The Battle of the Air-Cities
Now the hundred cruisers of our force were cleaving the air westward
at terrific speed, while Macklin and Hilliard and I stood together in
the bridge-room of the foremost as it rushed on. Beneath us, the gray
Atlantic showed here and there through openings in the vapor-masses,
and ahead the sun still hung in the western sky. And within a few
minutes more, we saw that the vapor-layer beneath was thinning, and
that now we were flashing not over the sea but over land; over green
hills and valleys that we could glimpse rushing past far beneath us. I
gazed to north and south in search of New York and the other coastal
air-cities that should have hung there, but nothing was in sight.
"All our American Federation air-cities," Macklin told me: "are massed
together, hanging south of the Great Lakes. From Buenos Aires to
Winnipeg, they've come."
"You think, then, that the European and Asiatic Federation air-cities
are going to make a simultaneous attack from both sides?" I shouted to
him above the roaring of our flight. He nodded emphatically.
"Undoubtedly. The Asiatic Federation cities are over the Pacific now,
and are keeping in touch with the European ones by distance-phone to
time their attack to coincide from east and west. They know our own
cities have massed together, must know now that they've been equipped
with the great new speed-tubes also; but they're coming on."
"Two to one," I said: "Two hundred air-cities attacking our one
hundred. God, what a battle it will be!"
But now Hilliard had broken into our conversation, was pointing far
ahead toward a dark, flat mass that stood out against the brilliant
western sky, and toward which we were moving. The terrific speed at
which we had been racing on for hours was decreasing now. Far beneath
the land was still rolling back at great speed, long green plains now;
since already we had flashed west over the Alleghanies. Then, as the
dark mass westward grew steadily with our approach to it, other ships
were driving suddenly beside our own, watchful patrols that drove down
upon our hundred cruisers and swiftly challenged them. Macklin answered
those challenges by the distance-phone, but for the moment I paid small
attention to him, gazing forward with heart beating rapidly at the
great mass that hung high in mid-air before us. For, as we drove closer
toward that mass, it was becoming visible to our eyes as our goal, the
hundred giant air-cities of the American Federation!
The hundred mighty American Federation air-cities were clustered there
miles above the green plains, in a great circular mass, with New York,
most colossal of all of them, at the center! Cities that had long
hung over North and South America from sea to sea, air-cities whose
names were those of the long-vanished cities of the land, that once
had dotted the surface of those continents. Boston and Los Angeles,
Rio de Janeiro and Chicago, Mexico City and Quebec, Valparaiso and
Miami--these and scores of others hung there in that great cluster.
All the air-cities of the American Federation were gathered here about
their air-capital of New York to withstand the tremendous attacks now
closing in from east and west!
Massed there as they were, the hundred mighty air-cities seemed, even
as the European ones had seemed to me, but one vast plain of metal
towers and streets. As far as the eye could reach, there stretched away
the tremendous forest of those soaring towers, with here and there
rising from them the taller spires of each city's great electrostatic
tower. And, everywhere among those towers, everywhere around the rim
of each great circular air-city and at its center there loomed great
batteries of giant heat-guns; while here and there, on the plazas
of the cities rested the turret-like cubes of the recalled great
air-forts, their own grim heat-guns protruding expectantly. And through
streets and towers, between the batteries and around the air-forts and
across the plazas of the assembled cities, there swarmed the millions
of their peoples, wild with excitement now as the last dread hour
approached. And, massed there above all the great floating cities,
hung grim and motionless the two thousand or more cruisers that still
remained of the American Federation's eastern and western fleets.
It was toward these massed battle-cruisers, at a level somewhat higher
than that of the air-cities, that our own hundred cruisers were
rushing. Over those assembled giant cities we raced, the great mass of
them below us almost hiding the ground beneath. As we shot above them,
I saw now that they had been ranged in a tremendous circle, the great
capital of New York hanging in the center. Across the great ring of
the air-cities we rushed; were racing at last above New York, toward
its own giant power-tower. Then we had reached it, and were sinking
vertically downward, until our hundred cruisers came to rest upon the
central plaza. Here, even as in Berlin, the central plaza was reserved
always for the ships of the First Air Chief and his followers; so that,
although immense crowds now beat through all the streets and plazas
about it, there were none around our hundred ships. And in an instant
Macklin and Hilliard and I were out of that which had brought us and
hastening across the clear space toward the static-tower's base.
Preparations
On past its guards and through the ante-rooms we strode, and in another
moment were in the office of the First Air Chief. There was unfamiliar
apparatus among the great switchboards of its walls, I noted as we
entered. The First Air Chief himself had risen from his great table-map
as we entered and was coming toward us; beside him, another figure,
whom I recognized instantly as Connell. Then both of them were grasping
the hands of Hilliard and of myself.
"Brant!" Yarnall was exclaiming: "I got Macklin's report of your escape
and his rescue of you--man, but I'm glad that you got free! And it was
what you did there in Berlin, what you did to help Connell and Macklin
escape, that has enabled us to use Connell's knowledge and fit our
air-cities for the coming battle!"
"I did no more than the others," I told him: "But you know of the
enemy's coming then? You know that already the European Federation
cities are on their way?"
He nodded. "They and the Asiatic Federation's cities from the westward,
Brant," he said: "And we are awaiting them here--awaiting them with a
chance at least, thanks to you four--to strike back at them when they
come. And already they are near--by the map here you can see--"
And he turned toward the great table-map upon which was depicted the
whole of the earth's surface, the red circles upon it denoting as
before the position of the air-cities that hung above it. Now, however,
all the circles of the American Federation cities were massed together
south of the white outline of the Great Lakes, hanging motionless as
the cities around us were hanging motionless. Away to the east on the
map, though, just moving in from the Atlantic over the eastern coast,
there was creeping across the map another mass of red circles, moving
slowly toward our own, that represented the great gathered cities of
the European Federation that were rushing westward toward us. And in
from the Pacific was creeping a similar mass of a hundred little red
circles that were, I knew, the Asiatic Federation's cities.
From east and west they were moving, there on the map, moving even
as the cities they represented moved through the air, automatically
showing their positions and progress. This was accomplished, I knew,
by means of special batteries of cruiser-finders, tuned and trained
to detect the great electrostatic-motors of air-cities, and recording
instantly thus whenever those cities moved with their great electric
fields. Their records were carried through complicated mechanical
calculators which plotted the exact positions and movements of the
cities; and these calculators, in turn, were connected to small special
projectors set beneath the great ground-glass table-map, casting upward
upon it the red circles of the air-cities. Thus those red circles moved
upon the map, even as the great air-cities moved across the world.
This arrangement, indeed, was of no late date, and was used by both
European and Asiatic Federations as well as by ourselves; but as I
gazed now about the great circular room I saw that within it were some
new arrangements also. These consisted of a series of six great glass
screens which were arranged in box-like form about the great air-city's
controls at the room's center. And, while the First Air Chief swiftly
explained to us their purpose and design, I saw that one sitting inside
their box-form, with four on four sides, and one above and one below,
could see in all those directions as though from the very top of the
great power-tower. For they were in effect great electrical periscopes;
four great similar screens had been set on four sides of the
electrostatic tower's high tip, and another one above that tip, while
the sixth had been set in the under-side of the great city's base. The
views possible to those six screens were then transferred down to the
six there about us; the light-vibrations that struck the screens above
and beneath being transformed by television receivers into electrical
vibrations and brought down to television reproducers behind our own
six screens.
Sitting there at the city's controls, amid those six screens and
looking into them, one could see as clearly as though from the
power-tower's tip in all directions. It was quite necessary, too, that
this should be the case; since the man who operated the great air-city,
from its six direction-controls and its single speed-control there,
must see clearly in all directions, now that the great air-cities could
rush at such tremendous speed through the air. When I said as much to
the First Air Chief, who had turned now and was gazing intently at the
great table-map upon which the eastern and western masses of circles
were slowly creeping toward our own, he nodded, and contemplated me for
a moment with a curious expression.
"The man," he said finally, "who is to hold the controls of New York in
the battle tomorrow, will be you, Brant!"
"The honor is great," I said: "I've operated the city's controls,
though never did I expect to take it into battle. But Macklin and
Hilliard here--I want them to stay here for the time being--I want the
hundred cruisers on the plaza outside to stay there during the battle."
"You have a plan?" the First Air Chief asked, but I shook my head.
"No more than an idea," I said: "An idea that may help us if the battle
goes against us, if their attack is too strong for us. Even then it is
too insane, perhaps, to be of any use, but it might help us--"
Yarnall nodded assent, and then Macklin and Hilliard had joined the
two dozen or more of black-garbed attendants and engineers who were
busy at the great switchboards that lined the circular room's walls.
They scrutinized its dials to determine the rate of the vast currents
rushing down from the power-tower's tip far above to the motors in
the city's great base; added a fresh battery of transformers or threw
in resistances to hold that current steady; and moved ceaselessly
about the walls in their anxious watch. Now, Yarnall and Connell and
I were marking our own places, the three metal seats there behind the
big table-map, with the great screens of the electrical periscopes
all about us. Yarnall would sit in the center, with eyes upon the red
circles on the great map, tensely watching their progress, as admiral
of our mighty fleet of colossal cities, ready to direct it and our
cruisers to the battle. Connell would be at his right, before him the
black mouthpiece and speaker of a single distance-phone. Behind that
were the scores of switches and intricate controls, which connected
that distance-phone to the operators of all our hundred air-cities.
The Battle Nears
As the third of the trio, I would sit at Yarnall's left, before me the
six switch-levers which sent the colossal city of New York whirling
through the air in any direction; while beside them was the gleaming
knob which regulated the city's speed. The great batteries of New York
were at my command also; all their mighty heat-guns around the city's
edge and around our electrostatic tower and elsewhere were controlled
by the distance-phone whose mouthpiece rose before me. The great
batteries of all our other cities were controlled in the same way by
their own operators, and were subject like New York to the commands
of the First Air Chief beside me, who could maneuver our whole great
armada of tremendous cities at will through the air. In the city of San
Francisco, too, we knew, was the Second Air Chief, placed there to take
command in case New York were destroyed or the First Air Chief disabled.
Thus, on the morrow were grouped we three, who were to sway such
colossal forces in a battle as no men had seen before. Now, Yarnall was
pointing to the table-map's surface, where the red massed circles of
the European and Asiatic Federation armadas were indicated but a few
hundred miles on either side of our own great mass of cities. Watching
them there, we sat in silence, save for the clicking of occasional
switches by the engineers about us. From far away, far across New York
and all the other air-cities gathered around it, there was coming the
dull, dim throbbing of the life of millions that swarmed through those
cities. And now Yarnall reached forward and touched the control of the
great electrical periscopes whose screens boxed us in.
Instantly those dull-glass screens were alive with light, and it was as
though we were gazing forth from the very tip of the power-tower out
over our gathered mass of cities. North and east and south and west,
from all the screens about us the views were alike, of a tremendous
mass of clustered metal towers that encircled New York. Below us was
the screen, above which our metal seats were suspended on supports. It
seemed a trap-door through which we were gazing down toward the green
plains far beneath; though in reality all the city's massive base lay
between us and that view. So intensely realistic was the scene that lay
about us that we all but forgot the great circular room in which we
really were, and seemed suspended high in air above the great mass of
our gathered air-cities.
"The enemy armadas," said Yarnall, his voice low, "will be in sight
within fifteen minutes."
For upon the map the two masses of red circles were rushing on from
east and west, and seemed now almost upon the mass of circles that was
our own great fleet of cities. Looking out over those cities, through
the periscopic screens about us, we could see the forts raising their
great guns to firing range. I realized, as I saw it, that the battle
now ready to start would mean annihilation to half the world. This was
indeed Armageddon, when on earth itself was left no human being at
peace; when every nation was rushing through the air toward this last
conflict!
Now, however, Yarnall touched another control, and from the
electrostatic tower's tip, high above us flashed great signals
of brilliant lights that were taken up and repeated from all the
power-towers of all the hundred cities that ringed us round. And, as
those signals flashed, the great crowds that filled the streets of the
air-cities were suddenly flowing out of those streets into the cities'
towers; until within a few moments none were visible in all the streets
and plazas, save those black-uniformed men who stood ready at the great
heat-guns of our batteries. And those crowds went quietly, despite
their tense excitement, because they knew that they were being ordered
inside for their greater protection. There was no refuge upon the
earth's surface far beneath, for them; when the destructive powers of
all the world were battling above it in the air.
Then the First Air Chief spoke a brief order and, as Connell beside him
repeated it swiftly into the distance-phone (as he did with Yarnall's
orders in all the combat that followed) the great fleet of cruisers
hanging above us and visible in our top screen divided into two masses,
of a thousand or more ships each, which swept swiftly to east and west.
Beyond the great ring of air-cities they leaped, until they were far
out; and each division then formed into a great curving line screening
our ring of cities to east and west, facing the fleets rushing toward
them from those directions. Then we were gazing again at the table-map
before us, a deathly silence seeming to grip all the world. Upon that
map we could see the European and Asiatic armadas were now within
hardly more than a hundred miles of our own; and tensely we watched the
east and western screens now, gazing out beyond our cities.
"They'll use their cruiser-fleets for their first attack," Yarnall was
saying as we gazed tensely forth. "They'll try to wipe out our cruisers
before they bring their cities on to attack ours."
I nodded. "It would give them a big advantage when the cities come to
blows. But our cruisers beat them back once with the odds two to one,
and now--"
I broke off sharply, and at the same moment heard a low breath from
Yarnall and Connell simultaneously, felt seemingly a low tremor that
seemed to run instantaneously across all our massed air-cities. For
there, far to the westward, black against the sky, there had appeared
a line of far-flung black dots that were growing very quickly in size,
and that were massed together in a crescent formation whose horns were
toward us. It was the advancing cruiser-fleet of the Asiatic Federation
forces. Tensely we watched it as it came on; then we looked to the
east to see a similar crescent of advancing dots, the European cruiser
fleet. On they came, smoothly rushing toward our own lines of cruisers,
hanging to the east and west of our cities; and then for the moment we
forgot them as we made out, to east and west, behind them, advancing
toward us, great black masses that even at that distance seemed to fill
the air. They were the two massed mighty armadas of the European and
Asiatic Federation's air-cities, rushing to battle with our own!