it was that
held the remainder of their strange races, since by then, we knew, we
were at that side of Neptune almost exactly opposite the sun. Only a
moment the cylinders slowed and paused, and then were leaping through
the air again at mounting speed. But instead of flashing downward
toward the great roof, they were flashing _upward_!
Upward they were shooting, up through the dense air and straight into
the great vapor-masses that loomed above us! Through those great clouds
they were racing then, driving upward through them as through a darker
darkness, and then suddenly had shot up and out from them, up and out
into the clear and thinner air of Neptune's atmosphere's outermost
limits. Behind our cylinders thus lay the huge, vapor-wreathed planet,
shutting out by its vast bulk all sight of the sun's distant little
disk of fire, or of the greater planets. But before us there stretched
once more the black vault of space, unfolding itself to our eyes for
the first time since we had ventured down through those shrouding
vapors to Neptune's surface.
Brightest in that black void there shone, before and somewhat above us,
Triton, the moon of Neptune. It was almost white in color, tinged with
the pale green of great Neptune, about which it moved, and seeming of
the same size to our eyes as Earth's own moon. Beyond and all about it,
though, there flamed the great stars, seeming the same to our eyes here
at the solar system's outermost limits as they had seemed to us when
far within it, at Earth. The great field of stars and star-clusters
that was Sagittarius, straight ahead and upward, the irregular
parallelogram of Capricorn's stars, to the left, the throbbing crimson
heart and jeweled menacing claws of Scorpio, to the right--all seemed
to our eyes as they had seemed when we had started--how long ago it
seemed!--out from Earth toward great Neptune, that lay now behind us.
Yet now, with Neptune behind us, our eleven cylinders were flashing
forward with greater and greater speed, were flashing out apparently
from the solar system's last outpost into the vast void of interstellar
space!
"They're going on--going out from Neptune into outer space!" I
exclaimed to Marlin, as we gazed ahead, transfixed.
But suddenly he shook his head, pointing ahead and upward, for now the
cylinders were flashing upward as well as forward. "It's Triton they're
heading toward!" he said. "Triton--Neptune's single moon!"
"Triton!" I exclaimed, thunderstruck with amazement. "Then--then--it
must be on Triton that the remaining Neptunians now are!"
Triton! For it was up toward it, up toward the white, green-tinged moon
of Neptune that shone dully in the black vault above and ahead of us,
that the eleven cylinders, our own in the lead, were heading! And as
they shot out of the last limits of the atmosphere of Neptune, as they
flashed forward at swiftly mounting speed still toward the moon, I
could but stare at it in amazement. Triton! It was from it, then, that
there had come these strange disk-bodied Neptunians who had captured
us, who had annihilated our space-flier and our friends. It was on
Triton, then, that there must remain whatever Neptunians still were
left of those who had built the vast compartment-city that covered all
the surface of Neptune itself, who had shielded it with that gigantic
floating roof that enclosed all the mighty planet. Yet why had they
deserted their vast compartment-city, their great world of Neptune?
Why had they left that world for the single moon of Neptune, so much
smaller in size? And the giant force-ray that was shooting across space
to the sun, turning it ever faster, was it from Neptune then or Triton
that that colossal ray was radiating?
It seemed to me that these questions were spinning in my head in a
kaleidoscopic whirl of enigmas, as our throbbing cylinder and the ten
behind it shot on and upward at a great slant toward the dull-gleaming
sphere of Triton. Marlin, beside me, was staring ahead obviously as
much mystified as I was, while the four Neptunians ranged on either
side of us kept their ceaseless watch upon us. The other three sat
still at the central control-standard, directing the cylinder on its
rush out from Neptune toward its moon. And now, that moon grew larger
ahead of us and above us, a strangely-gleaming sphere that seemed still
very small, in comparison with the huge pale-green disk of mighty
Neptune that loomed behind us.
I knew, though, that Triton was of the same approximate size as Earth's
own moon, and revolved around the great planet at the same approximate
distance as Earth's own moon, roughly a quarter of a million miles. As
we had noted from our space-flier in flashing out toward Neptune, its
moon was now behind the great planet, that is on the other side of it
from the sun, but due to the sharp inclination of the plane of Triton's
orbit around Neptune, it was so much higher than its great planet
in space as to make it possible to see the single moon, even from
Neptune's sunward side. And now as our eleven cylinders shot toward
it, it was spreading out across the black vault of the heavens before
and above us, until at last we were within a few thousand miles of it
and the speed of the cylinder was perceptibly decreasing beneath the
controls of the three at the central standard.
Smoothly the cylinder, and the ten behind it, slowed, until they were
racing forward at a comparatively low velocity. Triton's dull-gleaming
sphere filled the heavens before us. Behind and a little below the
great green disk of Neptune, belted with the vast cloud-masses of its
immense atmosphere, loomed almost as great as ever to our eyes. And far
beyond it there burned the sun's bright little disk, just above the
huge sphere of Neptune, and visible to us through the thinner vapors of
Neptune's uppermost atmosphere. We turned back toward the nearer world
of Triton. As the cylinders rushed on toward it, all the suspense of
expectation and mystery that had been ours since our first arrival at
the strange dead world of Neptune gripped us now with renewed power.
And as Marlin and I stared ahead we were aware that the cylinders were
dropping, swinging about our pivoted seats and dropping toward the
surface of Triton that seemed now to gleam beneath us.
Toward it we smoothly shot, and as Marlin and I gazed intently down
we saw that there were below none of the great cloud-masses that
wreathed the surface of mighty Neptune. Instead was only a smooth and
strangely gleaming surface that we could but vaguely glimpse, and
the sight of which made my heart pound in sudden anticipation. Could
the thing be--could it be that here upon Triton as upon Neptune----?
But my wondering speculations were cut abruptly short by reality as
we shot lower toward the surface of Triton, as that surface came
clearly at last to the eyes of Marlin and myself, bringing involuntary
exclamations of amazement from us. For that surface was metal! Triton
was shielded on all sides by a giant metal roof similar to that which
enclosed great Neptune itself!
* * * * *
Down toward that mighty roof our eleven cylinders were rushing. When
they seemed just above it, they halted their drop and raced along
above it, around Triton's vastly curving surface. As they did so,
Marlin and I, gazing downward, saw that the vast roof that shielded
Triton appeared to be, from above, of the same dark metal as that which
protected Neptune, and that it extended away without break or seam as
far as we could see over the big moon's surface. And as our cylinders
flashed above it, around the world's surface, we were aware that Triton
had an atmosphere even as had its great parent-world, since from
outside was coming the dull roar of air against the speeding cylinder.
It was a fact startling enough, but at that moment it was driven from
our minds by a thing more startling still.
For as we flashed thus around Triton's sunward side, Marlin suddenly
uttered a hoarse exclamation, pointed ahead and to the left. I gazed
in that direction instantly and for a moment saw nothing unusual, but
then as the cylinders flashed on I saw that in that direction was what
seemed a great round opening in the smooth, dark metal, a titanic
circular opening that must be miles across. Up out of that opening was
rising what seemed at first glance a vast cylinder of pale light that
sprang straight up and outward from the gigantic opening, and that was
only visible for a short distance above that opening, fading swiftly
into invisibility as it shot out into the gulf of space from Triton.
Instinctively my eyes followed the fading length of that mighty beam
outward, and then as they did so I felt sudden, awed understanding
descending upon me and stared with Marlin toward the giant pit and its
great ray in stunned silence. For that giant ray was pointing straight
into the great gulf of space, toward the tiny, fiery disk of the
distant sun!
"The giant force-ray!" Marlin whispered. "The great force-ray that's
turning the sun ever faster--and that we came out here to find!"
"And pointing straight toward the sun!" I exclaimed. "Pointing through
Neptune's upper atmosphere toward the sun!"
For we could see now that the giant ray, visible only there at its
source, must indeed be cleaving through the upper limits of great
Neptune's atmosphere as it reached across the great gulf toward the
sun. For since Triton was on the other side of Neptune from the sun,
was on its outward side, the great green sphere of Neptune lay almost
between the sun and Triton, the big moon being high enough above the
great planet, though, due to the inclination of its orbital plane, to
make the sun visible to it through the upper reaches of Neptune's vast
atmosphere. Through that atmosphere, therefore, we knew, the giant
force-ray must be driving on its path across the solar system toward
the sun, hurtling across the gulf to strike against that spinning sun's
edge with terrific pressure and to spin it ever faster toward that day
of division and doom that was marching relentlessly upon it!
But as our cylinders now swept nearer toward the giant force-ray and
the pit from which it stabbed up and outward, Marlin and I were staring
obliquely down into that vast pit. Seen from the side as we saw it, the
tremendous opening seemed only like a mighty well of metal, from which
the colossal pale force-ray, almost as great in diameter as the huge
pit, stabbed. We could see, however, that set near the great pit's top
at regular intervals around its curving wall were what seemed metal
cube-like rooms, which were set on the pit's smooth curving wall. They
were a score in number, those out-jutting metal cubes, and from slits
in their walls came light from within, and glimpses of stud-covered
walls and Neptunians moving about them. We knew, without doubt, that
those twenty cubes held within them the unthinkably complex controls of
this mighty force-ray that was destroying the solar system!
But now our cylinder and the ten that drove close behind it were
passing the vast pit, the huge force-ray. I noted that they took
extreme care to pass pit and mighty ray at a respectable distance,
and knew, too, the reason for it, knew that any luckless cylinder
that blundered into that colossal out-stabbing ray would be driven
instantly at terrific speed and force out through the solar system and
into the sun that the ray was striking! So that it did not surprise us
that the cylinders veered far to the side of the huge ray, picking up
speed once more when they had passed it, and racing on around Triton's
metal-shielded surface and through the cold, dense atmosphere outside
it. But as the cylinders drove on the eyes of Marlin and myself now
were turned backward, back toward that gigantic pale ray of awful force
that shot ceaselessly up and out from that vast pit in Triton's metal
side.
"We've found it--the great ray we came out here to find--the source of
that ray," I exclaimed to Marlin, "but we've found it too late! Whitely
and Randall and the space-flier annihilated--we captured----"
He bent toward me. "Keep your courage up, Hunt," he said. "We may have
a chance yet to get free--to get away from this world of Triton before
they take us down inside it."
"But what--?" I began, when with a gesture he cut me short. "No more
now, Hunt--the guards are watching. But be ready to act if a chance
shows itself, for once down in Triton, we'll probably have no chance."
I saw that the four disk-bodied Neptunians who sat about us and guarded
us were indeed watching us closely now with their strange bulging eyes,
so gave over for the moment our whispered conversation, though with a
slight gleam of hope. Glancing back again toward the great force-ray
that was almost invisible behind us as the eleven cylinders raced on
around Triton's metal surface, I was aware that Marlin was staring
back toward it also, intently, shaking his head a little, as though
puzzled by something concerning that giant beam of force. In a moment
he turned his attention ahead. Our cylinders now were flashing around
Triton from its sunward side to its dark side, and as we rushed on
Marlin and I could see that to all appearances Triton was not rotating,
or at least not above a low rate of speed. Then as we entered into the
deeper shadow of the dark side, the sun's little disk vanishing behind
us as we shot around Triton's curving surface into the shadow, Marlin
uttered a low exclamation once more, and as I turned to look in the
same direction I saw that far ahead there was stabbing out and upward
into the black void of outer space a second giant force-ray like that
one we had already seen shooting toward the sun!
Stupefied, I gazed toward it. For the first giant force-ray, amazing as
it was, had yet been expected by us, more or less, since we had known
from the first that such a colossal force-beam was stabbing from the
region of Neptune toward the sun. But this second mighty force-ray,
which seemed exactly the same in size and appearance and which rose
from a giant pit or well in the vast metal roof even as did the first,
was not directed toward the sun. For it was on the other side of Triton
from the first ray, was exactly half around Triton from the first and
was going out into space in an exactly opposite direction! Thus while
the first colossal force-ray, springing out from Triton's sunward side,
shot straight toward the sun, this second huge force-ray, on Triton's
dark or outer side, was radiating straight out into the vast void of
interstellar space, was radiating straight out, to all appearances,
toward the unthinkably distant stars of Sagittarius that burned in that
mighty void!
What could be the meaning of this other colossal force-ray, of equal
size and power, going out into the vast void outside the solar system?
The first great ray that was shooting toward the sun and turning the
sun ever faster--its purpose was at least comprehensible, but what
purpose could there be in sending an opposite and equal ray out into
the mighty void from Triton's other side? That was the question that
whirled in my astounded brain in that moment as the eleven cylinders
shot on toward that second great ray, over Triton's metal surface.
Marlin, though, on seeing that second great ray, seemed to be less
puzzled than before. It seemed to have solved for him some problem
which the sight of the first huge ray had suggested. To me it was
utterly incomprehensible, and perplexed and awed I watched that huge
pale ray and the vast pit from which it sprang as we raced toward them.
I saw that on that pit's curving walls there jutted forth a score of
cube-like projections or control-rooms similar to those in the pit of
the first ray. Then I forgot pit and rays alike as the cylinder in
which we were and all those behind it slowed suddenly in mid-air and
then dipped sharply downward.
* * * * *
Down and down they shot, toward the vast gleaming metal roof of great
Triton; down, until we saw that just beneath us there was outlined in
that roof a great circle, slightly sunken. Toward this the cylinders
dropped, and then as they came to a pause just above it I saw that set
beside that circle in the roof was a transparent section beneath which
was a small cage-like room, brightly lit. In this were a half-dozen
Neptunians, and as they saw the eleven cylinders dropping and pausing
above the circle in the roof they turned swiftly, pressed what seemed a
series of knobs in their cage-room, and at once the great sunken circle
beneath us was sliding along beneath the roof to one side, sliding
smoothly away and leaving thus beneath us a great circular opening in
the roof.
Instantly up from that opening around our cylinders was rushing a
torrent of air, a torrent of uprushing air that I understood well was
caused by the warmer air beneath the roof rushing up into the colder
outside atmosphere. But now down through that opening and through the
air-currents the cylinders were swiftly dropping, and we could see far
below in dim light a great compartment-city like the one we had found
upon Neptune! In a moment more we would be below the roof, the opening
closed above us, prisoned hopelessly in Triton to meet whatever fate
our captors decreed. Already two of our four guards, and two of the
Neptunians at the control-standard, had left the cylinder's upmost
section and had clambered down the ladder to the lowest section in
preparation for emerging. There was left with us in the upmost section
of the cylinder only two guards and the Neptunian leader of the
crimson-circle insignia at the control-standard. And as I saw that, I
was leaning quietly toward Marlin.
"Now's our chance, Marlin!" I whispered tensely. "If we could overpower
these three Neptunians and the rest beneath afterward we might yet get
back to Earth!"
He glanced calmly around, then nodded. "We'll take it!" he whispered.
"Once beneath this roof of Triton, there'll be no chance."
"Go for the guard beside you, then, when I cough as signal," I told
him. "If we can dispose of them and the leader there we can hold the
rest below for a time."
He met my eyes with his own, then turned and as though merely shifting
a little in his seat moved nearer toward the guard on his side. I had
already done the same toward the disk-bodied monster beside myself,
both guards having slightly relaxed their first watchfulness. I glanced
out, saw that even at that moment our cylinder was sinking with the
others toward the great opening in the roof and knew that no moment was
to be lost. So, with heart beating rapidly now, even as our cylinder
prepared to sink down through the opening with the rest, I coughed
slightly. In the next moment I had flung myself with a single motion
upon the Neptunian guard beside me and had seen Marlin in the same
instant throwing himself on the monster at his own side!
The moment following was of such swift action as to defy the memory.
In my leap upon the Neptunian beside me it had been my first object
to knock his tube from his grasp before he could loose its rays upon
me, and so swift and sudden was my attack that I did so, as did Marlin
with the other guard. With the same motion, even as the guard's seven
great limbs reached toward me, I had grasped his big disk-body and then
with a superhuman effort had raised it in my arms and had cast him from
me, down through the opening in the section's floor to crumple against
the floor of one of the sections below! I whirled, saw that the other
guard had gripped Marlin and was bearing him down, and then even as
there came from beneath and from the Neptunian leader at the controls
staccato cries of alarm, I had gripped that other guard likewise and
hurled him across the cylinder to strike with stunning force against
its wall! Then Marlin and I were whirling toward the Neptunian leader
at the control-standard, but in the moment that we turned toward him we
stopped short. For that Neptunian had leaped aside from the controls of
the cylinder and had swiftly drawn his own ray-tube!