laboratory, had developed a method for using a triple electrical field
to direct the Dis ray, making possible a ray with a range of over sixty
miles. This would be absolutely fatal to the spinning sphere system of
the Sirians. The Sirians very evidently did not know how to project
the Dis ray any further than twenty-five miles. The ability to stand
off and hit them would break down the sphere of Dis rays very quickly.
There was only one objection. The rays were very powerful, so powerful
that they required triple power generators, but the special field of
electrical force was the worst problem. The field could not be made
sufficiently strong if a single layer of the force was used, but the
invention of a method to back up the first with two other layers of
equal voltage, thus getting nearly three times the effect without
exceeding the capacity of the insulation, had made the new machine
possible. This special field was produced by circularly moving cathode
rays, or exceedingly high velocity electrons, and therefore could be
produced only by atomic methods. This meant ten thousand times the
amount of fuel a similarly powered material engine would have required,
but material energy of course yields only wave motions of the transient
or unstatic type, a type that cannot stand still. Atomic energy can
yield static-waves as well as unstatic; the electron can stand still,
and is a perfect example of the stationary wave.
These limitations, in turn, meant that a tremendous weight of equipment
was needed. And a corresponding great volume of space was required. In
the end they had to use specially reinforced freighters to carry the
great projectors, each of which could carry but two projectors. Due to
their long range, however, the ships were at least self-protecting.
There was not time to make and equip more than twenty-eight of these
ships before the fleet was scheduled to start. They were completed
ahead of time. Some of their trial trips more than fulfilled the best
hopes of the inventor. Dr. William Carson, the physicist who developed
it insisted that it was really Dr. Waterson's suggestions that made the
thing possible.
We had learned something of spatial warfare formations from the
Sirians. Now we were to learn a bit of the strategy of spatial warfare.
* * * * *
The Solarian fleet sailed for Mars on the fifteenth of August, 1961.
They were a scant twenty million miles from their goal when a report
came from a scout that something was happening down in the Sirian camp.
Almost immediately after that the Sirians flooded our entire system
with so terrific a barrage of radio frequency static that communication
was impossible. They could not transmit from Earth to Venus, and the
communication was very poor even from one side of Earth to the other,
despite the fact that over a half billion kilowatts were used. So
intense was this barrage, that if two of the torpedo-ships near the
sending apparatus came within twenty or thirty feet of each other,
great crashing sparks leapt across, and instantly they were fused.
Scouts saw this happen twice.
The Solarian fleet continued on for Mars. They should cover the
remaining distance--twenty million miles--in five hours by pressing the
ships a little, although higher speeds made the rate of approach of
asteroids so great that they frequently could not be detected before
they collided with the ships.
Only two and a half hours later a scout came into sight at terrific
speed. He must have been doing over two thousand a second, an
exceedingly dangerous rate--but his acceleration neutralizer enabled
him to slow down safely. He reported that the entire Sirian fleet had
risen from Mars, leaving a very few machines behind--this time taking
the sphere with them--and had set out for Earth! Earth was on the
other side of the Sun--a long two hundred and twenty million miles to
go! The Sirians had a lead of three hours. They had as great a speed
as the Solarians and would reach Earth before the Solarians. But they
would at least be delayed by the two hundred thousand ships--more
now, for the steady production would have built the quota up to over
six hundred thousand, or a million by the time they could return. The
Sirian fleet had been built up to nearly three million though, which
could easily crush the fleet of a million, and the second million
later--separately. The trip would take them sixty-two hours. Scouts had
been sent ahead to Earth at a dangerously high speed to communicate
the news, and the entire fleet had increased its speed to a rate that
was considerably higher than safety warranted, but a continuous play
of Dis rays was considered sufficient safety at fifteen hundred miles
a second. The Sirian fleet had been reported to be making thirteen
hundred and fifty, so the Solarians should pass them, or meet them,
just shy of the Earth, where the other fleet would be waiting. They
should have no difficulty to crush the Invaders with the two million
ships.
The radio interference was being maintained by a ship anchored
somewhere in space. It was no doubt well protected, and to attack it
successfully would have meant the loss of a large number of ships, for
the time spent in the attack would delay them irreparably. They must
continue to Earth.
There were no scouts from the Sirian fleet--yet there should have been,
for over a thousand ships had been following them, far behind. None
ever reached Earth to warn the fleet. Every one of them was destroyed.
But when the Sirian fleet was well on its way--it turned--and headed
_for Venus_! They had purposely let that one scout reach the Solarian
fleet with the news that the fleet was headed for Earth--then they
redirected their course. The scouts from the Solarian fleet did reach
Earth--but soon after the last of the scouts following the Sirian fleet
had been destroyed, their radio barrage was lifted. All the ships on
Venus were concentrated on Earth, and Venus was left unprotected.
Twenty hours after the fleet had turned back, the radio barrage was
again lowered over the System. It was ten hours later that the Sirians
reached Venus.
While the radio barrage had been lifted, Waterson had had an idea that
there should be some protection for the planet. It did not seem that
the planet should be completely stripped of its defenses, and he had
suggested that at every city great Dis ray machines of the sixty-mile
range type be set up. His suggestion was followed, and at every city
on Venus the great machines were installed. There were many of them
now, for during the hundred hours the main fleet was in flight the
new machines had been put on a quantity production basis. But all
the ships that were equipped with them, were sent to the defense of
the unattacked Earth! And it was those machines that prevented the
landing of the Sirians. They came to the night side of the planet, of
course, coming from Mars. It would be thirty hours before they would be
expected on Earth--thirty hours before the main fleet would reach the
planet--and then there would be the 160,000,000-mile trip to Venus if
they were to get there in time to rescue the planet.
But the Sirians could not approach within beaming distance of the
cities, and all those that did try to do so, were brought down as
a cloud of powdery dust. It was Waterson's caution that saved the
billions of people on Venus.
But were they to be saved? The Sirians decided they must destroy the
works and the people on Venus, so they made one desperate effort. They
had at least sixty hours to work in, and now they had a plan that would
require time. They retired some hundred miles from the planet, then
the entire fleet, torpedo-ships, cargo boats, and the entire body
guard of the Sphere lined up, and then switched on powerful attractor
beams. Immediately, the combined effect of over three million of these
emanations took hold on the planet, and great tides began to rise in
its mighty oceans. Many lives were lost in the seaside towns, when the
tremendous waves rushed in over the land. But astronomers on the planet
and most of the System's scientists were there to watch the Sirians on
Mars through their great telescopes. And these astronomers saw what
the Sirians intended, and saw that they were well on their way to
fulfilling their aim.
* * * * *
A planet is balanced in its orbit about its parent sun with the
delicacy of a diamond on a jeweler's scales. But, like the diamond, if
it be displaced by some force, it reaches a new state of equilibrium.
Thus, if the diamond is further lowered in the scale by adding a small
weight, it soon reaches a new point of equilibrium. No conceivable
force, therefore, could be great enough to displace the planet in its
orbit more than a few million miles by pulling it either in toward
the sun, or out from it, and as soon as that force was released, it
would spring back to its original position as the diamond would regain
its balance on removing the disturbing weight. For the sun pulls on a
planet with a titanic force; it draws it in with the apparent force
gravity, and another similar, but opposite force, centrifugal force
of its revolution in its orbit, is constantly tending to throw it
into the depths of space. These are the two forces that are always
balanced. Suppose the planet is drawn nearer the sun; it revolves in
a smaller orbit--and it revolves in that smaller orbit with a higher
speed--for it has fallen in toward the sun; it has gained speed as any
falling body would. It has gained speed in the direction of the sun,
but this has operated to increase its rotational speed. Thus it has
gained a greater centrifugal force--you can see the effect with a bit
of chalk on the end of a string. The smaller the circle it swings in,
the greater the tendency to fly outward. But as long as we continue
the force that was added to draw it in, it will remain in equilibrium.
Remove this extra force and at once the planet will fall away from the
sun, losing speed as it does so, till it has reached a point where it
is once more in equilibrium with the force drawing it inward.
Now reverse the problem. Let us draw it away from the sun. Now the
orbit is longer, and it has lost speed in moving from the sun. It
cannot stay here, it is not in equilibrium, unless the force that drew
it out is maintained. To free the planet from the sun, one would have
to lift hundreds of quintillions of tons of rock through billions of
miles, against the terrific gravity of the sun. It is too much.
Thus we see that as long as the planet revolves in its orbit, it will
never fall, and to pull it away from the sun is impossible as long as
it revolves in its orbit. But if it slows down in its flight about
the sun it at once has less centrifugal force. It automatically falls
toward the sun until it has gained velocity enough to establish a new
orbit of equilibrium. If this energy, too, is withdrawn; if it is made
to stand still in its orbit; it will fall straight to the sun. It is
the only way such a thing might be done. And it would take the energies
of matter, and strain that to the utmost, to accomplish it.
This was the plan of the Sirians. Three million ships were dragging
like a Titanic brake on the planet as it wheeled in its orbit, and
slowly, steadily it was falling into the blazing furnace of the sun.
Their ships were not designed for this task, but they could do it
in the sixty hours at their disposal. In a short time it would be
falling directly toward the sun, but it would take many hours for the
seventy-million-mile fall. Even if it were stopped before it reached
the sun, any place within twenty million miles would be unbearable.
It was the distressed planet itself that warned the people on Earth and
the men of the fleet that the Sirians would never reach Earth, for the
radio was still dead. But the fleet turned for Venus at once. They were
far to one side of the path to Venus, and they would have to turn, but
it would take them thirty, instead of sixty hours to reach Venus. And
the other fleet was coming from Earth. They were not quite a million
strong, but those machines that had been produced on Venus would come
also, and that would bring the total numbers up to over a million, and
with the main fleet the number would be well over two million. There
were also three hundred of the long range Dis ray ships now, for many
more had been produced and Venus would supply an equal number.
* * * * *
We can only admire the wise action of the Commandant of the Venerian
fleet, Mals Hotark, in not sending his pitiful fleet of a few thousand
out to fight with the Sirians. The members wanted to, the people of
Venus wanted him to, but he wisely waited until he saw the fleets of
the System approaching. It would have done no good, and lost many
lives, and valuable ships to have gone in advance to the attack.
Many people tried to leave Venus, but enough machines were freed of the
task of stopping the orbital motion of the planet to patrol the heavens
and keep the people from leaving. They beamed thousands of private cars
out of existence; it seemed unnecessarily cruel.
The two great fleets were drawing nearer to the planet, converging,
and at last they got so close that they could carry on a radio
communication by using the terrific power of over two billion kilowatts
of energy. The amount of power that Sirian machine was throwing off has
been estimated at a minimum of fifty billion kilowatts. We know that
enough power could be picked up from a hundred meter aerial on Earth to
operate a small, high frequency motor.
When radio communication was established, they agreed to wait until
they could join, for the fleet from Earth was two hours ahead of the
main fleet. The loss of time was made up for in greater efficiency of
action. They would need it all. At last they joined fleets, one mighty
disc of two million airships, they flew on through space at a steady
rate of five and three-quarter million miles an hour. They arranged
themselves in a mighty cone as they came nearer Venus. Already the
machines had slowed it down so greatly that the planet was over a
million miles out of her orbit, and rapidly adding to this mileage.
But now as the great cone approached, the great ships with the long
range Dis rays leading, they were discovered. The cone formation
was chosen, for that is the three dimensional equivalent of the two
dimensional V that man had used in war on earth for thousands of years.
Now began the greatest battle in the history of the System. Here were
two mighty forces slashing at each other with terrific disintegration
rays, fighting in the great Void, and five million powerful ships
darting around, slashing, stabbing with a death that struck with the
quickness of light.
As the great cone of the main fleet attacked from one side, there was a
smaller cone attacking the Sirians from the other, but long before the
Sirians could bring their rays into effect the long range rays had torn
great holes in their ranks. The Sphere had retired with its escort at
once, going swiftly to Mars. The main fleet was too busily engaged in
fighting the Sirians' main fleet to worry about the Sphere at present.
A dozen times the great spinning sphere formation was tried by the
Sirians, but each time a withering blast of the long range Dis ray
cut it up as a tool held against a spinning block of wood cuts it
down in the lathe. Their strongest formation was useless, and they
could no longer outmaneuver the Solarians, the new ships could turn
and dart as quickly as they, or even more quickly. The big Dis ray
ships were not equipped for fast fighting, so when there were none of
the spinning sphere formations to break up, they retired to a safe
distance, and waited for any ships that might attack them. Few did. It
proved suicidal. But steadily the forces of man were conquering. In a
hell of flashing Dis rays, the new ships were proving their worth. The
flaming rays had seared the land below for many miles, but the fleet of
the Sirians was fast going. The new fast ships of man could dodge the
rays of the Sirians, turn and dart on the tail of their attacker, then
hang there, the attractor beam giving them an added grip until they
could flash the machine into nothingness with the Dis ray. They turned,
ducked, darted ahead with terrific speed, suddenly stopped, and then
were going full speed again. And another Sirian ship was gone. Now it
was the delicate apparatus of the Sirians' ships that suffered; they
could not keep up with the sudden turns of this flexible adversary. And
their great fleet had been reduced to a scant quarter million, but we
had lost nearly a half million ships, five million men, in that Titanic
struggle. Such a battle could not last long. It was impossible. Nothing
could stand before the Dis rays, and with those turning, darting ships,
sooner or later every ship must come under the influence of those
rays. But now the last of the torpedo-ships were fleeing into space.
But we did not care to have to fight them again--and they too were
rayed out of being. They could no longer dart away from us before we
could catch them--that was for us now!
But now the fleet returned to a greater task. Venus had been falling
toward the sun, and was nearly a million and a quarter miles off and
within her orbit. Now a great fleet of cargo carriers from Mars,
Venus and Earth came up, and with them came wrecker ships, capable of
picking up on their powerful attractor beams an entire million-ton
passenger-freight liner--great liners themselves, all equipped with
attractor beams. Soon they were all using their power to bring the
planet back to its normal speed. It did not take the ships of that
mighty fleet, many specially designed for heavy listing and towing,
many designed for tremendous loads, very long to bring the planet back
to its age-old orbit.
In former days we would have found a world wrecked by panic. But this
later generation had learned to trust in the powers of the ships they
had, and there had been little of the terrible panic that would have
affected the world of a generation ago. Then, too, they knew that with
the demonstrated power of the long range Dis rays, they could safely
convoy a fleet of the great passenger liners to safety.
What helped also was the fact that the human mind cannot grasp the
full significance of the fall into the sun. If you were told that the
planet you were on was sinking toward the sun, you would be surprised,
horrified, and would probably try to make a bargain-buy on real estate,
while the other man sold his to get his money out. You would simply
fail to comprehend the magnitude of the catastrophe. It has never
happened, and never will, the mind says, and we unconsciously believe
it. Your neighbor would joke about it to you. Of course many would
leave, but most people would stay till the actual physical heat of the
sun drove them off. We are constituted that way.
But now the radio barrier was down, and news from the Martian scouts
made men hesitate. The remaining cargo ships had settled on Mars and
were even now pouring out their strange crews. But they were not
building cargo ships. Every one of the worker machines were kept in
action constructing duplicates of themselves as rapidly as possible.
Already a great number of them had been made--over seven hundred of the
machines it was estimated--and now these were engaged in similar work.
The number grew in a steady geometrical series.
But the scouts were driven away by the torpedo-ships. Then there was no
news of the operations until nightfall permitted the scouts to creep up
and install the usual floating vision machines.
Then at last we understood the reason for this tremendous number of
inoffensive worker machines. There was a great seething mass of metal
around the workings now. Great blazing lights illuminated the scene
as brightly as day. There was a great horde of shining metal machines
working swiftly about the great plain. There seemed to be thousands
of them now, and they were all busily at work on great machines--the
torpedo-ship machines! There must have been nearly a thousand already
completed and already the fleet that had escaped had been built up to
many thousands by the rapidly working machines, and a steady stream of
long glistening shapes rose--only to be lost in the darkness beyond.
Steadily the great machines were being put together, and steadily the
great fleet was being augmented.
Before morning that fleet had reached two hundred thousand, and was
now growing at the rate of twenty-five thousand an hour. Steadily this
rate was increasing. The fleet was too large to be attacked by man's
weakened fleet, for the delay in putting Venus back in its orbit had
given the Sirians a chance to build up an invulnerable fleet. The
added time of the trip to Mars meant a still greater fleet. Already
their production-rate was far greater than Man's. Man could not hope
to compete successfully. We were learning the meaning of quantity
production.
Had it been possible to attack them with the long range Dis rays it
would have been tried, but the plan was hopeless. Before the fleet
could reach them there would be 100,000,000 miles to go to reach them,
and it would take approximately twenty hours, in which time, at the
present rate of increase, the Sirian fleet would have reached a total
of three million again. They would all concentrate their attack on
the long range Dis ray ships. No Solarian ships could help without
interfering with the action of the Dis ray ships, and they would need
help, for each ship carried only two beams. More could not be carried.
They would merely be held at bay, unable to attack their goal, useful
only in breaking up the spinning sphere formation, but that could be
prevented. The Solarians had learned that trick from the Sirians. The
Sirians had succeeded in breaking up every spinning column formation by
simply getting into the midst of it before it was formed completely.
It required perfect coordination of several machines to do it, but
it was always done. The long range Dis rays were excellent now in
defending a city, but useless for attack because of the terrific weight
of the apparatus. They could not attack the Sirian fleet. If they did
the production machines would have been so built up by the time they
reached the planet that any ordinary rate of destruction would be
easily equaled by the production! Within three days it was decided that
the Sirian fleet would be built up enough to attack. They would then
attack our planets, no doubt.
* * * * *
A cabinet meeting was called at the Waterson laboratories on Earth.
There Waterson first demonstrated the weapon that finally conquered in
the terrific struggle. Before the members, on the Cabinet table, was a
small portable material energy disintegrator, a machine that gave off
its energy as light. There was a second machine at the other end of
the table, a machine that occupied about two cubic feet of space, and
on one side of it was a small switch and a dial; on the other was a
familiar looking projector.
Dr. Waterson spoke:
"Gentlemen of the Cabinet: I have here a new machine that my laboratory
has developed. I will demonstrate its action first." The light was
switched on, throwing a brilliant shaft of light against the ceiling.
Then Waterson snapped on the switch of the new machine, and there
appeared a strange beam of blueish, ionized air. But unlike any other
known ionizing beam, it was shot through with streamers of red fire,
long, hair-thin streamers that wavered and flickered in the blue tube
of the ionized air. It reached out, touched the light generator, and
passed on, through a series of plates of different materials. But the
instant that strange beam struck the light-machine, it went out. Then
a moment later, when the new machine was turned off, the light snapped
back on.