The Onslaught from Rigel

by Fletcher Pratt

  CHAPTER XXI

  Reinforcements

  The little group separated, going about their several tasks. Fromwhatever cause, Ben proved to be right about the Lassan green spheres.After that one brief incursion, in which they had wrecked the greaterpart of Newark and most of the artillery the Australians had establishedto bear on the door of the Lassan city, they seemed to have returned totheir underground home, realizing that the earth-men still had weaponsthe equal of anything the creatures of Rigel could produce.

  For a whole week there was no sign of them. Meanwhile, the federatedarmy dug itself in and prepared for the attack that was now believedcertain. The success of the first _Monitor_ had been great enough, itwas decided to warrant the construction of more than one of the secondedition. General Grierson wished to turn the whole resource of theAllied armies to building an enormous number, but under Ben's persuasionhe consented to concentrate on only five.

  For, as Ben pointed out to the general, the training of flesh and bloodmen for these craft would be labor lost.

  "They couldn't stand the acceleration that will be necessary, for onething. With _Monitor II_ we expect to be able to work up swiftly to overa thousand miles an hour, and the most acceleration a flesh and bloodman can stand won't give us that speed quickly enough. Of course, wecould make 'em so they worked up speed slowly, but then they wouldn't beable to cut down fast enough to maneuver. And for another thing thisinfra-sound ray the Lassans project would kill a flesh-and-blood man thefirst time it hit him. What we need for this kind of war, is supermen inthe physical sense. I don't want to make any such snooty statement asthat Americans are better than other people, but we happen to be theonly ones who have undergone this mechanical operation and we're theonly people in the world who can stand the gaff. You'll just have to letus make out the best we can. In fact, it might be better for you tore-embark the army and leave us to fight it out all alone. The morewomen we have here, the more we'll have to protect."

  The general had been forced to agree to the first part of thisstatement, but he gallantly refused to abandon the Americans, though hedid send away men, troops and guns which had become useless in this newbrand of warfare. But he insisted on retaining a force to run thefactories that supplied the Americans with their materials and onpersonally remaining with it.

  Even as it stood, there were only fourteen of the mechanical Americansremaining--enough to man three of the Monitors.

  But one day, as _Monitor II_, shining with newness, stood on her ramphaving the searchlights installed, Herbert Sherman came dashing acrossthe flying field, waving a sheet of paper.

  "I've got it," he cried, "I've got it! I knew I got something from thoseLassans about electricity that I hadn't known before, and now I knowwhat it is. Look!"

  "Radio?" queried Ben.

  "No, read it," said Sherman. "Radio's out. But this is a thousand timesbetter."

  He extended the sheet to Ben, who examined the maze of figures gravelyfor a moment.

  "Now suppose you interpret," he said. "I can't read Chinese."

  "Sap. This is the formula for the electrical device I was talkingabout."

  "Yeh. Well, go on, spill it."

  "Well, I suppose I'll have to explain so even your limited intelligencewill grasp the point.... In our black box, we've been breaking up theatoms of lead into positive and negative charges. We've been using thepositive, and then just turning the negative loose. This thing will makeuse of both, and give us a swell new weapon all at once.

  "Look--the negative charges will do for our gravity beam just as well asthe positive. They will create an excess of negative electrons insteadof an excess of positive protons in the object we hit, and cause atomicdisintegration. It's a gravity process just the same, but a differentone. Now that gives us something else to do with the positives.

  "You know what a Leyden jar is? One of those things you charge withelectricity, then you touch the tip, and bang, you get a shock. Well,this arrangement will make a super-Leyden jar of the _Monitor_. Everytime she fires the gravity-beam, the positive charges will be put intoher hull, and she'll soon be able to load up with a charge that willknock your eye out when it's let loose."

  "How's that? I know the outside of the _Monitor_ is covered with leadand so is the outside of a Leyden jar, but what's the connection?"

  "Well, it's this way. When you load up a Leyden jar the charge is notlocated in the plating, but in the glass. Now the _Monitor_ has a lot ofsteel, which will take up the charge just as well as glass. As soon asshe fires the gravity-beam, these filaments will load her up with theleft-over positives till she grunts. See?"

  "And since the earth is building up a lot of negative potential all thetime, all you have to do is get your bird between you and the earth andthen let go at him?"

  "That's the idea. It'll make an enormous spark-gap, and whatever isbetween us and the earth will get the spark. Sock them with a flash ofartificial lightning. We'll use the light-beam as a conductor just aswith the gravity-beam."

  "Sounds good, but I want to see the wheels go round. How much of apotential do you think you can build up in the _Monitor_?"

  "Well, let's see. We've got two thicknesses of nine-inch steel ... voltsto a cubic inch ... by cubic inches.... Holy smoke, look how thisfigures out--over eleven million volts! That's theory, of course.There'll be some leakage in practice and we won't have time to build upthat much negative potential every time we shoot, but if we only do halfthat well, we'll have a pretty thorough-going charge of lightning ...Peterson, come over here. I want you to make some changes on thisbarge."

  * * * * *

  _Monitor II_ stood on the ramp that had once held her elder sister, herouter coating of lead glimmering dully in the morning sun. Here andthere, along her shining sides, were placed the windows through whichher crew would watch the progress of the battle. Her prow was occupiedby the same type of searchlight the earlier _Monitor_ had borne. Butthis time the searchlight was surrounded by a hedge of shining silverpoints--the discharge mechanism for the lightning flash. At the stern,instead of the opening running right through into the ship, was a tightbulkhead, with the connections for the gravity-beam rocket-mechanismleading through it. As Sherman had pointed out, "If this lightning isgoing to do us any good, we've got to get above our opponent, and thoseLassans have built machines that made interplanetary voyages. We've gotto make this boat air-tight so that we can go right after them as far asRigel if necessary."

  It had been decided, in view of the other monitors that were building,to make the trial trip of the second rocket-cruiser also a trainingvoyage, with Beeville and Yoshio replacing Murray Lee and Gloria in hercrew. They climbed in; the spectators stood back, and with a thunderousrush of explosions and a cloud of yellow gas, the second _Monitor_plunged into the blue.

  "Where shall we go?" asked Sherman, as the ship swooped over the plainsof New Jersey.

  "How much speed is she making?" asked Ben Ruby.

  "I don't know exactly. We didn't have time to invent and install areliable speed gauge. But--" he glanced at the map before him, then downthrough the windows at the surrounding country. "I should say not farshort of eight hundred an hour. That improved box sure steps up thespeed. I'm not giving her all she'll stand, even yet."

  "If you've got that much speed, why don't you visit Chicago?" askedBeeville. "The Australians have only pushed out as far as Ohio and theremay be some people there."

  "Bright thought," remarked Sherman, swinging the prow of the vesselwestward. "No telling what we'll find, but it's worth a look, anyway."

  For some time there was silence in the cabin as the rocket-ship, withalternate roar and swoop, pushed along. Yoshio was the first to speak:

  "Ah, gentlemen," he remarked, "I observe beneath window trace of city ofbeer, formerly Cincinnati."

  "Sure enough," said Ben, peering down. "There doesn't seem to be muchbeer there now, though."

  The white city of the Ohio vanished beneath them, silen
t and deserted,no sign of motion in its dead streets.

  "You know," said Sherman, "sometimes when I see these cities and thinkof all the Lassans have wrecked, it gives me an ache. I think I'd doalmost anything to knock them out. What right did they have to come tothis country or this earth, anyway? We were letting them alone."

  "Same right wolf obtains when hungry," said Yoshio. "Wolf is larger thanrabbit--end of rabbit."

  "Correct," agreed Beeville. "They were the strongest. It's a case of hitor be hit in this universe. Our only out is to give them better thanthey give us."

  "Oh, I don't know," said Ben Ruby, "it may be a good thing for the oldworld at that. You never heard of all the governments of the worldcooperating before as they are now did you? There are still people aliveyou know. Civilization hasn't been killed off by a long shot. And thelousy blue coloring that affected all the people who didn't getmetallized isn't going to be permanent. The babies that are being bornthere now are normal, I hear. In a few generations the earth will beback to where it was, except for us. I don't know of any way to reversethis metal evolution."

  "Neither do I," said Beeville, "unless we can get another dose of the'substance of life' as the Lassans call it, and we won't get thatunless they decide to leave the earth in a hurry."

  "Look," said Sherman, "there's Chicago now. But what's that? No, there,along the lake front."

  Following the direction of his pointing finger they saw something movingvaguely along Lake Shore Boulevard; something that might be a car--or aman!

  "Let's go down and see," offered Ben.

  "O. K. chief, but we've got to pick a good landing place for this tub. Idon't want to get her marooned in Chicago."

  * * * * *

  The explosions were cut off, the wings extended, and Sherman spiralledcarefully downward to the spot where they had seen the moving object.With the nicety of a magician, he brought the ship to a gliding stopalong the park grass, and followed by the rest, Ben Ruby leaped out. Theedge of the drive was a few yards away. As they emerged from the ship noone was visible, but as they walked across the grass, a figure, metalliclike themselves, and with a gun in one hand, stepped from behind a tree.

  "Stand back!" it warned suspiciously. "Who are you and what do youwant?"

  "Conversation with sweet-looking gentleman," said Yoshio politely, witha bow.

  "Why, we're members of the American air force," said Ben, "cooperatingwith the federated armies against the Lassans, and we were on anexploring expedition to see if we could find any more Americans."

  "Oh," said the figure, with evident relief. "All right, then. Come onout, boys."

  From behind other trees in the little park, a group of metallic figures,all armed, rose into sight.

  "My name's Ben Ruby," said Ben, extending his hand, "at present Generalcommanding what there is of the American army."

  "Mine's Salsinger. I suppose you could call me Mayor of Chicago sincethose birds got Lindstrom. So you're fighting the Lassans, eh? Good.We'd like to take a few pokes at them ourselves, but that light-ray theyhave is too much for us. All we can do is pot the birds."

  "Oh," said Ben, "we've got that beat and a lot of other stuff, too. Howmany of you are there?"

  "Eight, including Jones, who isn't here now. Where are you from, anyway?St. Louis?"

  "No, New York. Is anybody alive in St. Louis or the other westerncities?"

  "There was. We had one man here from St. Paul, and Gresham was from St.Louis. The birds got him and carried him off to the joint the Lassanshave in the Black Hills, but he got away."

  "Have they a headquarters in the Black Hills, too? They have one in theCatskills. That's where we've been fighting them."

  The explanations went on. It appeared that Chicago, St. Louis and otherwestern cities had been overwhelmed as had New York--the same rush oflight from the great comet, the same unconsciousness on every side, thesame awakening and final gathering together of the few individuals whohad been fortunate enough to attract the attentions of the Lassans'birds and so be sent to their cities for transformation into robots.

  Since that time the birds had raided Chicago and the other westerncities unceasingly, and had reduced the original company of somethirty-odd to the eight individuals whom Ben had encountered. Before thebirds had attacked them, however, they had managed to get a telegraphwire in operation and learn that people were alive at LosAngeles--whether mechanized or not they were uncertain, but they thoughtnot.

  Once, several weeks before, a Lassan fighting-machine had passed throughthe city, wrecked a few buildings with the light-ray, and disappearedwestward as rapidly as it had come.

  With some difficulty and a good deal of crowding the eight Chicagoanswere gotten into the _Monitor II_ for the return journey. They were amost welcome reinforcement and would furnish enough Americans to man allfive of the extra rocket-cruisers.

  "I hope," remarked Sherman, a couple of days later, "that those Lassansdon't come out quite yet, now. We've got the ships to meet them now, butthe personnel isn't as well trained as I should like. Salsinger nearlysmashed up one of the ships yesterday making his landing and one of thewings on another cracked up this morning when Roberts tried to turn tooshort. These rocket-ships are so fast you need a whole state to handlethem in."

  "And I," replied Ben Ruby, "hope they come out damn soon. As you say,we've got the ships now, but they're not so slow themselves, and withthe building methods they have, they can turn out ships faster than wecan."

  "All the same, I'd like a few days more," Sherman countered. "In thisbrand of war it isn't how much you've got, but what you've got thatcounts. Look at all the Australians--half a million men, and the onlygood they are is to work in factories."

  "Can't blame them for not being made of metal like us," said Ben."They're doing their best and we wouldn't be here but for them. Griersonis having the shops build us another ten rocket-cruisers, on the chancethat we pick up some reinforcements somewhere in the west."

  "Good," said Sherman, "and I have another idea. I think we ought to keepat least one monitor on patrol over the Lassan city all the time.They're apt to get out and sneak one over on us. She can stay high up,near the edge of the atmosphere. Of course, she can't radio, but she canfire a couple of shots if she sights them coming out, and we can make astatic detector that will register the disturbance. Then we can catchthem as fast as they come out, when they'll be easiest to attack."

  "How about the other Lassan city out in the Black Hills?" asked Ben.

  "Would be bad strategy to try to handle them both at once, wouldn't it,"said Sherman, "Still, if you think so ..."