by Jerry
“I would like to visit your solar system, Zerbin. If I survive this terrible conflict I will try to gain permission to visit it. Matter-transmitters will now make the journey comparatively simple.”
“In the time of war, biped, do not tempt fate by making plans for the future.”
“If the Magellanians had not come on their mission of invasion, I might some day have visited your solar system. On the day my race received the message from the Supreme Council, I was to command one of a score of ships that was to leave our solar system on an expedition to a double star we call Alpha Centauri.”
“Alpha Centauri? Bring to your mind the section of the heavens in which it is situated. I have it now. Well is it for you that you did not start on that expedition. The inhabitants of that solar system are an extremely ferocious form of life.”
“Do you know the Alpha Centaurians?”
“Well do we know them. The ruling organisms of the solar system which you call Alpha Centauri visited our solar system ages ago. Their civilization is much older than ours. They were seeking new worlds to colonize when they visited us. The only thing that saved us from extermination was the fact that oxygen is very destructive to their tissues. Oxygen, luckily, comprises nearly fifty per cent of our atmosphere.”
“What form of atmosphere were the Alpha Centaurians used to?”
“The atmosphere of the worlds which the Alpha Centaurians inhabit is composed mainly of cyanogen gas.”
“Cyanogen gas! That gas is one of the most deadly to my race. If I ever visit their solar system, I will make sure that my pressure-suit is gastight.”
“The Alpha Centaurians allow no visitors from other solar systems to land on the planets they inhabit—at least they allowed no one to visit their solar system prior to joining the Confederation. They destroyed many a space ship that sought to land despite their hostility. The ruling organisms inhabiting a number of planets revolving around a small reddish star almost declared war on the Alpha Centaurians because they fired on one of their space ships.”
“The small reddish star, is it also one of our near neighbors in space?”
“Very near. It is about a third as luminous as your own sun. Bring to your mind the nearest red stars to your solar system. That is it.”
“Tau Ceti?”
“Yes. The ruling organisms of that solar system man the fleet of mighty cube-shaped ships flying above your own. I met a few of them mentally when we fought the Magellanians who had invaded a solar system near the edge of our galaxy. They are brave and a fine form of life.”
“You have already fought against the invaders?”
“This is the second fleet from my solar system. Practically the entire first fleet was destroyed when we met the invaders at the edge of the galaxy and repulsed them from the solar system they sought to capture. Not one of our disk-shaped ships escaped unscathed. Mine was almost a total wreck. It was scrapped when I brought it back to my own solar system.”
“Are there any other fleets from the solar systems near our own?”
“Of course. The matter-transmitter on that outermost planet from which your slender ships poured was tuned to the stars from our immediate neighborhood. Did you not know that?”
“No. The commander of my fleet may have, but not I.”
“From the yellow star known to you as—recall the nearest yellow stars about half as luminous as your sun—Mu Cassiopeia came the cone-shaped ships following the giants of your own fleet. The fleet of torpedoshaped ships in front of your own are manned by the ruling organisms from the planets revolving around the twin stars of—a pair of small yellow stars—Xi Ursa Majoris. The star you know as—bring to your mind some of the huge nearby white stars—Vega sent the fleet of mighty globular-shaped ships.”
“Well represented is our local star cluster.”
“Very well, biped. I must break off communication with you now. There are some duties I must attend.” Don Stelite made a round of his own ship. Later he got in touch with his Lunarian friend and related some of the telepathic conversation between the captain of the disk-shaped ship and himself.
Many were the long hours that Don Stelite whiled away with Zerbin of Arete 6 during the days that followed. Mentally he made the acquaintance of many of the captains of the various shaped ships surrounding his own fleet. He came to know and then to number amongst his friends one of the captains of the mighty, cube-shaped ships from the solar system of Tau Ceti, one by the name of Aaxo of Planet 2. As time passed Aaxo, Zerbin, and himself became a mentally inseparable trio.
NEARER and nearer that fifth great host was rushing to the aid of the great aggregation of fleets ahead of it. The fleets of that preceding host were bravely sacrificing themselves to hold back the invaders.
From far ahead came the despairing reports that the fourth of the Confederation’s forces were going down fast. The Magellanian column was still superior in numbers and was making itself remorselessly felt.
There followed a short period of silence in which it seemed as if every ship and every member of their crews were too desperately occupied to spare time even to send back their bare reports. Then came word that the Magellanian column, broken and shattered from repeated battering upon the immovable barrier—falling fast was the barrier now—were re-forming its thinned ranks and preparing to rush forward again. Another message started coming . . . was broken off. After that, silence.
It was now up to the host of ships, of which the Solarians were part, to stay the shattered column. That should be easy. There could not be many of its ships left. Shortly should it be sighted. Accompanying that fifth host were many tiny ships equipped with television transmitters that were operated by remote control. Their television apparatus was mostly trained ahead to catch the first glimpse of the shattered Magellanian column.
Ahead of one of those tiny dark bullets, far in front of that fifth host, there suddenly appeared a score or so of Magellanian ships. They were moving slowly in the same direction as that tiny ship. They, too, apparently had been sent out for the purpose of reconnoitering. As soon as their space-penetrating instruments told them of the vast assemblage of approaching fleets, their speed increased and they disappeared. The tiny ship operated by remote control leaped forward to follow them. Back at the headquarters of the Confederation the television screen tuned to that particular transmitter showed the Magellanian scouts being overhauled, then the screen darkened abruptly.
Hurtling along at almost the velocity of light came the great gathering of fleets bearing the emblem of the Confederation. Before it moved an unbroken shield of destructive vibrations to clear the path for the ships that followed.
At the Confederation’s headquarters the television screens tuned to the tiny ships preceding the fifth great host brightened. Suddenly they saw, that far ahead of the closely packed ranks of ships from which poured the countless beams forming shields of all-destroying vibrations, was a mass of debris, stretching in every direction. In some spots the debris was judged to be piled in solid masses thousands of miles thick. Those masses bore rude resemblance to the Magellanian globular transports of planetary dimensions. There were also riddled and shattered ships of all shapes and sizes, fused masses of metal still glowing, frozen gases, and stiff broken things of a myriad shapes that had but recently been living creatures endowed with reasoning and a high sense of loyalty. Over it all drifted a pall of impalpable dust. No sign was there of the Magellanian column.
The fleets were warned. They slackened their speed. Through that debris swept the foremost of their ships, wiping out of existence, as they swept along, all matter that lay in their path. Wrecked Magellanian ships and ships bearing the emblem of the Confederation were intermingled in world-large masses. At last they emerged on the other side of that late battle region where the bravest and finest of thousands of races had sacrificed themselves; still no sign of the invaders.
Fleets of swift scouting ships were thrown far ahead. The fifth host reduced its speed until it
barely seemed to move along.
A fleet of the Confederation’s greatest interstellar warships were ordered ahead to investigate. Soon did that fleet make out the titanic globe. The Magellanians operating it had in turn become aware of the fleet of warships overtaking their mighty inter-galactic transport.
Upon the approaching fleet a few disintegration rays were directed. They were turned off one by one after a few moments, for they saw that the rays from the approaching ships were fur more powerful. Then, from thousands of openings in the surface of that battered transport, there issued clouds of tiny space ships which moved off toward the fleet that was rapidly overhauling the globe. Those small ships might have been useful in swooping down upon unprotected solar systems in their thousands to spread death and destruction, but coming slowly as they did against the huge ships, they were useless.
From that globe there next poured wave after wave of metal-clad figures, bearing in their tentacles cylinders from which poured an intense light. Pointing those cylinders at the rapidly approaching ships, the metal-clad figures flashed away in the opposite direction at a swiftly increasing speed. Their versatile cylinders were now generating propulsive rays.
The fleet of giant space ships split in two, half of the ships shooting forward at their greatest velocity to try to intercept and destroy those escaping Magellanians, the other half drew themselves up in long lines and proceeded to bombard that immense globe.
As the ships in pursuit of those tiny dwindling figures neared the huge globe, it burst suddenly into a blinding mass of incandescent gases and flying metal. Only the terrific velocity at which they were traveling saved them from instant annihilation. The other half of the fleet was caught within that expanding shell of flaming gases and destroyed before they could gain enough velocity to escape.
No time could be spared just then, even by the remaining half of that fleet, to overtake and destroy those beings clad in metal, who had escaped with the aid of their propulsive rays, for beyond the straggling line of crippled space ships ahead, the rearmost rank of the Magellanian column had been sighted by both the scouts and the tiny ships operated by remote control. All fleets were speeding up to overtake the retreating column.
In a great circle the rearmost ranks of the Magellanian column swept around and headed back. Over as much area as possible they spread and tried to hold back the fresh forces from the galaxy, while their own shattered column drew away with as much speed as it could muster.
From the vast host, fleet after fleet of giant interstellar warships, amongst them the thousands of the largest Solarian ships manned by eager bipeds, whose yearning for action would soon be appeased, sped ahead to dear the way. The weapons that those great ships bristled with were so destructive that it needed no more than to be touched or struck by their missiles to be either no longer in existence as molecular matter or to be reduced to shattered masses of metal.
DON STELITE, having dodged death by a hair’s breadth, got in touch with his Lunarian friend and described the few tense moments that intervened between the instant a seemingly wrecked and lifeless Magellanian ship turned suddenly upon his ship with a powerful ray as he was about to flash by, and his escape. Only the intense vigilance of the men in the pilot chamber saved the ship from instant annihilation as they swerved the ship sharply. A Solarian vessel following, wiped that wreck out of existence. That was his first experience with the enemy.
Fleet after fleet of huge ships darted forward again, Solarian ships in their midst, and cleared the way.
Once more did the human bipeds in front describe to their friends in the rear the part they were playing in that mighty conflict. Envious crews of the smaller Solarian craft bewailed the fact that they were not aboard the huge ships in front.
From the vast array of ships that had poured from thousands of solar systems within the interior of the galaxy at the bequest of the Supreme Council, a huge force went forth to meet and destroy what remained of the Magellanian column. Terrific was the shock of the destructive forces of those two great interstellar armadas meeting. Now the concentrated power of one side forced its way through the shield of disintegration rays and wiped out thousands of ships; now the other.
As the front ranks of the opposing forces rushed closer and closer their speed did not slacken, but increased. The black night of that region was again turned into day as ship met ship in headlong collision and were vaporized. Every weapon was brought into play. Each passing instant saw the fury of that battle mounting.
In every direction scattered what was left of the invaders, with the ships of the Confederation in pursuit The disabled ships in the rear of the column, as flight for them was out of question, stood and fought valiantly. Through them, dealing death and destruction, plowed the victorious fleets.
On the television screens back at the headquarters of the Confederation, the destruction of the last of that Magellanian force was viewed with elation. Great was the rejoicing amongst the races of the galaxy when they received that news. The invaders were not invincible. Many of the races, whose solar systems were at the edge of the island universe or near solar systems in possession of the invaders, took on renewed hope.
The whereabouts of the other two parts of the main column was not known. Long ago had they disappeared. Black were the television screens tuned to the tiny ships equipped with television transmitters sent to follow them.
An order came to the victorious fleets to return to the solar systems at the edge of the galaxy and re-enter the transmission apparatus on those worlds. Each fleet was to return to the matter-transmitter that had brought them from their own solar system to the galaxy’s edge.
Fleet drew away from fleet and formed into orderly rank. Roll was called and the missing and crippled ships reported back to the Supreme Council. Relatively small were the losses suffered by the Solarians. Only a few hundred of their largest ships. The Lunarians had taken no part in the struggle.
Zerbin of Arete 6 got in touch with Don Stelite to say that he was alive and his ship untouched. Not so fortunate was Aaxo of Planet 2. His ship was so badly battered that it had to be abandoned.
Back then the fleets started flashing to their galaxy.
The crippled ships were left behind to make their way back as best they could.
Orders came out to them to hurry. The Magellanians in the interior of the galaxy, learning that one of their main reserve forces beyond the edge of the island universe had been wiped out, were sweeping through solar system after solar system with renewed fury.
The great array of fleets that had destroyed the remnant of center column was to be divided into hundreds of separate fleets and sent to the solar system in the interior, where they were desperately needed. The Solarian fleet, with a score of other fleets that had come from its immediate neighborhood, was being sent to the other side of the galaxy, where a solar system with two huge planets, inhabited by two totally different ruling races, was being attacked by the invaders, who had recently gained possession of the interstellar matter-transmission apparatus on the outermost planet.
Down dropped the Solarian fleet to the transmission apparatus on the world at the edge of the galaxy, whose inhabitants reared those titanic structures that dwarfed the one which housed the transmitter. It seemed but a little while since they had left it to hurtle upwards, but years had passed. Now they were returning to be sent by that matter-transmitter into the galaxy again.
Few of the strange inhabitants of that world had time to spare to watch the endless lines of ships stretching far into space from the surface of their world, many of the larger ships bearing marks of that encounter, as they waited their turn to enter the vibration chamber of the transmitter.
The leader of that world congratulated the commanders of the fleets and wished them good luck in the far-off regions where they were going. The busy populace spared a few moments to add their well-wishes to that of their leaders’. If the center column had not been destroyed, their solar system would now have been
in possession of the invaders.
Ahead of the Solarian fleet was a fleet of cone-shaped ships from the solar system of Mu Cassiopeia. Behind them followed the thin disk-shaped ships flying on edge from the Solar system of Altair, and in the distance came the cube-shaped ships from Tau Ceti. Swiftly the cone-shaped ships were being swallowed. A fleet of ovoid-shaped ships had preceded those cones.
Again the great opening of the matter-transmitting apparatus yawned for Don Stelite’s ship. The last of the cone-shaped ships had disappeared.
Indescribably brilliant flashes of light greeted the Solarians on emerging from the vibratory chamber of the receiving mechanism. Massive artillery stationed near the transportation structure were pouring into the heavens steady streams of projectiles. Rays, some of them visible by the attendant fluourescence in the planet’s thick atmosphere, reached upwards like deathdealing swords and dealt death in many forms.
Ships enveloped in glowing shells of incandescent gases fell continuously and were rayed out of existence before they reached the ground. The void beyond the atmosphere were full of ships rushing furiously at each other. From a planet visible near the horizon came a steady stream of Magellanian ships to swell the number of those attacking, while from the huge transportation mechanism on that world ships bearing the emblem of the Confederation hurtled up in an unending stream.
Fast behind the rearmost ranks of the cone-shaped ships from Mu Cassiopeia rose the vanguard of the Solarian fleet. Dodging, plunging ships, deadly rays both visible and invisible, shells loaded with atomic-explosives and other lethal forces, the vanguard of giant Solarian ships shot upward.
Swiftly were the fleet of cone-shaped ships ahead of the Solarian fleet being wiped out. None of the ovoidshaped ships that had preceded the cones were to be seen.
