_Moon Minions Prepare_
"It is time," said Sarka softly, "that we who have urged the world to
forget its quarrels should forget our own. What difference who is
master, so long as success attend our efforts?"
"Then tell me your secret of control of our flight!" snapped Dalis.
Before Sarka could answer, however, Sarka the Second entered the
laboratory area before the Master Beryl. He looked a question at his
son, and Sarka knew that his father was asking what had become of Sarka
the First. He shrugged his shoulders, and nodded his head toward Dalis.
Sarka the Second gave no more sign of perturbation than had his son, but
deep within his eyes were signal fires of fury which centuries of
penance on the part of Dalis would not erase. But now, with Sarka the
First gone, Dalis must live.
"We are headed," said Sarka's father softly, "in the general direction
of the Moon! If we could travel toward it in a straight line, we would
reach it, if we kept our pace of about eighteen miles per second, in
approximately four hours! But since we are out of control, I fear we
will pass it too far away for our fighters to fly across the intervening
space! Or we may be drawn against it, in planetary collision, which of
course means annihilation. We are traveling noticeably faster than while
in the earth's orbit. I am able to see something of the preparation of
Moon-men to receive us!"
* * * * *
Dalis turned to Sarka, and the perspiration bedewed his forehead. In
order to make this mad mission successful, he must know Sarka's secret
of control. Had he been in Sarka's place, _he_ would have kept his
secret, no matter what happened, and he believed in his heart that Sarka
would do the same. It never occurred to him that Sarka, no matter who
the master, would divulge his secret in order to save humanity from
destruction.
"We have approximately four hours, Dalis!" Sarka prompted the betrayer.
"I need at least an hour for my experiments! Do you, knowing as you do
that I have planned all this out, know exactly what course our voyage
should take, still insist on holding the reins yourself?"
"I agree, for this time, to listen to your advice, as I promised you!"
"Then let me suggest that you do some of the work which I had planned
should be done by my father's father! It is time that the world's
Induction Conduits be placed in operation, in order that our people be
supplied with equable temperature from the Earth's Core, as our
temperature changes due to our position with relation to the sun! Stand
back and give me the controls!"
* * * * *
For a moment Dalis stared at the two Sarkas. Would they seize power the
moment he moved away from the Beryl Control? In their places he knew he
would have done it. In their places he knew he would never have
submerged self in the good of the people. But, somewhat diffidently, he
moved away. Sarka the Second returned to the Observatory, behind the
Beryl, while Sarka stopped before the table where the lights were.
After a moment of thought-conversation with Sarka the Second in the
Observatory, he dimmed the light which connected his laboratory with the
headquarters of Klaser, in the Americas.
"Klaser," he barked, "for the period of one second cut the speed of
every Beryl within your Gens to half its present speed!"
"I obey, O Sarka!" came the voice of Klaser.
"Have we changed direction?" Sarka mentally questioned his father.
"Slightly, but we are curving away, instead of toward the Moon! Try
again!"
Sarka dimmed the light of Cleric, who instantly made answer.
"I am here, Sarka!"
"Stop the Beryls of your Gens for two seconds, but be prepared to speed
them up immediately afterward, if ordered, to the speed at which they
are now revolving! Klaser, hold the speed of your Beryls as they are!"
"I obey, O Sarka!" came the musical tones of Cleric.
"I hear, O Sarka!" replied Klaser.
"Now, my father," queried Sarka again, telepathically, "what direction
do we travel?"
"We are heading in a direction which will cause us to pass the Moon at a
distance of approximately fifty thousand miles!"
"From which point our fighters can reach the Moon in exactly two hours,
after they have passed through our atmosphere!" cried Sarka exultantly,
aloud.
"True, son!" replied Sarka the Second, mentally. "I suggest you hold
our course steady as it is!"
* * * * *
The motion of the earth now was as that of a steadily falling body, and
the shifting of the Ovidum store caused by vibrations set up by the
Beryls had set the Earth on its course toward the Moon. Sarka now gave
instructions to Klaser and to Cleric to return the speed of the Beryls
to that which they had attained at the moment the journey of the Earth
had begun--thus bringing them once more into harmony with the Master
Beryl, and rendering the Ovidum static.
Dalis re-entered the laboratory from the Wall Tube, near the Dome Exit,
by which he had passed down to the lowest Inner Level, and stared
suspiciously at the two Sarkas. He found them half-smiling their
satisfaction.
"We pass the Moon within fifty thousand miles!" exulted Sarka. "A flight
of two hours for the Gens which attacks the Moon! Do you refuse, O
Dalis, to send your Gens against the Moon?"
"Why not send the Gens of Gerd!" demanded Dalis. "He is the youngest of
the Spokesmen, and what better test is there for him than this?"
"It is because he is so young that we do not wish to send him," replied
Sarka coldly. "The colonization of the Moon by Earthlings requires the
guiding genius of a Spokesman who has the experience of a Dalis--or a
Sarka, else you would now be dead!"
"Then let it be a Sarka!" barked Dalis.
"Who, then, will control the further flight of the Earth?"
"You! Let your father lead my Gens against the Moon!"
"What will your Gens say, O Dalis? That their revered Spokesman feared
to lead them in person?"
"Enough of this squabbling," snapped Sarka the Second. "Do you not
realize that within a matter of hours, some Gens must be sent into
battle? Come with me to the Observatory, where you will be given
something beside squabbling with which to occupy your minds!"
* * * * *
Leaving the earth on its lonely flight through space, the three men
hurried to the Observatory, where they seated themselves before the
eye-pieces of the Micro-Telescopes, whose outer circles had been aimed
at the Moon.
For a moment the three stared breathlessly at the surface of this dead
sister of the Earth. They noted her valleys, her craters which seemed
bottomless, and saw that even as they watched, valleys and craters
became sharper of outline, proving that they were approaching the Moon
at a tremendous speed. It seemed, too, as though they were heading
toward sure collision, though Sarka the Second had said that they would
pass the Moon at a distance of fifty thousand miles.
"You will note activity at the very rims of the craters!" said the Elder
Sarka easily. "The craters are man-made, not volcanic, as some
scientists believe, and are shaped to converge the rays of the sun, as
our roof is created for the same purpose. But note the activity at the
rims of the craters!"
* * * * *
Closer the men peered, studying the rims as instructed by Sarka the
Second. All about them--and as they watched, activity became apparent on
the inner slopes of the craters--winged creatures seemed to be flying.
They looked like tiny oblate spheroids, and they were in swift action,
darting to and fro like bees which have been disturbed in their hives.
"Those spheres are of metal," said Sarka the Second, "and they are the
fighting Aircars of the Moon-men!"
Neither Dalis nor Sarka denied this statement, for they knew it to be
fact. It became apparent that the movement of the Aircars was not a
movement of chance, but as skillfully ordered as any maneuvers which
had, during the last few hours, been executed by any of the Gens of
Earth. That they were of metal became apparent when, through the
Micro-Telescopes, the watchers caught the glint of the sun on the
surfaces of the cars.
Sarka did a swift mental calculation, and announced the result.
"Those Aircars average something like four hundred feet in length, and
are doubtless filled with fighting Moon-men!"
"That's right," said Dalis, who also had been calculating this very
thing, "but our Ray Directors will disintegrate the Aircars as easily as
my Ray Director disintegrated Sarka the First!"
* * * * *
"The remaining Sarkas received this statement in silence, for Dalis'
choice of a comparison had been an unhappy one, to say the least.
"I am wondering," said Sarka, "if you, my father, and you Dalis, have
noted the peculiar appendages of the Aircars?"
"I saw them some minutes ago," said his father moodily, "and I am almost
afraid to guess their use! If they are what I fear they are, then the
Moon-men have been expecting this attack of ours for years and years,
and have been preparing for it! If they have known, and have been
preparing, then we are facing a race of super-Beings indeed--for we have
known but little of their activities!"
"What, then," said Dalis, "do you think is the purpose of those
appendages?"
"Those appendages, cilia, flagella, call them whatever you wish, are
man-made tentacles, created for the purpose of seizing, crushing and
destroying--then discarding...."
For a full two minutes the three men sat there, and horrible doubts
flooded their brains. For the conclusion was obvious. The Gens of Earth
would go into action flying, not as organizations, inside an Aircar, but
as individuals, in swarms, myriads, legions and hordes. In order to do
the utmost damage with their Ray Directors and Atom Disintegrators,
they must approach within a reasonable distance--and the picture of
those mighty tentacles, hurled like leashed lightning bolts into the
midst of the attackers, folding in individuals by scores and hundreds,
crushing them and dropping them contemptuously, was horrible in the
extreme to contemplate!
* * * * *
It was difficult to estimate the possible speed of the Aircars of the
Moon-men, at least at this distance. Besides, perhaps not a single one
of them was traveling at top speed, because of the fact of their crowded
traffic.
This thought passed through the minds of the three men.
"But we'll know," said Sarka dully, "when they get into action. For if I
am not mistaken, those Aircars are being mustered on the rims of those
craters to await orders, not to resist our attack, but to launch their
own attack before we are ready! Dalis, are you going to allow your Gens
to go into action against these Outsiders, without the inspiration of
your personal leadership?"
The nostrils of Dalis were quivering with the intensity of his emotion.
His vast egotism told him that he, Dalis, could successfully combat
these Aircars of the Moon-men, and he wished with all his heart to issue
the orders to his Gens. But, vain as he was, he did not even wish to
have the appearance of acceding to the original plan of Sarka! Sarka had
planned for Dalis to attack the dwellers of the Moon, and Dalis had
refused. Now, when this challenge of the Aircars was a direct challenge
to his genius as a potential warlord of earth and he wished to accept
the challenge, he was torn two ways.
Should he go ahead under the common leadership of the Sarkas? Or should
he still refuse battle--and perhaps see some lesser Spokesman go forth
to win glory and imperishable renown to himself?
* * * * *
A thought message, a command almost, impinged on the brains of the
three.
"I wish to speak with you aloud!" The message was from Jaska!
The three men rose and darted into the room of the Master Beryl. They
had no sooner entered than the clear voice of Jaska sounded in the
laboratory.
"Sarka, I am no traitor! I am Jaska, who loves you! I am in the
headquarters of Dalis at Ohi, and the Gens of Dalis has indicated its
allegiance to me, having been informed by me that it is the wish of
Dalis, whose presence is needed at the place of the Master Beryl!
Command us, O Sarka, for we are ready to attack!"
There the voice ended, while the two Sarkas turned again to face Dalis.
Sarka now was glad that Dalis knew the secret sign manual, and his
fingers worked swiftly as he spoke to the rebel.
"Will you, then, Dalis, allow your Gens to be led to glory by a woman? A
woman, moreover, who has duped you?"
"The woman is a fool!" said Dalis. "She will lead the Gens to
destruction!"
"Who, then, will be blamed if she does? Your Gens believe she is their
new Spokesman at your wish! If they are told otherwise, they will think
that Dalis himself is afraid to lead them!"
"We shall see," said Dalis, "if I could win honor by leading my Gens in
a successful attack against the Moon-men, how much greater will be my
glory if Jaska attacks, is repulsed--and I go in to turn defeat into
victory!"
Thus spake the colossal selfishness of Dalis, who took no thought of the
possible, nay, certain, loss of countless lives because of his
obstinancy.
"I suggest," he said, "that you instruct your beloved Jaska to make
ready; for if I am not mistaken, when we return to the Observatory we
will discover that the Aircars of the Moon-men have left their craters
and are racing outward from the Moon to meet us! Or perhaps you would
lead my Gens, to safeguard Jaska!"