of carefully drawn maps, they went directly to the largest city of
the West Coast, San Francisco. There they hung, high in air, their
mighty glowing spheres a magnificent sight, motionless, like some
mighty menace that hangs, ever ready to fall in terrible doom on the
victim beneath. For perhaps an hour they hung thus, motionless, then
there dropped from them the first of the atomic bombs. Tiny they were.
No man saw them fall; only the effects were visible, and they were
visible as a mighty chasm yawned in sudden eruption where solid earth
had been before. One landed in the Golden Gate. After that it looked
as a child's dam might look--a wall of mud and pebbles. But pictures
and news reels of the destruction of that city tell far more than any
wordy description can. Once it had been destroyed by earthquake and
fire, and had been built up again, but no phenomenon of Nature could
be so terrible as was that destruction. Now it was being pulverized by
titanic explosions, fused by mighty heat rays, and disintegrated by
the awful force of the cathode rays. We can think only of that chaos
of slashing, searing heat rays, the burning violet of pencil-like
cathode rays, and the frightful explosions of the atomic bombs. It took
them just sixteen minutes to destroy that city, as no city has been
destroyed in all the history of the Earth. Only the spot in desert
Nevada where the last battle was fought was to be more frightfully
torn. But in all that city of the dead there was none of the suffering
that had accompanied the other destruction; there were none to suffer;
it was complete, instantaneous. Death itself is kind, but the way to
death is thorny, and only those who pass quickly, as did these, find it
a happy passing.
And then for perhaps a half hour more the great ships hung high above
the still glowing ruins, supported on those blazing globes of ionized
air. Then suddenly the entire fleet, in perfect formation, turned and
glided majestically southward. The thousands of people of Los Angeles
went mad when this news reached them. All seemed bent on escaping
from the city at the same time, and many escaped by death. It took
the Martians twelve minutes to reach Los Angeles, and then the mighty
shadows of their hulls were spread over the packed streets, over the
thousands of people that struggled to leave.
But the Martians did not destroy that city. For two hours they hung
motionless above, then glided slowly on.
* * * * *
All that day they hung over the state of California, moving from point
to point with such apparently definite intention, it seemed they must
be investigating some already known land. No more damage did they do
unless they were molested. But wherever a gun spoke, a stabbing beam
of heat reached down, caressed the spot, and left only a smoking,
glowing pit of molten rock. A bombing plane that had climbed high in
anticipation of their coming landed a great bomb directly on the back
of one of the great ships. The explosion caused the mighty machine to
stagger, but the tough wall was merely dented. An instant later there
was a second explosion as the remaining bombs and the gasoline of the
plane were set off by a pencil of glowing cathode rays. But when no
resistance was offered, the Martian fleet soared smoothly overhead,
oblivious of man, till at last they turned and started once more for
the landing place in Nevada.
The last work on the projectors had been finished by noon that day, and
they were installed in the ship immediately. Then came the test.
Again the "Terrestrian" floated lightly in the air outside the hangar,
and again the pile of ingots leaped into the air to hang motionless,
suspended by the gravity beam. Then came another beam, a beam of pale
violet light that reached down to touch the bars with a caressing bath
of violet radiance--a moment they glowed thus, then their hard outlines
seemed to soften, to melt away, as still glowing, they expanded, grew
larger. Inside of ten seconds the ingots of tungsten, each weighing
over two hundred pounds, were gone. They had gone as a vapor of
individual crystals; so gone that no eye could see them! The ray was a
complete success, and now as the "Terrestrian" returned to its place
under Waterson's skilful guidance, the men felt a new confidence in
their weapon! The projectors of the disintegration ray had not yet been
fitted with the polished iridium shields, and without these they would
be vulnerable to heat rays.
It was during the installation of these that the accident happened.
Wright had already put the left front projector shield in place, and
was beginning on the right, but the small ladder from which he worked
rested against the polished iridium surface of the car, and as this
was rounded, he did not have a very secure perch. The shield weighed
close to a hundred pounds, for iridium is the heaviest known metal, and
it was constructed of inch-thick plates. While trying to swing one of
these heavy shields into place, the changed direction of the force on
the ladder caused it to slip, and a moment later Wright had fallen to
the floor.
The heavy shield had landed beneath him, and his weight falling on top,
had broken his right arm. Wright would be unable to operate any of the
mechanism of the "Terrestrian," which required all eyes, arms and legs
to work successfully. While Waterson installed the remaining shields,
Gale hurried Wright to the nearest town in Waterson's monoplane.
It was three-thirty by the time he returned, and Waterson had mounted
the shields. His great strength and size made the task far easier for
him, and the work had been completed, and the shields finally polished,
and welded in place.
The entire afternoon the radio had been bringing constant reports of
the progress of the Martians. As they were doing no damage now, and
were over a densely populated district, where any battle such as would
result should the "Terrestrian" attack them would surely destroy a
considerable amount of valuable property, Waterson decided to wait till
they had left California. To the west was the ocean, and a conflict
there would do no damage. To the east was the desert, and to the
south was the sparsely settled regions of low property value. Only to
the north would the value of the property be prohibitive to a final
encounter.
When, at about five, news came that the Martians were returning to the
desert landing spot in Nevada, Waterson at once set out to intercept
them, and as his tiny car was prepared and waiting, the Martian armada
came in sight, at first mere glistening points far off across the
purple desert hills, but approaching hundreds of miles an hour.
Yet it seemed hours while those glowing points neared, grew and became
giant ships, though still miles away. When at last the leader of the
Martian fleet came within about a half mile of its tiny opponent,
without slowing its rapid flight, there sprang from its nose a glowing
violet beam that reached out like a glowing finger of death to touch
the machine ahead. But that machine was strongly charged with a
tremendous negative potential, and the cathode ray was deflected and
passed harmless, far to one side.
[Illustration: _ ... but three great hulks dived, and in a dive that
ended in flaming wreckage on the packed sands, ten miles below._]
And now the "Terrestrian" went into action, retreating before the
bull-like rush of its mighty opponents. The twenty great ships were
drawn up in a perfect line formation, a semicircle, that each might be
able to use its weapons with the greatest effect without interfering
with its neighbor. Now from the gleaming ship ahead there sprang
out a dull red beam, a beam that reached out to touch and caress
the advancing ships. Six mighty ships it touched, and those six
mighty ships continued their bull rush without control, spreading
consternation in the ordered rank, for in each the pilot room had
instantly become a mass of flame and glowing metal under the influence
of the heat ray. The other fourteen ships had swerved at once, diving
wildly lest that beam of red death reach them, but three great hulks
dived, and in a dive that ended in flaming wreckage on the packed
sands, ten miles below. The other three ships that had felt that deadly
ray regained control before touching the earth, but those three that
went down, mighty cathode rays streaming, struck and formed great
craters in the sand.
* * * * *
But again that ray of death stabbed out, for one Martian had
incautiously exposed his control room, and in an instant it too was
diving. The mighty ray tubes forcing it on, it plunged headlong, with
ever greater velocity to the packed sands below. An instant later there
was a titanic concussion, an explosion that made the mighty Martians
rock, and stagger drunkenly as the blast of air rushed up, and a great
crater, a full half mile across, yawned in the earth's surface. Every
atomic bomb in that ship had gone off!
The three ships that had been rayed retreated now, and left thirteen
active ships to attack the "Terrestrian." The shield had been placed
long before, and now as the Martians concentrated their heat rays on
the glistening point before them, it was unaffected. While they were
practically blind, they could not risk an exposure to that heat ray.
"Steve, I thought that heat ray was entirely cut out by the heat
eliminator. How is it I could see your beam?"
"You can't see heat anyhow--and it does cut out all the infra-red rays.
The reason you can see that beam is that I send a bit of red light with
it so I can aim it."
Again the Martians had drawn up into a semicircle, with the
"Terrestrian" at the centre, and now there suddenly appeared at the bow
of each a flash of violet light. At the same instant the ship before
them shot straight up with a terrific acceleration--and it was well
it did! Almost immediately there was an explosion that made even the
gargantuan Martian ships reel, though they were over ten miles from the
spot where the explosion occurred.
"Nice--they use a potassium salt in their explosive, Dave. See the
purple color of the cannon flame?"
"Yes, but why not use the atomic energy to drive the shells as well as
to explode them?"
"They couldn't make a cannon stand that explosion--but move--he's
trying to crash us."
The Martians seemed intent on ramming the tiny ship that floated so
unperturbed before them. Now three great ships were coming at them.
Suddenly there was a sharp rattle of the machine gun, then as that
stopped, the "Terrestrian" shot away, backed away from the Martians at
a terrific speed. Gale had never seen the explosive bullets work, and
now when the three leading Martian ships seemed suddenly, quietly, to
leap into a thousand ragged pieces, giant masses of metal that flew off
from the ruptured ship at terrific speed, and with force that made them
crash through the thick walls of their sister ship, it seemed magic.
Those great ships seemed irresistible. Then suddenly they flew into a
thousand great pieces. But all was quiet. No mighty concussion sounded.
Only the slight flash of light as the ships split open. Titanic ships
had been there--a deadly menace that came crashing down at them--then
they were not there! And more, another ship had been crushed by a great
flying piece of metal. Only the fact that these three had been well in
front of the rest had saved the main part of the Martian fleet. The
atomic generators of the one ship must have been utterly destroyed,
for the great, glowing spheres of ionized air that showed the cathode
rays to be working, had died, and the great ship was settling, still
on an even keel, held upright by the gyroscopes that stabilized it, but
falling, falling ever faster and faster to the earth, over twelve miles
below.
"Steve--did--did I do that? Why didn't I hear the explosion?"
"You sure did, Dave, and made a fine job of it--three hits out of three
shots--in fact four hits with three shots. The sound of the explosion
can travel through air, but we are in free space."
But nine ships still remained active of the original twenty of the
Martian Armada, and these nine seemed bent on an immediate end to
this battle. This tiny thing was deadly! Deadly beyond their wildest
dreams--if it continued to operate, they wouldn't--it must be destroyed.
Again they attacked, but now the cathode rays were streaming before
them, a great shield of flaming blue light. Again the thin red beam
of death reached out, caressed the ships--and the pilot room became a
mass of flames. But they had learned that the ships were controlled
from some other part; they were coming smoothly on! Again came the
sputtering pop of the machine gun. But it, too, seemed useless--the
mighty explosions occurred far from their goal--the cathode rays were
setting off the shells. And now one of the nine left the rank and shot
at the "Terrestrian" with a sudden burst of speed. On it came at a
terrific speed--one mile--three quarters--a half----
* * * * *
Then there came a new ray from the bow of the tiny glistening ship. It
seemed a tiny cathode ray, as it glowed blue in the ionized air, but,
like the ship, it was strangely an iridescent violet--and as it touched
the hurtling Martian, the great ship glowed violet, the color seemed
to spread and flow over it, then it stopped. The ship was no longer
glowing--and the strange ray ceased. But where the titanic, hurtling
ship had been a moment before, was a slight clouding--and a few solid
specks--small--the ship was utterly destroyed!
The other Martians withdrew. Here was something they could not
understand. Heat they knew--explosions they knew--but this dissolution
of a titanic ship--thousands of tons of matter--and in a fraction of a
second--it was new; it seemed incredible.
But now again they formed themselves--this time they made a mighty
cube, the eight ships, each at one corner--and five miles on a side
the mighty cube advanced, till the "Terrestrian" formed a center to
it. Now the great ships slowly closed in--but still the glistening
ship remained in the center. There was plenty of room to escape--then
suddenly, as the cube contracted to a three mile side, it moved.
Instantly there came from all the great ships around it, a low but
tremendously powerful hum--such a hum as one could hear around a
power sub-station in the old days--the hum of transformers--and
the tiny ship suddenly stopped--then reversed, shot back to the
center of that mighty cube, and hung there! Now swiftly the cube was
contracting--and still the tiny car hung there! It was jerking--but it
moved only a few hundred feet each time--then suddenly it started--went
faster--faster--then there was a distinct jar as it slowed down--almost
reversed--but again it continued. At last it shot outside the wall of
that cube and shot away with a terrific acceleration.
"Whew--Dave, they almost got us that time! That was a stunt I
had never thought of--though I can see how it is done. They have
tremendously powerful alternating current magnets on each of those
ships. This car is non-magnetic, but a conductor, so there are induced
in it powerful currents. You notice how hot it has grown in here--you
can scarcely breathe--they induced terrific currents in our outer as
well as in our inner shell. The result was that we were repelled from
the powerful magnets. They were placed at the corners of a cube, so the
only place that we could stay in equilibrium was in the exact center.
When I tried to escape, I had to go nearer one of the poles, and the
repelling force became greater. Then the ships on the far side shut
off their magnets, so that they no longer repelled me--and I started
to fall back--but I was able to pull out. The terrific acceleration
I got just after leaving the cube was due to the repulsion of their
magnets. You see it was very sizable! Had I had atomic energy only,
I would never have gotten out of that field of force. I can, because
of my material energy, escape every time. See--they are going to try
again--let them--when they get close, we can turn on the disintegration
ray and pick off the top ships. Then the bottom ships!"
Again the "Terrestrian" was held in that titanic field of force--that
field was so great that all magnetic compasses all over the Earth were
deflected, and the currents induced in the telephone lines, telegraph
lines, power transformers and all other apparatus were so great that
many lines in the vicinity were melted. The cube contracted to a mile
dimension before the glowing, iridescent ray of death reached out to
dissolve that first ship--then a second--a third--a fourth--and the
Martians were in the wildest confusion--the cathode rays prevented
the "Terrestrian's" bombs from striking, but it also made their own
projectiles useless. They had been sent to conquer this new planet
for their race--and they were failing. They could not rush that tiny
ship--for the deadly disintegration ray would only destroy the ship
before they had had a chance to crash into the "Terrestrian." It seemed
hopeless, but they tried once more.
Now from every side the ships of the Martians came at their tiny
opponent, mighty hurtling hulks of hundreds of thousands of tons--it
seemed they must get that tiny ship--there seemed no opening. The
three damaged ships had joined in this last attempt--and as the seven
gargantuan ships charged down at the "Terrestrian," there sprang from
it again the pale beam of disintegration--and one of the four remaining
undamaged ships ceased to exist. The gap was closed--another ship
was gone--and a third flashed into nothingness as the tiny opponent
swung that deadly beam--then it was free--and turning to meet the four
remaining Martians.
But now they turned--and started up--up--up. They were leaving Earth!
And now, as the blazing sun sank below the far horizon of distant
purple hills, one faltered, the burning violet spheres went dark, and
it plunged faster and faster into the darkness below--down from the
glowing light of the ruddy sun into the deep shadow far below--down to
the shadow of Death--for the damaged generators had failed. And as that
last great ship crashed on the far sands, the violet globes of light of
the others were dying in the rare air far from Earth. The Martians had
come, had seen and had been conquered!
"Steve--they are going--we have won. This planet is ours now--man has
proven it. But they may bring reinforcements--are you going to let them
go?"
"No, Dave, I have one more thing I want to do. I want to give an object
lesson."
The tiny ship set off in the wake of the defeated giants--faster and
faster. It was overhauling them--and at last it did--just beyond the
orbit of the Moon. The undamaged ship was leading the train of four
ships as they went back. Their world must have been watching--must have
seen that battle--must have known. And now they were returning.
* * * * *
As the tiny ship came up to them the Martians turned at bay it
seemed--and waited. Then from the tiny ship before them there came a
new ray--invisible here in space--but a ray that caught and pulled the
great ship it touched--the undamaged ship. In an instant it was falling
toward the "Terrestrian"--then its great cathode tubes were turned
on--invisible here in space also. Now it stopped, started away--but
greater and greater became the force on it. It was a colossal tug of
war! The giant seemed an easy victor--but the giant had the forces of
atoms--and the smaller had the energy of matter to drive against it. It
was a battle of Titanic forces, with space itself the battleground, and
the great ship of the Martians was pulling, not against the small ship,
but against space itself, for the equalizing space distorting apparatus
took all tension from the "Terrestrian" itself. The great cathode
ray tubes were working at full power now, yet still, inexorably,
the Martian was following the "Terrestrian!" Faster they were going
now--accelerating--despite the mighty cathode rays of the Martians!
Of that awful trip through space and the terrible moments we had in
the depths of space, you know. At times it seemed we must annihilate
our giant prisoner, but always Waterson's skilful dodging avoided the
bull rushes of the Martian. He would strain back with all available
tubes, then suddenly turn all his force the other way--try to crash
into us. It was a terrible trip--but toward the end he had decided to
follow--and came smoothly. The strain of expecting some treachery kept
us in suspense. Two weeks that long trip to Venus took. Two of the most
awful weeks of my life. But two weeks in which I learned to marvel at
that ship--learned to wonder at the terrific and constantly changing
tugs it received--terrific yanks to avoid the hurtling tons of the
Martian. I thought it must surely weaken under that continued strain,
but it held. We had to get whatever sleep we could in the chairs. No
food could be cooked, the sudden jerks threw us in all directions when
we least expected it--but at last we reached the hot, steaming planet.
Glad I was to see it, too!
The "Terrestrian" left its giant prisoner there, and as it rose through
the hot, moist air it rose in a blaze of glowing color, for every
available projector on its tiny surface had been turned on as a light
projector--it was a beautiful salute as we left, red, blue, orange,
green--every color of the spectrum blazed as a great, glowing finger of
colored light in the misty air.
It took us but three days to return--Waterson admitted he went at a
rate that was really unsafe--he had to put in another charge in the
fuel distributer--water--and it held nearly a pint, too.
When at last we reached Arizona again, Wright was there to greet
us--and so were delegates of every nation. It was supposed to be a
welcoming committee, but every one of the delegates had something to
say about why the secret of material energy should really be given to
his country.
Waterson refused to give out the secret of that energy though. He
demanded that the nations scrap every instrument of war, and then meet
in the first Terrestrial Congress and write laws that might apply
material energy to the ends of man, not to the ending of man!
It seems strange, the persistence with which the governments of the
world held fast to those old battleships and guns! They were hopelessly
useless now, yet they would not agree to that term of the agreement! It
required Waterson's famous ultimatum to bring action.
"To the Governments of the Earth:
"For centuries and millenniums man has had wars. One reason has been
that he has had the tools of war. The tools of war are going to be
abolished now. Every armored cruiser, battleship, destroyer, submarine,
aircraft carrier and all other types of war craft will be taken to
the nearest port, and every gun, cannon or other weapon of more than
one mile range loaded on those ships. They will then be taken to the
nearest ocean, and sunk in water of a depth of at least one mile.
"In the first place the weapons would be useless. The ship I now have,
has shown that. There will be no economic loss as the type of power
they use is now obsolete. The iron and other materials they contain can
be produced directly by new methods that are simpler than salvaging
that metal. They are, however, curiosities that the future will be
interested in. The navy department of Japan will select the finest ship
of each type from each of the navies of any other country, and I will
then transport that ship to a selected spot well toward the center of
the Sahara desert where they will be set up as museums of naval history.
"This is to be done within seven days, or the 'Terrestrian' will do it
more completely. It must be done for the good of our race, and at last
there is a power that can get it done--the 'Terrestrian!'"
Needless to say, it was done. We all know the result. No armies meant
no national spirit--no race jealousies can exist unless there is some
one to stir them up, and now it is to the benefit of no one to do so!
The laws that made possible the application of Waterson's new energies
are well known--and this manuscript is not the place for quotation
of international and interplanetary law. It was a great problem, and
we must acknowledge the aid of the Martians in solving it. Their
experience in the application of atomic energy was immensely valuable.
The light beam communication that Waterson made possible has done as
much for us as have the energies he released.
And the peace that exists between these two races must always exist,
for they are the only neighbors Earth can ever have. And they did not
damage us much. We still feel a bit of dread of them I suppose, but
statistics have shown that the trouble man himself caused in his wild
panics did far more damage than did the Martian heat rays.
May God help these twin races, so close both in bodily form and place
of birth, to climb on in friendly rivalry toward better things through
the æons, as long as our sun can yet support life on the globes that
wheel around it, migrating from planet to planet as the race grows,
and the planets cool, settling on them as the Martians have settled on
Venus.
And thanks to Stephen Waterson's foresight and vision in establishing
the Supreme Council of Solar System Scientists, we dare hope this may
come true.
The End