Chapter XXII
THETT
Through the utter void of intergalactic space sped a tiny shell, a weemite of a ship. Scarcely twenty feet long, it was one single powerplant. The man who sat alone in it, as it tore through the void at themaximum speed that even its tiny mass was capable of, when every lasttwist possible had been given to the distorted time fields, watched afar, far galaxy ahead that seemed unchanging.
Hours, days sped by, and he did not move from his position in the ship.But the ship had crossed the great gulf, and was speeding through thegalaxy now. He was near the end. At a reckless speed, he sat motionlessbefore the controls, save for slight movements of supple fingers thatdirected the ship at a mad pace about some gigantic sun and its familyof planets. Suns flashed, grew to discs, and were left behind in thebriefest instant.
The ship slowed, the terrific pace it had been holding fell, and dullwhine of overworked generators fell to a contented hum. A star waslooming, expanding before it. The great sun glowed the characteristicred of a giant as the ship slowed to less than a light-speed, and turnedtoward a gigantic planet that circled the red sun. The planet was veryclose to 50,000 miles in diameter, and it revolved at a distance of fourand one half billions of miles from the surface of its sun, which madethe distance to the center of the titanic primary four billion, eighthundred million miles, in round figures, for the sun's diameter wasclose to six hundred and fifty million miles! Greater even than Antares,whose diameter is close to four hundred million miles, was this star ofanother universe, and even from the billions of miles of distance thatits planet revolved, the disc was enormous, a titanic disc of dull redflame. But so low was its surface temperature, that even that enormousdisc did not overheat the giant planet.
The planet's atmosphere stretched out tens of thousands of miles intospace, and under the enormous gravitational acceleration of thetremendous mass of that planet, it was near the surface a blanket denseas water. There was no temperature change upon it, though its night wasone hundred hours long, and its day the same. The centrifugal force ofthe rapid rotation of this enormous body had flattened it when stillliquid till it seemed now more of the shape of a pumpkin than of anorange. It was really a double planet, for its satellite was a world ofone hundred thousand miles diameter, yet smaller in comparison to itsgiant primary than is Luna in comparison to Earth. It revolved at adistance of five million miles from its primary's center, and it, too,was swarming with its people.
But the racing ship sped directly toward the great planet, and shriekedits way down through the atmosphere, till its outer shell was radiatingfar in the violet.
Straight it flew to where a gigantic city sprawled in the heaped, sombermasonry, but in some order yet, for on closer inspection the appearanceof interlaced circles came over the edge of the giant cities. Rayscreens were circular and the city was protected by dozens of stations.
The scout was going well under the speed of light now, and a message,imperative and commanding, sped ahead of him. Half a dozen patrol boatsflashed up, and fell in beside him, and with him raced to a giganticbuilding that reared its somber head from the center of the city.
Under a white sky they proceeded to it, and landed on its roof. From thelittle machine the single man came out. Using the webbed hands and feetthat had led the Allied scientists to think them an aquatic race, heswam upward, and through the water-dense atmosphere of the planet towardthe door.
Trees overtopped the building, for it had but four stories, aboveground, though it was the tallest in the city. The trees, like seaweed,floated most of their enormous weight in the dense air, but thebuildings under the gravitational acceleration, which was more than onehundred times Earth's gravity, could not be built very high ere theycrumple under their own weight. Though one of these men weighedapproximately two hundred pounds on Earth, for all their short stature,on this planet their weight was more than ten tons! Only the enormouslydense atmosphere permitted them to move.
And such an atmosphere! At a temperature of almost exactly 360 degreescentigrade, there was no liquid water on the planet, naturally. At thattemperature water cannot be a liquid, no matter what the pressure, andit was a gas. In their own bodies there was liquid water, but onlybecause they lived on heat, their muscles absorbed their energy for workfrom the heat of the air. They carried in their own musclesrefrigeration, and, with that aid, were able to keep liquid water fortheir life processes. With death, the water evaporated. Almost theentire atmosphere was made up of oxygen, with but a trace of nitrogen,and some amount of carbon dioxide.
Here their enormous strength was not needed, as Arcot had supposed, tomove their own bodies, but to enable them to perform the ordinary tasksof life. The mere act of lifting a thing weighing perhaps ten pounds onEarth, here required a lifting force of more than half a ton! No wonderenormous strength had been developed! Such things as a man might carrywith him, perhaps a ray pistol, would weigh half a ton; his money wouldweigh near to a hundred pounds!
But--there were no guns on this world. A man could throw a stone perhapsa short distance, but when a gravitational acceleration of more than ahalf a mile per second acted on it, and it was hurled through anatmosphere dense as water--what chance was there for a long range?
But these little men of enormous strength did not know other schemes ofexistence, save in the abstract, and as things of comical peculiarity.To them life on a planet like Earth was as life to a terrestrian on aplanetoid such as Ceres, Juno or Eros would have seemed. Even onThettsost, the satellite planet of Thett, life was strange, and theyused lux roofs over their cities, though their weight there was fourtons!
As the scout swam through the dense atmosphere of his world toward theentrance way to the building, guards stopped him, and examined hiscredentials. Then he was led through long halls, and down a shaft tenstories below the planet's surface, to where a great table occupied apart of a low ceilinged, wide room. This room was shielded, interferencescreens of all known kinds lined the hollow walls, no rays could reachthrough it to the men within. The guard changed, and new men examinedthe scout's credentials, and he was led still deeper into the bowels ofthe planet. Once more the guard changed, and he entered a room guardednot by single shields but by triple, and walled with six foot relux, andceiled with the same strong material. But here, under the enormousgravity, even its great strength required aid in the form of pillars.
A giant of his race sat before a low table. The table ran half thelength of the room, and beside it sat four other men. But there wereplaces for more than two dozen.
"A scout from the colony? What news?" demanded the leader. His voice wasa growl, deep and throaty.
"Oh mighty Sthanto, I bring news of resistance. We waited too long, inour explorations, and those men of World 3769-8482730-3 have learned toomuch. We were wrong. They had found the secret of exceeding the speed oflight, and can travel through space fully as rapidly as we can, and now,since by some means we cannot fathom, they have learned to combine bothour own system and theirs, they have one enormous engine of destructionthat travels across their huge universe in less time than it takes us totravel across a planetary system.
"Our cause is lost, which is by far the least of our troubles. Thett isin danger. We cannot hope to combat that ship."
"Thalt--what means have we. Can we not better them?" demanded Sthanto ofhis chief scientist.
"Great Sthanto, we know that such a substance can be made when pressurecan be brought to bear on cosmic rays under the influence of field24-7649-321, but that field cannot be produced, because no sufficientconcentration of energy is available. Energy cannot be released rapidlyenough to replace the losses when the field is developing. The fact thatthey have that material indicates their possession of an unguessed andterrific energy source. I would have said that there was no energygreater than the energy of matter, but we know the properties of thismaterial and that the triple ray which has at last been perfected, canbe produced providing your order for all energy sources is given, willrelease i
ts energy at a speed comparable to the rate of energy relux ina twin ray, but that the release takes place only in the path of theray."
"What more, Scout?" asked Sthanto smoothly.
"The ship first appeared in connection with our general attack on world3769-8482730-3. The attack was near success, their screens were alreadyfailing. They have devised a new and very ionized layer as a conductor.It was exceedingly difficult to break, and since their sun had beensimilarly screened, we could not throw masses of that matter upon them.
"In another sthan of time, we would have destroyed their world. Then theship appeared. It has molecular rays, magnetic beams and cosmic rays,and a fourth weapon we know nothing of. It has molecular screens, wesuspect, but has not had occasion to use them.
"Our heaviest molecular screens flash under their molecular rays.Ordinary screens fall instantly without momentary defense. The ray poweris incalculable.
"Their magnetic beams are used in conjunction with cosmics. The actionof the two causes the relux to induce current, and due to reaction ofcurrents on the magnetic field--"
"And the resistance due to the relux, the relux is first heated toincandescence and then the ship opens out as the air pressure bends themagnetically softened relux?" finished Thalt.
"No, the effect is even more terrific. It explodes into powder," repliedthe scout.
"And what happens to worlds that the magnetic ray touches?" inquired thescientist.
"A corner of it touched the world we fought over, and the world shook,"replied the colonist.
"And the last weapon?" asked Sthanto, his voice soft now.
"It seems a ghost. It is a mistiness that comes into existence like acloud, and what it touches is crushed, what it rams is shattered. Itsurrounds the great ship, and machines crashing into it at a speed ofmore than six times that of light are completely destroyed, without inthe slightest injuring the shield.
"Then--what caused my departure from the colony--it showed once more itsunutterable power. The mistiness formed in the path of our colonialworld, number 3769-1-5, and the planet swept against that wall ofmistiness, and was shattered, and turned in less than five sthan to aball of blue-white fire. The wall stopped the planet in its motion. Wecould not fight that machine, and we left the worlds. The others arecoming," finished the scout.
The ruler turned his slightly smiling face to the commander of hisarmies, who sat beside him.
"Give orders," he said softly, almost gently, "that a triple ray stationbe set up under the direction of Thalt, and further notice that allpower be made instantly available to it. Add that the colonists arereturning defeated, and bringing danger at their heels. The triple raywill destroy each ship as it enters the system." His hand under thetable pushed an invisible protuberance, and from the perfectlyconducting relux floor to the equally perfectly conducting ceiling, andbetween four pillars grouped around the spot where the scout stood,terrific arcs suddenly came into being. They lasted for the thousandthpart of a second, and when they suddenly died away, as swiftly as theyhad come, there was not even ash where the scout had been.
"Have you any suggestions, Thalt?" he asked of the scientist, his voiceas soft as before.
"I quite agree with your conduct so far, but the future conduct you hadplanned is quite unsatisfactory," replied the scientist. The ruler satmotionless in his great seat, staring fixedly at the scientist. "I thinkit is time I take your place, therefore." The place where the ruler hadbeen was suddenly seen as through a dark cloud, then the cloud was gone,and with it the king, only his relux chair, and the bits of lux or reluxthat had been about his garments remained.
"He was a fool," said the scientist softly, as he rose, "to plan onremoving his scientist. Are there any who object to my succession?"
"No one objects," said Faslar, the ex-king's Prime Minister andcouncilor.
"Then I think, Phantal, Commander of planetary forces, that you had bestsee Ranstud, my assistant, and follow out the plan outlined by mypredecessor. And you Tastal, Commander of Fleets, had best bring yourfleets near the planets for protection. Go."
"May I suggest, mighty Thalt," said Faslar after the others had left,"that my knowledge will be exceedingly useful to you. You have twocommanders, neither of whom loves you, and neither of whom is highlycapable. The family of Thadstil would be glad to learn who removed thathonored gentleman, and the family of Datstir would gladly support himwho brought the remover of their head to them.
"This would remove two unwelcome menaces, and open places for such asRanstud and your son Warrtil.
"And," he said hastily as he saw a slight shift in Thalt's eyes, "Imight say further that the bereaved ones of Parthel would find greatinterest in certain of my papers, which are only protected by mypersonal constant watchfulness."
"Ah, so? And what of Kelston Faln, Faslar?" smiled the new Sthanta.
Thalt's hand relaxed and they started a conversation and discussion onmeans of defense.
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