UNDEFEATABLE OR UNCONTROLLABLE?
Fifteen minutes after they started, they came to Shesto. They were
forced to land, and explain, for their relux ship was decidedly not the
popular Talsonian idea of a life-saver.
Shesto was defended by two of the machines, and each machine had been
equipped with two fully charged accumulators. Their four possible shots
were hoped to be sufficient protection, and, so far, had been. The city
had been attacked twice, according to Tho Stan Drel, the Talsonian: once
by a single ship which had been instantly destroyed, and once by a fleet
of six ships. The interval had permitted time to recharge the discharged
accumulator, and the fleet had been badly treated. Of the six ships,
four had been brought down in rapid succession, and the remaining two
ships had fled.
When the first city had been wiped out, with a loss of life well in the
hundreds of thousands, the other cities had, to limit of their
abilities, set up the protective apparatus. Apparently the Thessians
were holding off for the present.
"In a way," said Morey seriously, "it was distinctly fortunate that we
were attacked almost at once. Their instantaneous system of destruction
would have worked for the one shot needed to send the _Ancient Mariner_
to eternal blazes." He laughed, but it was a slightly nervous laugh.
The terrestrial ship landed in a great grassy court, and out of respect
for the parklike smoothness of the turf, Arcot left the ship on its
power units, suspended a bit above the surface. Then he, Morey and the
Talsonian left the ship. Zezdon Afthen was left with the ship and with
Wade in charge, for if some difficulties were encountered, Wade would be
able to help them with the ship, and Zezdon Afthen with the tremendous
power of his thought locating apparatus, was busy seeking out the
Thessian stronghold.
A party of men of Talso met the terrestrians outside the ship.
"Welcome, Men of another world, and to you go our thanks for the
destruction of one of our enemies." The clear thoughts of the spokesman
evinced his ability to concentrate.
"And to your world must go our thanks for saving of our lives, and more
important, our ship," replied Arcot. "For the ship represents a thing of
enormous value to this entire star-system."
"I see--understand--your--thoughts that you wish to learn more of this
weapon we use. You understand that it is a question among us as to
whether it is undefeatable, uncontrollable or just un-understandable. We
have had fair success with it. It is not a weapon, was not developed as
such; it was an experiment in the line of electric-waves. How it works,
what it is, what happens--we do not know.
"But men who can create so marvelous a ship as this of yours, capable of
destroying a ship of the Thessians with their own weapons must certainly
be able to understand any machine we may make--and you have power?" he
finished eagerly.
"Practically infinite power. I will throw into any power line you
suggest, all the direct current you wish." Arcot's thoughts were pure
reflection, but the Talsonian brightened at once.
"I feared it might be alternating--but we can handle direct current. All
our transmission is done at high voltage direct current. What potential
do you generate? Will we have to install changers?"
"We generate D.C. at any voltage up to fifty million, any power up to
that needed to lift ten trillion men through their own height in this
time a second." The power represented approximately twenty trillion
horsepower.
The Talsonian's face went blank with amazement as he looked at the ship.
"In that tiny thing you generate such power?" he asked in amazement.
"In that tiny ship we generate more than one million times that power,"
Arcot said.
"Our power troubles are over," declared the military man emphatically.
"Our troubles are not over," replied a civilian who had joined the
party, with equal emphasis. "As a matter of fact, they are worse than
ever. More tantalizing. What he says means that we have a tremendous
power source, but it is in one spot. How are you going to transmit the
power? We can't possibly move any power anywhere near that amount. We
couldn't touch it to our lines without having them all go up in one
instantaneous blaze of glory.
"We cannot drain such a lake of power through our tiny power pipes of
silver."
"This man is Stel Felso Theu," said Tho Stan Drel. "The greatest of our
scientists, the man who has invented this weapon which alone seems to
offer us hope. And I am afraid he is right. See, there is the
University. For the power requirements of their laboratories, a heavy
power line has been installed, and it was hoped that you could carry
leads into it." His face showed evident despair greater than ever.
"We can always feed some power into the lines. Let us see just what hope
there is. I think that it would be wiser to investigate the power lines
at once," suggested Morey.
Ten minutes later, with but a single officer now accompanying them, Tho
Stan Drel, the terrestrial scientist, and the Talsonian scientist were
inspecting the power installation.
They had entered a large stone building, into which led numerous very
heavy silver wires. The insulators were silicate glass. Their height
suggested a voltage of well over one hundred thousand, and such heavy
cables suggested a very heavy amperage, so that a tremendous load was
expected.
Within the building were a series of gigantic glass tubes, their walls
fully three inches thick, and even so, braced with heavy platinum rods.
Inside the tubes were tremendous elements such as the tiny tubes of
their machine carried. Great cables led into them, and now their heating
coils were glowing a somberly deep red.
Along the walls were the switchboards, dozens of them, all sizes, all
types of instruments, strange to the eyes of the terrestrians, and in
practically all the light-beam indicator system was used, no metallic
pointers, but tiny mirrors directing a very fine line of brilliant light
acted as a needle. The system thus had practically no inertia.
"Are these the changers?" asked Arcot gazing at the gigantic tubes.
"They are; each tube will handle up to a hundred thousand volts," said
Stel Felso Theu.
"But I fear, Stel Felso Theu, that these tubes will carry power only one
way; that is, it would be impossible for power to be pumped from here
into the power house, though the process can be reversed," pointed out
Arcot. "Radio tubes work only one way, which is why they can act as
rectifiers. The same was true of these tubes. They could carry power one
way only."
"True, of tubes in general," replied the Talsonian, "and I see by that
that you know the entire theory of our tubes, which is rather abstruse."
"We use them on the ship, in special form," interrupted Arcot.
"Then I will only say that the college here has a very complete electric
power plant of its own. On special occasions, the power generated here
is needed by the city, and so we arranged the tubes with switches which
could reverse the flow. At present they are operating to pour power into
the city.
"If your ship can generate such tremendous power, I suspect that it
would be wiser to eliminate the tubes from the circuit, for they put
certain restrictions on the line. The main power plant in the city has
tube banks capable of handling anything the line would. I suggest that
your voltage be set at the maximum that the line will carry without
breakdown, and the amperage can be made as high as possible without heat
loss."
"Good enough. The line to the city power will stand what pressure?"
"It is good for the maximum of these tubes," replied the Talsonian.
"Then get into communication with the city plant and tell them to
prepare for every work-unit they can carry. I'll get the generator."
Arcot turned, and flew on his power suit to the ship.
In a few moments he was back, a molecular pistol in one hand, and
suspended in front of him on nothing but a ray of ionized air, to all
appearances, a cylindrical apparatus, with a small cubical base.
The cylinder was about four feet long, and the cubical box about
eighteen inches on a side.
"What is that, and what supports it?" asked the Talsonian scientists in
surprise.
"The thing is supported by a ray which directs the molecules of a small
bar in the top clamp, driving it up," explained Morey, "and that is the
generator."
"That! Why it is hardly as big as a man!" exclaimed the Talsonian.
"Nevertheless, it can generate a billion horsepower. But you couldn't
get the power away if you did generate it." He turned toward Arcot, and
called to him.
"Arcot--set it down and let her rip on about half a million horsepower
for a second or so. Air arc. Won't hurt it--she's made of lux and
relux."
Arcot grinned, and set it on the ground. "Make an awful hole in the
ground."
"Oh--go ahead. It will satisfy this fellow, I think," replied Morey.
Arcot pulled a very thin lux metal cord from his pocket, and attached
one end of a long loop to one tiny switch, and the other to a second.
Then he adjusted three small dials. The wire in hand, he retreated to a
distance of nearly two hundred feet, while Morey warned the Talsonians
back. Arcot pulled one end of his cord.
Instantly a terrific roar nearly deafened the men, a solid sheet of
blinding flame reached in a flaming cone into the air for nearly fifty
feet. The screeching roar continued for a moment, then the heat was so
intense that Arcot could stand no more, and pulled the cord. The flame
died instantly, though a slight ionization clung briefly. In a moment it
had cooled to white, and was cooling slowly through orange--red
deep--red--
The grass for thirty feet about was gone, the soil for ten feet about
was molten, boiling. The machine itself was in a little crater, half
sunk in boiling rock. The Talsonians stared in amazement. Then a sort of
sigh escaped them and they started forward. Arcot raised his molecular
pistol, a blue green ray reached out, and the rock suddenly was black.
It settled swiftly down, and a slight depression was the only evidence
of the terrific action.
Arcot walked over the now cool rock, cooled by the action of the
molecular ray. In driving the molecules downward, the work was done by
the heat of these molecules. The machine was frozen in the solid lava.
"Brilliant idea, Morey," said Arcot disgustedly. "It'll be a nice job
breaking it loose."
Morey stuck the lux metal bar in the top clamp, walked off some
distance, and snapped on the power. The rock immediately about the
machine was molten again. A touch of the molecular pistol to the lux
metal bar, and the machine jumped free of the molten rock.
Morey shut off the power. The machine was perfectly clean, and extremely
hot.
"And your ship is made of that stuff!" exclaimed the Talsonian
scientist. "What will destroy it?"
"Your weapon will, apparently."
"But do you believe that we have power enough?" asked Morey with a
smile.
"No--it's entirely too much. Can you tone that condensed lightning bolt
down to a workable level?"