He had to be content instead with watching its progress through the Visual screens as The Mentor emerged from the Earth’s blanket into the darkness of the void. The whole world watched its progress with bated breaths. Its first stop was the Moon, where it was seen to land, upon the wide plain of the Sea of Serenity. The travelers made no attempt to disembark upon that desolate world, since they were unprepared to cope with its conditions. From the plain it moved eastward, viewing the awful grandeur of that dead world. All through the journey The Mentor attempted to keep in communication with Earth, but it was almost impossible. There appeared to be “dead spots” in the void which refused to carry the radio waves. But occasionally word came through. From the Moon they headed back toward Earth, encircled her and then slowly returned to the flyer’s billet. The whole trip had taken sixteen hours! It took a little less than eight hours to make the journey to the Moon, traveling at a rate of 30,000 miles an hour. It was estimated that on a longer journey where there was time to accelerate the machine more quickly, The Mentor could travel at 50 miles per second or 180,000 miles an hour.
Ready!
THE scientists were most enthusiastic about The Mentor, and barring a few supplementary adjustments they advised that it was ready for the long journey to Venus. Immediately upon their report an order was given for eleven more astralnautic flyers to be constructed. The laboratories promised to complete them in four months’ time. In the meantime it became the duty of The Mentor to prepare crews for the other ships under construction.
At the same time the laboratories were also at work upon the construction of the several weapons the engineers had recommended for use upon the flyers. Of all the inventions filed away, only two were to be given trial. The first was a most deadly ray called 22A, a ray whose color was purplish-red and which completely disintegrated all matter regardless of its composition. The second was Explosive 67 whose power was breath-taking. Six pounds of it were powerful enough to demolish a whole mountain. There was still a third weapon—the one which the Mentor trusted would be sufficient to subdue the Venusians without having recourse to the first two more destructive weapons. This was a new ray discovered by an engineer a month before. In trying to learn what power the Venusians had used to paralyze their captives, as well as the power-motors, he had accidently found a device he called the Super-Resonator that could destroy any machinery by causing its molecules to be speeded up to such a degree that the machine burnt into a thousand fragments. The ray from the Resonator was a blue beam; it had a spread of twenty feet, and a range of more than five miles. The Mentor recommended that that ray be used in preference to the first two exterminators, unless it was to be found that the Venusians were bent upon more destructive measures when their planet was invaded.
* * * * *
Seven months after the Venusian descent, the eleven new space-flyers were ready for action. They were each given a trial trip in which they proved themselves equal to any strain. Meanwhile twelve thousand flying men had been mobilized. Care had been taken in selecting them from the thousands of applicants as well as the twelve hundred men who were to make up the crews. Of officers there were one hundred to each ship with their commander. The Mentor, as flag-ship, carried Commander-in-Chief Ware, who was to take over the direction of the expedition. San Tu Ackwa and Yoto Murca were to accompany him in the role of technical directors. A group of astronomers with Professor Anton D’Arcy at their head were ordered to accompany the flyers. By using a particularly short wavelength it was learned that radio commune cation between the twelve ships could be carried on in space.
Finally the day came for the embarkation of the expedition for Venus. Again the Mentor admonished Ware to do no more damage to the Venusians than was necessary for the recovery of the fifteen thousand abducted Earthlings. If possible, an attempt was to be made to establish some peaceable communication with the Venusians!
CHAPTER VI
A Race Through Space
WITH the departure of the expedition, the Tele-Visual screens broadcast the stirring scene from Lick as the twelve ships in a V-shaped formation set off into space. Inasmuch as the two planets had been steadily moving apart, Venus now lay 120,000,000 miles from Earth. Journeying at the rate of 180,000 miles per hour it would take them nearly 50 days to reach the planet in its present position. But the planet would have moved further from the earth in the meantime and the whole journey would take 60 days.
Days, long endless days of silence passed after the departure of the ships and their brave crews. Through the great telescopes the progress of the ships was watched with anxious eyes and the news radioed to the millions of the Earth’s people.
Fifty days had passed, when one day the weary observers at their telescopes saw six ships emerge from the Venusian atmosphere and set their course in the direction of the oncoming earth craft!
Was it a challenge? Was there to be a battle in space? The earth’s people held their breath during the following days as the parties drew swiftly closer. Then they saw that the Venusian vessels had veered suddenly, as though unaware of the oncoming spheres. There was what looked like panicky movement among them as they suddenly dashed out in all directions. They were then seen to come together again beyond the Earthly ships, sweep around them and head for home again!
Meantime, aboard The Mentor, Commander-in-Chief Thomas Ware was also in a quandary. Through the televisual screens that photographed all that went on outside the-globes, he had watched the quiet approach of the enemy. His orders for preparation for battle rang out, and drawing themselves more closely for action, the Earthlings had waited. Then in surprise they saw with what shock the Venusians had met them, as they lost their formation, separated, then gathered together again and ran for home.
It was D’Arcy who stated a decisive opinion of the meaning of that maneuver. Apparently, unaware that the Earthlings were preparing for war, the Venusians had waited only long enough to discover the result of their experiments with their fifteen thousand captives. The results had been good, and they had prepared a half dozen flyers to descend upon Earth again and kidnap six times that number! They were utterly routed on discovering that the Earthlings were on their way to Venus, and they were hurrying back to their planet to warn their cohorts! Such was D’Arcy’s theory.
However, the Venusians did not descend to their planet, but appeared to be awaiting the arrival of the Earthlings. They were merely keeping themselves a few thousand miles ahead of the round globes! That their ships were capable of a tremendous speed was proved by the easy manner in which they had encircled the Earthlings. Now Ware ordered their own speed increased to its limit of 250,000 miles per hour. Immediately the Venusians increased their own, determined, no doubt, to keep their distance!
THIS was vastly puzzling to the Earthlings. Was it that the Venusians were awaiting reinforcements, since they were outnumbered two to one? Why were they content just to keep ahead? Why should they wish their planet torn by strife, if reinforcements were not forthcoming? Were they leading the Earthlings into a trap? It could scarcely be more than strategy on their part!
On, on they continued with the Venusians in full view, bright lights marking their position. The void was otherwise intensely black with the great shining ball of the sun glaring so brilliantly on their left as to blind anyone who dared to gaze directly into it. The mighty corona was plainly visible and great prominences that shot out thousands upon thousands of miles into space. Professor D’Arcy spent most of the journey viewing that great star through his dark glasses. This was a year in which sun-spots were numerous, and through a telescope of his own devising, he watched a great spot that lay close to the latitude of six degrees. He estimated it to be 50,000 miles across, and was vastly put out that he had not brought some photographic plates with him.
The Earthlings Speak
TO the rear and somewhat to the left of them lay Mother Earth, now a bluish-white globe that to the voyagers appeared to be the most beautiful sight in the great Universe. Gra
dually she had grown smaller and smaller as Venus grew larger. On all sides could be seen the stars, some so distant that even our great sun would have appeared as but a pinpoint of light to them. The fact that they could be seen at all attested to their own tremendous size. Out in the void it seemed as though a great many more stars could be observed than from Earth. D’Arcy explained that this was true, since the light of many of them did not penetrate Earth’s atmosphere.
Venus was now shining with a clear blue light and in another two days and a half they would reach her. It was then that they saw a meteor hurtling directly in their path! All through the trip meteorites had been seen to drop on all sides of the space-flyers, and more than once they had had to swerve from their path to avoid them. Yoto Murca was even now studying a method by which the spheres could be warned of their coming, since it became a nerve-racking task for the outlooks to keep watch for the speeding missiles. Now as the meteor appeared pandemonium reigned for a few minutes in the ships. But as the great mass was seen to pass hundreds of miles to their left all fear was gone and they could only watch it in awed wonder. It appeared to be heading directly into the great burning globe of the sun, and though its head did pass through the corona it was seen to pass beyond the star.
AFTER another day had passed Venus lay due ahead, filling the entire prospect before them. And as the Earth ships approached they realized that the Venusian ships had deliberately slowed down and were waiting for them, planning to follow them into the great swirling cloud masses that were hiding the face of the planet. Against this blanket the ships could plainly be seen. For hours now the spheres had been slackening their speed so that when they did reach the cloud masses they were not moving at more than five hundred miles per hour. Then further braking their speed they were swimming into the perpetual fogs of Venus and their brightest headlights were switched on in an effort to cut the mist. Occasionally, through the swirls, they could see one or another of the Venusian machines, and it was noticeable that they were leading them onward to some specific point of their world. The space-flyers were put in readiness for an attack!
They were now dropping steadily, and when they estimated that they were 100 miles above the surface they saw a lake appear below, although the Earthlings did not at first recognize the ochraceous yellow substance as liquid. Only the wavelike motion proved this to be the case. Moving at an altitude of about five thousand feet the ship swept along no faster than one hundred and fifty miles per hour. The Venusian vessels were almost wholly visible, for here close to the lake the clouds had cleared perceptibly. It was then that Commander Ware ordered his ships prepared for battle. A double V was formed with The Mentor in the center. The first two ships of the line were ordered to let loose the blue beam upon the hindmost Venusian. Immediately the ship was seen to waver, to race suddenly ahead, then come to a halt before it plunged nose first down to the lake below. It plunged into the yellow flood to bob back to the surface where it rolled and tossed with the waves. The Earthlings had spoken!
A Strange Battle
AS the single ship dropped to the water the other Venusians went scurrying into the mists. Immediately Ware sent out the order for four ships to follow and disable them as the first had been disabled. It was then that a strange whistle sounded in the radio amplifiers on a longer wavelength than the Earth ships had utilized and a friendly voice was heard.
“Greetings, friends!” cried the voice, in their own tongue! “On and at them, but call your ships from the clouds! There the Zoldans have them bested! Keep to sea level.”
“Who is this speaking?” demanded the operator of The Mentor.
“Don’t bother about that now, but call your ships down, or in a minute it will be too late!”
Ware, who had been standing close to the amplifier, wisely acted upon the order and hastened to recall the ships, realizing that here was a friend who knew for a certainty what to expect. A minute thereafter two of the spheres were seen to drop from the clouds. Ware directed that they return to formation, but they did not respond! Instead they were falling straight down to the yellow ocean. They took the plunge not far from the floating Venusian, throwing up waves and spray, then coming to the surface and rolling over and over!
“Sorry, they got your ships,” observed the strange voice in the radio. “However, their range is no greater than a mile or two, so if you can reach them at a greater distance you are safe. Good luck to you.”
It was evident that there were friends down on the planet who had managed to construct a radio equal to their own. The two remaining scouts now appeared from the cloud banks and were being followed by the long cylindrical shapes of the Venusian ships. From the foremost ship appeared the wide blue beam that enveloped the leading cylinder, which immediately took its plunge. Again the others ran into the clouds, but this time the Earth ships stayed close to the water, waiting for them to make their appearance.
Down upon the ocean rolled the fallen earth ships, bouncing in response to the waves. Ware stared at the two disabled spheres, fearful that his men had been killed. But inasmuch as the spheres were hermetically sealed, he hoped that those caught within were safe even if temporarily paralyzed by the Venusian rays. It was then that he saw movement in the two disabled cylinders riding the waves. A hatch suddenly shot open and out of it flew one after another of the people of Venus!
Others of the ships had seen them and were exclaiming loudly at the strange forms. They were winged, and at first the Earthlings believed them to be their own people. Then they realized that the difference lay in their covering, which had first been thought to be a type of clothing, but on closer inspection through the binoculars proved to be minute scales that glistened iridescently in the half-lights that came through the clouds! Head, face, arms and body, as well as the long straight wings, were scaled exactly as a fish is scaled!
The second ship was also giving up its swarms of strange life. For a few minutes the winged beings hovered over their ships; then, as if at the direction of a leader, they flew to where the two Earth ships were being buffeted by the waves. In flight they had none of the grace of the winged men of Earth, nor were they so swift. Then a swarm of them reached the nearest sphere and were alighting on it from all sides. They seemed to examine it, and not finding what they wished, a number of the creatures dived into the water while others still clung to the side. In wonder the Earthlings above saw the sphere roll over on its side, until its man-hole appeared! Immediately the amphibians were at work upon the hatch, seeking to learn its secret!
All this had happened in such a short space of time that the men in the ships above had been too stunned to think. But when the Venusians, or Zoldans, as the voice over the radio had named them, made an attempt to slip into their ships the Earthlings sprang into action. Ware ordered five of his ships two of the remaining ships send their men to attack the ma- to guard them from attack from above, while he directed that rauders. They were each to carry their electro-thunderbolts, but orders were given to stun, not kill, for Ware had come to the sudden conclusion that the Zoldan warriors were women!
CHAPTER VII
Down to the Water!
ON first reaching the atmosphere of Venus, the Earth scientists had taken samples of the air, and discovered that it was equal in atmospheric pressure to that of Earth, with perhaps a slightly higher degree of oxygen. Now, with the hatches open, the first squadrons of Earthlings came into the air and darted to where the Venusians sought entrance to the disabled sphere. The second sphere had been attacked in the same manner, and it was evident that the women would soon discover the secret of the entrances. No doubt they thought to control the space-flyers and attack the enemy with their own ships!
Acting under orders not to kill, the Earthlings dived to the attack, loosing their thunderbolts, using half charges. The winged women saw them coming and half their number rose in a cloud to meet the attack. They appeared armed with rods a foot long, which let forth a sharp dart that plowed through flesh and bone. But the
ir darts did not climb well, and it appeared that the Zoldans were seeking to gain altitude. A dozen or so did manage to gain the air above the Earthlings, and their darts found a number of victims, sending them falling to the water below. But the Earth thunderbolts spoke and sent the Venusians plunging into the ocean, writhing and turning as they fell.
Now with the battle at its height below, a Venusian ship was seen dropping from the clouds. Before the spheres were aware of its proximity, it had taken its toll and another flyer fell to the water. Before it could gain cover of tire clouds, however, a blue beam from The Mentor had caught it and, after careening uncertainly, it too fell, following its victim with a mighty splash. Ware now ordered two ships to scout close to the clouds’ surface, and shortly thereafter another Venusian ship fell from the fogs. That meant that there were only two more of the cylinders in the clouds. But though the spheres climbed warily into the clouds, they were unable to sight them.
ON the other hand, the two fallen ships were giving up their crews, who upon discovering that the motors were powerless, were hurrying to join their fellows in the hand-to-hand battle. More and more of the Earthlings were dispatched, and soon the water all around was literally covered by the floating bodies of the amphibians as well as a great number of the winged men who had been brought down by their darts. Either the aim of the Zoldan women was not good, or else, like the Earthlings they were bent only upon disabling the enemy, for few of their darts had given mortal wounds. They lodged mostly in the wing muscles or the limbs, bringing the men to the water, where they were left to float or swim as best they could. Unlike the women of Venus, the flying peoples of Earth seldom if ever took to the water. Hence, after their first dousing in the yellow ocean, the Earthlings were a sorry-looking people. A number of them went down before they could reach one of the floating flyers, to which they clung in droves. The winged women, on the other hand, who had been stunned by the thunderbolts usually floated on the surface. The effect of the charge of electricity that they had received, however, did not so completely stun them as to let them drown, and after lying in the water for fifteen or twenty minutes or so they could be seen reviving, to rise again to the attack with their sisters!
Collected Tales (Jerry eBooks) Page 27
