assistants, ordering his space flyer, the "Cassiopeia," to be made
ready at once. Provisions sufficient to last for six months were put
on board and Ralph himself installed a great number of scientific
instruments, many of which he considered he might find useful. He also
ordered a large number of duplicate parts of the flyer's machinery to
be stowed on board in case of emergency.
To the astonishment and dismay of Peter and the others, the scientist
announced his intention of making the journey alone.
"The fight is to be man against man, brain against brain," he
said as he stood by his space flyer which was in readiness upon
the tower-platform. "Today it is not brute force that counts, but
scientific knowledge. I will demonstrate to the world that crimes of
this kind need not be tolerated."
He stepped onto the running board as he spoke and was about to step
into the flyer when the sound of an aeroflyer descending close by made
him hesitate. It was a government flyer, and even as Ralph paused, it
landed on the platform beside his own machine, and a smartly uniformed
young official sprang from the seat beside the driver. Saluting Ralph
he handed him a transcribed telegram with the words:
"Message from the Planet Governor, sir."
Dismay seized the scientist, as, breaking the seal of the wrapper, he
read the printed words:
Unipopulis, Sept. 34, 2660,
Planet Governor's Capitol.
I have just received news of the calamity that has befallen you.
I extend to you my sincere sympathy.
I will this afternoon place at your disposal six Government space
flyers, the crews of which are absolutely under your instructions.
I must, however, caution you not to enter into any pursuit in person.
As Planet Governor it is my duty to advise you that you have not the
right to place your person in unnecessary danger.
Allow me furthermore to point out to you that under the law "+"
scientists are not allowed to endanger their lives under any
circumstances.
I therefore command you not to leave the earth without my permission.
I have ordered your space flyer to be guarded.
In high esteem,
William Kendrick 21K 4,
_The 18th Planet Governor_.
To
Ralph 124C 41+,
New York.
Ralph read the radiogram twice before he folded it slowly and
deliberately thrust it into his pocket.
Then slowly withdrawing his hand and extending it to the government
official, he said:
"Well, I must obey orders."
The official took the proffered hand, and no sooner had he grasped it
than he stiffened and became as rigid as stone.
With one bound Ralph was in his machine crying to the stupefied
audience:
"Don't worry about him. I pricked his hand with a little _Catalepsol_.
In fifteen minutes he will be all right again."
He slammed the door of his space flyer and simultaneously the machine
rose as if shot from a cannon, and in ten seconds was lost to sight.
* * * * *
Since the Dark Ages, men have had a powerful longing to leave Earth and
visit other planets. Towards the end of the twenty-first century, when
atmospheric flying had become common, scientists began seriously to
think of constructing machinery to enable man to leave the confines of
the planet to which humanity had been chained for ages.
Towards the beginning of the twenty-second century economic conditions
had become acute and the enormous population of Earth, which had passed
the twelve billion mark, clamored for an adequate outlet which the
planet itself could no longer furnish.
The moon was regarded with longing eyes, and although that body was
known to have no atmosphere and was known to be sterile, it was equally
well known that Earth's scientists and engineers felt that they could,
in a few years' time, make it habitable.
Atmospheric flying machines were, of course, totally unsuited, as they
could not even reach the limits of the Earth's atmosphere, only forty
miles away.
Obviously to reach the moon or any other celestial body, it was
necessary to devise a method of overcoming the enigmatical force known
as the Earth's gravity, which chains all bodies to the planet.
A multitude of inventions and suggestions were made, but none proved
to be of any value until the _Anti-Gravitator_ was invented by the
American 969L 9 in the year 2210.
This scientist had made extensive studies of the gyroscope and had
finally evolved a machine which when set in motion would rise freely
and continue to rise as long as power was supplied.
The action, moreover, was purely gyroscopic.
969L 9 took a large hollow sphere (the rotor) inside of which he built
a number of independent gyroscopes, all of which traveled in fixed
orbits. The large sphere which hung in a gyroscopic frame was made
to spin around on its axis at great speed. This sphere thus acted as
the fly-wheel of a gyroscope and as such was not influenced by the
so-called _horizontal gravity_. As in the case of simple gyroscopes,
its axis would always be in a vertical line as long as the spheric
rotor was in motion.
If, however, the independent gyroscopes inside of the sphere were
set in motion by means of electrical current, the _Vertical Gravity_
(weight) was overcome, the entire contrivance rising into the air, its
rising (lifting) speed being directly proportional to the speed of the
enclosed gyroscope rotors.
From 969L 9's experimental work the anti-gravitators were perfected,
and it became possible to lift a weight of 1,000 kilograms with an
anti-gravitator weighing but 12 kilograms.
Space flyers were equipped with from six to twelve large
anti-gravitators attached to various points of their shells, all of
which could be worked in unison, or operated independently in order to
control the direction of the flyer.
As Ralph's space flyer rushed through the atmosphere, the friction of
the machine against the air made the interior uncomfortably hot in
spite of the fact that the machine had triple walls, the spaces between
being filled with poor heat conducting materials.
After the flyer, however, had left the atmosphere, the stellar cold
rapidly made itself felt.
Ralph then took his bearings, after he had verified, by means of the
polarized wave transmitter that Fernand's flyer was still headed
towards Venus. He then locked the steering disc and the space flyer
continued its journey in a straight line of pursuit toward the machine
of Fernand.
This done, Ralph flashed a radiogram asking the Planet Governor's
indulgence for disobeying the law. Then he took his first look at the
earth, which, since he was traveling at the rate of 80,000 miles an
hour, had shrunk to the dimensions of a medium-sized orange. As he
was flying toward the sun, Earth, being directly behind him was fully
illuminated and appeared like a full moon. The continents and oceans
were visible except where temporarily obscured by mist or clouds.
The general aspect of the Earth as seen from Ralph's flyer was that of
a delicate faint blue green ball with white caps at each of the poles.
The ball was surrounded by a pinkish ring near the circumference. This
was the earth's atmosphere, the white caps being snow and ice around
the north and south poles.
The brilliantly lighted earth was silhouetted against the inky black
sky in sharp contrast.[8] The moon, hidden behind the earth, was not in
evidence, when Ralph first looked earthward.
The stars shone with a brilliancy never seen from Earth; distant
constellations which ordinarily cannot be seen, except, with a
telescope, were plainly visible to him, in outer space.
The sun shone with a dazzling brilliancy in a pitch-black sky, and had
he looked directly into its rays he would have been stricken blind.
The heat of the sun in the outside space when striking objects was
tremendous. Had he held his hand against the glass window of the space
flyer where the sun could strike it full, his hand would have been
burned in a few seconds.
There was of course no night in the outer space (within the bounds of
the planetary system). The sun shone uninterruptedly.
Time was an unknown quantity. Had it not been for the chronometer,
reeling off seconds and minutes according to man's standard, time would
cease to exist in a space flyer.
To a man who had never left the Earth, the phenomena encountered
inside of a space flyer in the outer space was still more amazing.
"Weight" is synonymous with the gravity of the Earth. The denser a
celestial body, the greater its gravity. The larger such a body is, the
more strongly it will attract its objects. The smaller the body (if it
has the same density), the smaller its force of attraction.
Thus a man weighing eighty kilograms on a _spring_ scale on the earth,
would weigh but thirty kilograms on the planet Mars. On the sun,
however, he would weigh 2232 kilograms.
Inside of a space flyer, which had an infinitely small gravity, objects
weighed practically nothing. They were heaviest near the walls of the
machine, but in the exact center of the flyer, _all objects lost their
weight entirely_. Thus any object, regardless of its earthly weight,
_hung freely suspended in the center of the space flyer_. It could not
move up or down, of its own accord, but hung stationary, motionless,
like a balloon in the air.[9]
The occupant of a space flyer, having no weight, moved around with
astonishing ease. He almost floated around in the machine. There was
no physical labor. The biggest table was no heavier than a match. The
passenger in a flyer could perform an incredible amount of work without
tiring and without effort.
He could walk up the walls or walk "upside down" on the ceiling without
danger of falling, as there is no "up" or "down" in outer space.
_Sleep was practically impossible._ There being nothing to tire the
occupant, _sleep is unnecessary_. Dozing off is all he can do, and that
could never last long, except after strenuous mental work.
As long as a space flyer was not too far distant from the sun (within
the orbit of Mars, at least), little artificial heat was needed. The
sun heated one-half of the flyer's shell to a fierce heat, but the
side turned away from the sun was exposed to the terrible stellar cold
(absolute zero) and a fairly comfortable temperature was the result.
The air supply was manufactured by chemical means on board, but very
little was needed, as the original supply taken from the earth is used
over and over by altering the carbonic acid gas by means of automatic
generators.
It was of course of the utmost importance that no port-hole or doors
leading to the outside be opened. The air would have rushed from the
flyer instantly, resulting in a perfect vacuum inside of the flyer, and
instant death to all living organisms.
As the flyer moved away from a celestial body, the less the mechanical
energy needed to propel it. There were of course exceptions. Thus
between every two celestial bodies a point will be found where the
attraction that one body exerts on the other is zero. If the flyer were
brought to this point its gyroscopes could be at rest, as the machine
would not be attracted by either body. It would "hang" between the two
just as an iron ball hangs between two powerful magnets if carefully
balanced. Give it the slightest push, however, and the ball will fly to
either of the magnets.
The same was true of a space flyer, between two bodies at the "zero
point." If it moved over that point it was immediately attracted by
one of the bodies, and if its gyroscopes refused to work, the flyer
would have been dashed to pieces against the attracting body.
If, however, the machine came to rest at the "zero point" it would
begin to turn around on its own axis, while at the same time moving
in an elliptical orbit around the sun--_the space flyer would become
a tiny planet_, and as such was subject to the universal laws of the
planetary system.
It was not hard to steer the space flyer; the nearer it came to a
celestial body, the faster the gyroscopes worked; the further it drew
away, the slower their movement.
After Ralph had thoroughly inspected the entire flyer he devoted his
full attention to the course of Fernand's machine. At the rate at which
he was flying he computed that he would overtake Fernand in ten hours,
provided the latter did not increase his speed meanwhile.
Fernand, when Ralph left Earth, had a handicap of 400,000 miles. He was
moving at the rate of 45,000 miles an hour. Ralph's machine had made
80,000 miles an hour since its start. If everything went well he would
overtake the other in ten or eleven hours.
As there was nothing else to do, he busied himself in the laboratory
near the conning tower at the top of the flyer in an attempt to make
the hours pass more rapidly. With all its speed his machine seemed to
crawl. He was in an agony of impatience.
At the end of the ninth hour he finally sighted Fernand's machine
through his telescope. He then tried to signal Fernand by radio, but
the other either did not hear or else did not want to answer.
Eleven hours after his departure from Earth, his machine drew to within
a few hundred meters of Fernand's. After careful maneuvering he brought
the machine parallel to the other, and looking through one of the heavy
plate windows saw the strained, drawn and ghastly white face of Fernand
staring at him.
Ralph moved a few levers and then closed a switch. A hissing sound was
heard, and Fernand was seen to fall backwards, the window turning green
at the same moment.
Ralph had struck him senseless with his _Radioperforer_.
In a few minutes he anchored his flyer to the other by means of a
powerful electromagnet. He then pushed the connecting tube of his flyer
into the tube-joint of Fernand's machine. With great care he made the
joint air-tight. Taking a coil of rope he opened the port-hole and
crawled through the tube leading into the other flyer.
Arrived at the other end he made sure that the joint at Fernand's
machine was tight before he moved on.
Fernand lay unconscious on the floor and in a twinkling Ralph had bound
him with the rope.
In high excitement he bounded upstairs to gain the room Alice should be
occupying. His heart throbbed tempestuously. In another moment he would
hold his sweetheart in his arms.
Arriving on the next floor he stood still for a moment and listened.
There was no sound except for the gentle purring of the gyroscopic
machinery.
He went from one room to another, then to the last one. The door was
open. He entered with a strange feeling of dread. The room was empty.
Apparently it had never been used.
In terror Ralph ran from one end of the flyer to the other. He looked
in every corner, in every closet. He could find neither Alice nor her
maid. Where were they hidden? To make sure he went all over the ground
again more thoroughly.
After the most careful scrutiny of every inch of the machine he fell
limply into a chair, and buried his face in his hands.
_Alice was not on board the flyer!!_
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 8: In the outer space the "sky" is dead black; the blue color
of the sky as seen from the earth is due to the atmosphere. The real
sky is colorless.]
[Footnote 9: If a shaft were sunk to the center of the earth, an object
placed there would stay suspended in space.]
12
LLYSANORH' STRIKES
For some minutes, Ralph stood motionless, completely bewildered. To
have spent so much time and effort to no avail, hours--days wasted in a
fruitless search! The thought was maddening.
Obviously, she was not on board Fernand's space flyer. Where, then,
was she? Certainly Fernand himself had had no opportunity to hide
her, unless his whole flight into space were a trick to deceive the
searchers, and that was more than unlikely. Fernand was cunning--was
this some new piece of duplicity?
Turning from the empty room he ran down to where Fernand lay, still
unconscious. Kneeling by his side Ralph applied a small electrical
shocking device to the spine of the insensible man, with the result
that in a few minutes Fernand opened his eyes and stared dazedly into
those of his captor.
"Where is she?" asked Ralph hoarsely. "What have you done with her?
Answer me, or by God, I'll blow you into Eternity!" and, aiming his
Radioperforer at Fernand's head, he spoke with such ferocity that the
other shrank involuntarily.
"I don't know," he muttered, weakly. "It's God's truth I don't know.
The Martian got her. He took her away and left me drugged." His voice
trailed off and he seemed about to collapse.
"You're a liar!" growled Ralph, but his tone lacked the conviction
of the words. There was that in the other's voice that rang true.
Mechanically, he cut the cords that bound Fernand, and the man rolled
over helplessly. He was weak and dazed, and altogether too broken in
spirit to make any further trouble. His nerve was gone.
Ralph propped him up against the wall, but he slumped over on his side
limply. Impatient at the delay, Ralph went in search of water, and
finding a pitcher of it in Fernand's laboratory, unceremoniously dumped
the contents over the prone man's head. This had the desired effect of
restoring him somewhat, and in a short time he was able to tell the
story in detail.
"When I applied the chloroformal to you that night, I used the same
drug on Alice, while Paul 9B 1261, a friend of mine, took care of your
driver. We dragged Alice into our cab, and made for the outskirts of
New York where I had the space flyer in readiness. A maid for her was
already on board. We got Alice on and I put her in the care of Lylette,
and in a few seconds we were off.
"When we got well out in space I locked the steering disc and helped
the maid revive Alice, and in a few minutes she was herself again,
which she fully demonstrated by slapping my face and then trying to
tear me apart like a wildcat, when she found where she was." He gave a
wry smile at the recollection.
"Go on!" snapped Ralph.
"It was an hour later, and we were burning up space, traveling at a
rate of 70,000 miles an hour, that the radio signalling apparatus began
ringing furiously. I tuned in, and heard a faint, gasping voice from
somewhere out in the great void. With difficulty I learned that there
was another space flyer somewhere near me, with two men and four women
on board, and that their oxygen supply was being rapidly exhausted,
due to the spoiling of some of the oxygen-producing chemicals. They
asked for a small supply of oxygen, enough to get them back to Earth.
Otherwise they would be doomed.
"Knowing myself to be safe from pursuit for some hours, even had you
known I abducted Alice, I decided to aid the crippled flyer, and
answered that I would assist them as soon as possible. I went up to the
conning tower and, with the telescope, located the other machine. Then
I reversed the anti-gravitator machinery and within a short time I had
drawn up level with the flyer.
"We made fast, and ran the connecting tube between the two machines.
When the joints were made air-tight I crawled through, and just as my
head came through the opening into the other, two hands gripped me
around the throat and I was jerked into the machine. I made a desperate
effort to wrench myself free but I was absolutely helpless in such
hands. I found myself gripped by Llysanorh', the Martian, and I might
as well have fought a tiger as that seven-footer.
"He said nothing, only stared at me with his enormous eyes, while he
dragged me to a small compartment, manacled my hands, and left me,
locking the door behind him. But he was back in fifteen minutes or
so, with a triumphant look in his eyes. He picked me up and pushed me
through the connecting tube into my own flyer. He dragged me into my
machine-room, and forced me to watch while he, using a big hammer,
smashed the mechanism of my six anti-gravitators, so that I would not
be able to steer, and could fly in only one direction. He ruined all
the spare parts, to make sure that I could not make any repairs or
replacements.
"Then catching me by the back of the neck, he said:
"'I intercepted your letter to Paul 9B 1261, and followed you. You
didn't count on _me_, Fernand, when you stole Alice. Neither you nor
that fool scientist Ralph 124C 41+ shall have her. _No_ man shall have
her but myself. I will kill her first. I don't know why I don't kill
you, except that you are scarcely worth the trouble. You can't pursue
me with your machine in this condition, and when--_if ever_--you are
found, it will be too late.'
"'Good God, man,' I said, 'surely you won't take a helpless Terrestrial
girl!'
"'It is only what you did,' he replied, 'and at least, I love her!' And
with that he pressed a cloth saturated with some drug unknown to me
against my face, and that is all I remember.
"I must have been unconscious at least six or seven hours and when
I came to, it was another hour before I shook off the effects
sufficiently to recollect anything. Llysanorh' had taken off the
manacles, but I was as helpless as if I had been bound. I must have
dozed off, for I had only just awakened when I looked out and saw your
flyer approaching. And that's the whole story."
Ralph had listened to the amazing narrative with growing apprehension.
He knew enough of the Martian character to realize that Alice was in
the hands of a man who, once the die was cast, would stop at nothing.
He had been hopelessly, pitifully in love with Alice. It was easy to
see that, having, probably quite by accident, intercepted Fernand's
letter to Paul telling of his plans, he had in a moment of desperation,
born of despair, determined to carry her off himself. Perhaps, in
the first place, he had only intended to save her from Fernand, and
then, considering the small possibility of discovery and pursuit, had
succumbed to his overwhelming passion for her, and abducted her instead
of returning with her to Earth. But whither was he bound? Surely, not
to Venus where the inhabitants were nearly all Terrestrials, and whose
laws were identical with those of Earth.
Mars? Possible, but improbable, although Llysanorh' might have some
friend in his sect who would perform the Martian marriage ceremony
secretly. But even if this were the case where could he take his
captive bride? They would not be permitted to live on Mars, neither
would Earth or Venus accept them.
The intolerably hot planet Mercury was out of the question, and the two
moons belonging to Mars had no atmosphere.
There remained only the Asteroids.
At this thought Ralph sprang to his feet with an exclamation.
"I've been a fool not to think of them before," he cried. "Of course he
would get her to one of them, and once there she will be lost forever.
Good God, I must find his machine and head him off before it's too
late."
He turned savagely on Fernand still crouched against the wall. "I'm
tempted to leave you to the fate the Martian intended for you. God
knows it wouldn't be half what you deserve."
"Don't do that, in Heaven's name," mumbled the other. "Don't leave me
here like this."
The scientist looked at him contemptuously for a moment.
"Bah!" he said scornfully, "can't you even take your medicine like a
man? But I'll turn your machine around and direct it Earthward. You
will intercept the Earth in about thirty hours. You can't steer, but
you can accelerate or retard the speed of your flyer, and need not
collide with the Earth if you are careful.
"And remember this," he added grimly, "if you and I ever meet again I
will pound your miserable cowardly body into jelly!"
He turned his back on the abject man, and returned to his own flyer.
Then he turned Fernand's machine around, disconnected the two from each
other, and in a few seconds Fernand's flyer had disappeared.
Ralph sprang into action. He immediately began taking observations.
These told him that it would take him at least thirty days to reach
Mars, even though he forced his machine to the utmost. He could not
travel over 90,000 miles an hour, but, on the other hand, he felt sure
that Llysanorh's machine was incapable of making more than 85,000 miles
an hour. But the Martian had a handicap of probably 600,000 miles, and
if Ralph gained on him at the rate of only 5,000 miles an hour, it
would take 120 hours, or five terrestrial days to overtake him.
Ralph turned his machine towards the point in space where Mars would be
at the end of thirty days, and now set himself to the task of making a
search for the other flyer with the polarized wave apparatus.
For four wearisome and anxious hours he sought through space
perseveringly, and was at last rewarded by locating another machine
which he was certain was that of the Martian, as he had reasoned,
heading for Mars.