"No."
"The ship couldn't be between us and the Moon. Waters and I have been
in the helio room for the past hour, searching with the 'scope there.
Nothing doing, Gregg. Not a sign."
"I know. Our instruments here show that."
"There might be a way of sighting them," Drac put in.
"I'll try the Zed-ray," I suggested. "Drac and I have it corrected.
But I doubt if it would penetrate the sort of invisibility this enemy
would use."
Grantline nodded. "Or the Benson curve-light. You think the ship went
behind the Moon? Or landed on the Moon?"
"It could have done either. Has Waters still got contact with the
Earth? Have they seen it?"
"No."
I made a sudden decision. It would take us two hours at least to make
a careful scanning with the Zed-ray; and to take an elaborate series
of spectro-heliographs of the Moon's surface, which might show the
enemy vessel if it had landed there, was a laborious process.
After brief thought, I discarded the idea. "We'll go to the helio
room," I told Grantline. "I'm going to try the Benson curve-light."
Grantline and I left the turret, heading along the catwalk under the
glassite dome toward the helio cubby where the rotund, middle-aged
Waters was in charge. It made my heart sink to think of the helio
room. Snap should have been there.
We crossed the transverse catwalk. The superstructure roof was under
us. Farther down, the narrow decks showed with Grantline's men grouped
at the firing ports, where his weapons were mounted and ready. As I
saw those grouped men loitering on the deck, waiting for me to give
them a sighting, I prayed I could do so; and yet there was the
shuddering fear that the first blast would bring death to Anita.
Waters met us at the door of his cubby. His face was red; he mopped
the perspiration from his bald head. "I'm so glad you came! Will you
want the Benson-light? I say, I've lost connection with the Earth. I
had the Washington transmitter. Five minutes ago they sent me a flash
of the Mars and Venus news. They both sent ships, out."
He gasped for breath, then added in a rush: "Both the Mars and Venus
ships were destroyed and the enemy escaped!"
Grantline and I gasped with horror.
"Destroyed?" I said. "How?"
Waters did not know. The news came; then, immediately after, the
Washington transmitter changed its wavelength and he lost connection.
"But why, in heaven's name, man, didn't you ring and tell us?"
Grantline demanded. "Destroyed--only that! Just destroyed."
"I was afraid to leave my instruments," Waters said. "How could I
tell? I might be able to renew connections with Washington any minute.
Come on in. Do you want to try the Benson curve-light, Mr. Haljan?"
"Yes," I said. "I do." We entered the dim helio cubby. "See here,
Waters, what about the projectile that ascended from Earth last night?
Did the Washington observatory report what happened to it?"
"No, not a word. They lost it, evidently."
Our 'scopes on the _Cometara_ had not been able to locate the
projectile. The large instruments of Earth had lost it. Was that
because, with tremendous velocity, it had sped directly for the new
planet out beyond Mars?
Or, with some form of invisibility, might it be close to us now, just
as the lurking ship might be somewhere around here?
From the little circular helio cubby, perched here under the dome like
an eagle's nest, I could see down all the length of the ship, and out
the side ports of the dome to the blazing firmament. The Sun, Moon and
Earth and all the starfield were silently turning as Drac swung us
upon our new course.
Waters bent over the projector of the Benson curve-light, making
connections. The cubby was silent and dim, with only a tiny spotlight
where Waters was working, and a glow upon his table where his recent
messages from Earth were filed. Grantline and I glanced at them.
Panic in Greater New York, Grebhar, and Ferrok-Shahn. The three
strange beams which the enemy had planted on Earth, Venus and Mars
still remained unchanged. I could see them now plainly from the helio
cubby windows, great shafts of radiance sweeping the firmament.
Waters straightened from his task. "That will do it, Mr. Haljan." He
met me in the center of the cubby. "When you locate the enemy, do you
think they'll destroy us as they did those other ships?"