Skylark Three Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  The Zone of Force Is Tested

  Seaton strode into the control room with a small oblong box in his hand.Crane was seated at the desk, poring over an abstruse mathematicaltreatise in _Science_. Margaret was working upon a bit of embroidery.Dorothy, seated upon a cushion on the floor with one foot tucked underher, was reading, her hand straying from time to time to a box ofchocolates conveniently near.

  "Well, this is a peaceful, home-like scene--too bad to bust it up. Justfinished sealing off and flashing out this case, Mart. Going to see ifshe'll read. Want to take a look?"

  He placed the compass upon the plane table, so that its final bearingcould be read upon the master circles controlled by the gyroscopes; thensimultaneously started his stop-watch and pressed the button whichcaused a minute couple to be applied to the needle. Instantly the needlebegan to revolve, and for many minutes there was no apparent change inits motion in either the primary or secondary bearings.

  "Do you suppose it is out of order, after all?" asked Crane,regretfully.

  "I don't think so," Seaton pondered. "You see, they weren't designed toindicate such distances on such small objects as men, so I threw amillion ohms in series with the impulse. That cuts down the freerotation to less than half an hour, and increases the sensitivity to thelimit. There, isn't she trying to quit it?"

  "Yes, it is settling down. It must be on him still." Finally theultra-sensitive needle came to rest. When it had done so, Seatoncalculated the distance, read the direction, and made a reading uponOsnome.

  "He's there, all right. Bearings agree, and distances check to within alight-year, which is as close as we can hope to check on as small a massas a man. Well, that's that--nothing to do about it until after we getthere. One sure thing, Mart--we're not coming straight back home from'X'."

  "No, an investigation is indicated."

  "Well, that puts me out of a job. What to do? Don't want to study, likeyou. Can't crochet, like Peg. Darned if I'll sit cross-legged on apillow and eat candy, like that Titian blonde over there on the floor. Iknow what--I'll build me a mechanical educator and teach Shiro to talkEnglish instead of that mess of language he indulges in. How'd that be,Mart?"

  "Don't do it," put in Dorothy, positively. "He's just too perfect theway he is. Especially don't do it if he'd talk the way you do--or couldyou teach him to talk the way you write?"

  "Ouch! That's a dirty dig. However, Mrs. Seaton, I am able and willingto defend my customary mode of speech. You realize that the spoken wordis ephemeral, whereas the thought, whose nuances have once beenexpressed in imperishable print is not subject to revision--itscrudities can never be remodeled into more subtle, more graciousshading. It is my contention that, due to these inescapable conditions,the mental effort necessitated by the employment of nice distinctions insense and meaning of words and a slavish adherence to the dictates ofthe more precise grammarians should be reserved for the print...."

  He broke off as Dorothy, in one lithe motion, rose and hurled her pillowat his head.

  "Choke him, somebody! Perhaps you had better build it, Dick, after all."

  "I believe that he would like it, Dick. He is trying hard to learn, andthe continuous use of a dictionary is undoubtedly a nuisance to him."

  "I'll ask him. Shiro!"

  "You have call, sir?" Shiro entered the room from his galley, with hisunfailing bow.

  "Yes. How'd you like to learn to talk English like Crane theredoes--without taking lessons?"

  Shiro smiled doubtfully, unable to take such a thought seriously.

  "Yes, it can be done," Crane assured him. "Doctor Seaton can build amachine which will teach you all at once, if you like."

  "I like, sir, enormously, yes, sir. I years study and pore, buthonorable English extraordinary difference from Nipponese--no can do.Dictionary useful but ..." he flipped pages dexterously, "extremelycumbrous. If honorable Seaton can do, shall be extreme ...gratification."

  He bowed again, smiled, and went out.

  "I'll do just that little thing. So long, folks, I'm going up to theshop."

  * * * * *

  Day after day the _Skylark_ plunged through the vast emptiness of theinterstellar reaches. At the end of each second she was travelingexactly twenty-six feet per second faster than she had been at itsbeginning; and as day after day passed, her velocity mounted intofigures which became meaningless, even when expressed in thousands ofmiles per second. Still she seemed stationary to her occupants, and onlydifferent from a vessel motionless upon the surface of the Earth in thatobjects within her hull had lost three-sixteenths of their normalweight. Acceleration, too, had its effect. Only the rapidity with whichthe closer suns and their planets were passed gave any indication of thefrightful speed at which they were being hurtled along by theinconceivable power of that disintegrating copper bar.

  When the vessel was nearly half-way to "X," the bar was reversed inorder to change the sign of their acceleration, and the hollow spherespun through an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees around themotionless cage which housed the enormous gyroscopes. Still apparentlymotionless and exactly as she had been before, the _Skylark_ was nowactually traveling in a direction which seemed "down" and with avelocity which was being constantly decreased by the amount of theirnegative acceleration.

  A few days after the bar had been reversed Seaton announced that themechanical educator was complete, and brought it into the control room.

  In appearance it was not unlike a large radio set, but it was infinitelymore complex. It possessed numerous tubes, kino-lamps, andphoto-electric cells, as well as many coils of peculiar design--therewere dozens of dials and knobs, and a multiple set of head-harnesses.

  "How can a thing like that possibly work as it does?" asked Crane. "Iknow that it does work, but I could scarcely believe it, even after ithad educated me."

  "That is nothing like the one Dunark used, Dick," objected Dorothy. "Howcome?"

  "I'll answer you first, Dot. This is an improved model--it has quite afew gadgets of my own in it. Now, Mart, as to how it works--it isn't sofunny after you understand it--it's a lot like radio in that respect. Itoperates on a band of frequencies lying between the longest light andheat waves and the shortest radio waves. This thing here is thegenerator of those waves and a very heavy power amplifier. The headsetsare stereoscopic transmitters, taking or receiving a three-dimensionalview. Nearly all matter is transparent to those waves; for instancebones, hair, and so on. However, cerebin, a cerebroside peculiar to thethinking structure of the brain, is opaque to them. Dunark, not knowingchemistry, didn't know why the educator worked or what it worked on--hefound out by experiment that it did work; just as we found out aboutelectricity. This three-dimensional model, or view, or whatever you wantto call it, is converted into electricity in the headsets, and theresulting modulated wave goes back to the educator. There it isheterodyned with another wave--this second frequency was found afterthousands of trials and is, I believe, the exact frequency existing inthe optic nerves themselves--and sent to the receiving headset.Modulated as it is, and producing a three-dimensional picture, afterrectification in the receiver, it reproduces exactly what has been'viewed,' if due allowance has been made for the size and configurationof the different brains involved in the transfer. You remember a sort offlash--a sensation of seeing something--when the educator worked onyou? Well, you did see it, just as though it had been transmitted to thebrain by the optic nerve, but everything came at once, so the impressionof sight was confused. The result in the brain, however, was clear andpermanent. The only drawback is that you haven't the visual memory ofwhat you have learned, and that sometimes makes it hard to use yourknowledge. You don't know whether you know anything about a certainsubject or not until after you go digging around in your brain lookingfor it."

  "I see," said Crane, and Dorothy, the irrepressible, put in:

  "Just as clear as so much mud. What are the improvements you added tothe original design?"
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br />   "Well, you see, I had a big advantage in knowing that cerebrin was thesubstance involved, and with that knowledge I could carry mattersconsiderably farther than Dunark could in his original model. I cantransfer the thoughts of somebody else to a third party or to a record.Dunark's machine couldn't work against resistance--if the subject wasn'twilling to give up his thoughts he couldn't get them. This one can takethem away by force. In fact, by increasing plate and grid voltages inthe amplifier, I can pretty nearly burn out a man's brain. Yesterday, Iwas playing with it, transferring a section of my own brain to amagnetized tape--for a permanent record, you know--and found out thatabove certain rather low voltages it becomes a form of torture thatwould make the best efforts of the old Inquisition seem like a pettingparty."

  "Did you succeed in the transfer?" Crane was intensely interested.

  "Sure. Push the button for Shiro, and we'll start something."

  "Put your head against this screen," he directed when Shiro had come in,smiling and bowing as usual. "I've got to caliper your brains to do agood job."

  The calipering done, he adjusted various dials and clamped theelectrodes over his own head and over the heads of Crane and Shiro.

  "Want to learn Japanese while we're at it, Mart? I'm going to."

  "Yes, please. I tried to learn it while I was in Japan, but it wasaltogether too difficult to be worth while."

  Seaton threw in a switch, opened it, depressed two more, opened them,and threw off the power.

  "All set," he reported crisply, and barked a series of explosivesyllables at Shiro, ending upon a rising note.

  "Yes, sir," answered the Japanese. "You speak Nipponese as though youhad never spoken any other tongue. I am very grateful to you, sir, thatI may now discard my dictionary."

  "How about you two girls--anything you want to learn in a hurry?"

  "Not me!" declared Dorothy emphatically. "That machine is too darn weirdto suit me. Besides, if I knew as much about science as you do, we'dprobably fight about it."

  "I do not believe I care to...." began Margaret.

  She was interrupted by the penetrating sound of an alarm bell.

  "That's a new note!" exclaimed Seaton, "I never heard that note before."

  He stood in surprise at the board, where a brilliant purple light wasflashing slowly. "Great Cat! That's a purely Osnomian war-gadget--kindof a battleship detector--shows that there's a boatload of bad newsaround here somewhere. Grab the visiplates quick, folks," as he rangShiro's bell. "I'll take visiplate area one, dead ahead. Mart, takenumber two. Dot, three; Peg, four; Shiro, five. Look sharp!... Nothingin front. See anything, any of you?"

  * * * * *

  None of them could discover anything amiss, but the purple lightcontinued to flash, and the bell to ring. Seaton cut off the bell.

  "We're almost to 'X'," he thought aloud. "Can't be more than a millionmiles or so, and we're almost stopped. Wonder if somebody's there aheadof us? Maybe Dunark is doing this, though. I'll call him and see." Hethrew in a switch and said one word--"Dunark!"

  "Here!" came the voice of the Kofedix from the speaker. "Are yougenerating?"

  "No--just called to see if you were. What do you make of it?"

  "Nothing as yet. Better close up?"

  "Yes, edge over this way and I'll come over to meet you. Leave yournegative as it is--we'll be stopped directly. Whatever it is, it's deadahead. It's a long ways off yet, but we'd better get organized. Wouldn'ttalk much, either--they may intercept our wave, narrow as it is."

  "Better yet, shut off your radio entirely. When we get close enoughtogether, we'll use the hand-language. You may not know that you knowit, but you do. Turn your heaviest searchlight toward me--I'll do thesame."

  There was a click as Dunark's power was shut off abruptly, and Seatongrinned as he cut his own.

  "That's right, too, folks. In Osnomian battles we always used asign-language when we couldn't hear anything--and that was most of thetime. I know it as well as I know English, now that I am reminded of thefact."

  He shifted his course to intercept that of the Osnomian vessel. After atime the watchers picked out a minute point of light, movingcomparatively rapidly against the stars, and knew it to be thesearchlight of the _Kondal_. Soon the two vessels were almost side byside, moving cautiously forward, and Seaton set up a sixty-inchparabolic reflector, focused upon a coil. As they went on, the purplelight continued to flash more and more rapidly, but still nothing was tobe seen.

  "Take number six visiplate, will you, Mart? It's telescopic, equivalentto a twenty-inch refractor. I'll tell you where to look in aminute--this reflector increases the power of the regular indicator." Hestudied meters and adjusted dials. "Set on nineteen hours forty-threeminutes, and two hundred seventy-one degrees. He's too far away yet toread exactly, but that'll put him in the field of vision."

  "Is this radiation harmful?" asked Margaret.

  "Not yet--it's too weak. Pretty soon we may be able to feel it; thenI'll throw out a screen against it. When it's strong enough, it's prettydeadly stuff. See anything, Mart?"

  "I see something, but it is very indistinct. It is moving in sharpernow. Yes, it is a space-ship, shaped like a dirigible airship."

  "See it yet, Dunark?" Seaton signaled.

  "Just sighted it. Ready to attack?"

  "I am not. I'm going to run. Let's go, and go fast!"

  Dunark signaled violently, and Seaton shook his head time after time,stubbornly.

  "A difficulty?" asked Crane.

  "Yes. He wants to go jump on it, but I'm not looking for trouble withany such craft as that--it must be a thousand feet long and is certainlyneither Terrestrial nor Osnomian. I say beat it while we're all in onepiece. How about it?"

  "Absolutely," concurred Crane and both women.

  The bar was reversed and the _Skylark_ leaped away. The _Kondal_followed, although the observers could see that Dunark was raging.Seaton swung number six visiplate around, looked once, and switched onthe radio.

  "Well, Dunark," he said grimly. "You get your wish. That bird is comingout, with at least twice the acceleration we could get with both motorsfull on. He saw us all the time, and was waiting for us."

  "Go on--get away if you can. You can stand a higher acceleration than wecan. We'll hold him as long as possible."

  "I would, if it would do any good, but it won't. He's so much fasterthan we are that he could catch us anyway, if he wanted to, no matterhow much of a start we had--and it looks now as though he wanted us. Twoof us stand a lot better chance than one of licking him if he's lookingfor trouble. Spread out a mile or two, and pretend this is all the speedwe've got. What'll we give him first?"

  "Give him everything at once. Rays six, seven, eight, nine, and ten...."Crane, with Seaton, began making contacts, rapidly but with precision."Heat wave two-seven. Induction, five-eight. Oscillation, everythingunder point oh six three. All the explosive copper we can get in.Right?"

  "Right--and if worse comes to worst, remember the zone of force. Let himshoot first, because he may be peaceable--but it doesn't look like olivebranches to me."

  "Got both your screens out?"

  "Yes. Mart, you might take number two visiplate and work the guns--I'llhandle the rest of this stuff. Better strap yourselves in solid,folks--this may develop into a kind of rough party, by the looks ofthings right now."

  * * * * *

  As he spoke, a pyrotechnic display enveloped the entire ship as aradiation from the foreign vessel struck the other neutralizing screenand dissipated its force harmlessly in the ether. Instantly Seaton threwon the full power of his refrigerating system and shot in the masterswitch that actuated the complex offensive armament of his dreadnoughtof the skies. An intense, livid violet glow hid completely main andauxiliary power bars, and long flashes leaped between metallic objectsin all parts of the vessel. The passengers felt each hair striving tostand on end as the very air became more and more highly charged--andthis was but th
e slight corona-loss of the frightful stream ofdestruction being hurled at the other space-cruiser, now scarcely a mileaway!

  Seaton stared into number one visiplate, manipulating levers and dialsas he drove the _Skylark_ hither and yon, dodging frantically, the whilethe automatic focusing devices remained centered upon the enemy and theenormous generators continued to pour forth their deadly frequencies.The bars glowed more fiercely as they were advanced to full workingload--the stranger was one blaze of incandescent ionization, but shestill fought on; and Seaton noticed that the pyrometers recording thetemperature of the shell were mounting rapidly, in spite of therefrigerators.

  "Dunark, put everything you've got upon one spot--right on the end ofhis nose!"

  As the first shell struck the mark, Seaton concentrated every force athis command upon the designated point. The air in the _Skylark_ crackledand hissed and intense violet flames leaped from the bars as they weredriven almost to the point of disruption. From the forward end of thestrange craft there erupted prominence after prominence of searing,unbearable flame as the terrific charges of explosive copper struck themark and exploded, liberating instantaneously their millions uponmillions of kilowatt-hours of intra-atomic energy. Each prominenceenveloped all three of the fighting vessels and extended for hundreds ofmiles out into space--but still the enemy warship continued to hurlforth solid and vibratory destruction.

  A brilliant orange light flared upon the panel, and Seaton gasped as heswung his visiplate upon his defenses, which he had supposedimpregnable. His outer screen was already down, although its mightycopper generator was exerting its utmost power. Black areas had alreadyappeared and were spreading rapidly, where there should have been onlyincandescent radiance; and the inner screen was even now radiating farinto the ultra-violet and was certainly doomed. Knowing as he did thestupendous power driving those screens, he knew that there weresuperhuman and inconceivable forces being directed against them, and hisright hand flashed to the switch controlling the zone of force. Fast ashe was, much happened in the mere moment that passed before his flyinghand could close the switch. In the last infinitesimal instant of timebefore the zone closed in, a gaping black hole appeared in theincandescence of the inner screen, and a small portion of a ray ofenergy so stupendous as to be palpable, struck, like a tangibleprojectile, the exposed flank of the _Skylark_. Instantly the refractoryarenak turned an intense, dazzling white and more than a foot of theforty-eight-inch skin of the vessel melted away, like snow before anoxy-acetylene flame: melting and flying away in molten globes andsparkling gases--the refrigerating coils lining the hull were of noavail against the concentrated energy of that titanic thrust. As Seatonshut off his power, intense darkness and utter silence closed in, and hesnapped on the lights.

  "They take one trick!" he blazed, his eyes almost emitting sparks, andleaped for the generators. He had forgotten the efforts of the zone offorce, however, and only sprawled grotesquely in the air until hefloated within reach of a line.

  "Hold everything, Dick!" Crane snapped, as Seaton bent over one of thebars. "What are you going to do?"

  "I'm going to put as heavy bars in these ray-generators as they'll standand go out and get that bird. We can't lick him with Osnomian rays orwith our explosive copper, but I can carve that sausage into slices witha zone of force, and I'm going to do it."

  "Steady, old man--take it easy. I see your point, but remember that youmust release the zone of force before you can use it as a weapon.Furthermore, you must discover his exact location, and must get closeenough to him to use the zone as a weapon, all without its protection.Can those ray-screens be made sufficiently powerful to withstand thebeam they employed last, even for a second?"

  "Hm ... m ... m. Never thought of that, Mart," Seaton replied, the firedying out of his eyes. "Wonder how long the battle lasted?"

  "Eight and two-tenths seconds, from first to last, but they had hadthat heavy ray in action only a fraction of one second when you cutin the zone of force. Either they underestimated our strength at first,or else it required about eight seconds to tune in their heavygenerators--probably the former."

  "But we've _got_ to do something, man! We can't just sit here andtwiddle our thumbs!"

  "Why, and why not? That course seems eminently wise and proper. In fact,at the present time, thumb-twiddling is distinctly indicated."

  "Oh, you're full of little red ants! We can't do a thing with that zoneon--and you say just sit here. Suppose they know all about that zone offorce? Suppose they can crack it? Suppose they ram us?"

  "I shall take up your objections in order," Crane had lighted acigarette and was smoking meditatively. "First, they may or may not knowabout it. At present, that point is immaterial. Second, whether or notthey know about it, it is almost a certainty that they cannot crack it.It had been up for more than three minutes, and they have undoubtedlyconcentrated everything possible upon us during that time. It is stillstanding. I really expected it to go down in the first few seconds, butnow that it has held this long it will, in all probability, continue tohold indefinitely. Third, they most certainly will not ram us, forseveral reasons. They probably have encountered few, if any, foreignvessels able to stand against them for a minute, and will actaccordingly. Then, too, it is probably safe to assume that their vesselis damaged, to some slight extent at least; for I do not believe thatany possible armament could withstand the forces you directed againstthem and escape entirely unscathed. Finally, if they did ram us, whatwould happen? Would we feel the shock? That barrier in the ether seemsimpervious, and if so, it could not transmit a blow. I do not seeexactly how it would affect the ship dealing the blow. You are the onewho works out the new problems in unexplored mathematics--some time youmust take a few months off and work it out."

  "Yes, it would take that long, too, I guess--but you're right, he can'thurt us. That's using the old bean, Mart! I was going off half-cockedagain, darn it! I'll pipe down, and we'll go into a huddle."

  * * * * *

  Seaton noticed that Dorothy's face was white and that she was fightingfor self-control. Drawing himself over to her, he picked her up in atight embrace.

  "Cheer up, Red-Top! This man's war ain't started yet!"

  "Not started? What do you mean? Haven't you and Martin just beenadmitting to each other that you can't do anything? Doesn't that meanthat we are beaten?"

  "Beaten! Us? How do you get that way? Not on your sweet young life!" heejaculated, and the surprise on his face was so manifest that sherecovered instantly. "We've just dug a hole and pulled the hole in afterus, that's all! When we get everything doped out to suit us, we'll snapout of it and that bird'll think he's been petting a wildcat!"

  "Mart, you're the thinking end of this partnership," he continued,thoughtfully. "You've got the analytical mind and the judicialdisposition, and can think circles around me. From what little you'veseen of those folks, tell me who, what, and where they are. I'm gettingthe germ of an idea, and maybe we can make it work."

  "I will try it." Crane paused. "They are, of course, neither from theEarth nor from Osnome. It is also evident that they have solved thesecret of intra-atomic energy. Their vessels are not propelled as oursare--they have so perfected that force that it acts upon every particleof the structure and its contents...."

  "How do you figure that?" blurted Seaton.

  "Because of the acceleration they can stand. Nothing even semi-human,and probably nothing living, could endure it otherwise. Right?"

  "Yes--I never thought of that."

  "Furthermore, they are far from home, for if they were from anywherenearby, the Osnomians would have known of them--particularly since it isevident from the size of the vessel that it is not a recent developmentwith them, as it is with us. Since the green system is close to thecenter of the Galaxy, it seems reasonable, as a working hypothesis, toassume that they are from some system far from the center, perhaps closeto the outer edge. They are very evidently of a high degree ofintelligence. They are also hi
ghly treacherous and merciless...."

  "Why?" asked Dorothy, who was listening eagerly.

  "I deduce those characteristics from their unprovoked attack uponpeaceful ships, vastly smaller and supposedly of inferior armament; andalso from the nature of that attack. This vessel is probably a scout oran exploring ship, since it seems to be alone. It is not altogetherbeyond the bounds of reason to imagine it upon a voyage of discovery, insearch of new planets to be subjugated and colonized...."

  "That's a sweet picture of our future neighbors--but I guess you'rehitting the old nail on the head, at that."

  "If these deductions are anywhere nearly correct, they are terribleneighbors. For my next point, are we justified in assuming that they door do not know about the zone of force?"

  "That's a hard one. Knowing what they evidently do know, it's hard tosee how they could have missed it. And yet, if they had known about itfor a long time, wouldn't they be able to get through it? Of course itmay be a real and total barrier in the ether--in that case they'd knowthat they couldn't do a thing as long as we keep it on. Take yourchoice, but I believe that they know about it, and know more than wedo--that it is a total barrier set up in the ether."

  "I agree with you, and we shall proceed upon that assumption. They know,then, that neither they nor we can do anything as long as we maintainthe zone--that it is a stalemate. They also know that it takes anenormous amount of power to keep the zone in place. Now we have gone asfar as we can go upon the meager data we have--considerably farther thanwe really are justified in going. We must now try to come to someconclusion concerning their present activities. If our ideas as to theirnatures are even approximately correct, they are waiting, probablyfairly close at hand, until we shall be compelled to release the zone,no matter how long that period of waiting shall be. They know, ofcourse, from our small size, that we cannot carry enough copper tomaintain it indefinitely, as they could. Does that sound reasonable?"

  "I check you to nineteen decimal places, Mart, and from your ideas I'mgetting surer and surer that we can pull their corks. I can get intoaction in a hurry when I have to, and my idea now is to wait until theyrelax a trifle, and then slip a fast one over on them. One more bubbleout of the old think-tank and I'll let you off for the day. At what timewill their vigilance be at lowest ebb? That's a poser, I'll admit, butthe answer to it may answer everything--the first shot will, of course,be the best chance we'll ever have."

  "Yes, we should succeed in the first attempt. We have very littleinformation to guide us in answering that question." He studied theproblem for many minutes before he resumed, "I should say that for atime they would keep all their rays and other weapons in action againstthe zone of force, expecting us to release it immediately. Then, knowingthat they were wasting power uselessly, they would cease attacking, butwould be very watchful, with every eye fastened upon us and with everyweapon ready for instant use. After this period of vigilance, regularship's routine would be resumed. Half the force, probably, would go offduty--for, if they are even remotely like any organic beings with whichwe are familiar, they require sleep or its equivalent at intervals. Themen on duty--the normal force, that is--would be doubly careful for atime. Then habit will assert itself, if we have done nothing to createsuspicion, and their watchfulness will relax to the point of ordinarycareful observation. Toward the end of their watch, because of thestrain of the battle and because of the unusually long period of duty,they will become careless, and their vigilance will be considerablybelow normal. But the exact time of all these things depends entirelyupon their conception of time, concerning which we have no informationwhatever. Though it is purely a speculation, based upon Earthly andOsnomian experience, I should say that after twelve or thirteen hourswould come the time for us to make the attack."

  "That's good enough for me. Fine, Mart, and thanks. You've probablysaved the lives of the party. We will now sleep for eleven or twelvehours."

  "Sleep, Dick! How could you?" Dorothy exclaimed.